General Criteria for All Essays: 

•          Follows all stated requirements of assignment (length, due date, topic, paper format, etc.)

•          All information in paper is accurate

•          Spelling and standard usage/grammar are accurate; any errors are corrected neatly

•          Essay structure is controlled and logically serves the assignment

•          All interpretations or assertions follow logically from or to the material cited

•          All logical connections are expressed clearly and explicitly, with appropriate transitions and sense of cause-and-effect

•          All quotations are justified in length and content by the author’s own assertions

•          All possible sources are correctly cited, whether paraphrased, summarized, or directly quoted

•          Consistency in voice and style are attempted

A

Meets all the above criteria, with the addition of a confident authorial voice and critical insights beyond the requirements of the assignment

B

Meets all of the above criteria

C

Meets the above criteria, with deficiencies in no more than 2 or 3 criteria

D

Meets some of the above criteria, with significant deficiencies in most of the criteria

E

Meets none of the above criteria, OR the ones that are met do not compensate for a mis-applied assignment, crucial deficiencies in standard English, or significant lack of logical development

√         

Good point!  Insightful and/or well-stated

AN

Quotation is presented with inadequate accompanying analysis.

CON

Conclusion is abrupt or weak: end with a bang, not a whimper, but avoid trite, over-general, or “editorial” comments.      

CS

Comma splice

DI

Diction, or a problem with word choice — you’ve misused a word or aren’t using the standard idiom for this phrase.  Avoid euphemisms or jargon — use exact language.

etc...

This error appears throughout the essay, but I haven’t marked all the instances.

SPEC

Either you need to illustrate this assertion with a specific example OR you have used a vague, undefined term.

L¶      

This paragraph is too long — what/where is its central point?

P-A

Pronoun-antecedent disagreement

Para

Inadequate paraphrase — source material must be in your own words and sentence structure

PV

Avoid passive voice when possible.  Where’s the subject?

QU

Quotation is incorrect, or incorrectly attributed, or ungrammatically incorporated into your sentence

REP

Redundancy/repetition.  Or perhaps you’ve followed a quotation with a statement that does no more than simply paraphrase its literal meaning without saying anything else about it.

RO

Run-on sentence, or a sentence that is so complex its central meaning is lost

Sum

This portion is essentially a summary, paraphrase or technical description of the original work, without any meaningful analysis.

SC

Sentence combining needed: you’ve written a series of short, choppy sentences (probably all possessing the same subject) that could be combined with conjunctions, transitional phrases, semicolons, etc.

SF

Sentence fragment

SP

Spelling error (these may also simply be circled)

SV

Subject-verb disagreement

TH

Thesis is not specific enough, makes no particular promise to the reader, or isn’t argumentative.

TR

You need a transition (or a better one) here, either between sentences or paragraphs.  How does each idea relate to the other?

VT

Incorrect verb tense.  In critical writing, it is customary to use present (or present-perfect) tense to refer to what’s going on in/with the text.

W       

Avoid wordiness: substitute active verbs for verb phrases built on forms of "to be," or for prepositional phrases; i.e., don’t use “when” and “where” to indicate anything but time and place.

??

Logic problem:   

C-E      faulty (or unclear) cause-and-effect or non sequitur

FAL     logical or emotional fallacy: false analogy, ad hominem, circular argument, straw man, false dichotomy, etc.

OV      oversimplification/overgeneralization

SUP     unsupported claim or assertion