Evaluation Criteria; Academic Integrity

          Evaluation Criteria                                                                    

“Grades are a measure of the performance of a student in individual courses.  Each student shall be judged on the basis of how well he or she has command of the course materials.”  from U of T School of Graduate Studies Calendar.

Grading is based on actual performance, not on anticipated or potential capacity to perform.

Written assignments will be graded on their clarity, comprehensiveness, originality, appropriate use of reference materials and technical adequacy. Papers are expected to be of sufficient quality as to represent your growing professionalism and competence.

  • “A” signifies truly outstanding work, with ample evidence of creative and original thinking. The work is well organized, well written and well presented. The capacities are evident both to appropriately critique extensive and recent literature and to analyze and synthesize material. The relevance to social work practice and social welfare is well established.

  • “B” signifies good work, which shows clear evidence of having a sound grasp of the subject matter along with evidence of critical capacity and analytic ability at a demanding graduate level. The understanding of relevant issues under examination is adequate. There is evidence of a proper search of the literature and expected familiarity with its content and perspectives.

  • “FZ” denotes inadequate performance considering the expectations of a graduate program. There may be a combination of superficial and/or confused understanding of the subject matter, weakly focused content, failure to direct attention to the assigned topic, and limited use of critical and analytic skills. The literature selected may be out of date for the purpose, too limited in scope, or not clearly relevant.

NOTE: Secondary distinctions are made within the grades of “A” and “B” by using “+” and “-” signify that the work is high or low within that letter grade.

The University Grading Practices Policy is available at: http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/Documents/universitygpp.pdf

 

          Academic Integrity:  Dishonesty & Plagiarism           

Students in graduate studies are expected to commit to the highest standards of integrity, and to understand the importance of protecting and acknowledging intellectual property. It is assumed that they bring to their graduate studies a clear understanding of how to cite references appropriately, thereby avoiding plagiarism. Common examples of problematic academic practices that lead to consequences for plagiarism include:

  • Copying and pasting from an source and providing a citation but forgetting to put quotation marks around the content;

  • Using material from a source and making changes in specific words or sentence structure but not citing the original source.

  • Using ideas from a source without citing the original source.

Graduate students are understood to be capable of expressing ideas that are original and distinct from those of the sources to which they refer. The consequences for academic dishonesty are very high at the graduate level; suspected plagiarism is immediately reported to the Associate Dean’s Office and referred to the School of Graduate Studies. Please take the time to review your work carefully to avoid these consequences.

Two excellent documents: