E 379S Senior Seminar: The No-Spam Zone: what do grades represent in this class?
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An A paper
is well thought-out. It examines a topic critically and presents results, findings, and observations in a detailed fashion that is well organized and allows a reader who is not familiar with your community to follow your line of thinking and your description without difficulty. The thinking is both well informed by research and original. Papers supporting the final seminar paper conform to reasonable expectations for Standard Edited English. All sources consulted are listed on a sources-cited page. The final research paper shows exemplary additional attention to revision, editing, and polishing.
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A B paper
is fairly well thought out; gaps in logic, or detail of presentation are fairly minor. The paper examines a topic critically, though it may not exhibit as much original thought as an A paper and it may show a less sophisticated understanding of source material. A B paper also presents results, findings, and observations in a detailed fashion that is organized enough to allow a reader who is not familiar with your community to follow your line of thinking and your description, though it may present the reader with some difficulties. Papers supporting the final seminar paper generally conform to reasonable expectations for Standard Edited English. All sources consulted are listed on a sources-cited page. The final research paper shows considerable additional attention to revision, editing, and polishing.
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A C paper
exhibits adequate thinking and planning, though there may be fairly significant gaps in logic or detail of presentation. The paper examines a topic in relative detail, presenting results, findings, and observations, but thinking is generally not very critical or original. The paper shows attention to organization, but there may be problems that present obstacles to a reader who is not familiar with your community in following your line of thinking and your description. Papers supporting the final seminar paper in some places do not conform to reasonable expectations for Standard Edited English. Writing may be redundant, and the paper may have parts that strike a reader as irrelevant "padding." All sources consulted are listed on a sources-cited page, though there may be gaps in citations. The final research paper shows some additional attention to revision, editing, and polishing.
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A D paper
exhibits inadequate thinking and planning, and there may be quite significant gaps in logic or detail of presentation. The paper covers a topic but lacks detail in presenting results, findings, and observations, and thinking is largely not critical or original. The paper may show little attention to organization, and there may be problems that present significant obstacles to a reader who is not familiar with your community in following your line of thinking and your description. Papers supporting the final seminar paper in many places do not conform to reasonable expectations for Standard Edited English. Writing may be redundant, and significant sections of the paper may strike a reader as irrelevant "padding." Sources consulted are listed on a sources-cited page, though there may be significant gaps in citations. The final research paper may show little attention to revision, editing, and polishing.
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An F paper
exhibits poor thinking and planning, and there may be quite significant gaps in logic or detail of presentation. The paper covers a topic but lacks detail, and thinking is, in general, not critical or original. The paper may show little attention to organization, and there are problems with organization or presentation that present significant obstacles to a reader who is not familiar with your community in following your line of thinking and your description. Papers supporting the final seminar paper do not, in general, conform to reasonable expectations for Standard Edited English. Writing may be redundant, and much of the paper may strike a reader as irrelevant "padding." Citations and a sources cited page may be absent. The final research paper shows little or no obvious attention to revision, editing, and polishing. The writer may have missed his/her mandatory end-of-semester conference with me.
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Comments to: Sara Kimball
Last updated January, 2001