Research Project Grading Guidelines

Grading Terms. Your final project for this class is worth200 points. Regardless of the type of project you choose to do, you will begraded on the following terms:

Literary Analysis and Author Contribution. At least fiftypercent of your project should relate to an analysis of the literature,regardless of whether or not you choose to write about an author. The purposeof this class is to learn to read, relate to, and understand literature, so, inturn, you can interpret the literature intelligently and relate your findingsto others. Equally important is understanding how the authors of the timeperiod contributed overall to the development of American literature.

Presentation and Appearance. The way you present yourproject, be it a paper, PowerPoint presentation, or other form of media, willbe assessed. Did you follow proper MLA formatting guidelines? Is thepresentation visually appealing? Can all the text on the slides be seen?

Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling. These elements aregraded in your papers, so they will be graded on your final project, too. Ifyou are working in a program other than Word or a word processing program thathas automatic spell check, I suggest you turn on the spell check feature (youcan do this in PowerPoint) or type your text in Word and copy and paste itover.

Creativity is not a factor in your overall grade. That is, apaper on the author’s style will not receive less points than, say, aPowerPoint presentation. All projects, regardless of media, are assessed on thesame key points.

Points Breakdown. 200 points is the equivalent of twoopinion papers. Your grade will be divided this way:

50 points – grammar, punctuation, and spelling; MLAformatting; presence of thoughtful reflection (if applicable)

150 points – literary analysis; generation of ideas;incorporation of primary and secondary sources; clear use of elements ofwriting (development, coherence, consistency, unity); complete development ofideas; clear thesis, established and proved by project end

Research Paper—Author’s Style. Choose an author we havestudied this semester and write a five to seven page research paper discussingthis author’s style. Look at three to five primary sources (these can includesome of the literature we covered in class, though you should also address someof the author's other contributions as well) and use three to five secondarysources (be sure they are reputable, which means no Wikipedia or SparkNotes) assupport.

I chose Donald Barthelme as the writer to do the paper over