Name:



Name: ___________________________ English 101: Unit Four

Final Exam / Revision Essay Evaluation (Revised)

|Portfolio Rubric: Holistic Assessment |High |Medium |Low |

| |(A-B) |(C) |(D-E) |

|The Revision Cover Essay clearly and thoroughly identifies the |(RCE) | | |

|changes that were made and explains why those changes were | | | |

|desirable. (Analysis) | | | |

|The Revised Paper demonstrate substantial changes in content and |(Rev Paper) | | |

|form. | | | |

|The passages of craft revision demonstrate thorough, appropriate |(Passage 1) | | |

|changes in the target area. Please highlight 6, I’ll evaluate you on| | | |

|the best 4. | | | |

| |(Passage 2) | | |

| |(Passage 3) | | |

| |(Passage 4) | | |

|The Revision Cover Essay presents a: |Logic/ | | |

|Logical argument about the author’s development as a writer, or a |Theme | | |

|connecting theme that ties the essay together | | | |

|Coherent, organized essay | | | |

|Clear attention to revision (as opposed to personal anecdotes, | | | |

|stories, etc) | | | |

|Clear prose style | | | |

| |Coherence | | |

| |Revision | | |

| |Prose | | |

|The Paper Formats are professional and in MLA style. There are no | | | |

|visible mistakes. | | | |

|The portfolio includes all of the required documents. (See | | | |

|Checklist Handout) | | | |

|The portfolio presentation follows correct manuscript requirements. | | | |

|(Stapled pages, highlighted passages, pocket folder or small binder,| | | |

|etc.) | | | |

Portfolio Score:

|Final = |Points |Weighted % |Draft score |Effectiveness |

|RR team evaluation avg |  |7 |3.5 |3.5 |

|Revised Papers & Revision Essay |  |15 |

|Avg Preliminary Comments score |  |3 |

|Total class % | /250 |25 |

Portfolio Evaluation Categories

1. The Revision Cover Essay clearly and thoroughly identifies the changes that were made in the revision and explains why those changes were desirable.

▪ This cover essay will be your longest assessment document. It should be at least three typed pages to qualify for a “medium” rating. Please note that producing three typed pages does not guarantee you a “medium” rating.

▪ Cover memos should address revision rationales logically. This means following a general format of exigency; once a specific problem has been noted, you must address specifically how it was improved.

2. The Revised Papers demonstrates substantial changes in content and form.

▪ Arguments revised for a specific target audience demonstrate your thinking about how much background information is needed, which supporting arguments will be most convincing, which counterarguments need to be addressed, what tone will be appropriate, etc.

▪ Rhetorical analyses and arguments revised for a general audience demonstrate changes in organization, development of ideas, coherence, transitions, use of source material—whatever aspects have been identified for you in the margins and on the grade sheet of your original version.

3. The passages of craft revision demonstrate thorough changes in the specified target area.

▪ While you’re required to prepare 3 passages for each of the papers, I’m only grading you on your best two from each. This is to give you the benefit of the doubt as often as possible. Even so, it’s necessary for you to identify at least three passages for me in the essay for me to grade at all. While some of your revisions were global (i.e., formatting), many of your revisions are local, (i.e., thesis statement). What I need to see is that any identified revision makes sense on the page, and especially shows a substantial revision from the original. For example, you might consider shortening the length of an overly summative thesis statement and add an evaluation to it instead, which will show visibly on the page and change the overall meaning of the statement. Similarly, if you change a key definition or quotation in the introduction paragraph, this and each subsequent mention (where highlighted) suffice in counting as a passage.

▪ As stated before, you may revise one passage two ways (revising for wordiness and for emphasis in one paragraph, for example), but you must still produce three separate passages of revision. So, for example, if you completely revise your introduction section from the ground up, it’s not enough just to produce a laundry list of criteria that was “messed up” and fixed in the same section of the page. I should see three, distinct, areas of revision in the essay – even if some are shorter than others.

4. The Revision Essay demonstrates the essential criteria for a good, stand-alone essay.

▪ Logical Argumentation: This portion of the grade is an assessment of how logical your arguments are. In other words, do you thoroughly and analytically explain your evidence? While it’s easy to say, “now my paper is better,” do you prove it? On your part, this means taking some time to think about what makes writing good, and giving some thought to how your revisions have pushed your writing closer in this direction. I recommend thinking about your logic in terms of an academic audience and what the conventions of Academic writing are, as opposed to say, journalism, creative writing, or literature for example. Often, the problems that exist in one venue of writing would be considered a benefit in another. Summary, for example, is the bread and butter of Journalists, since the goal of their writing is to remain outside of bias. In academic argument though, the goal is to reveal an informed bias, based on the evaluation of evidence. Consider framing your essay with this in mind

▪ Coherence: Another way to think of this criterion is in terms of flow. What I’m looking for here is how well your essay moves from one topic to another. For example, the most common mistake in any revision essay is to pick apart and isolate problems from each other, as if a problem writing thesis statements is somehow unrelated to citing sources. Problems with the same author are rarely unrelated. Backing up your thesis from the section on logical argumentation, try to shift between problems based on where they come from, especially if it’s a problem of style, audience, or genre.

▪ Revision Focus: This is exactly what it sounds like. Your essay should at all times be about revision, and not about blame shifting. For example, if your family was hit with a debilitating death of a close relative, or if your Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder was acting up, or if your Organic Chemistry class was a bear this semester, these are not relevant factors in this essay. While they are important circumstances that affected you as a writer, your focus here should be on the specific problems that you revised, and not necessarily the factors that contributed to these problems. Relevant problems might include mistaken definitions, a lack of experience writing in academic genres, or gaining experience writing thesis statements, etc.

▪ Clear Prose: Your essays at all times should be relatively readable. By this I mean that you engage in a roughly slightly-more-formal-than-conversational tone. Don’t let yourself get futzed around with the language. Write the paper as if you’re trying to teach them about how to avoid the same mistakes and give clear examples for a non-knowledgeable audience. You should generally be writing for a sophomore / junior-level college reader, no higher.

5. The portfolio presentation is professional and easy to follow.

▪ Arrange your work with your reader’s needs in mind. I need to see your final paper, your original essays, your revised papers, and your revision essays altogether. For my sake, I ask that you place the originals on either side of the folder, then add the revised essays on top, followed by the revision essays, and the final paper last on one side or the other.

▪ Label every document clearly and consistently. Your reader should find the label in the same place on every document – especially if you’re using MLA format!

▪ Use special design features that will help your reader move through your portfolio contents with ease. You might paper clip originals with their revised copies, or use post-it notes to quickly reference like items.

▪ Include the checklist from the assignment sheet as a table of contents. Please highlight or select any missing documents for quick reference. This should be the first document in the portfolio.

6. The portfolio includes all of the original documents.

7. The portfolio presentation follows correct manuscript requirements. (See Checklist Handout)

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download