This page covers the 2 parts of the one-page rubric. The rubric itself also includes a section where you mark that you understood the rubric. This page also provides Optional Information. For example, some students did not realize that this method of grading combined with how and what you must cite means an instructor can prove the evidence problems she marks. Or—if the instructor is incorrect (and that happens to everyone), you can prove that you have evidence.
What’s on This Webpage:
Grading
and the 5 Good Habits for Evidence
Criteria
for “C“, “B,” and “A” and the Rubric to Show Your Letter Grade for Content
If
You Did Not Follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, How to Know How to Improve
Caution
1: What’s
Different about Evidence Papers and Other Papers You May Have Done
Caution
2: What’s
Different about How Your Instructor Grades and What She Can Prove
Reminders
of Your Instructor’s Method of Grading and Your Requirements for Citation and
Sources:
What
Putting 1 and 2 Together Means
The 5 Good Habits for Evidence are so basic to jobs and course in your discipline (not just history) that--if you did not do them--a boss would fire you for and an upper-level prof in your discipline would refuse to give you a reference.
This class divides writing grades in 2 parts: content (30 points) and Good Habits for Evidence (30 points). The Syllabus & Success link explains how and why that divided grade raises your letter grade on a paper about 1 letter.
The best thing to do is follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence with your 1st Part writing work. If, however, you did not successfully follow them in the 1st writing, but if you work to change in a later writing, your instructor replaces the Good Habits for Evidence grade for the prior weak writing.
If you follow all 5 Good Habits for Evidence (below), you earn a 30 out of 30 for the Good Habits for Evidence and you earn either a “C“, “B,” and “A” for content.
In the rubric that contains the table below, I place an X in the yellow box to the left of the letter you earn. Notice how the criteria are different from C to an A.
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"C" Paper Criteria
(21-23.9) |
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"B" Paper Criteria
(24-26.9) |
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"A" Paper Criteria
(27-30) |
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Accurately read the parts, but did not analyze or try to evaluate or synthesize
interconnections. |
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Accurately read the parts and analyzed each one. Tried to evaluate and synthesize
interconnections. |
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Accurately read the parts and analyzed each one. Evaluated and
synthesized interconnections. |
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Only summarized separately each of the
parts of the question, but did not
cover interconnections. |
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Revealed each
part and covered some
interconnections. Provided few examples. |
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Understood each
part and revealed the parts’
interconnections. Provided clear
and representative examples. |
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Followed the directions.
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Followed the directions carefully. |
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Followed the directions exactly. |
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Two or more mechanical errors. |
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One or more mechanical errors. |
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No more than one minor mechanical error. |
If you did not follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, the highest grade for content that you can receive is 20.9.
In the rubric that contains the table below, if you did not follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, I place an X in each of the 2 yellow boxes below.
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"D" or “Paper Criteria (20.9 or less out of 30) for
content. |
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1.11 for the 30-point 5 Good Habits for Evidence (If you change,
you can replace that grade.) |
Think about this for a second: no boss would pay you more if your work were not accurate. On the other hand, if your boss wanted you to stay on the job but to improve, he or she would let you know how to improve. That is the positive reason for feedback.
You
get feedback in 2 ways:
·
In the left margin of your paper by
the line of your paper with the error,
I write the Habit # and –if applicable—whether the habit was a “D” (a sign of a
danger to you) or an “F” (a sign of failure or even getting fired on a job)
·
To give you details, I underline the
Habit you missed in the rubric below.
Example: If you plagiarized, to the left of
the line with the copied words without any quotation marks, I write 4F.
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How to Have Good Habits for Evidence and Prevent Ds and Fs |
If You Do Not, Dangers
in a Class (D Grade) or a Job (How
marked beside the spot in your paper) |
If You Do Not, Failure
in a Class (F Grade) or Fired on a Job (How marked in the left
margin in your paper) |
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-- |
Used an unreliable source. (Marked as 1F). |
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Habit 2. Factual Accuracy That You Verify with the Reliable Source Before
You Write |
Misread or read passively or wrote passively (Marked as
2D) |
Did worse than misread or miswrite. Assumed or wrote
assumptions (Marked as 2F). Used an incorrect or incomplete part of the source
required for the question asked.
(Marked as 2F). Did not answer all parts of the question. (Marked as 2F). |
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Habit 3. Factual Accuracy That Is Verifiable
for Every Statement You Make and Three Frequently Asked Questions about Citing |
-- |
Made errors such as cherry-picking facts or embellishing
facts (Marked as 3F). |
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Habit 2 and 3 combined. |
-- |
Did not cite accurately and according to the directions (Marked
as 2F & 3F) |
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Habit 4. No
“Half-Copy” Plagiarism or “Patchwriting” and Why I Make a Big Deal about Plagiarism and
Patchwriting |
-- |
Plagiarized or did “half-copy” plagiarism (also called
“patchwrite”) (Marked as 4F). |
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Used "" inaccurately, including making the author's sentences look grammatically incorrect. (Marked as 5D). |
Used "" inaccurately and changed meaning. (Marked as
5F). |
Caution 1: What’s Different about Evidence Papers and Other Papers You May Have Done?
Evidence papers are common in history, in social sciences, in
the sciences, with jobs, and in other places where reality must be as accurate
as possible and where information must be useful.
FYI: I am grading your content as a freshman student, but I want you to either
have or start to have the habits you
will need before your junior year
(and with some teachers and disciplines before your sophomore year).
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Traits of the Type of Paper |
Evidence Papers |
Other Papers |
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Your goal in writing |
Be true and be useful (what you will have to be on a
job). |
Be interesting. |
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You state your feelings about some individual or fact in
the history you are covering. |
No |
May be accepted. |
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You cite a specific page from one of the required
reliable sources for everything you
write. (That does not mean you have to have a footnote or citation for each
sentence. Click here for Three Frequently Asked Questions about
Citing.) |
Yes (On a job, you have to know where you got facts, but
your boss will probably not want to see footnotes.) |
May not be required |
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You say nothing
that is not proved on a specific, citable page of the required reliable
source. |
Yes |
May not be required |
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You make no assumptions.
(If the source does not say that X event caused Y event, you do not.) |
Yes |
May not be noticed if the person grading your paper is
not in your discipline. (But on a job, your boss will always be in your
discipline.) |
|
Yes |
“ |
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You never
rely on memory or so-called common knowledge. |
Yes |
“ |
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You watch discipline-specific words such as slave or
indentured servant that are used in the sources so you understand what they mean.
If you are not sure, you look the words up in resources in the class. |
Yes |
“ |
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You watch general words used in the sources (such as
deposition). If you are not sure, you look the words up in the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. |
Yes |
“ |
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You never
write about what you do not understand. If you can, you figure it out and
then write. If you cannot, you do not write about it. |
Yes |
“ |
Caution 2: What’s Different about How Your Instructor Grades and What She Can Prove?
1.
Your instructor places your paper
side-by-side with the sources, including the online primaries. She can easily
see if you did not read accurately.
2.
You are required to use only the
pages of the textbook and the online primaries as your source.
1
Your
instructor can prove that you were
inaccurate in a cost-effective way (in less than 15 minutes per paper).
Tip: This method is not meant to hurt your grade but to
help you realize what you are actually doing so you do not hurt your future.
2
If your instructor is wrong (such as
did not see another spot on the page that supported what you wrote) and
everyone is wrong sometime, you can prove that you were accurate.
The phrase not supported means that the source does not
provide evidence for what you said.
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Traits Listed Above That You Want to Have |
Examples of What the Instructor Can Prove Is Not Supported |
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You state your feelings about some individual or fact in
the history you are covering. |
The student wrote that Anthony Johnson was wrong to have
had slaves and that is not on the cited page. (Reminder: slavery had been
legal for thousands of years when Johnson had slaves.) Tip: The goal was to teach and you are not teaching your feelings
about history, but what another person needs to learn. |
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You cite a specific page from one of the required
reliable sources for everything
you write. |
The student wrote the Monroe Doctrine was about
Europeans invading the United States and that is not on the cited page. |
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You say nothing
that is not proved on a specific, citable page of the required reliable
source. |
The student wrote that the court ordered Anthony Johnson
to free John Casar and cited a page of the primary and that is not on the
cited page. |
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You make no assumptions.
(If the source does not say that X event caused Y event, you do not.) |
The student wrote that Anthony Johnson’s success in the
1655 case led to Virginia writing more restrictive laws but there is nothing
like that on the page cited. |
|
You use facts that
are significant and representative. |
The student wrote that
the Library of Congress source about the 1660s and beyond covered laws about
Africans not owning land and there is nothing like that on the page cited. |
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You never
rely on memory or so-called common knowledge. |
The student wrote that all Africans were slaves in
Virginia from the beginning and both the textbook and the example in the
primaries shows that is not accurate. |
|
You watch discipline-specific words such as slave or
indentured servant that are used in the sources so you understand what they
mean. If you are not sure, you look the words up in resources in the class. |
The student wrote about free slaves. In all of the
sources, those words are never together. A free person is not a slave and a
slave is not free. That use of words was not on the cited page. Tip: By definition, an indentured servant was a free person who gave
up his or her freedom to serve for a specified period of time. Indenture refers to the torn paper
that states the length of service and what the person receives in return for
the labor. See below about Casar. |
|
You watch general words used in the sources (such as
deposition). If you are not sure, you look the words up in the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. |
The student wrote that Casar was an indentured servant,
but everything on the cited page does not support that. The deposition (sworn testimony under oath where lies are illegal and with
consequences if you are caught) by Captain Samuel Goldsmith was that Casar had no
indentured papers and that Mr. Parker had Casar. |
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You never
write about what you do not understand. If you can, you figure it out and then
write. If you cannot, you do not write about it. |
The student wrote that Mr. Park was executed. (FYI: execution
was about his paying the price of services by the court because of his
actions.) |
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Copyright
C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2019 |
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WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
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Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
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Last Updated: |
2019 |
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WCJC Home: |