Grading

Grading Heuristics for the Blog Posts and the Main Paper

Three Main Parts I Will Be Grading

• Parts of a Paper
• Warrants and Argument Structure
• The ‘So What’ Factor

The Parts of a Paper

When reading, we tend to go from deciphering words to understanding longer passages. When writing, we should move from formulating our main argument -our thesis - and then move on to outlining our main ideas. This makes it so that when editing we are dealing with smaller units rather than whole passages or paragraphs.

Why Does Outlining Help?

Focusing on the details (what would the main point be?)

• Pokemon are used for fights
• Pokemon consent to being used?
• Pokemon are kept in pokeballs and on computers
• Team Plasma opposes this treatment

Seeing the Big picture (Now suddenly the paper takes shape)

• Does the ending to Pokemon Black/White resolve the moral dilemma posed by Team Plasma?
• Is the consent of the pokemon moral justification for using them?
• Is it right to keep sentient beings in confined spaces or on computers?

• Easier to organize an outline than reorganize a paper
• Easier to design transitions from one point to another using main ideas than whole paragraphs
• If one point does not work, you lose a sentence in your outline rather than a paragraph in your paper
• Writing the Paper = Filling In the Outline

Warrants and Argument Structure

The Toulmin Model

• Grounds, Reasons, Evidence
• Why Do You Think What You Do?
• Warrant Linking Reason to Claim
• How does one interlink to another?
• Qualifier
• Under What Circumstances are these things true?
• Claim
• Thesis of the Argument

An incomplete chart indicates a gap in the argument. This is often referred to as ‘jumping to a conclusion’ since you have no warrant to bridge the gap between evidence and thesis.

A more detailed chart indicates more information and a much stronger argument. Ideally, you want a far more complex interlinking of arguments that all support the main idea. In other words, all of your main points should look like this when mapped out, and your thesis should be supported by each main idea in each paragraph.

But what about the rebuttal?

The ‘So What’ Factor

Since the blog posts are so much smaller than the main paper, this is the primary factor in determininng your blog grades.

• Why does it matter that the way people treat pokemon in a game would be animal cruelty in real life?
• Why does the (lack of) storytelling in World of Warcraft matter?
• Why does the culture surrounding competitive multiplayer matter?
• Don’t be Jack Thompson; show evidence for your assertions!
• Does Pokemon affect children’s behavior? Show studies on media and child development
• Does storytelling retain a player base? Show statistics and correlation
• Does the culture surrounding a game impact a franchise’s development? Show instances where this occurred

This is what I mean when I say “Be Thorough”