Essay Grading Help with Easy Grading Rubric

Many teachers of college English dread grading essays. Reading through the essays is difficult and trying to determine grades isn't easy. However, what is most frustrating is coming up with a way to explain why you graded the essay and "A" or a "C." Most instructors don't have much trouble determining the difference between and "A" and a "C" essay, but they often find it hard to convey that difference, or the difference between and "A" and a "B," to students. I developed the following grading rubric several years ago. Last year, I was convinced someone must have come up with something better and easier, so I scoped the internet for another tool. In the end, I realized that my Grading Rubric was the best one I was able to find because it allows me to give a lot of information easily. I copy it off on two sides of a sheet of paper and it gives me about 1/3 of a sheet for comments. I always start off with a comment about what I think the writer did well on the essay, and then move into commenting on what I think was not as well done, or what I'd like to see them improve on in the next essay. Along with this grading rubric, I usually also make some comments on the paper itself and underline grammar errors (putting a check mark to the side of the paper). Hopefully, this rubric will be helpful to other Freshman English teachers. For some essays, I have re-written it to reflect specific aspects of that assignment, but I also find it can work to have just the same one for each paper in the class.

Name______________________ Essay #___________

Check = error in the sentence.

A=9 or 10 (exceptional work) B=8; C=7; D=6; F=5 or below

______ Pre-Writing Assignments, writing center visits

(A) All assignments completed carefully and thoughtfully.

(B) Assignments completed.

(C) Assignments not thoroughly done

(D) Incomplete assignments

(F) No assignments/ poorly completed

______ Draft

(A) Complete draft ready for workshop which indicates considerable pre-writing work

(B) Complete draft, ready for workshop which indicates some careful thought

(C) Complete draft ready for workshop but not as fully thought through

(D) Incomplete draft for workshop

(F) No draft (draft completed and peer edited outside of workshop=5/half credit)

______Pre-Writing, Peer Editing, Writer's Response, in-class peer editing responses

(A) Carefully considered and complete responses which indicate what is good about the paper and also give some clear and thoughtful suggestions for improvement

(B) Complete responses which offer some help to writer

(C) Responses which are more mechanical and show less thought

(D) Responses are not complete and not carefully considered

(F) No responses

_____Title, Opening and Conclusion

(A) Title sets tone for the essay, provocative opening establishes topic and engages reader and conclusions indicate significance of paper and don't just summarize

(B) Title indicates subject, more predictable opening and conclusion not as strong

(C) Title indicates subject, introduction weak and conclusion summarizes

(D/F) unimaginative title or no title, introduction and conclusion predictable and ineffective

_______Thesis, topic sentences, organization, unity and coherence

(A) Clear central idea that controls the organization of paper unity and coherence through entire paper and within well-organized paragraphs

(B) Strong central idea which usually unifies paper, some paragraphs may not be effectively organized

(C) Clearly stated central idea but paper not clearly unified and weak organization

(D/F) central idea not clearly stated, paper lacks focus, disorganized

_______Content

(A) Treatment of content reflects originality, thorough development of ideas and thoughtful reading of sources.

(B) More predictable content

(C) Conventional or stereotypical content, very predictable

(D/F) unoriginal content/ content not coherent

______Logic, Examples Details, Focus

(A) Sound logic and ample supportive details and examples make for a strong, convincing, focused paper

(B) Sound logic, middle paragraphs directly focus on subject but sometimes not enough supporting detail or examples

(C) Clear topic sentences but not enough support or evidence; details don’t always focus on main idea

(D/F) illogical thinking, evidence not relevant, ideas are not focused

_______Unity and coherence in Voice, Tone and Transitions and awareness of Audience

A) Consistent mature tone and voice which consistently is aware of audience and smooth transitions

(B) Writer usually aware of audience but some mixed levels of usage and transitions sometimes mechanical

(C) Writer not always aware of audience and also some mixed levels of usage and/or weak transitions

(D/F) no awareness of audience, transitions missing

_______Sentence Variety and Word Choice

(A) Sentences are clear and concise with varied and effective structure. Word choice is fresh, lively, and precise

(B) Sentences are generally clear and concise with some sentence variety and few shifts in tense, voice or person; word choice sometimes inappropriate or emotional but usually clear

(C) Sentences are sometimes unclear or wordy; sentences are somewhat varied; word choice tends to be repetitive and there is a tendency to use clichés and awkward phrases

(D/F) sentence structure garbled, repetitive, incomplete or simplistic; word choice dull and ineffective, constantly unoriginal

_______ Grammar, punctuation, spelling errors

(A) Excellent (0-2 errors)

(B) Good (3 errors)

(C) Fair (4 errors)

(D) Poor (5 errors)

(F) Unacceptable number of errors (6 or more errors or more than 2 serious errors)

Grade: ________________

Some weaknesses in your paper circled below. See grammar book or writing lab for help on these areas.

1. ORGANIZATION PROBLEMS: thesis statement, topic sentences, paragraph organization, whole essay organization, sentence organization, argument idea weak

2. DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS: undeveloped topic, audience not clearly defined, draft not significantly improved, details not sufficient, details don’t focus on topic, details not specific enough , evidence weak, repetitive

3. LANGUAGE USE PROBLEMS: adjectives, adverbs, transitions, prepositions, awkward word order, sentence fragments, misplaced modifiers, word choice, repetition , sentence variety, run-ons, coordination and subordination, pronoun reference, mixed and incomplete sentences

4. GRAMMAR PROBLEMS: parallelism, pronoun errors, verb tense shift, subject verb agreement, spelling, comma errors, semicolon use, quotation punctuation errors, apostrophe, hyphen