My notes on graded writing assignments are usually brief, too brief. I encourage those of you who want to know more or who have questions to come to my office hours (MTW 11:15-12:20). Be sure to bring your assignment with you.
How you write IS your thought. If your writing is not accurate, smoothe, correct, and interesting, that means your thought is not either (with the possible exception of those few of you who are not native English speakers). I grade your thoughts and cannot separate them from how they are expressed.
As stated in the syllabus, if there are more than 2 typos or grammatical infelicities per page, the grade lowers by 13.333 percent. That is a hefty penalty, but not unfair. Many of you have incurred this penalty, although I rarely explicitly said so in my remarks, but I was not terribly strict about the 13.33 percent. I will be for the next time. If you have a lot of marks that have to do with your writing, you probably incurred this penalty.
A few abbreviations I use are:
You may rewrite any assignment in my class as much as you like, and I will revise my grade. If you choose to revise, do not limit yourself to simply changing whatever I marked. If you do so, your grade will in all likelihood not change much (a B+ might become and A-, however: but it might not). What I mark is important, and it should be changed, but it is not a recipe for a perfect paper. I will perstringe your revised draft for the next level. I mark the most obvious problems. SO, if you revise, go beyond simply fixing what I marked.
Those who get A's in my class have to have something interesting to say: I cannot tell you what "interesting" means, except that critical careful thought is essential to it. Even if you have many mistakes, if I find what you write interesting, it may get an A.
A "B" is a fine grade: it means you did the assignment rather well, had good facts, and organized your thoughts.
A "C" is a passing grade. It means you did the assignment in a satisfactory manner.