Grading Rubric Reminder

Students who are sophisticated writers and who pride themselves in being format AND content adept will readily understand that a research paper is a formal document that college professors will expect to be letter-perfect, even at the submission of the first draft; with this astute understanding taken into account, students must face the most strict requirements for such a document not only in the information that is researched, documented, and composed, but also in the Modern Language Association rules of research paper documentation. There is no excuse for errors in such an important assignment and although some leeway is provided for students at the secondary level, the post-secondary stringent grade marking and expectation of letter-perfect work is not only expected, but demanded. With that in mind, at the secondary level, the following marks were used in scoring senior research papers:
A Produces markedly superior work
B Produces superior work
C Demonstrates satisfactory work
D Needs to improve progress in work
F Demonstrates little or no progress in work

These descriptors are courtesy of Los Angeles Unified School District Form 34-H-1, titled "Criteria for Marks."
The following list denotes possible reasons students' research papers were marked down and does not represent every infraction that may be made:

1. Pages not numbered according to Modern Language Association (MLA) format requirements
2. Four-line heading not formatted according to MLA requirements
3. Spell-grammar check not used (run-ons, spelling errors and other such breaches)
4. Slang or trite expressions used in a formal document
5. Pronoun usage ("I", "You") and contractions are NOT PERMITTED in formal documents
6. Sources used are not reliable and do not reflect "Digital Library" type sources
7. No personal interview with an expert, expert not properly credentialed for reader, or interview not listed in Works Cited list
8. Widows/orphans improper formatting not fixed
9. Works Cited page sources not used in paper but listed in Works Cited page and/or Works Cited in two-page format instead of one page
10.Working outline and/or final draft of outline not provided
11.Page or paragraph length criteria not met
12.Citations listed in body of document not correctly formatted according to MLA requirements
13.Research paper deadline not met