CON Laws Research/Discussion

Excellent

Good

Needs Improvement

Poor

90-100

80-89

70-79

60-69

Paper addresses issue

Author directly addresses main question or issue.

Author indirectly addresses main question or issue.

Author attempts to address main question or issue, but fails.

Author does NOT address main question or issue.

Synthesis of material

Papers successfully integrate all relevant concepts and ideas from various places into a coherent whole. The connections among them are clear and insightful.

Papers successfully integrate relevant concepts and ideas from various places into a mostly coherent whole. The connections among them are generally clear.

Papers connect relevant concepts and ideas into a somewhat coherent whole. The connections among them are somewhat unclear.

Papers use concepts and ideas that are not relevant or not integrated. The connections among them are unclear.

Support for arguments

Evidence is used from a wide range of sources and data with in-depth research.

Evidence is used from many sources, but author relies heavily on a more limited set of sources.

Uses only material or sources provided in class and does not do additional research; lacks in-depth research.

Does not use sources or only minimally uses sources and lacks in-depth research.

Citations

All evidence is properly cited in footnotes or endnotes.

All evidence is cited in footnotes or endnotes, but there are some minor problems with completeness or format of some citations.

Some pieces are unreferenced or inaccurately referenced, and there are problems with completeness and format of citations.

No attempt is made to cite evidence.

Clarity and style

All sentences are grammatically correct and clearly written. No words are misused or unnecessarily fancy. Technical terms are always explained. All information is accurate and up-to-date. Paper has been spell-checked AND proofread and contains no errors.

All sentences are grammatically correct and clearly written. An occasional word is misused or unnecessarily fancy. Technical terms are usually, but not always, explained. All information is accurate and up-to-date. Paper has been spell-checked AND proofread, and contains no more than a few minor errors, which do not adversely affect the reader’s ability to understand the essay.

A few sentences are grammatically incorrect or not clearly written. Several words are misused. Technical terms are rarely explained. Not all information is accurate and up-to-date. Paper has been spell-checked AND proofread, but still contains several errors. Reader’s ability to understand essay may be compromised by these errors.

Paper is full of grammatical errors and unclear writing. Several words are misused. Technical terms are rarely explained. Not all information is accurate and up-to-date. Paper has not been spell-checked or proofread, and contains numerous errors. Reader has a difficult time understanding essay because of errors.