GC "Grading Gymnastics . . ."

• • "The Strikes Zone" in Grading
    • Grading for Discussions and other 18 Point Assignments
    • Grading for Presentation, Each Exam Question, and other 100 Point Assignments
    • Grading for the Research Project Term Paper (400 points)
    • Criteria for Grading College Writing
  • "Grading Gymnastics . . ."

I mentioned on the "The Strikes Zone" page that profs grading papers and projects is like umpires calling balls and strikes in baseball.

Maybe a better analogy would be judging Olympic Figure Skating, or Gymnastics, or Ski Jumping, Diving, Competitive Dancing, and the like.

The Figure Skating and Gymnastics and Diving and Ski Jumping, and Competitive Dancing, and the like, would be better analogies because in those events one gets evaluated on two aspects of their performance, one for difficulty of the program and one for execution.

So it is with evaluating papers and projects in upper division college courses.

Those are involve basically judgement calls.

If the nature of one's project was more like a week-long Discussion Forum or Extra Credit Review project than a semester-long research project, one in essence gets fewer "technical difficulty points." 

If the assignment is a research Term Paper and the "performance" is more in the nature of a Case Study, likewise there will be fewer difficulty points.

How well one performs the task relates to execution.

In terms of the execution, a basically good description of events, focusing on the who, what, where, and when, merits basic points.  Generally upper division projects should also have an analytic component--and sometimes also a comparative component--that is looking at the how and why, and those projects receive the equivalent of more consideration regarding "technical difficulty."

Using the "Anthropology . . . and its Parts" Chart <>, a Level 1 presentation would merit the equivalent of fewer technical difficulty points.  That, plus some Level 2 or Level 3 analysis (for a 3XXX class), would propel one's work to the higher end of the difficulty and execution scores.

One should also have a good beginning, middle, and end: a good approach/run, execution, landing. . . . Telemark landings in ski jumping often get extra points; a good dismount in gymnastics is essential; a vertical entry in competitive diving is required for a high score. . . . So it is with class writing. . . .

If that sounds too abstract, it might be a little clear if you check the example on the Grading pages.

Vault figure in gymnastics competition Links to an external site.

Wikipedia Links to an external site.