An A-B paper will:

• engagingly present the subject and provide enough detail to orient the reader

• clearly assert that the subject is good or bad

• have a judgment based on relevant criteria, appropriate for the intended audience

• be developed with specific evidence and amass considerable details from the subject

• use explanation to show how the evidence supports or does not support each criterion

• clearly weight the criteria being used to evaluate the subject

• define and defend criteria which are not clearly important to judging the subject

• acknowledge when the subject doesn’t meet certain criteria very well

• anticipate and refute or accommodate counterarguments at appropriate times

• include pointed comparisons

• follow an effective organizational pattern which is appropriate for the audience and has a logical progression

• include paragraphs which are coherent, unified, and effectively developed 

• contain a variety of skillfully constructed sentences

• promote clarity and effectiveness with standard usage, mechanics, and spelling; and a precise and ample vocabulary  

A C paper will:

• present the subject but still need a few details to orient the reader

• vaguely assert that the subject is good or bad

• have a judgment based on mostly relevant criteria, which are not entirely appropriate for the intended audience

• be developed with evidence and but still need more details from the subject

• use explanation to show how the evidence supports or does not support each criterion, but need clearer explanations

• not clearly weight the criteria being used to evaluate the subject

• define and defend criteria which are not clearly important to judging the subject

• sometimes fail to acknowledge when the subject doesn’t meet certain criteria very well

• not always anticipate and refute or accommodate counterarguments at appropriate times

• include comparisons which are not pointed

• follow an organizational pattern which is appropriate for the audience and has a somewhat logical progression

• include paragraphs which are sometimes incoherent

• contain sentences which are not always grammatically incorrect

• might contain a couple of major errors

• contain sentences with inconsistent use of standard usage, mechanics, spelling  

A D-F paper will

• fail to provide enough details to orient the reader

• neglect to assert that the subject is good or bad

• have a judgment based on irrelevant criteria, inappropriate for the intended audience

• have few specific details from the subject

• fail to explain how the evidence supports/doesn’t support each criterion

• not weight the criteria being used to evaluate the subject

• fail to define/defend criteria which are not clearly important to judging the subject

• fail to acknowledge when the subject doesn’t meet certain criteria very well

• neglect to anticipate and refute or accommodate counterarguments at appropriate times

• not include pointed comparisons

• follow a confusing organizational pattern

• include many paragraphs which are incoherent

• contain sentences which are often grammatically incorrect

• contain many major errors

• contain sentences with very inconsistent use of standard usage, mechanics, spelling