What makes a good paper? If you have any doubts about any aspect of your paper, or just want to try out ideas before you commit the time and effort to developing them at length, please feel free to come by and talk about it. Here are the guidelines that will be the basis for grading your term papers.

• The title reflects a clear and non-trivial topic, and the organization is logical and coherent: questions are raised, suggested answers are presented through well-connected arguments based on detailed evidence, and conclusions do not overreach either the evidence or the arguments.
• Evidence from the relevant primary texts is not outweighed by opinions drawn from secondary sources, and there are some original insights.
• The writing is good: no grammatical problems, spelling mistakes or sloppy punctuation; sentences are neither too short (leads to repetition of many basic sentence elements, weak connection between ideas and difficulty in constructing an argument) nor too long (points get lost, arguments are hard to follow); vocabulary and style are appropriate for the context.

• The title could be fuller or clearer, organization could be tighter, questions clearer, argument more detailed, conclusions more specific.
• Too much reliance on opinions expressed in secondary works, too little direct evidence from the primary texts, few personal insights.
• Some minor problems with grammar, spelling and punctuation, and style, e.g. inappropriate use of slang expressions.

• Topic not clear, organization weak, argument thin or hard to follow, conclusions sweeping, not well supported or not directly relevant to the topic.
• Paper is based on others' opinions (secondary works, class notes or websites), with no analysis of the primary texts and no personal insights.
• Serious writing problems: sentences are poorly constructed and linked, vocabulary is often inappropriate for the context, or gratuitously colloquial.

• Topic poorly defined, and not much clearer by the end of the paper. Organization very weak, and statement takes the place of argument. The paper may be too short, and consist of more 'padding' than substance.
• Little reference to the primary texts, possibly because of difficulty in understanding them, and secondary sources are used to compensate for this.
• Writing is bad enough to make attendance at a writing workshop advisable.

• Topic trivial, makes little sense, or is of limited relevance to the course materials. Little or no organization, too little content for there to be a structure.
• Little evidence that the primary texts have been read and understood, and use of secondary sources is paraphrase bordering on plagiarism.
• Writing is bad enough to require remediation at the Freshman Composition level.