What You Do with the Practice Essay Feedback AND How Grading Works with 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?
If You Are
Really Puzzled Because You Have QP Marked
How Can You
Prevent the Problems Identified by the Evidence Checklist?
Basic
Information and Specific Information for This Course
How Does Your
Instructor Grade Your Writing?
What Is the
Evidence Checklist 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 Practice Essay (History Changes Essay). ·
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. · 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 How the Evidence Rubric Works with the Practice Essay—and essay on a single topic (a single part) but you have to understand all the other parts if you are going to make sense. |
I will talk about these things in the order listed:
· Notice the Concept column and notice what is worth 60% of the entire grade (or 6 out of 10 points for a 10-point essay)—Reading for Evidence. Also notice what’s worth 30% of the entire grade (or 3 out of 10 points for a 10-point essay)—Writing with Evidence.
· Notice the headings that start with “A” Paper Criteria, “B” criteria and so on. Notice what the big deal (the “A” Paper Criteria for Writing with Evidence. If you want to learn, try to teach it.
· Lastly, notice that 100 Scale Grade and the Point Scale and next we are going to look at what happens when I enter something in that column.
Click here to hear a voice explanation of How the Evidence Rubric reveals what the student and calculates the points. |
In this case, imagine that the student:
· Had a question—to use an example from United States History I—on Africans who were brought to the colonies and the student wrote about English servants.
· Just grabbed some words exactly from the source and copied them and just swapped some other words in the author’s sentences (what The Bedford Handbook calls “half-copy” plagiarism).
· Followed the instruction on the maximum length and that was it.
· Did have only one grammatical error.
Now, notice what happens to the 100 Scale Grade and that Point Scale. I also will try to color highlight, as I do below, to help you recognize what letter of grade I believe is appropriate. Yellow indicates a warning sign and green something is positive.
Click here to hear a voice explanation of the main points in next two headings. |
When you read for and wrote the Practice Essay you did Step1 in this process. You are now going to do Step 2.
In Step 2, you are not rewriting, not modifying anything, and not creating a new version of this assignment. You are going to work to see yourself as others (a boss or a prof) might see you.
So
what are you to do?
In this order, do this:
·
If the textbook does not specifically support what you say, then strike through each of the words in your
paper that you cannot verify in the textbook. (Strike through looks like ·
If you think that those pages you were
supposed to read do specifically support what you say and that you could tell
me a specific place on a specific
page where the textbook does back that up, then you may leave it alone but
you must show me where the fact is. |
Example
of using part of a word:: If the author wrote the word demonstrating and if you wrote demonstrated, then you underline demonstrated |
· EITHER modified the quotation without following the rules in The Bedford Handbook to reveal your changes to a reader · AND/OR used the author’s words for another purpose than he or she intended So what do you do? You go compare letter-by-letter the author’s words and yours: · IF you modified the quotation without following the rules in The Bedford Handbook to reveal your changes to a reader, insert a [ ] immediately after the quotation and write it exactly. · IF you used the author’s words for another purpose than he or she intended, strike through the quotation. |
Students are usually puzzled about the plagiarism or “half-plagiarism” 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 are the rules for citation and use of quotation marks? The rules vary
depending upon whether you are writing:
· A fact from the source in your own words
· A fact in the author’s words (you are quoting):
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—although I do not require that in the Blackboard’s tiny box for essays or in an essay an on-campus student writes in class. |
No |
A fact in the author’s words |
Yes |
Yes <Notice this. |
Specifics about this course:
·
I do not require citations when you use facts in an essay that you do in
the Blackboard’s tiny box for essays, but there are conditions.
·
On the other hand, I do require quotation marks if you use the author’s words. In this
course, you may not plagiarize or
“half-copy” plagiarize. You may however quote, but you have to use the rules
for quoting. If you want more tips, check the preventions link below. If you
have questions, please ask.
If you are confused about when to use quotation marks, these examples may help you.
What
the Author Wrote |
What
Words You Want to Write |
Do
You Need Quotation Marks (“”)? and Why |
the Mississippi River |
the Mississippi River |
No – Proper nouns belong to all of us. |
the green, roaring river |
the river |
No – Common nouns belong to all of us. |
the green, roaring Mississippi River |
the roaring Mississippi River |
Yes <Notice this. – These are the author’s unique string of words so you identify them as not your creation with “”: Trade was harder because of the “roaring Mississippi River.” |
|
roaring |
Yes <Notice this. – This is the author’s labeling of a condition and it is easier to be clear by using the author’s word with “”. The author explained that the “roaring” river made trade more difficult. |
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 not paraphrasing the textbook.
·
Do not need to
repeat every fact or word in the textbook.
·
Are 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 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 them 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 Rubric for feedback (shown above) 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
The Evidence checklist is
the other side of the Rubric. Think of it as a two-sided coin. I use the Evidence Rubric to grade with.
You can use the Evidence Checklist to
help yourself be stronger. Both rely 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).
Each checklist number:
·
Begins with an informal
statement of a common standard that applies to academics and to jobs
·
Below that are our
specific requirements, identified with the underlined phrase In this course.
I can also offer additional tips for how to prevent problems (including with Checklist # 3). Just ask and I will provide preventions for these items.
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. |
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: ·
Either write facts in
your own words ·
Or you may use exact sentences or phrases from
the textbook placed within quotation marks according to the specific rules
for quotation marks (“”) to reveal ownership that are covered in The Bedford Handbook ·
In this course, you may not copy an author’s phrases without quotation marks. You also
may not replace a few words in an
author’s sentence. Both are what The
Bedford Handbook calls “half-copy” plagiarism (page 692). |
3. |
You must follow common standards to reveal any changes you made to the
author’s words. This may not be just a punctuation error. You may be
misleading your reader about the evidence.
In this course,
if you use another’s words, you must be sure either not to change them or—if
you change them—to follow the specific rules in The Bedford Handbook to reveal those changes to the reader. |
4. |
You must use
reliable sources to verify what you write. (To verify means you use a reliable source to confirm the accuracy of
anything you write.) In this course, if
you cannot verify the fact, do not
write it and do not assume that
the source agrees with you. If you are certain something is true and you
cannot find it clearly in our sources, ask me for help.
·
If a
question is about something specific (such as a time,
type of person, or region), verify that the source is about that specific
thing. ·
If the source covers facts about two or more sides or
positions or actions from two or more groups or individuals, do not include
only one side as though the other did not occur. |
5. |
With most written work for professors (or
bosses), if asked, you must be able to state exactly where (a specific
page) in the source that each fact
came from—whether you wrote the words or the author did. With many college
assignments, you must provide citations and use a specific standard (such as MLA, APA, or the Chicago Manual
of Style). In this course
with most written assignments,
you do not need to provide citations (the specific page number from our
textbook) unless I cannot recognize where the fact came from. If I cannot recognize where the fact came from, then you must show me the location on the page. It cannot be a vague
statement: if a reasonable person using a reliable dictionary and reading the
entire passage would not agree that you have evidence for what you say, then
neither will I. If you ask to do the more challenging alternative assignment instead
of the essays for Unit 2, then you must cite
according to the instructions. |
Copyright C. J. Bibus,
Ed.D. 2003-2013 |
2013 |
|