Martinich(2016), 철학 보고서의 성적

1. 좋은 철학 보고서는 솔직한 의견 제시일까?

 

*학생들의 생각

  Students often wonder how it is possible to grade philosophical essays. They think that philosophy is just a matter of opinion, and, as long as they honestly express their opinion, everything they write must be true; so every hones student deserves and A+.

 

*위대한 철학자들의 작업

  In fact, philosophy is not just a matter of opinion. What great philosophers share is an ability to say something important about the most basic and important aspects of reality that has not been said before and to convey those thoughts in a way that seems rationally compelling.

 

*학생들에 대한 철학 교수의 기대

  No teacher expects a student to say anything great. What the teacher expects or hopes for is a certain competence in form and content.

 

  A. Content

: The student should be able to give either a plausibly argued position of her own or an accurate rendering of the position of some philosopher, plus some moderate criticism or improvement of that position.

 

  B. Form

: The student’s essay should be clearly written and have an easily identifiable structure. The structure makes clear how the argument develops.

 

2. 좋은 철학 보고서일수록 코멘트가 적을까?

 

*학생들의 생각

  Many students think that there is an inverse relation between the number of comments a grader makes on an essay and the quality of it.

 

*보고서의 질과 코멘트의 수 사이 실제 관계

- A perfect essay and a perfectly awful essay may both contain no comments, the first needing no criticism, the second being beneath criticism.

- A good essay and a bad one may have equally many comments. A very good essay may be improved by many small changes, or perhaps one or two things that need substantial explanation need to be provided. A very bad essay may have many flaws that are correctable.

⇒ There is not a high correlation between the quality of an essay and the number of comments on it. In between these extremes, there is a great variation as to how many comments are appropriate.

 

3. 각 성적은 무엇을 의미할까?

 

Summa cum laude (with highest praise) (A+)

  This essay is so perfect that it needs no changes, except perhaps for the addition or deletion of a comma, or a long sentence broken into two shorter ones. On this and other essays, a check mark or double check mark in the margin indicates strong approval.

 

Magna cum laude (with great praise) (A/A-)

  Clear, well-structured, and substantive. These essays often invite a fair number of comments about minor points of style, organization, and substance.

 

Cum laude (with praise) (B+/B)

  These essays often require a large number of comments, which, if incorporated, could raise the grade to an A/A-. There is probably at least one major flaw in content or form, but not more than two.

 

Bene probatus (good try) (B-/C+)

  These essays are often similar to the group above, except that the content may be not as good or the form is more defective and hence weaker overall.

 

Probatus (you tried) (C/D-)

  These essays always require substantial reworking of either the structure or the content. Concerning form, they may be marred by ungrammatical sentences and improper word choice. Concerning content, they may contain major errors of fact or interpretation. Alternatively, the content may be too trivial to be philosophically worthwhile. In some cases the problems are so severe that few suggestions can be made for improvement.

 

Non probatus (you didn’t try) (F)

  These essays do not deserve any comments; and in fact it may be difficult to say anything that would improve them.

 

4. 철학 보고서에는 주로 어떤 코멘트가 달리는가?

 

RS	Running Start. You do not need this introductory sentence or paragraph.
Arg	You need an argument for this proposition.
Evid	You need to provide evidence for this proposition.
reason	You need to give reason for this assertion.
rep	You are repeating something you said earlier in the essay.
taut	Your sentence is a tautology and adds nothing to your argument.
w.c	There is something wrong with your word choice. You may be using the wrong word or using a word with the wrong connotation.
ante	The antecedent of this pronoun is not clear.
trans:	You need a transitional word, phrase, or sentence to go from the proceding topic to the next one.

 

 

by. A. P. Martinich

(University of Texas Austin, Department of Philosophy)

(출처 : A.P. Martinich, 2016. “Appendix E: On Grading” in Philosophical Writing: An Introduction, 4th ed. New Jersey: Weiley Blackwell.)