This page is adapted from the Scoring Guide (aka Rubric) used by many English 101 instructors at Shoreline Community College. It gives specific guidelines on different aspects of the essay. These guidelines can help you think about your writing in a more focused and concrete way. Use them when revising your work before handing it in, and when rewriting in response to comments. As you will see, there’s a lot to keep track of. You almost certainly cannot do all this in a single draft. You must rewrite— go over the paper repeatedly, checking all these criteria and revising as needed.
Because these are my evaluation criteria, it would be good for you to be familiar with them before you start writing.
Here are some ways in which these criteria might be useful to you:
- As guidelines in evaluating and responding to your writing. Sometimes it’s hard to identify just why a paper isn’t working. These criteria should help you remember tasks you may have forgotten or overlooked while focused on the sentence-by-sentence work.
- As a means of recognizing good essay writing. Students who are able to produce essays which satisfy these criteria will be on their way to becoming effective writers, in this and other classes.
- As a means of understanding what I’ll be looking at when evaluating your writing. Similar to the last item, but with a more practical slant.
- As guidelines for peer review. Sometimes the best way to learn something is to teach it. For this and other reasons, I require a peer review of both essays. If you can identify a problem in another students’ writing, you will be that much better equipped to identify that problem in your own writing.
The Academic Skills Center in 1501 offers help with student writing on a walk-in basis. The ASC is open from 8am to 3pm, Monday through Friday.
How it Works
The Scoring Guide, or Rubric, looks at four different aspects of the essay: Development, Organization, Style/Voice, and Mechanics. Each aspect has several features that are evaluated individually. Each aspect is scored on a scale of 1 – 5, where 1 represents unacceptable work and 5 represents outstanding work. These scores correspond roughly to grades on the 4.0 scale; those correspondences are indicated for each level below.
Development
Level 5 (3.5-4.0)
- Essay focus (its thesis or controlling idea) is clear, inventive and fully realized.
- Essay body relies on evidence to support its claims. Evidence includes relevant facts, examples, illustrations from experience and references to related readings.
- Body contains well-reasoned and insightful arguments/observations.
- Writing demonstrates specific attention to the relationship between audience and purpose.
- Response to assignment is clear, thorough and illuminating.
Level 4 (2.5-3.4)
- Focus is clear and thoughtful.
- Body is well supported by evidence though support may not be as varied and thorough as Level 5.
- Body contains generally well reasoned arguments/observations.
- Writing demonstrates understanding of audience and purpose.
- Response to assignment is generally adequate and thorough.
Level 3 (2.0-2.4)
- Focus is generally adequate but may not be immediately clear to all readers.
- Body is generally supported by evidence. No more than one paragraph lacks thesis support.
- Body contains some well-reasoned arguments/observations, while others may show logical inconsistencies.
- Writing demonstrates some understanding of audience and purpose.
- Response to assignment is minimal.
Level 2 (1.5-1.9)
- Focus is vague, too general, too narrow, superficial, or indirect.
- Body is not always supported by evidence. More than one paragraph lacks adequate support.
- Arguments/observations show frequent logical inconsistencies.
- Writing demonstrates little understanding of audience and purpose.
- Response to assignment is incomplete or unsatisfactory.
Level 1 (0.7-1.4)
- Focus is vague, superficial, indirect, unrelated to assignment or simply missing.
- Body is rarely—if at all—supported by evidence. Most paragraphs lack support.
- Arguments/observations are illogical, incoherent or missing.
- Writing demonstrates no understanding of audience and purpose.
- Response to assignment is not discernible.
Organization
Level 5 (3.5-4.0)
- Introduction serves as a vivid, engaging and informative “doorway” to the paper and establishes essay design.
- Ideas relate clearly to essay focus and are arranged in a logical sequence.
- Paragraphs and sentences are linked by appropriate transitions.
- Conclusion inventively, thoroughly and memorably unifies the essay.
Level 4 (2.5-3.4)
- Intro is informative and effective.
- Ideas relate clearly to essay focus and are arranged in a logical sequence.
- Paragraphs and sentences in most instances are effectively linked by transitions.
- Conclusion effectively unifies the essay
Level 3 (2.0-2.4)
- Intro is adequate but may be somewhat mechanical.
- Ideas are generally organized in relation to one another and to the focus; essay design is readily apparent. No more than one paragraph is unrelated to focus.
- Paragraphs and sentence are adequately linked by transitions.
- Conclusion adequately unifies essay.
Level 2 (1.5-1.9)
- Intro is ineffective or lacks development.
- Ideas are not generally organized in relation to one another; design is not apparent. More than one paragraph appears unrelated to focus.
- Paragraphs and sentences are not adequately linked by transitions.
- Conclusion fails to unify or adequately complete essay.
Level 1 (0.7-1.4)
- Intro is barely discernible or missing.
- Organization is not apparent. Paragraph order appears to be random; no paragraphing present.
- Transitions are not apparent.
- Conclusion is barely discernible or missing.
Style/Voice
Level 5 (3.5-4.0)
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Writing style or “voice” is engaging, individualized and carefully tailored to the essay audience/purpose.
- Writing tone is consistent and controlled, with refreshing and revealing word choices.
- Sentences patterns are inventive, varied and skillful.
- Detailing, illustrations and descriptions are abundant and serve to enhance essay design.
Level 4 (2.5-3.4)
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“Voice” is appropriate to the audience/purpose, though it may somewhat generic or predictable in places.
- Tone shows consistency and reveals a variety of word choices.
- Sentences are generally varied and skillful.
- Detailing is thorough and varied.
Level 3 (2.0-2.4)
- “Voice” is adequate to the audience/purpose though sometimes generic or predictable.
- Tone is generally consistent but may be show occasional verb tense shifts or predictable word choices.
- Sentences are mechanically sound. Some constructions may be predictable or repetitious.
- Detailing is adequate but minimal or sometimes vague.
Level 2 (1.5-1.9)
- “Voice” is noticeably generic or inappropriate (e.g. first person narrative may predominate in an analysis assignment.)
- Tone is often inconsistent; wording is predictable or inaccurate.
- Sentences may be sound but written in basic and repetitive structures; others may be garbled, awkward, strained or confusing.
- Detailing is mostly minimal or vague.
Level 1 (0.7-1.4)
- “Voice” is hard to characterize, perhaps because of the absence of technical control, word choice variety or knowledge of sentence patterns.
- Tone control is not discernible; wording is predictable, inaccurate or garbled.
- No sentence structure variety; nearly all sentences written in basic and repetitive structures.
- Detailing is either vague or absent.
Mechanics
Level 5 (3.5-4.0)
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Writing demonstrates full command of grammar, punctuation, sentence patterns and the conventions written English.
- Phrasing and diction are always precise and show a high degree of sophistication.
- Regarding conventions (spelling, punctuation, formatting), the writing is error free.
Level 4 (2.5-3.4)
- Writing demonstrates some variety of sentence patterns. Sentences demonstrate effective coordination and subordination.
- Phrasing and diction are accurate.
- Writing shows infrequent lapses in technical control that only rarely disrupt flow or clarity.
Level 3 (2.0-2.4)
- Writing demonstrates generally adequate sentence constructions. No more than two sentence structure errors.
- Phrasing and diction are usually accurate.
- Writing may show some lapses in technical control, but these errors do not frequently disrupt continuity or clarity.
Level 2 (1.5-1.9)
- Writing demonstrates frequent confusion over sentence boundaries, typified by fragments, comma splices and/or run-ons.
- Phrasing and diction are often inaccurate.
- Writing often shows lapses in technical control that frequently disrupts continuity and clarity.
Level 1 (0.7-1.4)
- Writing demonstrates little ability to write consistently coherent sentences.
- Phrasing and diction are nearly always inaccurate or incoherent.
- Writing consistently shows lapses in technical control that disrupts continuity and clarity.
