To qualify for a pass, the essay must:

Principal texts:
demonstrates a clear familiarity with the principal text(s)

Style and expression:
style is clear, and in standard academic register

Use of critical reading:
critical reading is directly appropriate and contributes to the essay's analysis or argument

Documentation:
accurate documentation and use of style conventions, as set out in the School's Style Sheet

Use of critical reading:
critical reading clearly furthers the essay's analysis and argument

Argument:
clear overall sense of direction and accumulation

Use of critical reading:
the essay significantly develops points or arguments it has gained from its reading

Use of critical reading:
the essay makes use of a range of further reading in sophisticated and inventive ways

+ or - Bonuses:
(for explanation of the bonus system, see the Assignment sheet)

Penalty for late submission (2% per day): ___________%

Total adjustment: __________%

TOTAL:

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION MARK
(completed only with feedback on final essay)

NOTES

Feedback

This criteria sheet doubles as a feedback sheet. Your essay will be returned to you with a completed copy of this sheet attached to it.

Abbreviations used in marginal comments

The marginal comments on your essay may contain any of the following abbreviations. Look up these sources for a more detailed comment on the particular point in question.

The criteria

Concepts: To fulfill this criterion, you must show some familiarity with the concepts we have been working with in class. I'm looking for evidence that you're going through the process of active acclimatisation by working with the concepts and figuring out their implications. This criterion is both the most elementary of them all (it shows you've listened to the key terms in classes) and a summation of the combined effect of all the others.

Analysis: These concepts are not just key concepts in isolation. You're expected to do more with them than memorize a definition or spot examples. To see how these concepts work and what they do requires careful attention to the places in which they actually occur.

Argument: This is a matter of your own ability to connect. On the small-scale level, your sentences and paragraphs should follow on from one another, rather than repeat the same information or pile it together without apparent connections. On the larger scale, the whole essay should clearly develop a set of ideas, with later material building on the earlier. Your argument should draw on your analyses, framing them and giving them direction.

Style and expression: Clarity is all important, as are grammar and syntax, and your ability to write in the genre of the academic essay. In marking all essays, I shall be assuming you are thoroughly familiar with the ENGL2035 essay Key, which, among other things, has comments on and guidance to a number of the most frequent stylistic problems encountered in essays in this course. The EMSAH Grammar and Punctuation Guide may also be useful as a reference.

Further reading: This criterion is asking you to do some further reading in cultural studies which is appropriate to your topic. "Further reading" means reading other than the set texts gathered together in the course reader. This is not a request for a long bibliography: it's asking for a small amount of critical reading done well. The request that you use it in a way which is integral to your argument (see above, in the grade of 4) is for you to do more with this reading than just cite it for basic definitions or simply to show you've read something: it should be taken up in your analysis and your argument. The ENGL2035 Guide to Further Reading should be useful here.

Use of earlier work: This criterion occurs only in the grade of 4. It is to encourage you to build on the work you did in your earlier assignments.

Documentation: This criterion occurs only in the grade of 4, because it's a basic skill which should be taken for granted in advanced undergraduate courses like this one. You get a tick in this box only if you get the Style Sheet conventions fully correct, or very close to it. A good attempt which still isn't quite there can get a half-mark, while something which is just inaccurate gets no tick (and stands to be penalized with a negative bonus mark if it's repeated in the final essay).

Each of these criteria can have flow-on effects on the others. A thorough and inventive analysis may have all sorts of implications for the argument you make. A good use of sources will suggest aspects for analysis or points to explore in your argument. A clear style can show your abilities to analyse and construct an argument in their best light. All of these are directly aspects of your take on the topic area, and come from your knowledge of the concepts and how they can be used.

Bonuses

The bonus system is an opportunity to gain back a number of marks you may have lost in earlier assignments. Your tutor has kept a record of the comments they made on your previous assignments, and will use the bonus system to reward your attempts to address earlier problems. You can gain back up to five percentage points in this assignment. Generally, a maximum of 1% will be given as a bonus within any one criterion.

There are a number of resources you can use to help you get these bonus points. You may have been directed to some of these in the notes on your earlier essays: see above, under Abbreviations.

You should note, though, that continuing failure to address earlier problems may get you negative points here. The most frequent (and quite unnecessary) reason for negative points in the past has been simple failure to follow the Style Guide.