CRITICAL ESSAY GRADING RUBRIC

74% and below No single focus or clear thesis; contains only a summary or a series of
assertions without any deep engagement with the chosen film, and
without relating it to some of the assigned texts or films; may be
confused concerning factual details; may not address the major issues
laid out in the assignment.
75-79% Has body paragraphs that are related to the prompt question, but may
not include a provable assertion (thesis); observations are not
explicitly tied together into a unified point; not enough specific
evidence cited to support the author’s claims; may contain sentences
that leave the reader confused or distracted.
80-84% Attempts to make an overall claim and some specific examples to
support it, yet the thesis remains overly broad or simple; may leave
out other examples important for exploring the thesis; may not explain
or interpret the evidence sufficiently in a way that makes the paper’s
main claim persuasive.

TIP: A “simple thesis” is a claim that is patently obvious to anybody

with a basic education, and that therefore takes very little thinking and
time to argue persuasively. Say, for example, that you have to write a
paper about what is happening to the climate. A simple thesis would
be “the climate is rainy because the sky is gray.” 99% of people would
automatically agree with this phrase so you would’t need to write a
450-500 word essay to convince someone to agree with such a
statement. A more interesting and rich thesis would be: “the climate is
regularly rainy because of XYZ factors, some of them inherent to the
region, some of them contingent on climate change, bla, bla, bla” (and
then you elaborate on these sub points in the body paragraphs). Say
that you are supposed to write a paper about war, you would also
want to avoid an over broad thesis such as “X war happened because
human beings are sometimes violent.” A better thesis would be X war
was particularly violent because Y and Z factors propitiated such
violence and made it practically impossible for peaceful resolutions to
take place“ (and then in the body paragraphs you detail what Y and Z
factors were about).

Your thesis is not supposed to consist of a groundbreaking revelation

(although if you have any of those, please share!). However, I want
you to show us that you have been using your brain in the past weeks
in ETHN 101!
85-89% An apparent attempt to answer the prompt question that may have an
ineffective introduction and/or conclusion. Still, the body paragraphs
draw from class discussions and assigned readings to make some
interesting points that demonstrate that the student read, paid
attention, and thought about the assignment (even though the
argumentation needs a bit of clarity and structure).
90-94% Answers the prompt question but still lacks a bit of focus and
structure. Overall though, this essay successfully brings together
multiple strands of evidence into a coherent whole to attempt to
address the prompt directly. It sets each piece of evidence into context
and interprets a good deal of evidence, connecting it to the thesis.
95-100% A thoughtful, complex, nuanced answer to the prompt question that
clearly draws from the analysis of the film chosen by the student, and
also Marshalls evidence from assigned readings and maybe assigned
films. Each section of the paper contributes to the overall argument, is
supported by appropriate evidence, is clearly interpreted and
explained, and includes a reasonable amount of relevant evidence to
back up the thesis. The best essays may tie the evidence in the film
under discussion with other readings or themes of the course, may
suggest new implications for understanding the topic, or make
connections with topics discussed in class.

TIP: If you want to get As in your critical essays, make sure you (a)
don’t write it hours before the deadline but rather let your writing
“steep” for a couple of days, (b) that you proofread it carefully before
turning it in, and (c) that your essay has structure. The main
requirement for that is that it has an overall claim (thesis) that directly
answers the essay prompt in a thoughtful way.
Missing Pages • -3 percentage points if your paper doesn’t have a works
Deduction cited page
• -5% points will be subtracted for every missing page (and
we “prorate” that so if it’s missing 1/2 a page below the
5.75 page minimum, that’s a -2.5%)
• -5 percentage points if your paper does not have a
conclusion paragraph