rubrics

Grade	Overall Development	Organization	Support	Sentence Structure	Word Choice	Mechanics
10	* Your essay showed that you have learned and understood how to use all the parts of the essay (title, introduction, body, conclusion) to convey your ideas. You have also shown that you have learned various techniques of writing sentences and how to make one sentence flow to the next. Excellent work! * Your essay is a satisfying example of perfect technique and knowledge of the English language combined to produce a tight, persuasive, and well-organized essay. Well done!	* Your essay showed that you have learned and understood how to use all the parts of the essay (title, introduction, body, conclusion) to organize various ideas and opinions into a coherent and satisfying whole. You have also shown that you have learned the techniques of how to organize words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs to convey your ideas effectively. Very well done!	* Your essay is a perfect example of how various elements (words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs) are used together effectively to support a central statement. The skillful and artful use of a wide variety of details to support your main idea is outstanding. Bravo!	* Your essay showed that you are capable of skillful and artful sentence constructions to effectively convey your ideas, and at the same time, sustain your reader’s interest. * Well-constructed sentences enhance the power of an essay by drawing attention to the central idea and reinforcing the relationships among the supporting ideas. You were able to do this extremely well!	* You used powerful, evocative words in such a skillful way that your essay is a joy to read. * Your successful use of a rich, broad range of words that have been carefully placed throughout your essay shows that you have diligently studied English words and how to use them. Congratulations!	* It is evident that you have a strong and effective use of punctuation that guides the reader through the text. * Your perfect punctuation, spelling, and capitalization makes your essay easy to understand and a delight to read.
9	* Your writing is fluent and clearly focused. * You were able to hold your reader’s attention because of your essay’s substantive development.	* The paragraphs in your essay are coherent and unified. * Your essay demonstrated a logically organized structure with an effective use of transitions. * Your essay established and maintained an insightful central idea and it was clear that you understood the purpose of your essay.	* The details in your essay are interesting, rich, and informative throughout. * Your details clearly supported the central idea of your essay. * The development of ideas in your essay is ample, specific, and logical.	* There were no errors in either sentence construction or grammar. * The way in which you constructed your sentences helped make your essay effective and easy to read. * The style and overall effect of your essay was helped by the way you put your sentences together.	* Your essay has powerful words that energized the writing. * You used a rich, broad range of words that have been carefully chosen and thoughtfully placed in your essay.	* You are good in spelling words. You correctly spelled difficult words. * You used correct capitalization in your essay. * Your correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation contribute to the clarity and power of your essay.
8	* Your essay is clear, precise, and original. * The ideas presented in your essay are insightful and original.	* Your essay is carefully organized from beginning to end. * There is a logical order throughout your essay. * The ideas you have presented flow together smoothly. * The introduction and conclusion of your essay are effective, clear, and well developed.	* The ideas in your essay are clearly developed using extensive details. * The details of your essay are strong and varied. * Your ideas are fully developed.	* There was good sentence variety that helped with the flow of your essay. * There were very minimal errors in either sentence construction or grammar. * The sentences you used in your essay are well-structured and relatively varied. * You were successful in using different sentence patterns. * You used well-structured and varied sentences in your essay.	* You used accurate, strong, and specific words. * Your vocabulary is striking and varied, yet it is still natural and not overdone. * You used descriptive words that evoke strong images.	* It is evident that you have control over capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. *You used basic capitalization correctly. *You used correct punctuations at the end of your sentences.
7	* Your writing is fluent, and your essay is fully developed. * Your essay clearly presented a central idea and supported it with substantial details. * Your writing is purposeful and somewhat focused. * The essay has a natural flow of ideas that guides the reader from one paragraph to another.	* Your essay is organized from beginning to end. * Everything is in a logical order. * The transitions or connections between your ideas are subtle or smooth. * The introduction and conclusion are clear and generally well developed. * Your essay established and maintained a clear central idea and it demonstrated a basic understanding of the topic. * Your essay demonstrated a logically organized structure with a consistent use of transitions.	* The details you have presented are appropriate for the subject of your essay. * Most of the ideas in your essay are elaborated, with clear movement between general statements and specific reasons, examples, and details.	* You were mostly successful in using more sophisticated sentence patterns. * Your sentences are somewhat varied in structure, length, and beginnings. * Some of your sentences helped draw your reader’s attention to your central idea. * Your sentences have correct structure and are somewhat varied.	* You used specific, accurate language in your essay. * You mainly used familiar words and phrases in your essay. * You used fresh, vivid expressions in your essay. * The words you used made your essay engaging and interesting to read.	* Your spelling is correct, especially on simple words. * You spelled most common words correctly. * Errors in capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are not severe enough to distort meaning or cause confusion in your essay.
6	* Your essay reflects some depth in thought, which enable your readers to understand some of the ideas that you want to convey * Your writing is moderately fluent. * Some ideas in your essay are repetitive or too general.	* Your essay established and maintained a clear central idea and it demonstrated some understanding of the topic. * Your essay demonstrated an appropriate organizational structure and sequence; however, it lacked transitions and some paragraphs were incoherent. * The introduction and conclusion of your essay are clear and somewhat developed.	* Your essay developed ideas adequately using sufficient appropriate details. * The development of ideas in your essay is adequate, with some movement between general statements and specific reasons, examples, and details. * The details your have presented in your essay are generally relevant to your main idea.	* You have good control over simple sentence structures, but you have little control over more complex sentences. Ex) * There is some variety in sentence structure, length, and beginnings; however, you sometimes fall into repetitive sentence patterns.	* You used highfalutin words in your essay, but most of them are not particularly effective in expressing your ideas. * The words you used are mostly correct, but they were mostly simple words. * The words you used are appropriate for the tone of your essay, but they do not particularly make your output engaging.	* Your errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation do not obscure the meaning of your sentence, but they distract your readers. * Your essay has occasional lapses in capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. * Your essay needs moderate editing for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
5	* There are some parts of your essay that are unrelated to your central idea. * There is little evidence that you are willing to take risks in developing your topic. * Your writing reflects that you are quite aware of your essay’s purpose and topic.	* Your essay established a central idea but it demonstrated little understanding of the purpose and topic. * The organization of the essay is simplistic. *	*The development of ideas in your essay is brief and inconsistent. *The ideas in your essay are not developed because of limited and repetitious details. *The details in your essay need more elaboration.	* Your essay relies on simple sentences. * There are some awkward sentences that interfere with your essay’s central idea. Ex) * There are some repeated patterns of sentence structure, and length that may interfere with your essay’s overall impact.	* There are no descriptive words in your essay that evoke strong images. * You used familiar words in your essay, but they rarely capture the reader’s interest. Ex) * Your essay relies on simple and predictable vocabulary.	* You have some control over basic spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. * You end your sentences with the correct punctuation marks. However, you committed frequent errors in internal punctuation. * Some spelling errors in your essay distract your readers. * You misspelled common words.
4	* Your essay is not fully developed, and some of your paragraphs do not focus on your main idea. * In your future works, please understand your topic better so you can provide a fully developed essay.	* Your essay demonstrated an attempt at an organizational structure and sequence; however, they were not quite effective. * The introduction and conclusion are clearly recognizable but are underdeveloped.	*Most of the details in your essay are somewhat irrelevant to your principal idea.	* Your essay lacks brevity and clarity because of your sentences. * The sentence patterns you used in your essay are monotonous. * Some parts of your essay are difficult to follow or read because of awkward sentences.	* Some highfalutin words (or technical terms) are used inappropriately in your essay. Ex) * The words you used are quite ordinary and they lacked interest, precision and variety. * The words you used made your essay flat and uninteresting.	* Frequent spelling errors greatly impair the clarity and readability of your essay. * You have many errors in basic punctuations. * Your errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation interfere with the readability of your essay.
3	* Your essay is poorly developed and it reflects that you have poor awareness of your paper’s purpose and topic. * Your essay does not present a clear idea, and most of your paragraphs do not focus on your topic.	* Your essay suggested a central idea but it demonstrated minimal understanding of the purpose and topic * Your essay did not maintain a basic organizational structure and sequence. * Your essay has little indication of an organizational structure, and some logical grouping of ideas within parts of the paragraphs is apparent. * The transitions used are simple and obvious, and they are inappropriate or misleading.	* The ideas in your essay are not fully developed because of incomplete and inaccurate details.	* Your sentences are confusing and rambling. * Your sentence structure obscures the central idea of your essay. * Your essay has a significant number of awkward, choppy, vague sentences.	* Your essay contains inappropriate word choices. * You used general, vague words that fail to express your ideas. * Your essay contains a significant number of unnecessary words that obscure the ideas of your paragraphs. Ex)	* You have little control over basic spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. * Your essay contains many internal and end-of-sentence punctuation errors. * Your capitalization is inconsistent and often incorrect. * Your essay needs substantial editing for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
2	* Your essay is somewhat difficult to read because it does not have a clear focus. * In your future works, you need to be aware of your essay’s topic and purpose so you can write an essay that has rich details and clear focus.	* Your essay failed to establish a central idea or show understanding of the purpose and topic. * Your essay has little or no evidence of an organizational structure and logical grouping of ideas.	* The details in your essay are completely irrelevant to the central idea. * Your essay does not have enough details to support your central idea. * You put very few details and examples in your essay. * The details given are general and are not clearly relevant to your central idea.	* Most of your sentences need to be reread several times in order to make sense of the writing. * Your sentences are incomplete and very awkward.	* Your essay has major errors in word choice. Ex. * You used an extremely limited range of words in your essay. * Most of the words that you used simply do not fit the topic of your essay. Ex.	* You have very limited control over basic spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. * Your essay needs extensive editing for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
1	* Your essay is not developed. * You have presented a single idea in your essay; however, you provided no development for your idea. * Your essay simply restated the topic. * Your writing reflects that you are not aware of your essay’s topic and purpose. * Your essay is off-topic. Please consult your teacher so you will understand the assigned topic.	* The ideas in your essay are not relevant to the main topic. * The single sentence you wrote is incoherent. * The single paragraph you wrote is incoherent. * Your essay is off-topic. Please consult your teacher so you will understand the assigned topic.	* The details and examples you put in your single paragraph is unrelated to the assigned topic. * The details and examples you put in your single sentence is unrelated to the assigned topic. * Your essay is off-topic. Please consult your teacher so you will understand the assigned topic.	* Your essay is off-topic. Please consult your teacher so you will understand the assigned topic. The sentence fragments you wrote are difficult to understand. * The single sentence you wrote is incoherent. * The single paragraph you wrote is incoherent.	* Your essay is off-topic. Please consult your teacher so you will understand the assigned topic.	* Your essay is off-topic. Please consult your teacher so you will understand the assigned topic. * The sentence fragments you wrote are filled with misspelled words. * The single sentence you wrote is incoherent. * The single paragraph you wrote is incoherent.
0	Non-Scorable: An essay is non-scorable if it is gibberish and incoherent, or if the student wrote nothing or merely copied the teacher's instructions. Consult your team leader if you are unsure if an essay is non-scorable. A non-scorable essay should be given a score of "0" in all six criterion. Write "This essay is non-scorable in the "Strong Point," "Weak Point," and "Total Comments" boxes.