Conspiracy Theory
PWR 1 Fall Quarter 2008
Jonah G. Willihnganz
Stanford University
Evaluation Rubric for Written Assignments
Many of us experience evaluation of our work
as an irregular, mysterious passing-of-judgment on our abilities. One teacher
seems to love our work no matter how much effort we actually put in, no matter
whether we make progress or not. Another may seem to have it out for the kind
of work we do and give us poor marks no matter what we produce. Another may
seem to give out marks based on their mood when they read our work. Even if
the grade seem merited, it is often unclear exactly how the teacher came to
rate a particular piece, say, a C rather than a B-.
In this course (as in all my courses) evaluations
of your work are not judgments about how innately smart, perceptive or talented
you are. They are critiques, opportunities for me to give you feedback about
your strengths and weaknesses at a particular moment, as exhibited by a particular
piece of writing. For me, evaluations are not judgments of your potential—with
enough effort, any student can do A work. They are feedback about your progress
on a journey—where adjustments need to made, where more effort needs to
be applied, etc. to get you to your goal, which in this case is writing terrific
analytical essays about texts.
Since there is, in this class, an explicit set
of skills and a certain amount of content that you are being asked to acquire,
process and apply, I can be explicit with each of you about the particular strengths
and weaknesses of your work at a given point. My individual comments on each
of your essays can help you make progress with your writing. But it may not
be obvious to you why you receive a particular grade. This handout is intended
to describe the criteria used to evaluate essays in this course and to give
you a concrete description of what grades in the A, B, C and D range signal.
This is just a general yardstick,
one that can help you identify what an essay in general needs
to do to merit a particular grade. Each kind of essay we write in the course
(the rhetorical analysis, the op-ed, the argument-driven research essay) require
specific kinds of analysis, argument, etc., and so evaluations will contain
many assignment-specific comments and grades take these into account. But this
description of the grade ranges can suggest to you in a general way where on
the journey you are and show you what the destination looks like. Remember that
if you ever have a question about these criteria or about how your work is being
evaluated, please see me.
The A Essay
An A essay accomplishes at least six things.
First, it argues a clear thesis—a
claim with which one might conceivably disagree. It usually states this argument
in the opening paragraph, in the process of introducing the reader to the issues
and/or texts being considered. Hey often conclude not by restating this thesis,
but by exploring its implications.
Second, the essay takes into account and addresses
its rhetorical situation (the context of its address). For example,
in a rhetorical analysis the essay will begin by orienting the reader about
the context of the piece being analyzed, its main argument, and its principal
rhetorical technique(s) (this last part is usually as part of the thesis). Another
example: in the Op-Ed, the essay will begin with some tactic to capture the
attention of and find common ground with the reader.
Third, the essay develops a strong body
of evidence to convince the reader of the thesis. This kind of case
is usually built on carefully chosen evidence, with each paragraph developing
a single point that furthers the thesis. When the evidence is largely textual,
paragraphs often focus on reading short passages closely to make their point,
explaining or “unpacking” what work the passages do.
Fourth, the essay is well-organized
and the prose displays coherence and clarity. This
organization is frequently achieved through topic sentences (in each paragraph)
that both refer back to the thesis and signal the point of the paragraph. At
the essay-level, cohesion is usually achieved through smooth transitions between
paragraphs. At the paragraph-level, cohesion is achieved in many ways, but often
through topic-stringing or old-to-new sentence construction. Prose clarity is
also achieved in many ways, but also often through principles we have studied—using
concrete “characters” as subjects and making sure the force of the
sentence rests in its verbs.
Fifth, the essay exhibits a consistent effort
to be conceptually precise. This means that each point is formulated
in terms as specific as possible. The vague and general is banished by the concrete
and specific.
Sixth, the essay is free of
grammatical and spelling errors and follows proper textual
citation format (which may require a bibliography).
The B Essay
As you might imagine, the B essay accomplishes
some but not all of the things an A essay does.
A B essay usually has a thesis but lacks a fully
organized, coherent case to back it up. In some instances, observations made
in the body of the essay do not connect in an obvious way to the thesis, or
if they do, they do not constitute sufficient evidence. In other instances,
evidence connects to and adequately supports the thesis but is disorganized,
either at the essay-level or at the paragraph-level. The most common issue is
that paragraphs do not each make a single, discrete point that furthers the
thesis.
A B essay may pursue a sound thesis and provide solid, adequately organized
evidence, but not succeed in other ways. It may not take into account its rhetorical
situation. It may display a lack of clarity or cohesion at the paragraph-level,
or simply a lack of precision in the concepts it uses. Or it may simply get
bogged down in grammatical mistakes or not follow proper textual citation format.
The C Essay
C essays usually come in two forms. The first kind of C essay usually has a weak thesis or no thesis at all. This essay often makes several good observations about a text (or texts, or an issue) and often performs some good textual analysis, but the observations and analysis do not work to support a single, clear claim; or if they do, the claim is not an argument—something that someone might disagree with. (Frequently, developing and refining one of the essay’s observations can produce a thesis for the revision of the essay.) The essay may be written clearly, and develop one observation in each paragraph, but because there is no thesis, these observations amount to a kind of book report.
The second kind of C essay may have a thesis, but lacks the evidence to support it or presents observations in such a disorganized fashion that the reader must struggle to recognize it as evidence supporting the thesis. In these essays, it is frequently difficult to identify the main point of each paragraph and the paragraphs themselves do not exhibit the qualities of clarity or cohesion.
In both C essays there is often imprecise language.
Sometimes they have not accounted for their rhetorical situation. Sometimes
there are also numerous grammatical/spelling errors or incorrect textual citation.
The D Essay
A D essay has no thesis and usually fails to
do more than superficially develop an analysis of a text, texts, or a given
issue. Frequently the essay will, like the C essay, make some good observations
about the text. But even more than in the C essay, these observations cannot
suggest a viable argument and are not grounded in close attention to the object
of analysis. Sometimes D essays accomplish some of the other things that B or
even A essays accomplish, such as addressing the rhetorical situation, clarity
and cohesion, etc., but their effectiveness cannot really be experienced without
a thesis or close analysis to ground them.
The F Essay
Honestly, if a student has made any kind of serious effort, he or she will not receive an F. F essays usually display only a vague familiarity with the assignment, the texts, or issues to be considered, and often do not fulfill the basic requirements of the assignment (page length, analysis of some kind, citations, etc.). Students usually receive an F because they failed to hand in an assignment on time.