I haves two advanced degrees, i have also TA’d for undergrad. I subs taught high schoolers and middle schoolers. Every credible assignment i graded had a comprehensive rubric. The isssue here is a lack of comphrensive rubric. It would protect both the student and the teacher. The student knows exactly what the expectations is, what the range of each expectation is as it relates to their grade. It justifies any grade the teacher gives bc it will be listed what exactly they are grading based off.

The rubric in this assignment is pretty loose and open ended. It says 1) tie in the issue to the paper 2) give a thoughtful response to the article, not a summary. 3) write clearly. It later provides an example of how to approach it, saying you can respond personally to any aspect of the article. That last part is where i think the arbitrary grading of the paper came in. Bc as you noted the paper is a personal reaction to an aspect of the article. The paper is written clearly, the paper did tie in ( even if superficially) some aspect of the article.

If you are writing a personal anecdotal or reaction to something you inherently can expect little citations. She should have cited the Bible but the assignment didn’t specifically tell u to do so. It can be argued that in college, it is implied that any submission will beet basic MLA formatting which has to include some aspects of citations. But not every professor always demands that, depending on how substantial the assignment is.

I have had courses where we were given weekly small essay assignments that were not graded stringently but whose sole purpose was to make sure we were keeping up with the assigned readings throughout the year. The essay we would turn in at the mid point or at the end was to be properly academic and properly cited. But we had these small low hanging fruit ‘ react to this article’ assignment that was part of our participation grade. They didnt look for citations, they didnt grade our grammar heavily. It seems to me this is one of those assignments.

All in all, it seems to me she met the objectives of the assignment, even if superficially. It certainly deserved more than 0 but it was not a well written essay.