Writing Studies General Grading Rubric

Grade Ranges
Below 60 60-70 70-75 75-80 80-90 90-100
Grades in this range identify Grades in this range identify Grades in this range These grades may Assignments in this Grades in this range are
assignments with problems assignments that, while identify a generally be given to range demonstrate very rare, and identify
sufficiently severe and/or pervasive generally acceptable, have AT good performance on assignments that the same features assignments that show
that they significantly compromise LEAST ONE of the following the criteria listed contain some minor as those in the considerable originality
the document’s ability to characteristics: below with minor mistakes, or even a upper range (clear and unusual skill in
communicate. problems of various very small number purpose; coherent addressing an audience,
a significant global kinds throughout the of more significant and cohesive accomplishing a purpose,
Grades in this range generally deficiency (mistaken audience, assignment or in ones, provided that writing, varied using an appropriate
indicate ONE or more of the inconsistency in purpose) more than one other outstanding prose style), but to style, choosing an
following characteristics: category. attributes a slightly lesser appropriate document
1. Plagiarism. several major problems (see compensate for degree or with a design or format, and
2. Failure to follow the assigned list below) them. few minor proofreading thoroughly.
topic. problems.
3. Severe systematic problems numerous minor problems

Please note that these descriptions are guidelines only, and do not cover all situations.

Evaluation criteria
Category Description of a major problem in this category
Purpose  an unclear, vague, weak, or otherwise problematic thesis statement
Audience  inappropriate linguistic register; incorrect assumptions about background knowledge of reader
Coherence  problems with paragraph length/structure
Cohesion  lack of connection between ideas, paragraphs
Style  lack of sentence variety, awkwardness, faulty sentence structure
Grammar  sentence boundary errors: fused sentences, comma splices, sentence fragments
Proofreading  typos, misspellings, and so on common enough to significantly slow down the reader
Format  poor document design for technical writing assignments; incorrect essay format
Citation  problems with proper citation format, scholarly procedure
Revised August 2013