What You Do with the History Changes Feedback AND Grading for All Unit Essays |
What’s on This Webpage:
Making Sure I
Try to Be Clear about the Limits of What I Am Saying
What’s in the
File That I Sent You?
What Do You
Do to Complete This (and Get the Extra Credit)?
If You Are
Really Puzzled Because You Have QP Marked
How Can You
Prevent the Problems Identified by the Evidence Checklist/Rubric?
How Does Your
Instructor Grade Your Writing?
What Is the
Evidence Checklist/Rubric and What Are Its 2-Letter Abbreviations for Feedback?
Click here to hear a voice explanation of the main points in next heading. |
I stress what works based on learning history. I stress what is necessary:
HOWEVER, if bosses or professors say to do the opposite, then do that for them. That is the right thing to do.
Click here to hear a voice explanation of how grading works and how this process works. |
§
I record a real
grade for your work on the History Changes Essay.
Why? So you can tell the percentage
you will make on the 50-point assignments (2 essays each at 25 points) if you
keep working as you are. If you made a 4 on the 10-point History Changes Essay
and did the same manner of working on the 50-point essays, you would get only
20 points (40% of 50).
§
If you do the instructions below, I record all
of the extra credit I have promised. If
you cannot tell what to do, talk to me. I am glad to help you.
Why? Because I do not think people should be zapped for having a misunderstanding.
That is why you can get extra credit to cover any low grade.
§ If you change how you work in the future, you will not only learn history a lot better (my goal for all this), but practice skills to help you for your entire life. Practice being the person you want to be.
Click here to hear a voice explanation of what’s in the file I sent you. |
The file has two things:
1.
My feedback to you, with Xs
marked and comments added to show you the feedback.
2.
A copy of what you submitted for the History Changes Essay—and this is where you do what you need to do so
that you can catch on to the feedback
I have marked this with a common example of someone with interrelated
bad habits (with blue highlights).
Habits (or how you work) are what
gets you in trouble—being smart is never enough. I have also placed links in
the example so you can go to more information if you want to.
Keep in mind I know I can be wrong. If you can tell me on the phone
where the source supports something, I am fine.
My feedback to you, with Xs marked and
comments added to show you the feedback These are the 5 items in
the Evidence Checklist/Rubric. If I placed an X below the item, you had this
problem and you need to look at the instructions in the link and then do that
IN the copy of your work below.
These are general problems. If I placed an X to the left of the item,
you seem to have these problems.
A copy of what you
submitted for the History Changes Essay—and this is where you do what you
need to do TO STRESS THIS, you do NOT rewrite anything. You mainly underline or strike through.
|
Click here to hear a voice explanation of the main points in next two headings. |
You are not rewriting, not modifying anything, and not creating a new version of this assignment. So are you to do?
In this order, do this:
Example: If the author wrote the word demonstrating and if you wrote demonstrated, then you underline demonstrated |
|
So what do you do? You go compare letter-by-letter the author’s words and yours:
|
Students are usually puzzled about the QP marking because they lack some basic information. Here are the basics.
1. The
submission of a paper with words from an author without quotation marks can be the professor's evidence that you plagiarized. Some professors may not
notice, but some may call it plagiarism. Do
not assume that past responses by professors guarantees what future
professors will want (and no boss ever will pay people—not well anyway—to copy
words from one place to another).
2. If you do this, some professors may label your work as “half-copy” plagiarism (term from The Bedford Handbook, page 692) if you:
§ Either copy an author’s phrases without quotation marks (“”)
§ Or
use the author’s sentence structure and
just swap a few words with what you think are synonyms
3. Caution: If you think saying the name of the source means you can copy another’s words without quotations marks, look at this table. If you use a fact in the author’s words, citation is not enough; you must also use quotation marks.
What
Kind of Fact Are You Using |
Do You
Need Citation (Page # etc.)? |
Do
You Need Quotation Marks (“”)? |
A fact in your own words |
Yes |
No |
A fact in the author’s words |
Yes |
Yes <Notice this. |
Specifics about this course:
With
something that people talk about in many ways, sometimes it helps to state what
is not the goal. With writing in this course,
you are not summarizing or paraphrasing the textbook. You do not,
therefore, need to repeat every fact or word in the textbook. You are also not
showing your personal writing style while stating your feelings or your
opinions.
Instead,
in this course, the goal of all writing assignments is for you to do
activities that help you learn the history of our nation. One of the most
powerful ways to learn something is to try to teach it. You will succeed in
these assignments if you do these things:
§ If you read carefully and work to understand what
happened and ask if you need help.
§ If you figure out what essential facts that you
would teach your cousin.
§ If you figure how you could organize those facts as
simply and as accurately as you can.
§ If you write in a common sense way as though you are
teaching your cousin history that he or she needs to understand.
Because
the goal of writing is to hTo help you learn our
nation’s history and the priority is for you to be accurate, I grade your
writing by comparing what you wrote side by side with the facts in the
textbook. With essays submitted, I use a method that lets me quickly identify
all of the submissions where the students wrote on the same question.
1. I download those submissions, print them, and place
side by side:
§ On the left, the textbook opened to the probable
section or sections students should have used. § On the right, the submissions of students’ papers
on that question. |
2. I use the Evidence Checklist/Rubric and its 2-letter
abbreviations for feedback (shown below) and grade each student’s submissions
one by one.
3. If there are multiple possible questions, I then
repeat the steps above with the next question.
With
the two essays for the Unit exams, I grade one of the questions using the
method above. Unless I find problems such as factual errors in that essay, I
grade the other one without the textbook side by side with your paper—a quicker
method.
th the e
I
use the Evidence Checklist/Rubric to grade on common standards (accepted rules or models) for academics and for jobs
that depend on evidence. The word evidence
emphasizes that you must have proof
for what you say—some fact from our approved source that anyone using that
source can see for himself or herself. The word checklist means a list of steps or things necessary for success
(such as a pilot’s checklist for takeoff). The word rubric usually means a way to give feedback (such as confirmation of success, guidance for
improvement, or corrections) that is useful but quick for instructors and
students.
The
term checklist/rubric indicates this
is both a checklist (on the left) for success with evidence and a way to
give feedback (on the right) about your use of evidence as a 2-letter
abbreviation. Each checklist item begins with an informal statement of a common
standard. Beneath that are our specific requirements, identified with the
underlined phrase In this course.
Do each of the things on the checklist below or you
may see the letters on the right as Feedback on your paper. |
Feedback Letters |
|
1. |
For
your source of facts, you use only
sources your professor (or boss) accepts as reliable. In this course, the only
sources are the textbook chosen by the History Department and the sources provided at our Course Website. Do not use Internet websites, another textbook, or any other
source—including your own memory. |
NS =
Fact is Not from an approved Source |
2. |
You must follow common
standards to reveal to your reader who created the words and/or found the
facts you are using in your writing. This is a requirement in courses and in some
jobs. In
this course, you may: |