Essay Evaluation Guidelines
The following guidelines describe the attributes of each kind of essay.
A-Essay
1. Demonstrates the ability to avoid the obvious, gaining insights that are
personal and illuminating. (content)
2. Develops ideas flexibly and with control and purpose.
(organization/structure)
3. Uses the bon mon, inventive with language. (diction/language/style)
4. Uses punctuation rhetorically for effect and clarity.
(punctuation/mechanics)
5. Is inventive with words and structures to create a style, even though
they may fall short at times. (grammar/style)
B-Essay
1. Absorbs and interprets ideas and texts meaningfully.
2. Has a clear sense of order.
3. Uses adequate words that express thoughts (diction).
4. Uses mechanics as an integral part of meaning and effect in prose.
5. Shows the capacity to consider alternative ways of expression.
C-Essay
1. Shows a tendency to depend on the self-evident and cliché.
2. Uses too obvious of an organization or writes without a plan.
3. Shows a limitation in the range of words and a dependence on
colloquialisms.
4. Uses mechanics correctly or incorrectly depending on the plainness of
style.
5. Has a general unawareness of the choices that affect style.
D- and F-Essays
1. Shows a tendency to exploit the obvious (substance is superficial or
even barren).
2. Has a tendency to wander aimlessly (lack of conception).
3. Has a tendency to play it safe with words.
4. Contains a high incidence of grammatical error.
5. Shows a tendency to write highly convoluted sentences (seeming like
thoughts before they are straightened out), or plays it safe with
sentences.
Adapted from Teaching Expository Writing, William F. Irmscher (157-78)
A. B. Inoue
Page 1 of 1