Students and faculty recognize that the grade the instructor gives is a professional judgment of the quality of the student’s submitted work and that grades are based on shared assumptions and expectations. At a basic level, assignments must be submitted on time, be clearly focused and organized, and present a discernable thesis statement. Ideas and conclusions are to be adequately supported, and research documentation well integrated and effectively presented. A formal writing style is required, along with proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The grade of ‘A’ reflects excellence. The ‘A’ paper offers a well-focused and organized discussion appropriate to the instructor’s assignment, reflects critical use of relevant materials, and demonstrates effective and formal writing requirements. Papers involving research and outside sources must demonstrate outstanding efforts to identify varied pertinent sources, to employ those materials critically in the text of papers, and to provide error-free citations of those sources.

The grade of ‘B’ represents an effort beyond satisfactory and indicates the paper was completed in an appropriate and competent manner. In general, the paper demonstrates a strong attempt at original and critically analysis, writing and research. The ‘B’ paper may contain minor errors in grammar/punctuation or citations, and its thesis or conclusions may be undeveloped or too weakly supported.

The grade of ‘C’ represents a satisfactory or appropriate paper: the average work expected for university courses. The presentation is organized around a central idea with arguments supported by relevant examples. The paper is structured into correctly written paragraphs and sentences. Although fulfilling the assignment, the ‘C’ paper may exhibit one or more weaknesses, including, but not limited to, errors of punctuation and grammar, imprecise or incorrect word usage, inaccurate or uncritical use of research materials, occasional inconsistency of organization or development, and lack of direct relevance of the selected research materials to the topic.

The grade of ‘D’ indicates that the paper may have a poorly defined thesis, lack a clear focus or organization, and contain unsupported generalizations or conclusions. Research is inadequate, not clearly relevant, or improperly documented. A less-than-minimal research effort is evident. The paper may also suffer from numerous or major formal writing errors.

The grade of ‘F’ indicates that the paper may relate to the topic and contain a discernable thesis, but is so poorly presented that it fails to fulfill the assignment, or that the paper is not relevant to the assignment and that its topic and thesis are unfocused and ill defined. The paper may also display inadequate organization or development, unsupported generalizations, and nonstandard usage of grammar and syntax. Research support is absent, inadequate, or irrelevant to the assignment.