Invention of Content

topic

thesis (stated or implied)

focus

purpose

audience

Other:

Ideas are clear, insightful, thought-provoking, and focused; consistently support the topic, thesis, and audience for the paper.

Ideas are clear and focused to support the topic and a clearly-developed central idea, but are not consistently insightful or thought-provoking.

Ideas are clear but

conventional or general and support the topic, thesis, and audience for the paper.

Ideas are unclear or clichéd and demonstrate a lack of focus in support of the topic or a central idea, which may be vague or missing.

Score:

Development

evidence (details, examples, etc.)

proof or rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos)

Other:

Development is illustrative, with abundant details and examples that arouse audience interest and provide relevant, concrete, specific, and insightful evidence with effective appeals.

Development is adequate, but may lack depth, with details and examples that arouse audience interest and provide relevant, concrete, specific evidence with effective appeals.

Development is sufficient but general, providing adequate but perhaps not interesting details, examples, and evidence; few, ineffective, or fallacious logical, ethical, or emotional appeals.

Development is insufficient, providing scarce or inappropriate details, evidence, and examples that may include logical, ethical, or emotional fallacies or unsupported claims.

Score:

Organization

structure

coherence

unity

topic sentences

transitions

Other:

Organization is coherent, unified, and effective in support of the paper’s purpose and consistently demonstrates effective and appropriate rhetorical transitions between ideas and paragraphs.

Organization is coherent, unified, and effective in support of the paper’s purpose and usually demonstrates effective and appropriate rhetorical transitions between ideas and paragraphs.

Organization is coherent and unified overall in support of the essay’s purpose, but is ineffective at times and may demonstrate abrupt or weak transitions between ideas or paragraphs.

Organization is confused and fragmented in support of the essay’s purpose and demonstrates a lack of structure or coherence that negatively affects readability.

Score:

Style

sentence structure

word choice

tone

voice

verb tense

purposeful punctuation

Other:

Style is confident, readable, and rhetorically effective in tone, incorporating varied sentence structure and precise word choice.

Style is readable and rhetorically effective in tone, incorporating varied sentence structure and effective word choice.

Style is readable, but unremarkable in tone, sometimes including a lack of sentence variety and ineffective word choice.

Style is incoherent or inappropriate in tone, including a lack of sentence variety and ineffective or inappropriate word choice.

Score:

Grammar, Format, and Mechanics

paper format

Standard Written English (commas, s-v agr., sentence boundaries, etc.)

spelling

documentation format

MLA (or other required) format

Other:

Format, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct; meet all assignment directions, and work expertly to support the essay’s purpose.

Format, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct and meet all assignment directions, and work generally to support the essay’s purpose.

Format is mostly correct and meets critical aspects of assignment directions. Some distracting errors in grammar, spelling,

and punctuation.

Format faulty, does not meet sufficient aspects of the assignment direction, and does not support the essay’s purpose. Numerous distracting errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Score: