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Your final grade will be based on your total performance in the course, not just on your writing. Quizzes, informal or journal writing assignments, attendance, and preparation for class may affect your grade. Since ENG 101 and 102 are workshop courses, the work you do in the classroom as well as the writing you bring to class may well affect your final grade, even though it may not receive a grade at the time.

Please note that the university considers grades of C to be acceptable and average; grades of B or A should be reserved for above-average work.

The English Department requires that you earn a grade of C or better in ENG 101 before taking ENG 102. If you earn a D or F in ENG 101, you must repeat the course until you earn a C before taking ENG 102. If you earn a grade of D, F, X or I in ENG 101, and you have already registered for ENG 102, your registration will be cancelled. Many universities require a grade of C or better in both ENG 101 and 102 as a condition of transfer acceptance.

Grading may vary by instructor. If you do not understand your grade or disagree with it, talk to your instructor first. The only person who can give you definite answers about how a grade was assigned is your instructor. Refer to "If You Have A Problem" under the "Suggestions and Hints" section for additional advice.

The portfolio system is one method instructors use to evaluate students’ work. In this system, students work throughout the quarter to write material for their portfolio. The students submit their best work in their portfolio for a final grade. Specific requirements may vary among instructors. The advantage of this system is that students can revise their work several times before a grade is assigned. For specific examples of ENG 101 and ENG 102 final portfolios, please refer to the "Sample Student Portfolios" section of this Guidebook.

Individual instructors respond to students’ essays in different ways. However, some general principles are likely to be followed by most instructors, and some practices are common to many. This section describes some of the most common ways writing instructors respond to students’ writing. It also describes what instructors who use those methods expect students to do with the responses.

Instructors require students to write multiple drafts of major essays. The first draft often contains both major problems and various errors. Instructors usually respond to the major problems with marginal comments (such as, "I can’t follow your logic here" or "Is this your thesis?") or a comment at the end of the draft. These are the most important comments on the draft, because they deal with the largest issues in the essay--its form, its meaning, and how well it meets the demands of the assignment.

Because many instructors believe that the writer should ultimately control his or her writing, they do not phrase their comments as commands: "Do this! Change that! Add this! Get rid of that!" Rather, they phrase their comments as suggestions: "You might do this"; Your draft would be easier to follow if you…" What you decide to do with your draft is up to you; but to ignore the suggestions of an expert reader whose goal is to help you revise your draft to make it better can hurt your final grade. Be aware that instructors consider these comments the most important comments they make and that you should address them first.

Some instructors offer an additional form of response that most often takes the form of a letter marking on the draft: "E-M-L." These letters are shorthand for early, middle, late:

Early: The draft is early in the writing process: major aspects of the topic, meaning, form, and overall conception of the draft still need to be dealt with.

Middle: The draft is in the middle of the writing process: the most major elements have been dealt with, but the paper should only be considered half done; several issues and problems remain.

Late: The draft is late in the writing process: the draft adequately addresses its topic and meets its goals, paragraphs and sentences are soundly constructed, and only editing for style and correctness remain before the finished essay should be submitted.

Your goal should be to address the big issues first, ignoring the smaller issues until you’ve reached the Middle or Late stages. Why waste your time editing and cleaning up a paragraph that you end up deleting or substantially revising?

While written comments most often focus on issues of understanding and form, more specific marks--such as circled or underlined words or punctuation, or notations on phrasing or wording--usually concern issues of proper sentence structure, word usage, and various editing and proofreading problems. Your instructor will not mark all the errors on your drafts. Rather, your instructor will likely mark specific problems that interfere with understanding--that make your meaning unclear--or problems that occur in patterns--errors that you make more than once.

The instructor’s goal is to help you understand the kinds of errors you are making, so that you can learn to avoid them or fix them yourself. The instructor’s role is not to edit your draft for you, noting every error so that all you need to do is change whatever the instructor has marked. It is your responsibility as a writer to clean up your work, to make sure that it is error-free when you turn in final drafts.

If you do not understand a marked error, ask the instructor for clarification. If you worry that you have problems that were not marked but that you can’t see, get help from your instructor or the Writing Center.

3. Variations

Some instructors employ a "hybrid" commenting technique, writing comments about issues of content and form and, at the same time, marking errors. The advice above still holds: pay attention first to the larger issues, waiting until the draft meets the needs of the assignment, has enough information, and is shaped appropriately before dealing with the smaller issues of sentence structure, editing, and proofreading.

In short, what instructors expect you to do after they’ve responded to your drafts is that you will:

--Work on larger issues first:

• Does the draft meet the requirements of the assignment?
• Does it have sufficient or appropriate content?
• Is it structured appropriately?
• Does it maintain the appropriate stance towards its intended readers?

--Then work on issues of understanding and fluency:

• Is the draft appropriately paragraphed?
• Is the style consistent throughout?
• Are sentences appropriately varied in length and structure?
• Are phrases and words used appropriately?

--Finally, and only at the final stages, work on issues of correctness, editing, and proofreading:

• Are all sentences complete and grammatically correct?
• Are all words spelled correctly?
• Is the whole piece punctuated appropriately?
• Is the piece formatted appropriately?

Go beyond their comments and marks to demonstrate your ability to see problems and errors on your own and fix them;

--Seek assistance from them or from the Writing Center to make sure your work is the best it can be;

--Take responsibility for developing your drafts into the best, most polished work of which you are capable.

If You Have A Problem

You may occasionally feel lost in a course. Before you seek out your instructor, make sure you have read and followed the "Checklist for Success" from the "Conduct Inside the Classroom" section of this Guidebook. If you have followed this informal checklist and still have concerns about your course, instructor, or final grade, the following procedures are available to you.

• Discuss your concern with your instructor. Most problems that arise between students and their instructors are only misunderstandings. Consider making an appointment, so that both of you are prepared and know what to expect. If you are angry, wait at least one day; you will be more credible if you can discuss your problem calmly and rationally. Some students feel writing out their concerns can help organize their thoughts and help express them to your instructor.
• If you are still dissatisfied after speaking with your instructor, you may ask the Director of Writing Programs to mediate. The Director will speak to you and then with your instructor, with the goal of resolving the situation in a fair way. For more information, see the following link on problems involving your final grade.

Problems Involving Your Final Grade | Top of Page  |  Return to Guidebook Table of Contents