Metr 356, F04 Writing Assignment I Format/Style Comment Key

Format Guidellines Issues (or, Following Instructions)

  1. Improper Title
  2. Section headings and/or section numbers not included
  3. Paper too short (or margins too wide, font too large, or sentences too spaced)
  4. Improper reference format
  5. Assigned references (two of them) not used (see assignment sheet) or listed in separate reference section
  6. Assigned figures (four of them) not used or improper figure attribution format
  7. Legends missing on figures

    Style Issues
  8. Conversational tone (use of contractions, asking rhetorical questions ("...how does fog form? Well, now I will discuss that..."), use of "street-speak" etc.) (BTW, all of this would be OK in narrative writing, but is never allowed in formal writing)
  9. Improper paragraph (either no topic sentence, or random sentences linked together
  10. Improper sentence (either plural verb with singular subject/object or vice versa, sentence fragment, clumsy sentence, lack of agreement between opening clause and subject, poorly or clumsily constructed sentence, improper reference from pronoun to subject etc.) or sentence that makes no sense as written
  11. One sentence paragraph
  12. Overuse of first person
  13. Use of unremarkable quotation, lack of paraphrase
  14. Run-on sentence
  15. Run-on paragraph (multiple topic sentences/themes)
  16. Improper or not thoughtful introduction (what I am going to do and why I am going to do it) or a "chatty" or cute introduction (as in, "when I was growing up, I noticed fog...") (BTW, all of this would be OK in narrative writing, but is never allowed in formal writing)
  17. Improper or not thoughtful conclusion section (no conclusions, no thoughtful observation, platitude ("...in meteorology, it is important to understand the weather to improve human life...")
  18. Misspellings
  19. It's instead of its, effect instead of affect
  20. Improper word choice, improper use of jargon
  21. Out of place sentence or idea fragment (seems thrown in as an afterthought)
  22. Slopppy editing
  23. Proper sentence, but wording makes the sentence say something that writer did not intend
    Reasons for Format/Style Grading
  1. Segment III requires instructors to test student skill in writing, appropriate to the field (in this case, science
  2. Response of Director of Livermore National Lab to question from College of Science and Engineering Chairs regarding what "lacks" he perceived in graduates of SFSU who become employed at his facility: