The MARBL Project is worth 30% of your grade for the semester. The class presentation will be worth 10% and the research paper will be worth 20%.
As you prepare for the class presentation, you and your group members should ask yourself the following questions:
As you prepare your research paper, you should ask yourself the same set of questions that guided you for the first paper:
On this assignment, instead of using these questions as a rubric, I use the following scale to assign letter grades:
A The “A” paper makes an original argument and does so persuasively. It is the product of work of consistently high quality and occasional brilliance. It uses this argument to open up new avenues of interpretation, including some avenues that it does not have time to explore. It cites evidence, but does not rely too heavily upon quotation. It anticipates the criticisms and questions that a skeptical reader might have, and it uses those criticisms and questions to make its argument even more complex. The paper does not merely prove an argument; it develops an argument in a provocative and logical manner. Of course, an “A” paper is free of grammatical errors. In addition, it meets the criteria described directly below.
A-, B+ These grades are awarded to careful and engaged work combining concise and accurate interpretation with analysis. The paper explains its insights carefully and addresses the implications of those insights. The essay states a clear thesis, but does not repeat its own conclusions unnecessarily. The central argument is narrow and well-defined, and the writer has begun to consider the new questions that this argument raises. The essay is written with clarity, style, and grace.
B The “B” paper puts forward a persuasive argument and successfully marshals evidence to support it. The paper is largely cohesive and coherent. Each paragraph develops a single point, and the transition from one paragraph to the next makes logical sense. The “B” paper often fails to question its own reasoning in a consistently rigorous manner and sometimes lacks a provocative conclusion. It may also linger too long over points that could be made more concisely — or may move too quickly past points that require further explanation.
B-, C+ These are the highest grades that a paper relying extensively on summarization or quotation will receive; these are also the highest grades that I will award any paper with serious grammatical errors, such as run-on sentences or sentence fragments. This grade is often awarded to papers that address too broad a topic and/or that contain a major organizational flaw. These papers often look at problems too superficially and try to solve them too simplistically; a paper in this range usually fails to engage questions that naturally follow from its own argument.
C The “C” paper puts forward a cogent thesis but usually fails to argue its merits in a persuasive manner. It too heavily relies on quotation and summarization, and it stretches out points that do not require so much attention. It often fails to notice important objections to its argument and/or the important implications of its argument. Its logic is not as coherent as it could be, and the writer often fails to make his or her argument as clear as it needs to be. Its structure is generally clear, though perhaps rigidly mechanical: there is an introduction, body, and conclusion (the dreaded “five-paragraph theme”); points are arranged in a perceptible way; and paragraphs are adequately structured, though there may be irrelevant points or nonfunctional digressions, an unsteady sense of “movement,” or lapses in the writer/reader contract. Improvement is desirable, but you should remember that a “C” grade does indicate average college work.
D The “D” paper rarely articulates a clear and defensible thesis and usually suffers from either a lack of supporting evidence and/or serious organizational problems. It may also be an argument whose intelligibility is seriously flawed—it may read as a mere “collection of thoughts” or as a rant. The writer has not been able to make his or her ideas accessible to the reader, and the paper does not adequately support its argument. The paper does not engage the issues that are most important to its focus. The paper may also suffer from important grammatical and syntactical problems.
F The “F” paper does not meet the requirements of the assignment: the paper is not completed or not handed in; or it falls significantly short of the minimum length requirement; or it addresses no topic under discussion; or it seriously violates common standards of civility and argumentation; or it is plagiarized or involves self-plagiarism (modification of a paper used for a different class).