Paper Grading Rubric

Writing is an art and sometimes difficult to grade. At the same time, writing is also a craft. This is particularly true in the field of history, where the distinction between "good" and "bad" history can be reasonably assessed. In this course, I use a grading rubric for your writing assignments. See chart below.

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Paper Grading Rubric:

	Grading Criteria: Excellent PaperA/A-	Grading Criteria: Good B+/B/B-	Grading Criteria: Fair C+/C/C-	Grading Criteria: Poor D+/D-/F
Thesis	Clear; stated up front; thoughtful; strong topic paragraph or sentence	Slightly unclear; no strong introduction	Unclear thesis and introduction	No thesis or introduction
Structure	Strong transitions between ideas; clear references to argument; clear arc (beginning/ middle/end)	Generally clear, but weak transitions; vague references to thesis	Somewhat coherent but weak transitions; vague or no reference to thesis	Lack of structure or coherence
Analysis	Demonstrates an understanding of the readings; connects evidence with argument	Reference to but not a clear understanding of readings; vague connection between evidence and argument	Very weak understanding of readings; little connection between evidence and argument	Unable to demonstrate analysis or understanding of sources
Evidence	Clearly highlighted; multiple examples; use of variable sources	Ambiguous use of sources; one-dimensional use	Unclear and/or little use of sources	Little or no use of evidence
Mechanics	No typos, fragments, or run-on sentences; no awkward constructions; no misuse of citations	Minor typos and grammatical errors; run-on sentences	Frequent typos, grammatical, and punctuation errors; frequent run-on sentences	Poorly written with frequent errors