CSU Long Beach
ENGR 350
Computers, Ethics, and Society

Syllabus
Schedule
Grading
Portfolio
Homework:
  Guidelines
  Standards
  1 - Images
  2 - Risks
    -- example
  3 - Infobahn
    -- example
  4 - Dataveillance
    -- example
  5 - Worklife
    -- example
  6 - Killer Robot
Term project

Homework Grading Standards

Latest Update: Sun 07 Feb 99

General philosophy

• If everyone gets high scores, there is no way to reward superior performance. The homework grading scale is designed to allow room at the top for papers that deserve top scores. A 60 out of 60 should be very rare -- scores in the upper 50s will represent truly excellent work.
• Grading written work is necessarily a subjective task. My goal is consistency -- two papers of approximately the same quality should receive scores within a very few points of each other.
• Homework assignments are purposely structured to provide only a framework for your thinking. It is up to you to expand on this framework and demonstrate your understanding of the readings and class discussions.
• Grading standards are designed to require both writing ability and thinking ability. You may have some good ideas, but you must be able to express them clearly. On the other hand, you might be very proficient in writing, but you must also have something relevant to say.

Specific standards

• Spelling and syntax errors (10 max.). I simply circle errors and subtract one point for each circle. After 10 circles, I quit marking errors -- although there may be similar problems throughout the paper. Frequent problems include missing or incorrect articles ("a," "the," etc.), verb tense or number mistakes, run-on sentences or sentence fragments, and clearly wrong choice of words. Microsoft Word can help you with some of these problems, but will not catch them all!
• Readability and organization (10 max.). This is the next higher level of writing ability. Correctly structured sentences need to be organized into coherent paragraphs, and paragraphs into a coherent sequence of thoughts. One frequent problems is trying to include too many ideas in one paragraph. Writing style can also influence readability -- you shouldn't try to "sound academic" with long sentences and fancy words that don't add to the meaning of what you want to say. Most papers should receive 6-7 on this; better ones will score 8-9; 10 is superb.
• Relevant and correct use of sources (10 max., 0 here may mean 0 on the assignment). Please see the homework guidelines for an expanded discussion of this topic. A miminum number of sources, from assigned readings, correctly documented, will score about 6-7. Relevant additional sources, appropriately used, will score higher.
• Did you do what the assigned asked for? (10 max., 0 here may mean 0 on the assignment). This is the "easy" part of the content evaluation. Most papers should receive at least 8-9 here. Papers that simply fail to discuss some part of the assignment will of course score lower.
• Did you show real understanding of the course material that was covered by this assignment? (10 max.). This is probably the most important standard. The most frequent problem here is papers that simply narrate facts, without analyzing those facts as we do in class. Other problems include unquestioning acceptance of what you've read or heard (even in class!) and purely "tech-utop" assertions. Most scores will be a few points lower in this category than in the previous one.
• Did you go beyond the "minimum" to analyze the topic in depth? (10 max.). This is the implementation of the first paragraph under "general philosophy" above. Here is where you have room to bring in personal experience, additional illustrations from outside reading, knowledge from other classes, and so on. In practice, even fairly minimum papers might receive at least a few points here; adequate papers will be around a 5. A 10 here is probably a 60 paper -- which is truly a joy to read!