BUS477

By now, everyone should have received a personal email note from me with your grade on this assignment, how I arrived at it using the written grading rubric and a few comments.

Some general feedback:

• papers were generally well done. The grade was out of 15. I graded to one decimal point. The class average was 11.6. Top score was 13.7. There were failing grades assigned.
• there were late papers. I hate to take off grades for late work. I don't want to hear excuses, either, especially when expectations are confirmed in class, online and by email / telephone if still unclear. Please get your work in on time.
• general comment. I try to spend at least 15 minutes on each paper. With the overhead of processing your papers, it takes me about 12 hours to grade 35 papers. Please respect my time (and that of your other instructors) by making sure your submissions are easy to work with
• I grade what I see. Make sure you submit what you intend if you are looking for top grades.
• I use Microsoft Word 7 (the most recent version of MS-Word.) I also can read PDF files and, of course, paper documents. About 50% of the word attachments I received had grid-lines as a background... what you would see if someone wrote on graph paper. These were very difficult for me to read and most definitely not what I would consider to be business report format. While I did not deduct grades this time, I will in the future. Let's figure out how to make sure this doesn't happen, as otherwise I will have to insist that all assignments are submitted in hard copy.
• at least one person sent me a separate title page and content. I will only look at one document. Some papers had wonky numbering of pages and questions. Grades lost unnecessarily for style/mechanics. If you need help with Word, get it. I grade what you submit.
• several papers had spelling mistakes. Inexcusable. You lost grades.
• many papers had grammar mistakes. As we discussed in class and with reference to the syllabus, if English is not your first language, you need to get help and you know where to get it. I grade what you submit. You will lose up to 5% of your grade for grammar
• an average paper is one that does an average job of addressing the key elements of the assignment. If you didn't list the questions you asked your entrepreneur or summarize their answers, if you didn't tie the interview into the text or other readings, class discussions, your project or your career, your chance of earning even an average grade was less than what it had to be.
• an excellent paper was one that did an excellent job of addressing the requirements of the assignment... and more. The top papers in the class demonstrated research beyond what was assigned, higher level thinking, creativity, attention to detail. If you are going to the "A" in this class, be prepared to invest in the assignment
• do you feel you deserved a different grade? Please see the FAQ on grades