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Engaged imagination and engagement in the imaginative process
Asks an inventive question and offers an original claim
Extends and complements current critical conversation in genuine and creative ways
Offers insights that provoke real interest and curiosity in the reader
Careful reading of texts
Demonstrates close reading—attends to the details of the text, to its particular uses of language, to form and structure, manipulation of tone
Attends to complexities in the text—recognizes ambiguity, contradiction, ruptures, fissures
Attends to nuances in the text—recognizes cogency, coherence, and consistency, as well as ambiguity, contradiction, and inconsistency
Conscientiously avoids inappropriate manipulation of the text (e.g., gross misinterpretation or over-reading)
Ability to engage with varied critical perspectives
Articulates a theory that authorizes the arguments the paper makes to support its claim
Recognizes and responds to scholarly critical conversation about the text
Contextualizes references to specific critics, theorists, and scholars (e.g., identifying their critical approach and larger argument about the text in question)
Enters scholarly, critical conversation (rather than simply quoting to back up writer's own point)
Critical acumen
Identifies significant and relevant evidence in the text to advance the paper's claims and arguments
Anticipates and responds to likely challenges and alternative argumentative approaches
Uses text and theoretical material shrewdly and with deliberation
Displays sound logic and good judgment in argument's execution
Reasoned argument
Offers appropriate textual evidence in support of claims; explains use and validity of evidence
Develops and extends arguments, rather than simply amassing evidence to make a single point
Organizes sequence of and relationship between arguments effectively
Arrives at a plausible, non-obvious, non-trivial conclusion
Clear prose
Establishes an appropriate scholarly voice, tone, and authority
Paragraphs effectively and provides transitions between and within paragraphs
Varies sentence structure and length appropriately
Observes conventions of standard American edited prose in grammar, punctuation, usage, mechanics