ESOL 1312 RESEARCH PAPER GRADING GUIDE STUDENT NAME__________________________

COMPLETE TWO-POCKET FOLDER (Incomplete packet will result in a course grade no higher than a D)

_____                  Rough Draft with my initials from the conference.

_____                  Two Final Copies of Research Paper

_____                  Copies of Sources (xeroxes, etc.) and/or index cards, identified properly from Works Cited.

_____                  Works Cited has eight or more UTEP Library Sources and eight or more uses of in-text citation in the body of the paper. (Sources must include a reserve book, a reference book [not a general encyclopedia], a book you checked out of the library, and an academic or scholarly journal. Inclusion of an additional print journal will earn 3 extra points on final paper grade. Include a xerox of the cover page and first page of the print journal in your folder.

FORMAT OF THE PAPER: (Failure to comply with the following will reduce your paper grade by five points each occurrence.)

_____ First or Title page is correct.

_____ Research Paper neatly typed, 1" margins

_____ Paragraphs indented ½ inch

GRADING THE RESEARCH PAPER:

 _____ 1. Introduction & Conclusion (5 points)

                            Good opening and effective thesis/purpose required.

 _____ 2. Background Material in Introduction (5 points)

                            Background material must inform and prepare reader for what follows.

 _____ 3. Paragraph Focus & Development .(10 points)

Paragraphs must have thesis/purpose related topic sentences and must be specifically developed with examples, comparison, cause-effect analysis and similar strategies.

_____ 4. Effective Argument or Development of Purpose (25 points)

Research paper must provide appropriate research and critical thinking to fulfill the stated thesis or purpose of the paper.

_____ 5. Good use of Signal phrases (5 points)

                            Signal phrases identify major sources used in paraphrases, summaries and quotations.

_____ 6. Effective use of quotations (5 points)

                            Quotations must be correctly identified and be appropriate to the material.

_____ 7. Effective and accurate use of in-text citations (10 points)

All paraphrases, summaries and quotations are identified in the text as illustrated in the MLA guide.

_____ 8. Works Cited has complete & correct citations (5 points)

Works cited must have at least eight sources available in the UTEP Library. Each reference must be completely documented according to MLA guidelines and must follow MLA format.

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_____ 9. Sentence structure has few Major Sentence Errors and faulty verb phrases. (15 points)

Paper must be relatively free of comma splices, sentence fragments, and run-on sentences as well as faulty verb forms and meaningless, non idiomatic, phrases and clauses.

_____ 10. Few errors in Punctuation (especially in Titles). (10 points)

                            Paper must be relatively free of comma, semi-colon, and colon errors as well as misuse of                                           quotation marks and conventions of capitalization in titles.

_____ 11. Mechanics & Spelling relatively error-free (5 points)

Paper must be relatively free of errors involving numbers, abbreviations, spelling, and capitalization.

______TOTAL POINTS LETTER GRADE __________