Essay Rubric for the Multi-Genre Paper

Essays describe, inform, or persuade. Your essay will accomplish one or two of the purposes about your topic. Your essay must have:

  • A creative, catchy title that relates to your topic.
  • A focused, unifying thesis statement.
  • Either strong support for your thesis or details that describe your topic.
  • A strong, personal voice.
  • Powerful words.
  • A logical organization.
  • Sentences with variety and flow.
  • Correct conventions.
  • Approximately 2- 3 pages long.

Resource: http://158.91.55.1/~jeanar/Rock_files/multi.gen.htm

Writing Traits

 

 

Ideas

 

Organization

Voice

 

Mechanics

 

Qualities of a strong (5) paper

 

paper is clear, focused, and interesting; holds the reader's attention; anecdotes and details enrich the theme or story; fresh and original

 

enhances the central idea or theme; order, structure or presentation is compelling

 

writer speaks directly to reader; writer is clearly involved in the text; writing to be read

 

a good grasp of standard writing conventions: grammar, capitalization, punctuation, usage, spelling, paragraphing; errors are few; only light editing needed for publication

 

Qualities of a developing (3) paper

 

clear and focused; topic shows promise even though still limited, sketchy, or general

 

strong enough to move the reader along without confusion

 

writer seems sincere, but not genuinely engaged or involved; result is pleasant but short of compelling

 

a reasonable control over a limited range of conventions; errors numerous and serious enough to be somewhat distracting; uses some conventions well; would require moderate editing for publication

 

Qualities of a weak (1) paper

 

no clear sense of purpose or theme; reader must make inferences based on sketchy details

 

lacks a clear sense of direction; ideas, details, or events strung together at random

 

writer seems indifferent, uninvolved, distanced from the topic; flat; mechanical; overly technical/jargonistic

 

errors repeatedly distract and make the text difficult to read; extensive editing required for publication