adapted from Erec Toso
FREY 102
1.11.16
Grading Guide – Public Argument Essay
your name:______________
Content: Focusing Idea
A: Central idea is independent, complex, intellectually and/or emotionally challenging, showing
that the writer thoroughly engaged with his or her chosen topic and a context that increases
understanding of some aspect of that topic. Content has been divided into logical and
comprehensible order that contributes to the evolution of the central idea.
B: Central idea is clear, precise, and engaging. Understanding of some aspect of the chosen topic
and a context is above average. Main idea has been divided and arranged into a logical,
meaningful order.
C: Central idea is clear. It runs through the essay but is not narrow enough or developed enough
to fully teach something about what the writer sees at work in his or her chosen topic. Central
idea has been broken into arbitrary parts.
D: Very little of writer’s thoughts about the chosen topic and how it is better understood through
some context. The writer may argue some idea or fail to focus the discussion around some aspect
of that topic. Essay rambles with little sense of order to the discussion of the main idea.
Development: Evidence and Analysis
A: Writer supports ideas with numerous texts and uses them to support his or her thinking about
the topic. There is plenty of cogent commentary, explanation, analysis and inferential discussion
that seamlessly connect quotes and/or paraphrases with controlling ideas.
B: Writer controls numerous texts to illustrate ideas through paraphrase, summary and direct
quotes. Citations are skillfully incorporated.
C: Writer uses quotes and/or paraphrases correctly to support ideas. Quotes and/or paraphrases
may be awkwardly incorporated, under-explained or followed up on, sometimes disrupting the
flow of ideas.
D: Quotes and/or paraphrases used but sometimes incorrectly, awkwardly, or not incorporated.
They sometimes stand by themselves.
Expression/Mechanics: Style, Active Prose, Readability, MLA format, Works Cited
A: Ideas are expressed in a way that reveals a thoughtful, independent discussion. Explanations
are thorough, polished, and eminently reader-friendly. Word choice shows attention to precision
and smooth progress. Sentences are varied and used for rhetorical effect.
B: Sentence structure and progression of ideas is correct, even sophisticated, but are not yet fully
reader-based. Moments of clarity, even brilliance, mix with gaps and/or abrupt shifts from one
idea to the next.
C: Wording is adequately precise and grammatically correct but wanders or falls short of
elaborating on the specifics of controlling idea. Sentence structure tends to be repetitive and
simple.
D: Wording is imprecise and doesn’t name concepts accurately. Sentences are overly simple or
incorrect in ways that interfere with the conveyance of ideas.
adapted from Erec Toso
FREY 102
1.11.16
Reflection Writing Exercise #3
1) What did you learn about applying the rhetorical situation to your academic writing?
(appeals of ethos/pathos/logos/varying)
2) If you had one more draft, what is most needed/what would you do differently?
3) If, in the final unit, you were asked to dramatically revise the genre and form of your Public Argument, what
choices would be most interesting for you as the author, and most effective for your focused/chosen audience?