Essay Rubric

4

Expert

3

Accomplished

2

Capable

1

Beginner

• Piece was written in an extraordinary style and voice
• very informative and well organized

• Piece was written in an interesting style and voice
• Somewhat informative and organized

• Piece had little style or voice
• Gives some new information but poorly organized

• Piece had no style or voice
• Gives no new information and very poorly organized

• Virtually no spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors

• Few spelling and punctuations errors, minor grammatical errors

• A number of spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors

• So many spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors that it interferes with the meaning

• Presents ideas in an original manner

• Presents ideas in an consistent manner

• Ideas are too general

• Ideas are vague or unclear

• Strong and organized beg/mid/end

• Organized beg/mid/end

• Some organization; attempt at a beg/mid/end

• No organization; lack beg/mid/end

• Writing shows strong understanding

• Writing shows clear understanding

• Writing shows adequate understanding

• Writing shows little understanding

• Sophisticated use of nouns and verbs make essay very informative

• Nouns and verbs make essay informative

• Needs more nouns and verbs

• Little or no use of nouns and verbs

• Sentence structure enhances meaning; flows throughout piece

• Sentence structure is evident; sentences mostly flow

• Sentence structure is limited; sentences need to flow

• No sense of sentence structure or flow

• Few (if any) errors

• Few errors

• Several errors

• Numerous errors