Business Ethics Resource Center | Part 4
IV. Term paper Rubric:
Quick tips on writing business ethics papers are available from the Business Ethics Journal Review.
- If the paper isn’t turned in through Tunitin, it will not be graded, and will be recorded as a zero!
- Your Turnitin duplication score MUST BE ZERO, or it will not be graded.
- READ ASAP: ALL THE WRITING TUTORIALS ON MY WEBSITE TUTORIAL PAGE.
- When you quote even part of a sentence from a source, it needs a citation and quote marks;
- Number the pages;
- Papers are graded on a 100 point basis;
- Please do NOT quote my original question from the topic list, because Turnitin will flag it as plagiarism. Just have a title!
- Term papers are 5-10 pages double spaced. Any paper short of the minimum will have points deducted.
- Term papers should have separate works cited pages, which do NOT count as part of the minimum. You should consult at least four sources, 2 pro, 2 con….. You don’t have to choose a term paper topic from my list, but if you come up with your own topic, I need to approve it.
- Read your paper aloud to a friend or family member, or have them read it–if they can’t follow it, probably I can’t, either;
- Turn on the spell and grammar checkers on your word processing program;
- Try to write direct, easy to comprehend, and well-structured prose;
- demarcate paragraphs by indentation (fives spaces or tab once);
- Avoid words you don’t really understand. Don’t try to impress me with big words.
- Avoid run-on sentences, i.e., keep sentences of short to medium length.
- Remember to use Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com
- Below is a table of mistakes and points liable to be lost for them:
| Problem | Points Deducted |
|---|---|
| Unapproved paper topic | -20 to -60 (if you pick a topic upon which I have lectured, or was the topic of a prior short paper, or if it is not relevant to the topic of the course). |
| Disorganized | -5 to -15 |
| No separate title page | -5 |
| No separate works cited page/bibliography | -5 |
| Lack of citations | -5 to -10 |
| No research/literature search | -25 |
| Only one source (Desjardins or Bastiat, say) | -5 to -15 (depending upon your ideas) |
| Tendentious/one-sided | -15 to -20 |
| Loaded language (question-begging epithets) | -5 to -15 |
| Style/grammar/spelling | -5 to -15 |
| No quote marks (if Turnitin shows passage borrowed) | -10 if cited for every case ***If NOT cited, it is plagiarism |
| Excessive unnecessary quotation | -5 to -15 |
| No Turnitin check | Not accepted (recorded as zero) |
| Short of minimum | -5 for every quarter page |
- Below is a table of comment codes and what they mean:
| Mark/word | What it means |
|---|---|
| A checkmark ( √ ) | Good point/argument. |
| An “X” | Irrelevant/silly/patently false claim or argument |
| A “T” followed by a checkmark at top of the paper | No plagiarism detected by Turnitin. |
| “awk” | Your sentence is awkwardly phrased (try reading it aloud). |
| “uncl” | Your sentence or paragraph is unclear. |
| “word” | Wrong word to use in that context (look it up). |
| “sp” | Wrong word to use in that context (look it up). |
| “Grammar” | Ungrammatical sentence. |
| “run-on” | Run-on sentence. |
| Question mark | The statement is dubious, strange, contradictory, or out of place with the rest of the passage. |
| “frag” | Sentence fragment. |
| “means?” | What does this term/phrase/sentence mean? |
| “straw” (strawman) | You are distorting an opposing argument. |
| “circ” (circular) | You are using descriptions that build in a conclusion you need to argue for, or arguing in a circle. |