Guidelines for Rubrics
Rubrics, when carefully designed and judiciously used, can function as useful tools that help
teachers evaluate student papers with efficiency and fairness. One of the main benefits of using a rubric
to grade student papers is that it allows the instructor to explain to students what particular areas of
writing are going to be evaluated for a given assignment before the paper is written. That way, students
will be much more likely to understand the reasons for the grades they receive.
However, like all tools, rubrics can occasionally be misapplied. If this happens, a rubric can end
up creating more problems than it solves. With this in mind, the following guidelines are being offered
for you to consider as you develop and implement your own grading rubrics.
1. Use terms for grading criteria that are easy to understand and meaningful to both you and your
students.
2. Provide your students with definitions and specific examples of these terms before you use them as
part of your rubrics.
3. Feel free to use model rubrics provided by the department, but also create your own.
Experiment. Examine different rubrics to find out which work best for you. A rubric that works well
for someone else may not fit your own particular methods of evaluation. Remember, though, that
regardless of your individual method of grading, it is important that you use a rubric that provides fair
and objective criteria for grading student papers.
4. Make sure that the categories of evaluation in your rubrics are clearly tied to course objectives that
you actually teach.
5. Avoid using rubrics that are either too lengthy and complicated or too vague and simplistic.
6. Build flexibility into your rubrics that will allow you to adjust appropriately and fairly for papers that
may be outstanding in two or three areas but weak in just one.
7. Be cautious about using rubrics with point systems that are overly rigid. Using such a rubric could
cause you to end up distorting your evaluation of a paper that is basically
well written but weak in just one or two relatively minor areas. Keep your overall goals and objectives
in mind. If you are using a rubric to evaluate just one or two areas, be sure to inform your students
about this beforehand and be sure that the rubric you are using is suitable for measuring what you want
your students to focus on.
8. Remember, not all writing assignments need to be graded, and one type of rubric may not be
appropriate for all types of writing assignments.
9. Always be sure to explain and demonstrate to students the areas of writing you plan to evaluate and
grade before you assign a given paper dealing with these areas.