Writing Guidelines

Your midterm exam, final exam and other writing exercises will be evaluated almost entirely on the criteria described here.

Topic	Novice	Intermediate	Proficient	Distinguished
Clarity	Ideas often mistaken or confused. It’s unclear which are the student’s or the author’s ideas. Incorrect explanation of quotes.	Fewer mistakes on the ideas, some confusion regarding authorship, and correct explanation of quotes.	Few mistakes on key ideas, little confusion on authorship. Still some incorrect interpretation of quotes.	No mistakes defining key ideas. No confusion on authorship or explaining the meaning from quoted material.
Coherence	Ideas do not logically flow. Premises are given but do not lead to clear conclusions, and the premises are irrelevant to the conclusion.	Generally, the ideas follow logically. There are clear premises and conclusions, but some errors with the relevance of the ideas.	Better logical sequences. The premises contain relevant information for the conclusion, and they are related.	The reasoning logically flows and is easy to follow. The premises and conclusion are clearly and significantly related.
Completeness	Main ideas are missing, or are superficially presented	Main ideas are present, but they are not complete, thus the reader has to fill in gaps.	Main ideas are present & explained reasonably completely.	Main ideas are thoroughly, accurately presented and explained
Grammar etc.	Multiple spelling and grammatical errors, creating ambiguity. No citation, or incorrect citation of texts.	Some spelling and grammatical errors are present. Incomplete citations of sources.	Few spelling or grammatical errors are present. Text is correctly cited for sources	No spelling or grammatical errors are present. Text is correctly cited for sources.
Creativity	Only basic information is presented.	Main ideas are present, with some attempt to make them interesting.	Main ideas are presented in a manner that makes them interesting.	The paper is presented in a way that makes the reader want to read it.
Overall	It shows some familiarity with the topic	The reader has a sense of the purpose of the writing.	The reader is informed of the ideas and is intrigued.	The reader is accurately informed and wants to read more.