The A paper represents original outstanding work; it shows careful thought, fresh insights, and stylistic maturity.  Having practically no mechanical errors to distract the reader, it is free of jargon, clichés, and other empty language.  Word choice is marked by a high degree of precision and a varied, advanced vocabulary; sentences are structured in a manner that creates interest and rhetorical power.  The tone is appropriate for the designated audience.  The reader moves through the A paper effortlessly because of its effective transitions, lucid organization, and thorough, purposeful development.  Having finished, the reader feels that he has learned something, that he has received some unexpected and welcome illumination.  In the A paper all research material is correctly documented, and formatting adheres to current standards of the Modern Language Association.  Directly quoted passages are gracefully integrated into the text with appropriate attribution.

The B paper is significantly more than competent.  Besides being almost free of mechanical errors, the B paper delivers substantial information and makes cogent, fresh arguments--that is, in both quality and interest-value.  Its specific points are logically ordered, well developed, and supported, and unified around a clear organizing principle that is apparent early in the paper. The B paper's relatively few syntactic, usage, and mechanical errors do not seriously distract the reader, but the language, while neither trite nor bureaucratic, probably lacks the candor and the precision of the most memorable writing.  Its transitions, while appropriate, emphasize the logical turnings of the writer's mind, making the reader occasionally more aware of the efforts taken to unify and control an idea than of the idea itself.  In the B paper all research material is correctly documented, and formatting adheres to current standards of the Modern Language Association.  Directly quoted passages are integrated into the text with appropriate attribution.

The C paper represents average college-level work.  It is a competent expression of ordinary thoughts in ordinary language; its content/focus is general, commonplace, or trivial, or not adequately related to the assignment; its development is vague, incomplete, or inconsistent; its organization lacks adequate or appropriate transitions or relation of ideas.  The C paper, in addition to meeting all the requirements of the assignment, exhibits a writing style that is basically correct and is marred by a relatively few syntactic, usage, and mechanical errors.  By relying on generalities rather than precise, illustrative details, the writer of a C paper leaves the reader feeling not much better informed than when the reader first picked up the essay.  In the C paper all research material is correctly documented, and formatting adheres to current standards of the Modern Language Association.  Directly quoted passages are integrated into the text with appropriate attribution.

The D paper has only skeletal development and organization.  Its serious mechanical errors, together with the awkwardness and ambiguity of its sentence structure, make the reader feel slighted, as if his time and attention were of little concern to the writer.

NB: A paper exhibiting major weaknesses in any specific area—content, development, organization, grammar and mechanics, documentation conventions, writing style—or, indeed, a failure to address the assignment is usually considered, at best, a D paper.

As writing that falls below minimal standards for college-level literacy, the F paper shows lack of thought and purpose, little or no organization, numerous mechanical errors, and a garbled or immature style.  Sometimes inadequacy in one area is enough to fail a paper—the writer, for instance, may not have control of punctuation, producing fragments or comma splices in almost every paragraph; however, serious weaknesses usually occur in several areas of concern.

A paper will earn the grade zero if it contains plagiarized content in any form, including the failure to acknowledge the source of any borrowed material (summarized, paraphrased, and directly quoted) and unmarked exact wording (directly quoted from either a primary or a secondary source), whether a specific well-chosen word, a phrase (two or more words), a clause, or full sentence(s).

see Blinn College, Lamar College, and Texas A&M for more