Writing Rubric

Rubric for Minor Writings and Quizzes (Version 2.0)

A score of five (5) will be awarded to writings that: demonstrates the writer’s choice of an engaging topic, clearly state the writer’s personal views with support from anecdotal evidence or direct and paraphrased textual evidence; have little or so few grammatical and mechanical errors that the writer’s intentions are not clouded; are organized in a manner that guides the reader through the piece, and are deep and insightful commentary on the texts we have read or the topic the writer has chosen.

A score of four (4) will be awarded to writings that: demonstrate the writer’s choice of a somewhat engaging topic, state some of the writer’s views with some support from anecdotal evidence or paraphrased textual evidence, but direct evidence may be missing; have some grammatical and mechanical errors that may cloud the writer’s intentions; are organized well, but could benefit from more careful organization, and are somewhat original commentary on the texts we have read or the topic the writer has chosen.

A score of three (3) will be awarded to writings that: demonstrate the writer’s choice of a mundane or overused topic, and may or may not state the writer’s views with minimal support from anecdotal evidence or direct and paraphrased textual evidence. A score of three (3) will be awarded to papers that are entirely composed of factual or summative information without any evidence of the writer’s views, are poorly organized, have grammatical and mechanical errors that cloud the writer’s intentions, and are unoriginal or merely surface commentary on the texts we have read or the topic the writer has chosen.

A score of two (2) will be awarded to writings that: demonstrate the writer’s choice of a mundane or overused topic, may not have a clear focus, or claim; have very limited or no evidence or support, have so many grammatical and mechanical errors that the writers intentions are clouded, are too brief to adequately address the topic, are very poorly organized, and make very little commentary on the texts we have read or the topic the writer has chosen.

A score of one (1) will be awarded to writings that: demonstrate the writer’s choice of a mundane or overused topic do not have a clear focus or claim, have no textual evidence, have so many grammatical or mechanical errors that the writer’s intentions are difficult to discern, are too brief to adequately address the topic, are written as a single paragraph, and make no commentary on the texts we have read or the topic the writer has chosen.