AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
SIX TRAITS NINE POINT RUBRIC - ARGUMENTATION
Name: ______________________________________ Topic: ________________________ Date: ______________ Grade: _____/9
Trait
Upper Third
Middle Third
Lower Third
9**************8***************7
6***************5***************4
3***************2***************1
providing a strong, unique thesis (perhaps
qualifying the assertion). Ideas are welldeveloped with specific, apt examples which
provide insight atypical of most other responses.
Argument includes thoughtful
concession/refutation and avoids fallacies. Intro
and conclusion are interesting and vital parts of
the overall argument.
The response clearly answers the prompt providing a
clear thesis; however, the thesis tends to oversimplify
the assertion. The essay includes a few specific
examples, which, although all or mostly correct, tend to
be obvious or typical of a number of other responses,
resulting in uneven development. Concession/refutation
is cursory. Some minor fallacies may be present. The
intro and/or conclusion may need development or
relevance to the whole.
The response fails to clearly answer the prompt or
does not provide a strong thesis (i.e. It simply
restates the prompt without expressing a clear
opinion, misrepresents the assertion, etc.) Ideas
are poorly developed, either because of lack of
specific examples or because of incorrect
examples. Intro and/or conclusion may be
irrelevant to the argument. Parts or all of the essay
may be unacceptably brief. If the essay is not
argumentative or if it is illegible, it will earn no
more than a score of 1.
The response is organically organized, allowing
the content to dictate the organization rather than
the organization to dictate the content. Transitions
are smooth and lead the reader effortlessly
through the argument.
The response is adequately but formulaically organized.
It may be a 5-paragraph essay. Some
connections/transitions between ideas may be missing
or vague, but the reader can generally follow the
argument without difficulty.
Organization is problematic. The essay may be
missing an intro or conclusion, a clear thesis,
and/or topic sentences. The essay may be one
long paragraph in parts or throughout.
Connections/transitions may be inappropriate-creating confusion--or missing--causing the essay
to read like a list.
Sentences are elegant.
Sentences are functional but not elegant. A few
constructions may be grammatically awkward or
incorrect, but they do not impair the reader's
understanding.
Sentences are often grammatically awkward or
incorrect, impairing the reader's understanding.
Word choice is mature, precise, and elegant.
Word choice is grade appropriate and functional, but
Word choice is often immature, imprecise, and/or
not elegant. A few choices may be imprecise, immature, incorrect, impairing the reader's understanding.
or incorrect, but they do not impair the reader's
understanding.
The writer effectually employs various rhetorical
techniques to engage the reader. The overall
combination of ideas, sentence fluency, and word
choice is individualistic and creates strong
emotional appeal.
It is apparent that the writer attempted to employ
rhetorical techniques to engage the reader; however,
these may be unsophisticated or ineffectual. The overall
combination of ideas, sentence fluency, and word
choice is typical rather than individualistic.
The writer makes no discernible attempt to employ
rhetorical techniques to engage the reader. The
overall combination of ideas, sentence fluency,
and word choice is confusing or inappropriate for
the task.
Conventions are correct.
Conventions are usually correct. There may be some
errors in more advanced skills, but these are few and
do not interfere with the reader's understanding of the
essay.
Conventions are often incorrect. There are multiple
errors in elementary skills that interfere with the
reader's understanding of the essay. Essays that
have illegible sections will earn a score of 1 here.
Ideas/Content The response clearly answers the prompt
Organization
Sentence
Fluency
Word Choice
Style/Voice
Conventions
*Note: Ideas/Content is the most important category and has the most impact on your overall grade. (i.e. You will often earn an overall score that is the same as
your Ideas/Content score, regardless of how well you score in other categories.) Organization is the second most important category and has the second most
impact. The rest of the categories have only a small impact on the overall grade.
In your next essay...
Do...
Don't...
Ideas/Content
___ Answer the prompt in your thesis (All prompts require you to
include your own opinion in some way.)
___ Choose the correct mode: argument or analysis
___ Include AT LEAST 2 specific examples (textual references) in each
body paragraph (more for an upper third score)
___ Include the number of required sources for a synthesis essay
___ Apply appropriate literary/rhetorical terms (esp. in close readings)
___ Explain your examples; a good ratio is 1:2 (one example: two
explanatory sentences)
___ Fully develop your intro (usually 3 sentences)
___ Fully develop your conclusion, but avoid just restating topics of
body paragraphs—make it an integral part of your argument
___ Use various modes of discourse to prove your argument
___ Make connections to current events, classic pieces, etc. in
argumentative essay
___ Simply restate the prompt as the thesis
___ Ignore part of the prompt in your thesis
___ Choose obvious, possibly unrelated, topics for your body paragraphs(i.e.
“diction, imagery, and syntax”)
___ Chose obvious, possibly unrelated, examples
___ Forget you must explain HOW each example shows what you are trying
to prove
___ Simply summarize/restate the reading(s)/prompt
___ Quote long passages—instead paraphrase and use partial quotes
___ Make up facts or use incorrect facts. Remember, your readers will be
educated and well-informed.
___ Pad your response with irrelevant evaluative statements (i.e. “In this
great speech...”)
___ Offend your reader with biased comments about groups he/she may
belong to (i.e. political parties, different ethnicities, different regions, etc.)
Organization
___ Choose an organization that fits with your content
___ Write a clear intro, body, and conclusion with appropriate paragraph
breaks
___ Use appropriate transitions both within and between paragraphs
___ Simply default to a 5 paragraph essay
___ Use formulaic topic sentences and transitions (i.e. “The first reason is...”)
___ Neglect to include topic sentences with key words/phrases from thesis
___ Write one sentence intros or intros so long you don't have time to
develop the body of your paper
___ Neglect your conclusion or simply restate the topics of the body
paragraphs in the conclusion
___ Vary your sentence beginnings, lengths and structures
___ Use parallelism to make your sentences grammatically correct
___ Be afraid to include non-standard sentences (i.e. sentence fragments)
sparingly for rhythm and style purposes
___ Work on improving the precision/clarity of your diction
___ Work on improving the variety of your diction
___ Work on improving the sophistication of your diction
___ Use slang or language that is too colloquial
___ Use inflated language
___ Use “you” (and usually not “I”)
Style/Voice
___ Employ specific rhetorical techniques on both the diction level (i.e.
imagery, metaphor, simile, etc.) and sentence level (I.e anaphora,
epistrophe, etc.)
___ Use cliched rhetorical techniques (I.e “black as night”)--or cliches in
general!
___ Be afraid to sound like you and/or say something that is unusual or a
little strange—as long as you can prove it
___ Adopt a tone inappropriate to the task or to an academic paper (i.e.
calling the author of the piece being analyzed by his/her first name, etc.)
Conventions
___ Learn appropriate punctuation of titles
___ Learn correct homonym spelling (I.t. Too, two, and too; there, their
and they're, etc.)
___ Learn the different genres of non-fiction (I.e speeches, letters,
memoirs, etc.)
___ Learn the different ways to correctly incorporate quotes, including
partial quotes.
___ Learn the (very few) correct uses for semi-colons and colons
___ Make your sentences grammatically parallel
___ Capitalize and punctuate quotations correctly
___ Document correctly for a synthesis essay
___ Ever call a non-fiction text a “novel”
___ “Float” a quote without proper incorporation
___ Write sentence run-ons
___ Write sentence fragments
___ Put in random, unnecessary commas
___ Use single quotations—unless you have quote within a
Sentence Fluency
Word Choice