Buford High School – Essay Grading Rubric

BHS Essay Rubric

Weighted Points
5 4 3 2 1 Value Earned
The essay is fully The essay is The essay is The essay is The essay shows
focused and contains consistently focused sufficiently focused minimally focused. little or no focus and
IDEAS a wealth of ideas and and contains ample and contains some The provided the ideas are unclear,
 Controlling idea examples. The ideas and examples. ideas and examples. examples are vague irrelevant, or
 Supporting ideas
 Use of details
writer uses rhetorical
strategies and
The writer may
employ rhetorical
The response is
generally appropriate
or general and the
response
repetitive. The
response is
X2
 Awareness of purpose addresses strategies or address to the persuasive demonstrates incomplete or too
 Sense of completeness counterarguments. counterarguments. purpose. minimal awareness. brief.

ORGANIZATION
 Introduction/body/conclusion
 Sequence of ideas
 Grouping of ideas
 Effective transitions
 Awareness of purpose
The organization of The organization is The organization is The organization is The essay shows
ideas supports the appropriate and the generally appropriate formulaic or little evidence of
writer’s focus. Ideas sequencing of ideas and the ideas are inappropriate. The organization or
are grouped in a is logical. Varied clearly sequenced, response may lack a sequencing.
logical manner.
Effective and varied
transitions are used. but may be
repetitive.
clear introduction or
conclusion.
Transitions are not
used. The response
X1
transitions are used. Transitions are used Transitions are rare. is incomplete or too
brief.

The writer utilizes The language and The language and The language and The language and
carefully crafted tone of the essay tone are appropriate. tone are uneven. tone are
STYLE phrases to create a enhance the Word choice is Word choice is inappropriate. Word
 Sentence variety sustained tone and an persuasive purpose. adequate, but may be simple, ordinary, or choice is incorrect or
 Word choice
 Audience awareness
authoritative voice.
Word choice reflects
Word choice is
appropriate.
simple or ordinary.
Some sentence
repetitive. There is
minimal variation in
confusing. The
response is
X1
 Personal voice an advanced Sentences are varied. variety is evident. sentence length and incomplete or too
vocabulary. structure. brief.

The writer The writer The writer The writer The writer lacks
demonstrates full demonstrates demonstrates demonstrates understanding of the
CONVENTIONS command of the knowledge of the sufficient control of minimal control of conventions of
 Sentence formation conventions of conventions of the conventions of the conventions of written English.
 Subject-verb agreement
 Standard word forms
written English written English. written English. written English. Errors are pervasive. X1
language. No errors Errors are minor and Errors may interfere Errors are frequent The response is
 Punctuation, spelling, and are evident. do not interfere with with meaning, but and interfere with incomplete or too
capitalization meaning. are not distracting. meaning. brief.

TOTAL POINTS = ____________

21 - 25 = A
16 - 20 = B
11 - 15 = C
10 - 0 = F