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These criteria are based to large extent upon Professors Ben Slote and Ann Bomberger's requirements found on the Writing Center website, though I have also added my own modifications. Please note that these criteria have been adopted by the English department.

Please note that these are general commentaries that should be used as a benchmark in your journey and development as a writer and as you consider and work on your assignments for this class. Remember that you will have plenty of opportunities to improve throughout the semester and that the criteria are a guide but not a definitive "roadmap" in your quest for "the perfect essay." For this reason, I highly encourage you to use the Writing Center throughout the semester and to avail yourself of the excellent help and assistance that the qualified and dedicated tutors have to offer you. Most importantly, please remember that writing is a difficult and challenging activity that takes time, dedication, and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Remember also that writing well is a process that you will work on throughout your career here at Allegheny College and elsewhere in your professional and personal lives and that the rewards of your hard work may not necessarily be readily visible after one fifteen week semester.

An A essay
Writing an A essay is a difficult feat. An A essay has a well-developed, well-articulated, original, grammatically correctly presented, and coherently argued main point. Each paragraph of this essay has one well-defined, well-argued, and well-presented idea. Each sentence in each paragraph connects to the next one clearly, effectively, and efficiently and it also relates to, expands upon, and assists in arguing the central argument of the essay. What this means is that the argument, i.e. thesis, is clearly presented, unique, original, and convincingly argued, even if the reader does not ultimately agree with the argument. And then, each paragraph offers a strong, substantive rationale that illustrates how and why this main argument is the case. This means that each paragraph's main point, i.e. the topic usually expressed in a topic sentence, effectively offers the "evidence," "proof," in literary essays what we call the textual evidence and interpretation, necessary to support the larger point. Naturally, in addition to coherence, clarity, and originality, an A essay uses vocabulary correctly, has no grammatical and typographical issues, and if needed, correctly accounts for other sources by employing the MLA documentation format. As you can gauge from this brief description, an A essay is a challenging and hard piece to write. Essays that almost meet these criteria will generally receive a grade in the A- range.

A B essay
A B essay is a good, solid essay. It is well developed, well articulated, and, for the most part, clearly presents a central argument. In addition textual support and analysis are effectively used throughout to support this central claim. In general a B essay lacks the originality and carefully crafted development of an A essay. A B essay usually has one or two grammatical and proofreading mistakes that detract from the analysis and argument and suggest that the writer did not carefully revise and rethink his/her thinking and writing between drafts. Essays that have a developed and clear thesis in addition to argument development in each paragraph but that lack originality and also have a few (two at the most) grammatical/proofreading and/or individual sentence and paragraph development issues will generally receive a grade in the B- range.

A C essay
A C essay usually has a serious central problem, generally with argument development, paragraph development and textual support, diction and/or proofreading. This main issue prevents the essay from arguing and presenting a central idea clearly and, in light of this, this essay usually does not have the individual paragraph and sentence development necessary to substantiate and elucidate the thesis. As such, the essay lacks the organization and depth as well as the clearly presented critical insights that are crucial when arguing a central claim.

A D essay
A D essay has two or more serious problems, i.e. argument development, paragraph development, vocabulary and diction inaccuracies, etc. that prevent the reader from understanding the writer's ideas and central claims. In addition, this essay usually highlights to the reader that the writer did not take the necessary time needed to work through these problems in a serious, sustained, and engaged manner.

An F essay
An F essay completely misses the basic requirements of the assignment. This essay is usually very late and/or illustrates to the reader that the writer did not, in any substantive way, engage with and seriously attempt the assignment.