Grading standards: Course examinations and research projects are graded chiefly on quality of writing and reading. Since exams are open-book and open-notebook, your grades reflect not only how well you retrieve and reproduce data and ideas but how well you organize, develop, and express them.

To make an A, you not only demonstrate mastery of the course's main ideas and apply them to the readings. You also extend these ideas in fresh, interesting directions and show familiarity with the texts beyond what was covered in class. The writing “performs” at a very high level, with few grammatical or mechanical problems and with ingenuity in the uses of language. “A” exams overflow with interesting and inter-related ideas, both from the course and from the student’s independent thinking.

For a B, you show a general familiarity with ideas and texts as discussed in class. Your writing is at least competence, with limited grammatical and mechanical errors.  “B” exams show the student absorbing general themes of the course without extending them in surprising or illuminating ways. In organization, the course’s ideas are successfully reproduced but are not related to each other.

A C exam shows some familiarity with the ideas and texts as presented in class, though perhaps only partial. Expression of ideas and references to the texts are half-hearted and incomplete, or grammatical, stylistic, and mechanical errors prevent easy comprehension by the reader. The student appears to have done some reading but may not recall texts in detail or vividness. Answers tend to be short, and the essay's parts do not relate to one another.

D or F exams show a surprising lack of familiarity or preparation with course materials or difficulties with standard English to the extent that ideas cannot be satisfactorily communicated. The questions appear to catch you by surprise. An occasional idea related to the main themes or texts in the course may appear, but these appearances are random, unrelated, and undeveloped.