GRADING CRITERIA   

Students deserve a clear explanation of what is expected of them in this course.  This course will be following what Thomas Sowell concisely articulated:

"The philospher Pascal said that morality included a duty to think clearly.  Clear thinking, in turn, included not confusing effort with results.  If I practice singing as long and as conscientiously as Pavarotti, I will have as much merit as Pavarotti-- but I will still not sing as well as Pavarotti.  What other people can judge, in this case all too easily, is who sings better.  That is all they should try to judge.  Neither my personal effort nor his is known to them.  Likewise, we can have rules and criteria that apply equally to men and women.  Traditional concepts of justice or fairness, at least within the American tradition, boil down to applying the same rules and standards to everyone."

This is an overview of the criteria that will employed to evaluate your work in this course.  

MAKE-UP OF IN-CLASS EXAMINATIONS.  Exams are given on pre-determined days as listed in the syllabus.  Make-up exams are possible if a student:

• Contacts the instructor within one-week of the scheduled exam, and

• Provides the instructor with a valid reason why you were unable to take the exam on the assigned day.  Few savor the crunch-time of exams so your excuse needs to be extraordinary.  A "valid" reason requires something more than you were not prepared, you were feeling bad that day, you did not get enough sleep the night before, etc.  I may ask you for written verification because the instructor is a natural skeptic (history tool--skeptics require proof).  This would mean a note from a doctor, an obituary for a death in the family, etc.  

LATE TAKE-HOME ESSAY PAPERS.  Students are allotted a fair amount of time to complete these assignments, and the fact is that most all of them will turn it in on the assigned day.  Papers can always be turned in early if there is a conflict with the assigned due-date on the syllabus.  Computer problems have replaced car problems as the most popular excuse among students missing deadlines.  Be prepared:  back up your files; work on a familiar computer and software to avoid accidents; make sure the printer works well before you need to run the final draft, etc.

• Papers not submitted in class on the designated day are considered late.  Papers dropped off at the history department or to me as I walk across campus do not satisfy this requirement and are thus late.

• Late papers will be accepted one week later in class, at which time your grade will be reduced a whole letter grade.  This is fixed--one week & one grade.  There are no fractions.  Two weeks later and the grade drops two letter grades.   

• For papers due on the final day of class during the final exam, there are no late papers accepted.  Again, the paper must be submitted in class; i.e., e-mailing papers is not an option.

RETURN POLICY.  Since papers and essay exams require more time to assess than objective (true-false, multiple-choice) exams, the instructor reserves two-weeks--from the day you turned it in--to return the work.  If for whatever reason the instructor goes over two weeks, then you will receive extra points.

FINAL GRADE REPORTS.  Students wishing to inquire about the final grade can include a stamped, self-addressed envelope/grade postcard in their final-exam bluebook.  I will not e-mail grades.  The University now also makes available on-line access to your final grades at Gradeline.

PAPER / EXAM GRADING CRITERIA.  The overall grading scale is based on the 100 point basis (e.g., 90% = A- / 83% = B / 77% = C, etc).  This chart defines the numbers assigned:  

IDs	GRADE SCALE	Essay
10	Excellent	60
9	Very Good	55
8	Fine	50
7	Acceptable	45

Essay exams / take-home essay assignments evaluate not only your grasp of the course material but your thinking and writing skills.  Accordingly, the following are the abbreviations that will used on papers & exams.   

?   – Unclear what is meant  

+   -- Good point / insight

AA—You cannot argue by assertion:  demonstrate

CN—Conclusion is absent or weak

ER—Erroneous or incorrect statement

FW—Formal writing:  avoid slang & contractions

GP—Grammar and/or punctuation incorrect

MD—More detail is required to make your point

ML—Missing link / connection unclear

NR—Not relevant to the topic question/thesis

NS—Not a sentence.

NT—No real thesis statement, thus lack of focus

PF—Paragraph flawed; too long or too short

PT—Past tense used when speaking about the past  

QE--Quotation error: lacks context/explanation

RW—Rework/rewrite this statement

SG—Significance is absent, vague or incorrect

SP—Spelling is incorrect

TB—Too brief; better demonstrate knowledge.

TP—Time frame and/or place is absent or incorrect

UR—Unclear reasoning; you went from A to B to D

WL—Writing Lab:  take advantage of this resource

Please come to see me with your questions.  Contact me before or after class, during my office hours or make an appointment.  An e-mail discussion will not suffice for discussing your exam result because we both need to see the exam booklet).