PHIL3695: Early Modern Philosophy: Central Themes

Guide to Grades

Grade Meanings

• Grade 85–100

• This is an excellent assignment. It is well-argued and clearly written throughout. It is

original and it appropriately engages with the relevant literature.

• Grade 80–84

• This is a very good assignment. It is well-argued but it has exactly one of these very

minor shortcomings: it may not be clearly written throughout while being clearly

written for the most part; it may not be sufficiently original while at least making

an attempt at originality; or it may not have engaged with the relevant literature to

an appropriate degree.

• Grade 75–79

• This is a good assignment. If it is well-argued, then it has more than one very minor

shortcoming as defined above. If it does not have more than one very minor

shortcoming, then it is well-argued for the most part, but could be improved in

this respect.

• Grade 70–74

• This is a good but slightly flawed assignment. If it is well-argued, then it has exactly

one major shortcoming: it may be significantly unclear in parts; it may make no

attempt at originality; or it may have engaged with the literature to an inappropriate

degree. If it does not have any of these major shortcomings, then it either had

many very minor shortcomings as defined above, or it has this major problem: it is

well argued in some parts, but not for the most part.

• Grade 65–69.

• This is a slightly flawed assignment. If it is well-argued for the most part, then it has

more than one major shortcoming as defined above. If it does not have more than

one of the major shortcomings defined above then either it has many major and

minor problems as defined above, or it is poorly argued, for the most part.

• Grade 60–64.

• This is a flawed paper. It is poorly argued, for the most part, and has one or more

of the major shortcomings defined above, perhaps along with some of the minor

shortcomings as defined above. A paper which makes no attempt at originality,

no attempt to engage with the relevant literature, is not particularly clear, but

which makes an attempt at argumentation, will usually end up here. If no attempt

at argumentation is made, and there are no major shortcomings with the paper, a

paper may be awarded a grade in this range, but more than likely, will do even

worse than this.

• Grade 50–59

• Please don’t make me have to define a grade for this range or lower.

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Definitions

• An assignment which is well-argued presents a clearly structured argument for a carefully

articulated conclusion. It presents the arguments of others as they bear on the overall

argument for this conclusion in a similarly clearly-structured way. It is always clear

exactly what is being argued for, and on what grounds it is being argued for, throughout

the paper. Beyond presenting a clearly structured argument for a carefully articulated

conclusion a well-argued paper presents a good argument for this conclusion,

one whose premises support its conclusion, and whose premises are well motivated and

not subject to obvious objections.

• An assignment which is clearly written throughout is well-structured at the sentence, paragraph,

section, and paper levels. It is, for the most part, written in plain English. All

technical language and jargon is introduced and explained in plain English. It isn’t

unnecessarily wordy. It doesn’t misuse words.

• An assignment which is original presents an argument in an original way or presents an

original argument or presents an original objection to a familiar argument. Originality

here means going beyond what you have encountered in the course and your

reading for the course, not going beyond what anybody else has ever done or even

beyond ideas your instructor has encountered. In this sense, an original paper is simply

a paper which demonstrates an ability to think about an issue for yourself, and to

go beyond the thinking on the topic you have encountered. Of course, it is not

enough for originality to merely go beyond what you have encountered in the course

and your reading for the course, you must go beyond it in a way that demonstrates a

sensitivity to what you have encountered in the course, in a way that demonstrates

that your thought is an outgrowth of what you have encountered in the course. Your

ideas may be totally wrong in ways you could not have reasonably anticipated, or

subject to a serious objection you could not have reasonably anticipated. This is fine.

Don’t be afraid to try.

• An assignment which appropriately engages with the relevant literature engages with the

assigned readings for the course where appropriate, citing these readings as the

source of an idea, quoting from them when it is appropriate to do so. It does more

than merely paraphrase these readings. It also engages with at least one source other

than the assigned readings. That source may have been mentioned in the readings (it is

then a safe bet that it is relevant) or it may be something else which is relevant to the

argument you are making. Gratuitous referencing of sources which are on the same

topic but which are not particularly relevant or appropriately engaged with in your

paper is best avoided.