A brief note about grading
HCI is about communicating with people -- communicating the meaning of an interface, or the intention of an interface, etc. It is also about developing an understanding of others, their needs, and designing to accommodate their needs.
Your assignments are a design exercise too. You are the designer of what you hand in, and your instructors and TAs are your "users." Making their life easier is a good thing, just as when you open the box of a new product, if it looks nice and is organized, you appreciate it more.
For each assignment and project component, markers have an 'Overall Impression' section that they first check off. This tells you how much they liked to go through your assignment (read your reports, listen to your presentations, etc.). The scores here will likely correlate to your overall grade.
The suggestion is therefore to: consider your TA/instructor (i.e. user), and make their life easier. Taking the time to make sure that your material is easily understood and readable goes a long way in helping you to communicate your message.
'Overall Impression' is graded as follows:
| 5 | Outstanding.The assignment is complete and is of superior quality. The report is well-written, professional, in-depth, and the student is reflective and insightful. |
| 4 | Great. The assignment is complete and of high quality. The report is well-written, professional, in-depth, and the student is reflective and insightful. |
| 3 | Good. The assignment is complete and of good quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain minor problems with formatting or grammatical errors. |
| 2 | Satisfactory.The assignment is mostly complete and of satisfactory quality, but the points could be better articulated, be more insightful, or more thorough. Report may contain problems with formatting or grammatical errors. |
| 1 | Unsatisfactory. The assignment is incomplete or is of lower quality. The points are not well articulated or thorough enough. Report may contain major problems with formatting or grammatical errors. |