LOGIC:Logic refers to clear
thinking, ordered thoughts, and precise arguments. You should have an arguable
claim backed up by good reasons that support it. Hasty generalizations, poor
causal reasoning, non sequitars, slippery slopes, straw mans, and other fallacies
should be avoided as you make your argument.
EVIDENCE:Evidence refers
to the support you give your argument. This support could be in the form of
facts, statistics, authoritative quotations, surveys, studies, or other types
of evidence. Good evidence involves more than just finding quotations to agree
with your position. It expounds the reasoning behind these authoritative statements
and offers factual data for your position.
DEVELOPMENT:Development
refers to the degree of depth you give a topic. If your thesis takes a specific,
narrow claim and expands at length that idea with insights, evidence, and commentary,
then you are said to be "developing" the idea. On the other hand,
if you merely state a position and give superficial reasons for it, and then
move on to another idea, your ideas will not developed.
FOCUS: Your overall essay
should have a clear, specific focus as stated in the thesis. Additionally, each
paragraph should be focused on supporting that thesis. Overall, your focus on
the topic should be sufficiently narrow such that it allows you to explore in
depth a specific idea. Your essay should not cover so much ground that your
treatment ends up broad and shallow.
STRUCTURE: Structure refers
to the way you organize your thoughts about the topic you are writing about.
A well-structured essay presents your ideas in clear, distinct paragraphs with
topic sentences that guide the reader. Your insights and explanations should
be logically divided and presented in some progressive or sequential order that
makes sense for the topic.
IN-TEXT CITATION:In-text
citation refers to the proper parenthetical citations and signal phrases used
in the body of your text as you quote or paraphrase. In-text citations should
accurately reflect MLA style in the way they supply source information, page
numbers, or authors' names. Additionally, each author cited in the body of your
essay should appear on the Works Cited page.
INTEGRATION:Integration
is the art of smoothly incorporating paraphrases, direct quotations, and mixed
quotations into your essay. Good integration doesn't have too many quotes from
the same author, nor too few sources for the evidence required. Signal phrases
are used when necessary, and quotations are integrated in a way that preserves
the grammatical flow of your own sentences.
WORKS CITED:The Works Cited page should follow MLA style and accurately reflect the
sources used in your paper. Each entry must be in correct format, as well as
the page itself. Additionally, the sources used should be reliable, credible
sources offering good evidence for your position. (Note: A bibliography differs
from a Works Cited page in that a bibliography lists all works consulted
rather than all works cited.)
CLARITY: Clarity
in writing involves constructing sentences, paragraphs, and arguments in ways
easily understood by those reading your essay. If a reader has to reread your
sentence, guess at the intended meaning, or struggle to follow your basic argument,
your writing is unclear and needs to be recast with more precision.
STYLE:Style refers to the
way you say something, rather than what you say. The style adopted
for an academic essay should be formal but readable. The tone should be objective
and scholarly, and the sentences should have varied structures and lengths.
Your style is like the literary fingerprint of your writing -- it is what identifies
your "voice."
GRAMMAR: The grammar in
your sentences should be correct. In particular, commas, semi-colons, capitalizations,
possessives, and periods should be used correctly. Additionally, your sentences
should be free of subject-verb agreement errors, tense shifts, misspellings,
misplaced modifiers, fragments, run-ons, and all awkwardness.
UNITY: Unity involves remaining
focused in each paragraph on a single main idea. Additionally, unity implies
that each paragraph supports the thesis in a relevant way. Paragraphs with multiple
main ideas or essays with extraneous or irrelevant paragraphs break the principle
of unity.
Select one of the above to see an explanation.
Grades
Evaluation Criteria
Whatever grading rubric your teacher may
use, almost all essays are evaluated according to four main
criteria: Content, Organization, Source integration, and Language.
Although different teachers interpret these categories varyingly,
I have specified below what I believe each involves. Select
any of the below links to see an explanation. (Printer-friendly
version)
If
you would like to read a few samples of some officially graded essays,
be prepared to do a little patient reading. These seven excerpts contain the range of grades from A- to C, and so display varying
qualities of writing followed by a brief explanation of why the
essay was graded as it was.
The "teacher's commentary"
at the bottom of each excerpt is divided into four categories according
to the above specified evaluation criteria. Each of the essays are
only excerpts from student essays, not the entire paper, simply
because reading the entire paper is not necessary to get a feel
for the general quality of it.
Despite what teachers may sometimes
believe, grading really is a subjective practice. It is fairly common
for one teacher to give an essay a "A-" and another teacher
to give it a "B-." In my experience, there is a discrepancy
of at least one full grade in about 20 percent of essays graded.
However, notwithstanding these problems of subjectivity, grades
are by and large consensual among teachers when evaluations are
vocalized or explained to one another.
If
you would like to read a few samples of some officially graded essays,
be prepared to do a little patient reading. 