You’re only riding five sentences and five sentences only about the attached reading.
Rubric for 5-sentence paper
Writing Prompt: In your response, focus your analysis on the following questions: How does the reading help inform our three learning goals?
Learning goals:
Experience and strengthen inner capacities for care, well-being, and wisdom
Examine psychological and systemic barriers to care
Envision and embody a more equitable world.
What does the perspective in the paper reveal about compassion, well-being, and wisdom? What does the perspective obscure, or in what ways is the perspective limited? You may apply your analysis to a concern that is of particular interest to you.
Examples of analytical questions that you could respond to:
How does the article change or deepen your thinking or perspective about compassion and well-being? Give detail to explain your statements and claims.
How would you apply the lessons of the article to enhance qualities of compassion and wisdom in a given setting (e.g., community, work-place, relationship)? Or to address a social issue that is of interest to you?
Are there concepts, lessons, findings, or theories from your other classes or research projects that say something different than the current article? If so, how do those other sources offer further understanding to the issues?
Is there something particularly difficult the article raises that you struggled to understand?
Is there something that you highly agree with or disagree with? If so, why?
0-1 pts Content: The paper does not come to terms with the assignment. Content areas are ignored or misconstrued, or there are major errors in the interpretation of psychological principles central to the assignment.
2 pts Content: The paper ignores several content areas or shows a misunderstanding of the principles involved.
Format: There is little development of ideas or no clear progression from one part of the assignment to another. There may be serious, frequent errors in reference citations, sentence structure, usage, & mechanics.
3 pts Content: The paper ignores one or more content area of the assignment but shows the writer’s ability to appreciate key ideas and principles.
Format: The paper is organized enough to allow the reader to move through it, but there may be disjointedness or lack of focus in some sections. The paper may contain errors in reference citations, mechanics, usage, and sentence structure.
4 pts Content: The paper slights one of the content areas of the assignment (e.g., not clear demonstration of understanding, lack of tie to literature, etc.). The writer demonstrates clear understanding of psychological principles involved.
Format: The paper is not as carefully organized or reasoned as a full credit paper, but it is organized into unified, coherent sections and is largely free from serious errors in reference citations, mechanics, usage, and sentence structure.
5 pts Content: The paper demonstrates that you were able to understand and critically evaluate the material and shows a clear understanding of the underlying psychological principles (as evidenced by citation to appropriate materials, e.g., course readings or connections with material from other courses, combined with own reflections and reactions).
Format: The paper shows careful organization and orderly thinking. The transitions between content areas are smooth; the paper may organize the content areas creatively to improve the readability of the paper; and the author may make thoughtful comments. It is virtually free from errors in reference citations, mechanics, usage, and sentence structure.
Descriptions of Letter Grades
A paper (5 points): Perhaps the principal characteristic of the A paper is its rich content. Some people describe that content as “meaty,” other as “dense,” still others as “packed.” Whatever, the information delivered is such that one feels significantly taught by the author, sentence after sentence. The A paper is also marked by stylistic finesse: the phrasing is tight, fresh, and highly specific; the sentence structure is varied; the tone enhances the purposes of the paper. An A paper does not merely summarize, but provides original insights, analysis, and commentary. It does not merely paraphrase, but demonstrates the author’s original perspectives and thoughts. Finally, the A paper, because of its careful organization and development, imparts a feeling of wholeness and unusual clarity. Not surprisingly, then, it leaves the reader feeling bright, thoroughly satisfied, and eager to reread the piece.
B paper (4 points): It is significantly more than competent. Besides being almost free of mechanical errors, the B paper delivers substantial information–that is, substantial in both quantity and interest value. Its specific points are logically ordered, well developed, and unified around a clear organizing principal that is apparent early in the paper. The opening statement draws the reader in; the closing statement is both conclusive and thematically related to the opening. The diction of the B paper is typically much more concise and precise than that found in the C paper. Occasionally, it even shows distinctiveness–i.e., finesse and memorability. On the whole, then, a B paper makes the reading experience a pleasurable one, for it offers substantial information with few distractions.
C paper (3.5 points): It is generally competent; it meets the assignment, has few mechanical errors, and is reasonably well organized and developed. The actual information it delivers, however seems thin and commonplace. One reason for that impression is that the ideas are typically cast in the form of vague generalities–generalities that prompt the confused reader to ask marginally: “In every case?” “Exactly how large?” “Why?” “But how many?” Stylistically the C paper has other shortcomings as well: the opening statement does little to draw the reader in; the final statement offers only a perfunctory wrap-up; the sentences, besides being a bit choppy, tend to follow a predictable (hence monotonous) subject-verb-object pattern; and the diction is occasionally marred by unconscious repetitions, redundancy, and imprecision. The C paper, then, while it gets the job done, lacks both imagination and intellectual rigor, and hence does not invite rereading.
D paper (3 points): Its treatment and development of the subject are as yet only rudimentary. While organization is present, it is neither clear nor effective. Sentences are frequently awkward, ambiguous, and marred by serious technical errors. Evidence of careful proofreading is scanty or nonexistent. The whole piece, in fact, often gives the impression of having been conceived and written in haste.
F paper (0-2): Its treatment of the subject is superficial; its theme lacks discernible organization; its prose is garbled or stylistically primitive. Mechanical errors are frequent. In short, the ideas, organization, and style fall far below what is acceptable college writing.
