ESOL 0354 Essay Scoring Rubric CONTENT Generalities / Details Originality ORGANIZATION Introduction/ Conclusion Organization Paragraph structure Transitional language GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY Vocabulary and word forms Grammar (Exs: verb tenses & forms, sing./plural, gerunds/infs., word order, negs., question forms, etc.) Sentence structure MECHANICS Spelling Punctuation/ Capitalization TOTAL 1 2 3 4 The essay includes almost all generalities, or almost all details, but not a balance of both Writer says nothing original about the topic The essay includes some generalities and some relevant details, but not enough of one or both Writer says little that is original about the topic The essay gives a fair balance of generalities and relevant supporting details Writer presents the topic in a fairly original way The essay provides both clearly stated generalities and relevant supporting details Writer makes the topic original, fresh, very interesting Essay lacks both a “hook” + thesis and a clearly expressed conclusion Careless organization of topic, with loose comparisons/ contrasts Essay lacks either a “hook” + thesis or a conclusion, or one or both is/are not effective Essay contains some organization of topic, but often not clear and precise Paragraphs contain identified topics, but are not well developed Essay has both a “hook” + thesis and a conclusion, but one or both is/are just fair Topic fairly clearly organized Essay has both an effective “hook” + thesis and a clearly stated conclusion Organization is clear, tightly expressed, and relevant in almost all cases All paragraphs are clearly focused and tightly developed, with a clearly identified topic for each Paragraph structure is unfocused with no clearly identified single topic, or paragraphs need much more development There is very little transitional language between and inside paragraphs, or much of the transitional language is not appropriately used There is some transitional language between and inside paragraphs, but not enough, or else too much, or else often not appropriately used Wrong word choices, word form errors, and/or non-English words make the meaning often hard to understand Vocabulary and/or word form errors are sometimes hard to understand; or vocabulary is very simple and general Grammar is so uncontrolled that meaning is often hard to understand Grammar has enough errors that meaning may sometimes be hard to understand Paragraphs are fairly well focused and well constructed, and most topics are fairly clearly identified and developed There is a fair amount of appropriate transitional language between and inside paragraphs: maybe not quite enough, or maybe a bit too much Vocabulary and/or word form errors appear occasionally, but meaning is always clear; vocabulary may be fairly general Grammar has some errors, but meaning is always clear There is enough appropriate transitional language between and inside paragraphs to help to make them coherent and effective Vocabulary and word forms have few or no errors; vocabulary is specific and appropriately used Score ___ x3 = ___ ___ x1 = ___ ___ x2 = ___ ___ x2 = ___ ___ x3 = ___ ___ x2 = ___ ___ x3 = ___ Grammar has few or no errors ___ x3 = ___ Sentence structure is so non-English that meaning is often hard to understand Sentence structure is very simple with few errors, or has so many errors that it is sometimes hard to understand Sentence structure is clear and has few errors, but may be fairly simple Sentence structure is complex and sophisticated, with few errors; very clearly expressed Misspelling makes the meaning often hard to understand Punctuation and/or capitalization errors are so non-English that meaning is often hard to understand Numerous spelling errors are sometimes hard to understand Punctuation and/or capitalization errors make the essay sometimes hard to understand Spelling has occasional errors, but the meaning is always clear Punctuation and/or capi-talization have occa-sional errors, but the meaning is always clear Spelling shows few or no errors ___ x3 = ___ ___ x1 = ___ Punctuation and capitalization show few errors ___ x2 = ___ %