Comments on Term Project Grading

I'll return the term projects to the first author's mailbox. You've received two grades, each on a 100% scale, for presentation quality and (technical) content quality. These are written next to the letters "P" and "C" on the first page of your term project. The two numbers will be averaged together and entered into the CS5014 spreadsheet. The grades range from 83.5 to 99.

Your ability to communicate -- either written or oral -- will have a lot to do with your success in a career and your impact on the organization you work for. So please review the comments that I marked, commit them to memory, and eliminate them from in your future work. Unfortunately, many of the English rules in the course notes were violated by most authors, affecting the presentation grades. (For example, the one "99" grade would have been "100" if some silly errors were caught in proofreading.)

The letters A to M are marked on many papers. Here is a legend of the meaning of the characters:

A:

Avoid needless words.

B:

Include a chapter number in a citation to a book.

C:

Be precise in your word choice.

D:

A non-restrictive (e.g., non-essential) phrase must be set off by commas.

E:

Independent clauses connected by "and" require a comma before the "and."

F:

Avoid first person.

G:

Be sure that every sentence you write can be taken literally, or it will mislead the reader.

H:

Avoid weak adverbs.

I:

As we went over in class, do not make a heading the antecedent of an indefinite pronoun.

J:

Introductory adverbial clauses, unless short, require a comma.

K:

Vary your wording to avoid monotony.

L:

Do not use a citation as a noun.

M:

Avoid successions of one-sentence paragraphs by asking whether the paragraph fits with the topic of the preceeding or following paragraphs.