In recent years, the issue of grade inflation has become a concern in writing programs across the country. In many cases, the issue of grading has been clouded by "process pedagogies" which place a high priority on grading the actual process by which writers create their texts rather than the actual texts themselves. The "process vs. product" debate has been in the background of nearly every theoretical discussion of grading on this campus in the last 2-3 years. One of the main problems is our desire to reward students who work extremely hard at the "process," even though they might not be producing the "product" that is desired. The following document on grading hopes to rectify some of these issues. We wish our writing program to focus more intensively on the "product" that the student produces in the grades of the papers. If instructors wish to issue separate marks under the rubric of "participation" which would account for the time and effort given towards an essay, that would also be acceptable. However, we wish the following criteria to be used when grading the actual papers, and we feel that the use of these criteria will give our students a more clear and accurate guide to what they are being graded on and a set of clear goals for which they will be able to work towards as the semester draws on.

A Paper (Excellent)

· Must demonstrate abilities in critical and analytical thinking: an A paper is an exercise in intellectual exploration which must go beyond simple rote answers to form a subtle, thoughtful analysis of an issue or subject. An A paper proposes a challenging thesis and effectively uses different rhetorical and argumentative strategies to support it.

· Must demonstrate clear control over the organization of the paper, including a well crafted introduction and conclusion, a specific focus/thesis and good paragraphing. The paper is easy to follow because it is clearly organized and contains appropriate transitional markers. · Under no circumstances is any student essay with above 3 kinds of grammatical mistakes and/or two spelling errors to be given an A, nor can papers which do not meet the page requirements of the assignment be afforded an A.

· Finally, an A paper does not only avoid grammatical mistakes, but also demonstrates a highly effective command of the use of varied sentence structures and of a varied and lively vocabulary.

B Paper (Good)

· A B paper is effective in a significant portion of the organizational skills listed above. Most B papers will have at least an interesting introduction and/or conclusion, a reasonable effort at a thesis and decent paragraphing. Most B papers will be deficient in at least one of these areas.

· A B paper shows much promise in the way of critical thinking/analysis. Most B papers demonstrate an ability to reach beyond the commonplace, but do not demonstrate the conceptual and intellectual risks forwarded in an excellent essay. By awarding a B to a paper, the instructor is signifying that the author is well on his or her way to constructing thoughtful and challenging essays.

· An essay with more than 5 different kinds of grammatical mistakes and/or 5 spelling mistakes cannot be awarded a B grade.

· Most B papers will have sections of their text which run into some problems with repetitious sentence structures. "B" means that they have, for the most part, control over the ways in which they are constructing sentences, but need to work more on style and vocabulary usage.

· B papers are reasonably easy to follow in their organization and transitions, but they will have some minor organizational problems that need to be improved.

C Paper (Adequate)

· A C paper normally will not exhibit the critical analysis skills which all of our writing classes are attempting to develop. Papers will be filled with commonplace ideas and expressions. The writer has clearly not devoted enough attention to careful thinking and analysis. Such essays tend to summarize material rather than presenting details and examples or analyzing evidence.

· Most C papers will need significant work in the organizational control of the text. Most C papers will not have a clear thesis/focus, will lack good introductions and conclusions or will lack a organization flow of ideas throughout the text.

· Any paper with more than 7 different grammatical mistakes and 7 spelling mistakes cannot be given the grade of C.· Most C papers will need significant work at the sentence level of their writing (as is indicated by the amount of grammatical mistakes in the text). Students need to work intensively on the skills of subordination, compounding and parallelism. Most C papers will also need to improve incorporating a more sophisticated vocabulary into their essays.

· Any paper that has virtually no thesis/focus, that does not reach the required number of pages and that presents no skill at organizing an essay at either the macro- or micro-levels will be given the D grade. Usually the main point is unclear or non-existent.

· Any paper that contains more than the number of errors allowed for a C paper will automatically fall into this bracket.

F (Failing)

· This paper makes no discernible effort to address the topic and is unintelligible. Usually, students will simply not turn in a paper rather than submit one which is clearly failing.

R (Required Revision)

· To be used at the discretion of the instructor in special cases. Forces the student to revise and correct mistakes in the essay. No grade is given until work is completed per instructor's directions.