Below are the grading criteria for the group paper at different grade ranges (A, B, C, D, F). In general, the paper should fulfill most of the criteria to be addressed within a particular grade range – see below for the three major aspects in which you will be evaluated.

1. Thesis, Argument, and Conclusion
2. Organization and Structure
3. Writing Style

A paper will receive the grade of “A” if

• the essay is interesting and easy to read.
• the essay is clearly response to the topic, and provides a description of the topic based on both facts and opinions.
• the essay delivers a clear stated central thesis, and develops the argument which supports or prove the thesis throughout the paper.
• the essay uses evidence appropriately and effectively, providing sufficient and convincing support for its central thesis, and cites useful illustrative examples.
• the essay tends to show deeper analysis.
• the essay is tightly organized, and has a logical structure appropriate to the subject, purpose, audience and discipline.
• the essay has clear transitions between paragraphs that give to the entire essay a good flow and great coherence.
• the essay has a clean of typos.

A paper will receive the grade of “B” if

• the essay addresses a clearly stated central thesis.
• the essay delivers the argument to support the central thesis.
• the essay characterized by a good organization, and most paragraphs relate to the central idea, but the connections may be less sophisticated.
• the sentences are overall well-structured, though there may be an occasional awkward or ineffective construction.
• the essay presents varied kinds of evidence, but the evidence may need further evaluation.
• the essay has a clean of typos.

A paper will receive the grade of “C” if

• the essay has a thesis, but it is difficult to identify, or an incomplete thesis is stated by very weak support throughout the paper.
• the essay delivers the argument or point of view ineffectively.
• the essay has less supportive evidence for proving the central thesis.
• the conclusion tends to be repetitive or simply a summary of the entire paper, instead of addressing the question of significance or introducing a new question for a future discussion.
• the essay often has random organization, and using inappropriate transitions.
• the essay may contain some mechanical or grammatical errors and awkward phrasing.

A paper will receive the grade of “D” if

• the essay does not contain a clear central thesis.
• the essay does not contain supportive evidence for proving the central thesis.
• paragraphs lack logical connections to the central thesis, and paragraph length is inappropriate.
• the organization of the essay is messy and ineffective.
• the essay has abundant sentence-level errors that impede meaning and make the paper hard to follow.

A paper will fail if

• the paper does not meet the minimum length requirement.
  (The essay must reach at least 10 pages long. Paper titles, course information, bibliographies, long footnotes or end-notes, and other such elements do not count towards the final page count.
• the essay is off topic, and/or miss a central thesis to set up an argument.
• the essay is deficient in all three major aspects of academic writing mentioned above.
• the paper is turned in late without a further explanation.
• the essay relies too heavily on summary or unsupported opinion.
• the essay has excessive stylistic or grammatical errors.