These guidelines are intended to help you as you prepare and review your essays and essay-exams for this class. Please feel free to speak with me if you have any questions about them. Also, if you have questions as you're working on your essay or after you've received back a graded exam, I will be happy to talk with you during office hours or by appointment during the semester.
One quick note: I will
often know what you are trying to say in your exam or essays (we may have even discussed
your thesis and other parts of your paper during office hours), and I will often
think that your argument is an excellent one. However, when I evaluate your
written work, my goal is to focus exclusively on the work you have submitted
to fulfill the assignment. It may help to think about the process this way:
when I evaluate your written work, I am reading your paper, not your mind. What
counts are the words on the page.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
An "A" Essay
An "A" exam/essay does much more than fulfill the assignment. It moves
beyond the bounds of the assignment, surprising the reader and compelling her
to consider the paper's topic in a new light. The writer clearly articulates
her argument and supports her thesis with relevant and thoughtfully analyzed
passages from the text. Such a paper is lucid, elegantly written, well-organized,
and free of errors. An "A" paper takes intellectual risks: the topic
is a challenging one to present, and the treatment of that topic is thorough
and insightful. The paper demonstrates not only a careful and clear analysis
of the text, but also of the implications of its own conclusions. The conclusion
contains all the elements of the introduction, but at the same time offers the
reader something new and compelling – something that has been made at least
credible by the writer’s careful, sustained and intelligent analyses of
the text.
A "B" Essay
Organization and depth of analysis are what most characterize an essay in the
"B" range. It makes a worthwhile point about the text(s) under study
through careful argumentation and analysis. It separates the different strands
of the argument and explains how those strands relate to and support each other.
Close readings and quotations from relevant passages back up each element of
the argument. There are smooth transitions between points. The argument is strong
enough to withstand the most obvious opposition, and the paper responds, if
necessary, to potential counter-arguments. This is an essay that shows a good,
strong understanding of the text and is, for the most part, written well. There
may be handful of rough spots in the writing, but there are no serious grammatical
errors. The introduction and conclusion will each contain a very clear statement
of the writer’s argument, as well as indicate the principle points of reasoning
in support of this argument. A "B" paper does not take the risks or
surprise the reader as does an "A" paper, but it nevertheless constitutes
a substantial achievement.
A "C" Essay
This essay may demonstrate a pretty thorough understanding of the text but be
weakened by a number of problems with awkward expression, or it may be fairly
well-written but miss a number of significant points in interpretation. The
paper makes some good points and demonstrates an understanding of the text(s)
under study, but the argument may not be well-organized or backed up by a close
examination of the text(s). The paper's argument may therefore be superficial,
simplistic, or flawed. There may be contradictions within the paper or very
obvious counter-arguments the writer has not considered. The prose may be confusing;
transitions between paragraphs and/or ideas may be weak or lacking. The conclusion
of a "C" paper will probably be all but indistinguishable from the
introduction. Grammatical errors, particularly comma splices, sentence fragments,
subject-verb disagreements, and verb tense shifts will tend to put an otherwise
fine paper in the "C" to "D" range. Absence of a thesis
will certainly keep a paper in the "C," or more likely, the "D"
range.
A "D" Essay
This essay attempts to address a particular subject, but it may lack a thesis
or have a thesis which the writer fails to argue. In other words, the paper
does not have a central argument, and the reader will be confused or unclear about specific details of the text(s). In the absence of an organizing argument, the
paper may be hard to follow in a number of places. This essay may be marred
by awkward writing, or the writer may slip into long stretches of plot summary.
A "D" paper may also (though not necessarily) have a number of basic
misreadings of the text. Or it may have enough errors its prose to distract
the reader from the writer's points. Such mechanical errors may in and of themselves
put an otherwise okay paper into the low "C" or "D" range.
An "F" Essay
In this essay, there may be no evidence of serious engagement with the text(s)
under study. If the paper demonstrates a writer's engagement with the text(s)
but is marred by so many errors in mechanics that it is hard to make sense of
parts of the essay, it may also be in the "F" range.