MATH/CMSC 350: Writing notes
The Math/CS department has a shared rubric that we use for writing assignments in writing-intensive classes. It involves scoring a paper on five scales, weighting them and adding the result:
Below is the correspondence table I use for interpreting the rubric into my courses and my grading scale (and below that, some further notes on how to interpret the feedback I write on your paper):
| 39-40 | A | 1.00 |
| 37-38 | A | .95 |
| 35-36 | A− | .90 |
| 32-34 | B+ | .85 |
| 29-31 | B | .80 |
| 25-28 | B− | .75 |
| 22-24 | C+ | .70 |
| 19-21 | C | .65 |
| 15-18 | C− | .60 |
| 12-14 | D+ | .55 |
| 9-11 | D | .50 |
| 5- 8 | D− | .45 |
If I give a full breakdown (I don't always), it will generally be of the form "43|442=>33", where the first five digits are the rubric subscores and the value after the arrow is their weighted total suitable for lookup in the above table.
If there are problems with spelling, grammar, or punctuation, I will usually just circle the problem and expect you to look carefully at it to discern the problem (but if you're not sure what I'm flagging you should feel free to ask me). If I don't quite understand what you're trying to say, due to phrasing or word choice, I'll usually just circle/underline it and put a question mark next to it.
For a few of the more common structural problems I use relatively standard abbreviations:
| awk | Meaning is more or less clear but the phrasing is awkward |
| RO | Run-on sentence (including comma splicing) |
| frag | A "sentence" in the paper is really just a sentence fragment |
| DQ | Dumped quote: a quote comprised of complete sentences is dumped into the paper rather than being integrated into the natural flow of the prose. |