Assessment of an In-Class Writing Assignment:
English 102 Section H24A
Spring 2011
Dr. David Humphries
DHumphries@qcc.cuny.edu
This EN 102 course originally had 32 students enrolled. The attached assignments and
rubric were for the in-class midterm and in-class final examination. Each assignment touched on
topics and readings discussed in class and required students to write an essay that is properly
structured, incorporates sufficient evidence from multiple viewpoints, and puts forth their own
position.
30 students took the midterm exam; 28 took the final exam. The same rubric was used to
grade both exams. The rubric was discussed before each exam, and a copy of the rubric was
distributed with the exam questions to remind students of how they were going to be assessed.
Students generally did very well on the midterm examination which was on
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This was not particularly surprising, given that students had spent
several weeks reading the play, spent class time watching a film version, and completed an
annotated bibliography on the play summarizing three scholarly sources. With the exception of
two students, who were only fair writers at the sentence and paragraph level, all of the students
in this course were strong writers whose difficulties were more at the conceptual level. (The
attached writing samples, I think, bear this out. Keep in mind that these samples are from the
upper third of the class but not necessarily the best examples for each of these assignments.) In
the case of the midterm, the most common challenge was formulating a thesis that is sufficiently
focused for such a short essay and constructing distinct and cohesive introductions and
conclusions.
In some ways, the final exam was wore difficult since we had spent much less time on
each story and students had to apply a critical or literary term on their own. Basically, students
could use quite a bit of our class discussions in the midterm, whereas with their final they had to
do much of the analysis on their own. Students were also required to draw on evidence from a
second story in the final.
Comparing the earlier assessment with the later one, it would seem that students
improved in the key area of developing a focused thesis and in using sufficient evidence from
both stories. Given that more personal writing is done in the first part of the semester and more
writing using primary and secondary sources in the second part of the semester, it seems likely
that students’ skills improved in researching and citing sources, and they were able to use some
of the techniques they had been practicing. Students scored somewhat lower on the second
category, which, as indicated above, could be a function of how thoroughly we went over
Hamlet. For the most part, students scored similarly on the other categories. Interestingly,
students did slightly worse in the areas of usage and grammar. Again, I suspect that this is
largely a result of the final challenging the students to consider a number of different issues and
apply critical terms on their own.
Two students never attended the class; two more quit attending after the midterm for
personal reasons. In my estimation, the group that finished the course had the skills, the
inclination, and the time to improve their writing, and this is demonstrated in the work they did
on the final exam.
English102 Dr.DavidHumphries
PaperFourDueDate5/12
Chooseoneoftheshortstorieswearereadinganduseoneofthetwo
followingpromptstowriteapaperaboutthisstory:
1)Relationships:Whoarethekeycharacters,andwhatisakeyrelationship
inthestory?Howwouldyoudescribethisrelationship?Whyisthis
relationshipimportant?Whatthemesorideasdoesitreveal?Doesthis
relationshipchange?Whatissuesorconflictsareinvolved?Whatdowe
ultimatelylearnfromthisrelationship?
2)Motivation:Identifyakeycharacter.Whatmotivatesthischaracter?
Whatexternalorinternalconflictsdoeshe/sheface?Whatideasorthemes
arerevealedthroughthischaracter’smotivation?Howdoesthischaracter
relatetohis/herenvironmentandthosearoundhim/her?Doesthecharacter
getwhathe/shewants?Whatdoweultimatelylearnfromthischaracter?
Somethingstokeepinmind:
Yourpapershouldhaveadistinctintroductionandconclusion.Yourintroduction
shouldstateyourmainideaandgetyourreader’sattention;youshouldalsoincludethefull
nameoftheauthorandtitleofthestoryintheintroduction.Yourconclusionisaplaceto
includeyourownopinionsmoredirectly,torestateyourmainpointmoreforcefully,orto
speculateonhowsomeaspectofthetextmighthaveworkedoutorbeenpresented
differently.Whengivingpeople’snames,youshouldfirstusetheirfullnameandthen
eithertheirlastnameorfirstnamewhentheyarementionedagain‐‐forrealpeople,use
theirlastname,whileforcharactersyoushouldnormallyusethenamebywhichtheyare
generallyknowninthetext.Youmustincludespecificevidenceinyourpaper,including
summarizedmaterialanddirectquotations.Youmustalsocitethisevidenceproperly,and
youmustfollowtheplagiarismguidelineslistedonthesyllabusanddiscussedinclass.
Finally,followthesedirections,orsufferthestatedpenalty:
1)Atthetoplefthandcornerofyourpaper,youshouldhaveyourname,theclassnumber,
yourprofessor’sname,thedate,andthetitleofyourpaper.Yourfinaldraftmustbe
stapled.‐5
2)Yourfinaldraftmustbetypedanddouble‐spacedwithone‐inchmargins.‐5to‐20
3)Yourpapermusthaveatleastthree,properlyciteddirectquotations.‐5to‐20
4)Yourpapermusthavea“WorkCited”entrywiththebibliographicinformationforthe
storyintheproperMLAformat.‐15
5)Yourpapermustbeatleastthreetypedpageslong.‐15
6)Ahardcopyofyourpapermustbereceivedby5/12.‐10
7)Ifyoumissthedeadline,youmustsubmitahardcopyby5/17.Yourpapermust
containnoplagiarizedmaterial.‐100
English102Dr.DavidHumphries Paper3:AnAnnotatedBibliography
DueDate3/29/2011
Tocompletetheassignment,youneedtofindthreescholarlysecondary
sourcesaboutWilliamShakespeare’sHamletfromourlibraryandcite,
summarizeandevaluateeachofthemintheproperformat.
Pleasenote:Yoursourcesmustnotbefromtheinternet.Youwillnotbewritingaformal
paperbasedonyourwriting;youwilljustbeturningincopiesofyoursourcesandyour
annotatedbibliography.Rather,youwillwriteanopeningparagraphinwhichyou
describewhatyoulearnedabouttheplayfromyourresearch.
Tobegin,youmustselectthethreearticlesthatyouwanttoread.Ifschedulingpermits,we
willallvisittheWritingCenterforaworkshoponconductingbasicresearch,butthese
directions,alongwithourin‐classdiscussion,shouldbeenoughtoguideyou.Ifyouhave
anyadditionalquestions,seemeduringmyofficehoursorbringthisassignmentwithyou
tothelibrarytoaskalibrarianoratutorintheWritingCenterforhelp.
Theeasiestwaytofindscholarlysourcesistouseourlibrary’se‐journalsanddatabasesto
findfulltextjournalarticles.First,gotoQCC’shomepageatqcc.cuny.eduandclickon
“Library”atthebottom.Onthelefthandsideofthelibrarypage,clickon“E‐journalsand
databases.”Selectoneoftworelevantdatabases:J‐StororMLAInternationalBibliography.
Ifyouareoncampus,clicktheyellowbox;ifyouarehome,clickthegreenhouse.
(Rememberthatinordertodothesesearchesfromoffcampus,youfirstneedtogothe
libraryandhaveyourIDvalidatedatthecirculationdesk.)YouwillenterWilliam
ShakespeareHamletintothesearchbox,makingsuretolimityoursearchto“FullText.”
Keepinmindthatyouwillneedtolookovermorethanthreesourcesinordertofindthree
youwanttouseandeachofthearticlesyouchoosemustbeatleastthreepageslong.
Whendownloadingthearticlesyouwant,savethemin.pdfformatwheneverpossible.You
willneedtoprintyourarticlesandturntheminwithyourannotatedbibliography.
Onceyouhavechosenyourarticles,youshouldreadthem,payingparticularattentionto
themainpointsandkeyexamples.Atthetopofyourfirstpage,youshouldhaveaproper
headingandtitle.Beneaththat,youwillwriteanintroductoryparagraphthatdescribes
thefindingsfromyouresearchandwhatyoulearned.Beneaththat,yourentriesmustbe
placedinalphabeticorder.Youwillputthecitationinformationforthesourceinthe
correctformataccordingtocurrentMLAguidelinesatthetopofeachentry.Beneaththe
citation,youwillsummarizethesourceinoneparagraphandconcludetheparagraphwith
abriefevaluationofthesource.Asalways,yourworkmustbetyped,double‐spaced,witha
standard12ptfontandoneinchmargins.
Formoreinformation,checkoutthehelpfulinstructionsatCornellUniversityLibrary:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm.Youcanalsofindan
exampleofanannotatedbibliographyatourBlackboardsite.
Finally,followthesedirections,orsufferthestatedpenalty:
1)Missingorimproperheadingorstaple‐5
2)Incorrectmargins,fonts,orspacing‐10
3)Impropercitations‐5to‐25
4)Hardcopynotreceivedby3/29‐10
5)Hardcopynotreceivedby4/5orpaperwhichincludesanyplagiarizedmaterial‐100
English102Dr.DavidHumphries Paper2:ReadingaPoem DueDate
2/24
Inthispaper,youwillchooseoneofthepoemsfrompages655‐727inourtextbook
andwriteashortpaperofthreepages.Thisreadingwillbefromyourperspective,andyou
shouldusethefirstperson“I”topresentyourobservations.Inyourreading,youshould
pickoutoneelement,suchasthesetting,voice,symbolism,figurativelanguage,orthemeof
thepoem,andexplainswhyitisimportantinunderstandingthepoemasawhole.
Inyourintroduction,youshouldidentifythefullnameoftheauthorandtitleofthe
poemyouhavechosen,explainwhyyouchoseit,andpresentyourmainidea.Remember
thatyoushouldalsotrytogetyourreaders’attentioninyourintroduction.Also,remember
thatthetitleofpoemsandstoriesareplacedinquotationmarks,whilethetitlesofnovels,
plays,andfilms,areitalicized.Eachparagraphinthebodyofyourpapershouldinclude
specificevidencefromthepoem,includingsummarizationsofkeymomentsanddirect
quotations,aswellascommentarythatbuildsonyourmainpoint.Inyourconclusion,you
mightdescribeyourreactiontothepoemorconsiderhowitchangedyourthinkingin
someway.
Youwillhaveachancetorevisethispaperforahighergrade,providedthatyou
turnitinontime,visittheWritingCenter,andresubmityouroriginal,gradeddraftwith
yourrevision.RememberthatwhenvisitingtheWritingCenteryoushouldalwaysbring
theassignmentsheet,yoursyllabus,andanydraftsandcommentsthatyouhavereceived.
Finally,followthesedirections,orsufferthestatedpenalty:
1)Atthetoplefthandcornerofyourpaper,youshouldhaveyourname,theclassnumber,
yourprofessor’sname,thedate,andthetitleofyourpaper.‐5
2)Yourfinaldraftmustbetypedanddouble‐spaced;itshouldhaveone‐inchmargins.‐10
3)Yourfinaldraftmustbestapled.‐5
4)Yourpapermustbeatleastthreetypedpageslong.‐10
5)Yourpapermustincludeproperlyciteddirectquotations.‐20
6)YourpapermustincludeatleastoneWorkCitedentry.‐15
7)Papersnotreceivedby2/24willloseonelettergrade.‐10
8)Papersnotreceivedby3/3orwhichincludeanyplagiarizedmaterialwillreceivea
failinggrade.‐100
EN102Dr.DavidHumphries
GradingRubricforIn‐ClassMidtermEssayExam
ExamTaken4/5/2011by30Students
Criteria
1 Hasaclearthesisand
introductionthat
addressesallaspectsof
thechosenquestion
2 Essaydemonstratesa
thorough
understandingofthe
readinganduses
sufficientevidence,
includingspecific
referencesandatleast
twodirectquotations
3 Essayisstructuredand
developedproperly
(withanintroduction/
bodyofatleastthree
paragraphs/
conclusion)
4 Essaydemonstrates
rhetoricalstrategies,
includingan
acknowledgementof
readers’expectations
andcounterarguments
5 Essayfollowsthe
conventionsof
grammar,spelling,and
punctuation,with
properlyformed
sentencesand
paragraphs
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
9
10
10
1
Not
Acceptable
17
5
6
2
18
9
2
1
14
13
3
26
2
2
EN102
Dr.DavidHumphries
GradingRubricforIn‐ClassFinalEssayExam
ExamTaken5/24/2011by28Students
Criteria
1 Hasaclearthesisand
introductionthat
addressesallaspectsof
thechosenquestion
2 Essaydemonstratesa
thorough
understandingofthe
readinganduses
sufficientevidence,
includingspecific
referencesandatleast
twodirectquotations
3 Essayisstructuredand
developedproperly
(withanintroduction/
bodyofatleastthree
paragraphs/
conclusion)
4 Essaydemonstrates
rhetoricalstrategies,
includingan
acknowledgementof
readers’expectations
andcounterarguments
5 Essayfollowsthe
conventionsof
grammar,spelling,and
punctuation,with
properlyformed
sentencesand
paragraphs
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
18
6
3
1
Not
Acceptable
12
7
5
3
1
18
8
1
1
12
7
7
1
19
8
1