History of Art essay

Grading Rubric Here is a sketch of the criteria that I will be using to grade your papers and assignments. As you put the final touches on your work, you will want to keep these in mind. These categories are not all weighted evenly; thesis and structure are more important than proofreading, for example, but poor proofreading can torpedo an otherwise excellent essay. Grade range A B C D-F Thesis

Clear, specific, original, provable, Insightful. Goes beyond mere observations to a coherent argument.

Coherent, provable, modest in scope.

Vague, general, not provable, flawed by weak logic

Absent, wrong, misguided, unsupportable

Evidence

Ample, well- integrated, thoughtfully interpreted; demonstrates close looking by insightful analysis of details from the work of art

Relevant, uneven, correct but imprecise; demonstrates familiarity with the work of art

Thin, careless or random, not related to thesis or work of art; only cites work of art in vague or general terms

Little or none, misused, misinterpreted, not cited, irrelevant

Structure

Well-organized, direction clear, concepts clearly stated, paragraphs and transitions tight, development of ideas

Coherent but repetitious or imbalanced, some paragraphs may lack focus; weak transitions, central concepts not clear

Serious gaps, monotonous, meandering, no central concepts identified, poor transitions

Formless, random, illogical, transitions few or absent

Style

Concise, elegant, active, professional; excellent grammar/syntax

Competent, appropriate; a few errors in syntax/grammar acceptable; word choice adequate

Sloppy, vague, inappropriate, errors in syntax or grammar; poor word choice

Incomplete or incoherent, ill-formed sentences/ paragraphs; incorrect word choice

Sources

Challenging, well- chosen, well-handled, numerous, cited appropriately

Sufficient, cited appropriately

Poorly chosen, scant, not challenging.

Inappropriate, doubtful, absent. Improperly cited

Proofreading

No typos or spelling mistakes

Occasional typos or spelling mistakes

Blind reliance on spell-checker (which will not catch things like angles vs. angels)

Shows no evidence of spell-checking or proofreading

Assignment

Original and insightful interpretation of the question. Makes a strong and specific argument.

Meets basic expectations of the assignment

Fails to meet all aspects of assignment

Bears little resemblance to assignment

COMMON MISTAKES STYLE SHEET Some common mistakes, and some writing tips (i.e. how to decipher my comments on your paper): A good trick in writing is to read your paper aloud to yourself, and have a friend read it. This will help you catch some of the following problems. "w.c." change word choice. "gram": change grammar "rep": repetitive "sp" : check spelling "awk": awkward sentence construction; try to smooth the sentence out. "inc.": incomplete sentence. All sentences need to have a verb to be complete. "run-on": run on sentence which needs to be split into two or more different sentences. "¶": need to begin new paragraph “s/v”: sentence subject and verb do not agree; you need to change them so they agree. • watch the gendering of your language. e.g. "viewer" isn't necessarily a "he" and it is also not "they"

(don't switch mid-sentence from singular to plural!) • do not capitalize nouns in the middle of sentences unless they are proper names. e.g. do not capitalize

art (Art) • cannot is one word (i.e. ‘can not’ is the wrong spelling) • it's = it is your = possessive its = possessive you're= you are • commas should be treated as similar to the word “and.” Do not put commas after verbs (e.g. This use of

the comma is, wrong.) • titles of art works, like titles of books, get underlined or put in italics.; do not put them in "quotation

marks." • avoid contractions when writing a formal paper (contractions are fine for less formal essays or speaking).

E.g.: instead of writing "doesn't," you should spell it out: "does not." • spell out numbers under 100, unless they are dates (e.g. 1999) or percentages (56%), or so complicated it

is impossible to put them in word form (e.g. 3.1415926535).

• avoid passive verb forms. Don’t write, for example: “new art forms were invented.” This way of writing the sentence begs the question “by whom” were those forms invented! Instead, write “The avant-garde invented new art forms.” A rule of thumb: avoid the verb ‘to be’ in all its forms whenever possible.