Some explanation and feedback on each point:
MLA Argumentative: The scores are pretty low for this assignment for a few reasons. MLA formatting is still an issue for most of you, and still many of you miss out on instructions. I have to grade these essays more brutally than reflective, and most of you still need to improve your argumentative writing and fine tuning. I'll email you back the detailed edits in .doc format, and your first assignment after Vision Trip is to fix it and get it perfect.
Final Exam: I was actually impressed with the responses to the prompt, and many of you (who scored a bit higher) made an effort to synthesize and reference the various points of view provided. Good work. It wasn't essential to synthesize, but the opportunity was there. Lower scoring exams tended to wander away from the speech contents or took risky positions on the issues. Quality and quantity played a role.
Participation: This is a holistic score and ranking based on many things:
- Effort to become involved in class discussion. Some students listen closely and discuss the assignments, while others are content to look at laptops. I'm too lenient with the latter, and will focus more on Wayne-style graded discussions next semester.
- Effort to submit assignments on time, and produce cleaned-up second drafts. If I spend time marking your essays up in red, I really value seeing things fixed (so I know I'm not wasting my time). Not everyone has the same English ability, but you all have equal opportunity to show interest in improvement. As for late assignments, I'm too lenient with this. Expect a harsher stance next semester (to warm you up to the cruel world of university where professors don't care if your grandmother is sick or your computer froze, and will give you a zero for being 5 minutes late).
- Effort to enrich your blog with visual content and extra writing. Some of you really made extra efforts here, and I hope it continues next semester.
