CSSE 221 – Fundamentals of Software Development Honors

Instructions for Grading Programs

General Instructions for the Grader

Unless instructed otherwise, grade programs based on:

• Correctness
• Process
• Style
• Documentation

For any points deducted, put a CONSIDER tag saying how many points deducted and why.

Correctness

For each item marked (per the grading instructions specific to the assignment):

• Full credit: Behaves as specifies
• 80%: One “very small” error
• 40 or 50%: One “small to medium-sized” error
• 0%: A “large” error or more than one error

Process

Students should use:

• Documented stubs for each method
• Unit tests written before implementing the method, when unit tests are used
• UML class diagrams written before implementing the classes, when UML is used.

Grader: You need not “grade” the students’ use of process (since it is hard to do so), but we reserve the right to reduce a student’s score if he is not using the above process.

Style

Deduct 10% of the assignment’s total for each of the following (but limit the total deducted for style to a maximum of 40% of the assignment’s total):

1. Control-Shift-F on the file causes any significant change. Deduct 10% for EACH such change.

   Eclipse highlights in purple the line numbers of lines that change when you do Control-Shift-F.

   Grader, you can put a single CONSIDER that says something like “-30% for 3 errors exposed by Control-Shift-F” – you don’t have to explain any further, since the student can do Control-Shift-F herself to see the changes.

2. Any TODO’s are left (unless they are intentional).

3. Any warning messages are left (students should use @SuppressWarnings if the source of the warning is intentional).

   Any missing documentation will generate a warning message. Deduct as a style or documentation error (but not as both).

4. Variable, method or class names are chosen poorly.
5. A method is too long (i.e., it should have been broken up into sub-method calls).
6. A statement is too long (i.e., an intermediate variable should have been introduced).

7. A variable is introduced where the code is clearer without it. For example:

   int answer = ... blah …;
   return answer;
   

   is clearer when written simply as:

   return … blah …;
   

8. A variable has greater scope that necessary.

   For example: a variable that could be local to a method is instead a field, or a for loop variable is not local to the for loop.

9. White space is used poorly (Control-Shift-F catches most of these errors).
10. Any other poor style that you notice. (Let your instructor know what you take off per this “other poor style” bullet so that we can add it to the above list.)

Documentation

Deduct 10% of the assignment’s total for each of the following (but limit the total deducted for documentation to a maximum of 40% of the assignment’s total):

1. Class does not have a reasonable description.
2. Public or protected method or field does not have a reasonable description.
3. Missing or extra tags.

4. Tags without a reasonable description, e.g. @param with nothing after it.

   Exception: if the name of the parameter is self-documenting, nothing is needed after the @param (e.g. @param ballToAdd is self-documenting).

5. Undocumented (or poorly documented) private methods whose name and parameter names do not make it clear what the method accomplishes.

   Such comments should rarely be necessary, since method and parameter names should generally be chosen to make the method self-documenting.

6. Ditto for private fields.
7. Chunks of code which are especially long and/or obtuse, yet lack an appropriate in-line comment. (Such comments should rarely be necessary, but such code shouldn’t be submitted.)