English 230 Paper Evaluation Rubric  __________________

1)  CRITICAL INSIGHT  Does the paper contain a sufficiently important insight regarding the work(s) it discusses?  (I.e.,  perception of the author's intentions in formal structure, theme/imagery, characterization, plot construction and details, or other elements of technique.)  Does the paper conform reasonably with the instructions listed in the "Required Graded Work" Web page of the course Web site?  Especially, does it develop a unified thesis that refers to at least one work from both the Greek and Roman sections of the course, whatever its major focus turns out to be?

2)  SUPPORTING EVIDENCE  Does the paper support its insight with appropriate primary source evidence of sufficient quality and quantity? 

If secondary sources are used, are they of sufficient quality, quantity, and currency, and are they properly acknowledged? 

Are quotations and paraphrase from all sources smoothly integrated into the argument and documented?

3)  THESIS  Does the paper's thesis clearly control the argument with enough abstract reasoning to grasp significant and debatable understandings, and with enough focus to avoid wandering generalizations?

4)  TITLE, INTRODUCTION, PARAGRAPH TRANSITION, AND CONCLUSION

Does the paper's title clearly reveal the topic and indicate significant elements of the thesis? 

Does the introduction clearly introduce the thesis, keywords, and topic order? 

Do paragraph transitions clearly explain the topic order and link to the thesis? 

Does the conclusion take advantage of the thesis' consequences for the work's significance?

5)  PROSE AND DOCUMENTATION STYLES  Does the paper follow the conventions of accurate academic word use, grammatical sentence construction, and coherent paragraph construction? 

Does it follow MLA citation style?