A position, defended, is the unit of work
Reporting the literature accurately gets you into the range rather than through it. The bands above want you to commit to a reading of it and hold that against the strongest objection you can find.
So drafting starts from the claim rather than from the sources. Once the claim exists, the reading has a job: to support it, to qualify it, or to make you change it, and all three of those are visible on the page.
The reading load is heavier than the credit hours imply
It also skews toward argument rather than survey. You are expected to turn up with a view of the material, which is a different preparation from being able to summarise it accurately.
In practice that means the reading has to happen before the writing rather than beside it. A claim you formed while drafting tends to be one the sources happen to support; a claim formed from the reading has already survived the material that complicates it.
Two sessions at once is a scheduling problem
Session A and session B each look reasonable alone and together produce a fortnight in which all the major work arrives at once, usually noticed far too late to move anything.
Put both on one page in week one. At that distance a clash is usually something you can move; by the time you are inside it, it is simply the fortnight you have.
None of that means the standard is unreachable. It means the approach that worked elsewhere needs one addition: decide what you think before you start writing, then use the reading to test it rather than to fill the page. Most students who make that single change find the grade moves within a session, without spending more hours than they already were. It also pays off past this course. Writing that commits to a position and defends it is what every graduate program after this one will ask for, and what a workplace asks for under a different name. The habit is transferable in a way that a good grade in one session is not.
Three steps, then the record keeps itself.
Send both sessions
Whatever you are taking in A and in B, on one page, so the fortnight where everything collides is visible while it can still be moved.
Start from the claim
Drafting begins with the position the paper will defend, which is what the rubric is actually scoring.
Rehearse the proctored sittings
Prepared for well ahead of the date and practised under real conditions, because preparation is the only thing available there.
Queries on record.
What does a research university mean by a position?
A claim you are prepared to defend, stated early enough that the reader knows what the paper is for. Reporting the literature accurately gets you into the range; committing to a reading of it and holding that against the strongest counterargument is what the bands above are describing. Most papers that land lower have done the reading and declined to conclude anything.
How should I use the reading if I already have a claim?
As a test rather than as decoration. Sources that support you are the least interesting ones in the list; the ones that complicate the claim are where the argument actually gets made. A paper that names its best counter-evidence and explains why the claim survives it reads as scholarship rather than as advocacy.
Does skimming ever work here?
Less than anywhere else, because the rubric asks for a position and only real reading can support one. The load is heavier than the credit hours imply and weighted toward analysis rather than coverage. Budget the hours honestly in week one rather than discovering the shortfall in week four, when nothing can be done about it.
What actually helps with a proctored sitting?
Preparing properly, which is the whole of what is on offer. These sittings are recorded and checked afterwards, occasionally long afterwards, and a flag costs more than any single paper is worth. The method is dull and it works: convert the published structure into a time budget, take one paper against the clock early to see where you actually lose, then rehearse whole papers under the real conditions.
Is Citehall connected to ASU?
None at all. Citehall is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Arizona State University. It is named because specialists here work to its marking standard regularly. Nothing about your enrolment reaches your university or your employer.
Elsewhere in the hall.
Send the assignment and the deadline.
A specialist credentialed in your own field reads what you actually have and replies within two hours with a plan and a price. The reading costs nothing, and if the honest answer is that we are not the right hall for it, you will get that instead.
