Grading

I. Some General Remarks About Grades

Grading is, in one sense, a nasty, unpleasant business. It can be tedious for the profesor, anxiety producing for the student, and can subvert potentially rich student-teacher relationships with empty, quasi-economic exchage. Though I understand that there are legitimate, pragmatic reasons that you are concerned about your grades, your education is distinct from and much, much more important than your GPA. I take great pains to help my students understand that their grades often have little to do with their education. Ideally, these two goals (education and high GPA) are not in conflict; one should be able to focus on one’s education and, in addition, maintain an excellent GPA. Practically speaking, however, these goals can often work at cross-purposes. I encourage you to remember this and to insure that your pursuit of high marks does not get in the way of your education.

However, in another sense, grades do serve a purpose. In the current US educational system grades are required at most schools (LMU among them). The purpose of grades is to distinguish superior work from average or failing work; they are not meant to gauge your worth, to label you as an “average” person, or to puff up or deflate your ego. Given that I am required to evaluate you with a grade, I feel obliged to do so in a way that is just. Justice in grading demands, among other things, fairly evaluating your work in the context of the work produced by other undergraduates at LMU. There must be a meaningful difference between excellent and average work, and if a professor only gives marks of B+, A-, and A, this difference is obscured and the A earned by the gifted or diligent student is demeaned.

Generally speaking, I do not curve students against each other in a given class. If an entire class performed at a truly excellent level, I would be more than happy to give the entire class A grades. Likewise, if the entire class performed at an unsatisfactory or failing level, I would be obliged, though disappointed, to give the whole class D or F grades. However, students are measured against my understanding of “satisfactory” or “average” undergraduate work at LMU, the quality of work an average student at LMU should be producing (and, having been at LMU for quite awhile, I have a much better sense of this standard than you do). That is to say, you are not being evaluated on the same criteria that are used for students at your high school, students at the local community college, undergraduates at Oxford, or my graduate students at LMU.

The following comments (including my descriptive explanation of the grades, a rubric for papers, and the philosophy department grading scale) may prove helpful in communicating some of my expectations.

II. Regarding Grades and Their Meaning

The 2001-2002 Undergraduate Bulletin describes the grade scale at LMU as follows: A, Superior; A-, Outstanding; B+, Very Good; B, Good; B-, Better than Average; C+, Above Average; C, Average; C-, Below Average; D, Poor; F, Failure. The 2003-2004 Bulletin is essentially the same, although it omits the description of +/- grades and describes a "C" as "satisfactory" (p.64), perhaps out of a misguided attempt to make us all feel good about ourselves by convincing us that at LMU, as in Lake Wobegone, "all the children are above average."

Why do I bring this to your attention? Under the influence of the noxious phenomenon known as "grade inflation," many students have come to think that if they receive a B, they must be doing substandard work. This is not the case. If you earn a B, you are doing good work that clearly surpasses the average university student's performance. If you earn a B+, you are doing work that is very good indeed. If you earn an A- or an A, your work is exceptional, demonstrating a grasp of and engagement with the material at a level well above that of good undergraduate students. Consider this standard when evaluating your grades in our class. Please note that these descriptions refer to work at the university level. "Average" work at the university level is significantly different than "average" work at the high school level.

Although philosophy does not lend itself to an objectively quantifiable grading scale in the manner of a mathematics class ("OK, you understood 76.73% of Plato, 87.32% of Descartes..."), the notion that there are “no right or wrong answers” in a philosophy class is false. Your grade will be based on your grasp of the material (i.e., correct exegesis), the extent to which you have engaged that material (e.g., insight into the text, creative appropriation of the text), and the manner in which you demonstrate and present this grasp and engagement (e.g., quality of reasoning, grammar, spelling and style) in your paper or examination.

Note Well

Turn in your work on time. "On-time" means "at the beginning of class on the due date," unless an alternative time or location is given by the instructor. Unless you have made explicit, advance arrangements with me, your paper is considered "turned in" when it is in my possession, not slid under my door, emailed to my account, given to a friend or strapped to a carrier pigeon.
Save your paper frequently. Keep a backup copy of your paper on a separate disk. Print your paper out the night before it is due. "My printer ran out of ink" and "my computer crashed" are pretty weak excuses, which do not warrant an extension. The student computer lab is in the basement of St. Robert’s Hall. Your tuition funds this on-campus resource; use it if you need to.
You are welcome to discuss your grade with me at any time. However, grades are not a matter of negotiation. The "C" (or "B+," or whatever) you receive is not my "first offer." I spend a good deal of time and effort grading, and the grade you receive has not been given lightly.

III. The Grade Scale: Descriptive Remarks, the Rubric, and Numerical Values

Achieving excellence in your academic work is not easy. Everything Aristotle says about the difficulty of acquiring the virtues applies here. The following three sections will help you to understand your grade.

(1) Descriptive Remarks
What follows is not exhaustive, but is intended to give you a general idea of what the letter grades mean.

A (Excellence)
An A is a mark of true excellence. Excellent work is much rarer than you have been led to believe. Papers with errors in spelling, grammar, or reasoning are not excellent. Coming to class unprepared is not excellent. Failing to be an engaged participant in class is not excellent. Rude or distracting behavior in class is not excellent. Inattentive reading and consequent failure to grasp the fundamental themes in the reading is not excellent. Given that an A indicates excellence, you should not expect to receive an A in my class without significant effort on your part. Excellence is rarely, if ever, merely the product of innate skill or intelligence; true excellence also requires effort.

A- (Superior)
An A- indicates superior work, which clearly surpasses the work of good undergraduate students, but which falls short of true excellence in some way.

B’s (B+, B, B-) (Good)
A B is a mark that indicates good performance. Because of rampant grade inflation, many people who think they are producing A level work are really producing B level (or in some cases even C level) work. To earn a B you must be performing at a level that is clearly above that of an average LMU undergraduate; your work must be substantially better than your peers (not just better than those who happen to be your friends, or the crowd on the Thursday night party bus). In this range, a B+ indicates work that is very good, while a B- indicates work that, while above average, falls short of a “B” in some significant way.

C’s (C+, C, C-) (Satisfactory or Average)
A C is a mark given for average or satisfactory performance. Read that again: a C is the mark of “average or satisfactory” work. It follows that many, indeed most, students should wind up with a grade of C. “Excellent regurgitation” of information is often the mark of C work. The student can correctly reproduce factual information, or "use the right words," but has not really digested the information to make it his or her own. At the risk of pedantry, let’s read that again as well: “excellent” regurgitation merits a C. It follows that regurgitation that is less than excellent merits less than a C. The ability to “use the right words” or to “sound like you know what you are talking about” is not sufficient for a good (B) or excellent (A) grade. If you want one of these higher grades, you need to show me that you understand a given argument or concept, and that your understanding penetrates past the surface to grasp the essentials of the given issue as well as its implications. A C+ indicates work that is above average, while a C- indicates work that is close to average/satisfactory, but which falls short of satisfactory work in some significant way.

D (Unsatisfactory, but passing)
A D is a mark that usually indicates passing but unsatisfactory work (although there are certain cases in which a D is in fact not a passing grade, these are intended to be general comments on grading). A mark of D indicates that the student has completed minimal requirements for the assignment in question, but has produced work that is not satisfactory. There are no marks of D+ or D-.

F (Failing)
An F indicates failing work that does not meet minimal standards for acceptable university work. In addition, any work that fails to meet the requirements for an assignment—e.g., work turned in late, work turned in via email, plagiarized work, work ignores the criteria of the prompt—will receive a failing grade.

(2) A Rubric for Papers
This rubric may help you to understand what I am looking for in your paper, and should aid in proofreading and evaluating your first draft.

(3) Numerical Values of Grades
When a grade is assigned by a number or percentage, I will follow the standards set by the LMU Philosophy Department:
A: 100-95
A-: 94-90
B+: 89-86
B: 85-83
B-: 82-80
C+: 79-76
C: 75-73
C-: 72-70
D: 69-65
F: 64 and under