defter/yazma/ENG 101/What you are graded on

What you are graded on

Seven graded tasks, what each item wants, where the weight sits in the rubric, and 25 things to check before you submit.

The seven graded tasks

Task	Weight	Where it happens	What you hand in
Academic Essay 2	25%	all of it in class, one draft	an outline approved in class, then the essay itself
Final Exam	25%	common exam, 3 hours	an essay written in the exam
Academic Essay 1	20%	first draft in class, final draft typed up at home	outline, first draft, final draft (together with the earlier drafts)
Academic Summary and Critical Response Task	10%	two parts: handwritten in class, then typed up and uploaded	Part A and Part B, PDF (the handwritten version + the typed version)
Oral Presentation	8%	in class, with visuals	the talk and the visuals (PowerPoint/Prezi)
Student Led Discussion	7%	in class, with a partner	5-8 discussion questions and the discussion itself
Self-progress Reflection Task	5%	at home, before the final draft of Essay 2	an analysis grounded in your own text plus a list of improvement priorities

What each task actually asks for

Academic Essay 2

Again a thesis driven essay focused on a single question, but this time refuting counterarguments is required. One draft; all of it written in class, in three fifty minute blocks. After that it gets typed up and uploaded to Turnitin, and only limited corrections are allowed at that stage. Same format requirements. In the section we looked at, the Moodle assignment page carried an extra rule: you may keep the outline next to you while writing, but it can only hold key ideas and key words, no full sentences (exceptions: short topic sentences and the thesis), the instructor approves it in class, and the approved version has to be emailed by the stated hour. Preparation. While typing it up you can only fix language, word choice, punctuation and format; adding new content is banned, so you have no revision room. The work has to be finished before you walk into the class. A tutorial for the outline is not compulsory, but the weekly plan we saw said it was 'strongly recommended'; unlike Essay 1 there is no draft chain here, so the instructor seeing your outline is your only shot at feedback. Prepare the outline to the format rule, otherwise you walk into class without one. Do not try to think up the counterargument in class, have it ready in your plan.

25% · all of it in class, one draft

Final Exam

A common exam. One or two texts of 3-5 pages and one essay question are handed out in the exam; you read the texts there and write an argument driven essay. You cannot cite anything outside the texts you are given. The time is 3 hours, reading and planning included. Dictionaries (print or electronic) are banned. Preparation. Split the time: 15 minutes reading and marking, 15 minutes planning (thesis + three topic sentences + where the evidence sits in the text), 100-110 minutes writing, 20 minutes checking. Spending at least 15 minutes on planning is officially recommended; the plans are not graded. The room rules turn into surprises too: you can come in up to 15 minutes late but get no extra time, you cannot leave in the first 15 or the last 10 minutes, your ID stays on the desk, nothing but the text, the booklet, a pen and your ID may be on the desk, food is banned and water is fine, and the paper has to be readable in ink or dark pencil. If your section runs an ungraded practice essay before the final, do not skip it, that is the rehearsal for the final. To sit the exam you need 90% attendance and at least 30 of the 75 points available before the final.

25% · common exam, 3 hours

Academic Essay 1

A thesis driven academic essay based on two reading texts. It answers only the question asked; an essay that does not stay on the question is not assessed. A balanced thesis is expected. Outside knowledge only comes in as a response to the writers' ideas, and only at common knowledge level. 2.5-4 pages, double spaced, Times New Roman 12, page numbers; full citations for the texts you use and in text citation where needed. The first draft is written in class, in three fifty minute blocks (syllabus: week 5). How much you have to write in class changes from section to section: the syllabus says 'a full first draft', while the section plan and the assignment sheet we saw said 'the introduction and the first body paragraph at minimum'. Read that off your assignment sheet, do not guess. The final draft is typed up and uploaded to Turnitin. Preparation. The grade is earned in the week before the writing day. When you walk into class you should have a thesis, three topic sentences and evidence with a page number written next to each one. Do not go to the outline tutorial unprepared; read your instructor's written feedback before the meeting and bring two questions. When you submit the final draft you hand in the first draft carrying that written feedback with it, so do not throw that sheet away. The syllabus is blunt about it: the final draft has to show the trace of a serious revision, polishing is not enough. A final version submitted without the earlier draft gets a zero without being read.

20% · first draft in class, final draft typed up at home

Academic Summary and Critical Response Task

Two parts. Task A: a note set or text map of your own design for the assigned reading, with the main argument, the sub arguments, key concepts and your own critical response; it is judged on being accurate, complete and usable. Task B: summarize the text's main argument and purpose, then pick two arguments from it and evaluate them critically; support each one both with evidence from the text and with an example from real life. In the section we looked at, both parts were done as homework, and the written part went through Turnitin. Preparation. Do not comment in the summary part, write what the writer says and why. In the evaluation, 'I agree' or 'I disagree' is not enough: show where the argument is strong and which assumption is left unsupported. The most productive critical move the assignment sheet offers is this one: argue that one of the sub arguments does not support the writer's own main thesis. That is the easiest to prove, because the evidence is inside the text. We are not putting a word count here: in the section we looked at, the total in the syllabus (300-550 words) did not match the part lengths on the task sheet (Part A 150-250, and 200 for each of the two arguments in Part B). Coming in under the word limit means a zero on the task requirements item; follow the number on your own task sheet, and if it contradicts the syllabus, ask your instructor in one line.

10% · two parts: handwritten in class, then typed up and uploaded

Oral Presentation

You read a given text critically and present it: the main arguments and the purpose, the strengths and weaknesses of the writer's reasoning and support, then questions and answers at the end. Visuals (PowerPoint/Prezi) are required. The length is 20-25 minutes for a pair or a group of three, 15-20 minutes on your own. The graded items: content (summary, analysis and commentary), organization, language, delivery, visuals, audience awareness and audience engagement. Preparation. Most of the weight is in the content analysis and the commentary; slide design is one of the smallest items. The delivery item has an explicit line in it: reading off slides or off a script, and reciting memorized material, costs points. Part of the grade comes from the quality of the questions you ask during other people's presentations, and the instructor picks people at random at the end, so take notes in every presentation. It counts as an exam.

8% · in class, with visuals

Student Led Discussion

With a partner you analyze a short text, pull out the arguable issues, formulate 5-8 discussion questions, frame the text and run the discussion. It is expected to wrap up in about 30 minutes. What gets graded: framing the text, the quality of the discussion, managing the discussion, communication and participation. Preparation. Do not ask a question whose answer sits in one spot in the text, that produces no discussion. Prepare questions with two defensible answers. The rubric asks for concrete things on the managing item: keeping the flow and the time, giving the floor so participation is inclusive, and signaling clearly where the discussion is going. Closing is a separate line; going quiet when the time runs out is not a closing. The participation score comes from every discussion, not just your own turn; in the section we looked at, the written requirement was to participate at least three times across the discussions and without needing much prompting. It counts as an exam, so missing it is a zero; make up sessions only happen with an official medical report and a STARS notification.

7% · in class, with a partner

Self-progress Reflection Task

Before you hand the final draft of Essay 2 to your instructor, you analyze it yourself: the quality of your arguments, how you used the reading texts, organization, academic language, format. You back up the strengths and weaknesses with examples and produce a list of improvement priorities based on them. Preparation. Do not write general sentences ('my organization was good'). Put an example from your own text under every claim: which paragraph, which sentence. For a high grade a realistic and workable improvement plan is asked for; 'I will study more' is not a plan.

5% · at home, before the final draft of Essay 2

Rubric items: where the weight is

Item	What it measures	What to do
Task Requirements	Does it answer the question asked, does it meet the length requirement, are the required parts there	Read the task sheet once more before the writing day
Argument	Thesis, reasoning, and counterarguments and concessions not breaking your position	Give this a day; it is the heaviest block
Support	Evidence and the analysis of it, examples from the text and from real life	Two sentences of analysis behind every quotation
Language	Grammar, word choice, academic tone, hedging	A Ctrl+F pass, twenty minutes
Readability	Readability, flow, transitions between paragraphs	Read it out loud
Formatting	Format and citation: line spacing, font size, page numbers, in text citation, works cited	Purely mechanical, no reason to lose this

Open the rubric on day one

The essays are graded with the program's own writing criteria, and your instructor hands out that criteria sheet. We are not printing the point distribution here: it changes from section to section and the rubric is the instructor's material. But the day one job is clear, open the rubric and read the weight of the items yourself.

Here is what to look at: are the argument and evidence items heavier, or the language and format items? In the example we saw, argument and evidence together were the biggest block and format was the smallest. Most students spend the last night fixing grammar and margins, which means polishing the lightest item and leaving the heaviest one untouched. Fixing the language takes twenty minutes, fixing the argument takes a day.

Two kinds of zero

Situation	Result
The paper is on topic but does not answer the question asked	Zero on the task requirements item, but the paper is still read and graded
It comes in under the word or page limit	Zero on the task requirements item, the paper is still read
The paper is completely off topic	Not read at all, the grade is zero
The final draft is submitted without the earlier drafts	Not read at all, the grade is zero
A source is not cited properly, or material someone else produced is presented as your own work	Zero, plus the university's disciplinary process

Coming in under the word limit means a zero on the task requirements item according to the criteria sheet. In the one real example we have, all three parts were under the limit and the paper still got 89, so enforcement is up to the instructor. Do not assume the rule will not bite, read the number off your task sheet.

Eight learning outcomes, checked against your own draft

Can critically analyse and evaluate academic texts to understand and record both their meaning and potential value

Can you write the text's main argument in one sentence without using the writer's words? Did you list the sub arguments separately, or are they all one “the writer says this” cloud in your head? Which is the writer's weakest step, and why is it weak? “I disagree” is not an answer; say which premise is unsupported. What is the purpose of the text, persuasion, description, a reply to someone else? An analysis that misreads the purpose is off from the start. Did you note your own critical response in the margin while reading, or are you trying to remember it two weeks later?

measured in: Essay 1 · Oral Presentation · Student Led Discussion · Final

Can critically analyse and evaluate spoken input to understand and record both their meaning and potential value

Did you take notes while listening to someone else's presentation? Does part of that note turn into a question you could actually ask? In a discussion, can you say back what someone said in your own words and check “is this what you mean”? Have you ever added an objection you heard in class to your draft? If not, you are using the discussion only to talk. Do you tell input from a documentary or a video apart from input from a written text? The two are not evidence of the same weight.

measured in: Oral Presentation · Student Led Discussion · Self-progress Reflection

Can develop well-reasoned written arguments that are supported by valid and reliable evidence

Is there evidence under every claim, or do some paragraphs consist only of confident sentences? Does the type of evidence fit the claim? A universal psychological law is not proven with one historical case. Are you using the evidence to answer the source's argument rather than its tone? Are you leaning on a single source to support a claim? If that source has been criticized, your whole argument goes down. Is there hedging where you should not speak with certainty, “tends to”, “suggests”, “in most cases”? Certainty your evidence does not carry gets flagged on the language item.

measured in: Essay 1 · Final

Can develop well-reasoned spoken arguments that are supported by valid and reliable evidence

When you put a claim on the table in a presentation or a discussion, do you point to a place in the text right after it? When someone objects, what do you do: repeat the claim, or narrow its scope? Is the sentence on the slide your claim or a summary of the text? When the two blur, the content score goes. In the self-progress task, did you prove the strengths and weaknesses you named with examples? Self assessment without examples is not accepted.

measured in: Oral Presentation · Student Led Discussion · Summary/Critical Response · Self-progress Reflection

Can write focused, coherent, thesis driven academic essays

Can you point at the thesis in one place, or is it “somewhere around here”? Do the key words of the question appear in your thesis? If you line up the first sentences of your body paragraphs and read them, do you get the defense of your thesis? Is there a single position across the essay? Do the counterarguments and concessions leave that position standing? Does the conclusion bring in a new idea? If it does, that idea belonged in the body.

measured in: Essay 1 · Final

Can incorporate citation skilfully and accurately, and distinguish between own and others' voice

Is there a single parenthesis in the text? Is there a list at the end? Do the two match one to one? Can a reader tell everywhere which sentence is yours and which is the source's? Did you search every phrase you put in quotation marks letter by letter in the source? In your paraphrases, did the sentence structure change too, or only the words? Keeping the structure is not paraphrasing. Do you separate common knowledge from knowledge that belongs to a source? Water boiling at 100 degrees needs no citation, Marco Polo not bringing pasta back does.

measured in: Essay 1 · Final

Can effectively communicate with others orally in the form of formal presentations and discussions/debates

Can you deliver it without reading the slide? In the rubric, “not reading off slides or a script, not reciting memorized material” is its own line. Is the answer to your discussion question written in one place in the text? If it is, that question opens no discussion. Do you have a sentence ready for inviting someone who has not spoken into the discussion? Do you close at the end, or do you just stop when the time runs out? Half of the framing item is the closing.

measured in: Oral Presentation · Student Led Discussion

Can use the language accurately and appropriately

Ctrl+F: “we”, “our”, “us”, generic “you”, “I think”, “in my opinion”, “etc.” and the question mark. How many of your sentences are passive? Unless there is a reason, the rubric wants the active voice. Did you split the sentences that run over two lines? Are you using “mention”, “because”, “also”, “on the other hand”, “on the contrary” in the right sense? Those are the five patterns that slip most often when Turkish speakers move into English. Did you read the text out loud? Wherever your breath runs out, the reader stalls too.

measured in: every graded task

Where the outcomes come from

The eight outcomes below come from the “Course Learning Outcomes” table of the official ENG 101 syllabus on STARS; next to each one the syllabus names the tasks where that outcome is measured. The questions here turn those outcomes into something you can check against your own draft by hand. If your answer to a question is “I do not know”, the answer is no.

The program also uses a ten item “I can …” self assessment document, filled in once at the start of the term and once again at the end (assessing yourself honestly, setting up a study routine, analyzing a text critically, transforming information for a new purpose, building a coherent argument, using and citing someone else's idea, writing accurate English, speaking effectively, engaging reasonably with ideas that contradict your own, writing an academic essay). Do not throw away the sheet you fill in the first week; filling in the same sheet again in week 14 is the cheapest measurement you have of what actually changed during the term.

Before you submit: 25 items

Does your thesis contain the key words of the question asked? If it does not, you are probably answering a different question.
Could a reasonable reader say "no, the opposite" to your thesis? If not, that sentence is a topic announcement, not a thesis.
Did you copy the first sentences of your body paragraphs one under the other and read them? Read in order, do they give the defense of your thesis?
Is there one argument per paragraph? If you have to say "and" when you summarize the paragraph in a single sentence, split it.
Is there at least two sentences of your own analysis after every quotation, or is the quotation left standing alone?
Did you Ctrl+F every phrase you put in quotation marks in the source text? Anything you cannot find comes out of the quotation marks.
Are your paraphrases just synonym swaps? Did you close the source and rewrite it in your own sentence?
Are the in text citations in place, is there a Works Cited (or References) list, do the two match one to one?
Is there a counterargument, and does it give the other side at its best? Refuting a caricature you built yourself earns nothing.
Ctrl+F: "we", "our", "us", "you", "I think", "in my opinion", "etc." and rhetorical question marks.
Format: double spacing, Times New Roman 12, page numbers, 2.5-4 pages (verify the page range against your own assignment sheet).
Did you read the word or page limit off the assignment sheet? Coming in under the limit means a zero on the task requirements item.
Do the writers' names appear in the text, or is it 'the writer' everywhere? Anonymous attribution breaks the 'distinguish whose idea it is' item.
If you dropped words from a quotation, you did not delete a qualifier ("regretfully", "in most cases"), did you? That counts as misattribution.
Does your reporting verb match your position? Do not write 'demonstrates' when the evidence is weak.
Is the draft chain complete? A final draft is not submitted without the outline, the first draft and your instructor's written feedback, and a final without drafts is a zero unread.
If this is Essay 2: was your outline approved in class, and did the approved version go out by email by the required hour?
Did you convert to PDF, download it and open it? Uploading an empty or corrupted file is common. Do not leave the upload to the last ten minutes; the 5% a day penalty is live.
Did you read the weights off the syllabus rather than the assignment sheet? Assignment sheets get copied from term to term and the percentages inside can go stale; if they contradict, the syllabus wins.
One hedge per claim: did you write the certainty your evidence carries, or did you stack four hedges on top of each other?
Extra word hunt: 'come to the conclusion that', 'at this point in time', 'on account of the fact that', all of them come down to a single word.
Is there a new idea in the conclusion? If there is, it belonged in the body.
If you stall on the transition between paragraphs: is the given information at the start of the sentence and the new information at the end?
Did you run your own draft through a similarity report before submitting? (app.intihal.net, your bilkent.edu.tr address + an access code from your instructor.)
Did you count your absence hours this month? The limit is 7 hours and a medical report does not erase an absence.

Attendance, submission and communication mechanics

Rule	Number	Source
Attendance requirement	90%. 5 hours a week x 14 weeks = 70 hours, so you have 7 hours to spend	STARS syllabus
Medical report	Does not erase the absence. On the day your report covers you are not let into class or into an exam either	section syllabus, citing university regulations
If you go over the limit	Automatic FZ, you cannot sit the final. In case of a serious health problem, a petition to the FAE Directorate within 3 days of returning to school	section syllabus
University event	For sports and cultural events, up to 5 days can be recorded as present with a STARS notification	section syllabus
Arriving late	Coming in more than 10 minutes late goes on the record; after three late arrivals a warning, and on the next one you are not let into class	section syllabus
Not bringing your materials	Without the texts, the assignment sheets, your notebook and your draft file you are not let into class, and it counts as an absence	section syllabus
Late submission	In the section we looked at, 5% a day; anything more than five days late is a zero. A few hours counts as a full day	section syllabus
Threshold to sit the final	At least 30 of the 75 points handed out before the final	STARS syllabus
Email	A salutation, a short body, your full name, and your section number in the subject line. Allow 24 hours on weekdays and 48 at the weekend for a reply	section syllabus
Office hours and tutorials	Office hours need no appointment, extra tutorials do	section syllabus

How to use the tutorial

The tutorial section of the syllabus does not describe what your instructor will do, it describes what you will do. The written feedback is given to you before the tutorial, and you are expected to read it critically, prepare what you want to ask, decide what your next step is, come ready to explain your plan, and bring your essay, the texts, a note sheet and a pen.

In practice the difference is two sentences: the student who walks in asking “what should I do” burns the fifteen minutes, and the student who walks in saying “I am going to change this in this way, is that the right direction” builds the next draft right there.

A C does not mean you passed

On the letter grade table, 70-73 is a C and 64-69 is a C-. The syllabus we saw carried one more sentence next to that: a student who gets below a C in ENG 101 has to repeat the course the first term it is offered. So 69 points does not mean “I passed”, it means “this course again next year”. Check whether this rule is the same in your own term against your own syllabus, but set up your arithmetic so that you are not aiming anywhere below 70.

The percentages, the passing requirement, the 14 week plan and the learning outcomes come from the official ENG 101 syllabus on STARS. Every item in the library section was read off Bilkent Library's own pages, the library's ENG 101/102 guide and the BilWrite site; every link here was opened and checked one by one. Every book in the topic bank was searched one by one in the library catalog, and the ones that were not there were dropped from the list. The GenAI rule comes from the university's own guideline. The assignment flow, the submission rules and the measurements on the examples page come from the course files of a student who took ENG 101: instructor name, section, dates and student number were removed, and the instructor's rubric and assignment sheets were not published. Rules change from section to section. Read your own syllabus in the first week and compare every number here against it; if they contradict, your syllabus wins.

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