Grading: The Work Counts

Grading: The Work Counts, Not a Myth of Perfection

You already have a voice. My job is to help you develop more range, more control, and more confidence in using it—not to replace it with one narrow version of “college writing.”

That is why grading works differently here. Most weekly work is assessed for meaningful effort: Complete, Not Yet, or Missing. The question is not whether a first attempt is polished. The question is whether you genuinely engaged with the task and made your thinking visible.

What meaningful effort looks like

• You try the task in your own words.

• You respond to the important parts of the prompt.

• You give enough for me and your classmates to see your thinking.

• You keep going when the work is difficult, incomplete, or still changing.

Short, messy, honest writing has a place here. A rough draft is valuable because it gives us something to revise. “Not Yet” means the work is still in progress, not that you have failed.

At the end of the semester

You will build a portfolio that includes revised writing and evidence from your process. You will write a reflection and make a case for the grade you have earned—using evidence of your labor, growth, revision decisions, and contribution to our learning community.

I will read that case seriously. The final conversation is not about guessing my personal taste. It is about you learning to assess your own work honestly and advocate for yourself with evidence.

This does not mean the course is easy. I expect you to show up weekly, read closely, ask real questions, draft honestly, revise substantially, and go beyond “that’s good enough.” I will give you useful feedback, clear next steps, and a real path back when you fall behind.