CMSC 691B Grading Guidelines

Course Grades

Your course grade will be based on the weighted average of your work in the class, as outlined in the syllabus. A weighted score of 90-100
guarantees an A; a score of 80 or above guarantees at least a B; a score of 70 or above guarantees at least a C; and a score of 60 or above
guarantees at least a D. Actual cutoff scores for each grade will be determined by the instructor examining the distribution of scores and
identifying reasonable cutoffs. Grades may be curved in the students' favor (i.e., cutoffs below those listed above), but will not be curved
against the students (i.e., cutoffs higher than those listed above).

Assignment of Grades for Written Work

Written assignments will be graded according to the following distribution:

80%: Content (thoroughness of preparation, information, and presentation)
10%: Style (grammar, writing quality, clarity of writing at the sentence level)
10%: Presentation (organization, clarity of writing at the paper level)

What this means in practice is that if you do the work, but don't organize your thoughts or write clearly, you will end with at most a B in the class. However, I can't give you full credit for content if I can't understand what you're saying, so if you don't write clearly, you will probably end up losing points on content as well.

I will grade each assignment either on a 100-point scale or with a letter grade (where A=95, B=85, C=75, and a + or - is worth +3 or -3 respectively).

Minimal Quality Policy

If a student turns in an assignment that is illegible, or contains a large number of grammatical or spelling errors, the assignment will be turned back ungraded. The student will then have two days to rewrite and resubmit the homework. If this happens once, a 10% penalty will be applied to the grade for the assignment. The second time, there will be a 20% penalty, and so on. Why do I have this policy? Because I want to spend my time giving substantive feedback on the organization and content of your work, not performing technical editing and trying to make sense of ungrammatical assignments. I hope not to have to apply this policy at all! You should spell- and grammar-check all of your work before it is submitted. If you have trouble with grammar and spelling, particularly if you are not a native speaker of English, you may want to visit the Writing Center in the library (a free service for students) or to find a "writing buddy" who is willing to proofread your work before you turn it in.

Late Policy

As stated in the course syllabus, each student has a total of seven "grace" days that they can use over the course of the semester. If you turn in assignments late, I will mark down the grace days you've used, but will not penalize your grade. After you've used the seven grace days, late assignments will not receive any credit. Assignments that are to be reviewed by other students (i.e., the draft literature survey and the draft paper) will receive zero credit if turned in late. Exceptions to these policies will be granted only in the most dire of circumstances.

Double Dipping

You may choose a topic for this class that you are also working on for another class, or for your thesis/dissertation research -- in fact, you are encouraged to do so! However, several caveats apply:

If you turn in an assignment that overlaps with, or is identical to, an assignment for another class or for your research, you must clearly indicate this on the assignment itself. (I also suggest that you let the other professor know about the overlap.)
The assignments that you turn in for this class must meet the criteria set out for that assignment. That is, if you're preparing a literature survey for another class, and using that for this class, the survey must meet the 691B guidelines for content and form. That may mean preparing two different versions of an assignment.
If the other class's assignment is a group project, you must come talk to me about how you will divide the work. All work turned in for this class must be your own. (You are welcome to work on the same, or a related, topic as another student, but again, you must come talk to me about how you will share the work in this case.)
You may not turn in any written work that was prepared for a class or research project in a prior semester.

Academic Dishonesty

As stated in the class syllabus, cheating, including plagiarism, will not be tolerated. All written work, including paper summaries, must be your own work. If you wish to quote a source, you must do so explicitly, and with proper attribution. Any "double dipping" that does not meet the requirements set out above will be treated as a violation of the academic honesty policy for the class, and dealt with accordingly.

The minimum penalty for a violation of the academic honesty policy is a zero on the assignment. Other penalties may include a letter grade reduction, failing the class, or, in extreme or repeated cases, dismissal from the program.