essay assignment

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, Carnegie Mellon University

1

Essay and Research Paper Grading Rubric

Developed by Jay Aronson (Carnegie Mellon University), modified by Steven Baur (Dalhousie University) Excellent Good Needs Improvement Poor F Overall Impression

Author directly addresses main question or issue, and adds new insight to the subject not provided in lectures, readings, or class discussions. The author makes use ideas and information presented in class and is able to synthesize this knowledge and relate it to material not covered in the course.

Author competently addresses main question or issue, but does not add much new insight into the subject. That said, it is clear that the author has learned a great deal in class and through researcch and is able to communicate this knowledge to others.

Author attempts to address main question or issue, but fails. The author has retained some information from the course, but does not fully understand its meaning or context and cannot clearly convey it to others.

Essay does NOT address main question or issue, and it is obvious that author has not retained any information from the course.

P L A G I A R I S M

Argument Essay contains a clear argument—i.e., lets the reader know exactly what the author is trying to communicate.

An argument is present, but reader must reconstruct it from the text.

Author attempts, but fails, to make an argument (e.g., starts with a rhetorical question/statement or anecdote that is never put into context).

No attempt is made to articulate an argument.

Evidence Provides compelling and accurate evidence that convinces reader to accept main argument. The importance or relevance of all evidence is made clear. There are no gaps in reasoning—i.e., the reader does not need to assume anything or do additional research to accept main argument.

Provides necessary evidence to convince reader of most aspects of the main argument but not all. The importance/ relevance of some evidence presented may not be totally clear. Reader must make a few mental leaps or do some additional research to fully accept all aspects of main argument.

Not enough evidence is provided to support author’s argument, or evidence is incomplete, incorrect, or oversimplified. Information from lectures and readings is not effectively used.

Either no evidence is provided, or there are numerous factual mistakes, omissions or oversimplifications. There is little or no mention of information from lectures and readings.

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, Carnegie Mellon University

2

Excellent Good Needs Improvement Poor F Sources Note: You should always consult the assignment description to find out what kinds of sources are required.

Evidence is used from a range of sources, which may include course lectures, course readings, and independent research. Research sources include scholarly books, websites, or journal articles, etc.

Evidence is used from many sources, but author relies heavily on a more limited set of sources. Some effort is made to go beyond material presented in class when required, but not much. If outside sources are used, they are primarily non-scholarly (i.e., intended for a general audience) and/or web-based.

Uses only a few sources. Few or none of the sources are scholarly publications.

Does not use sources, only minimally uses sources provided by instructor, or relies exclusively on non- scholarly outside sources.

Citations All evidence is properly cited using either Chigago (footnotes) or APA (parenthetical) style citation format.

All evidence is cited, but there are some minor problems with completeness or format of some citations.

Some pieces are unreferenced or inaccurately referenced, and there are problems with completeness and format of citations.

No attempt is made to cite evidence.

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, Carnegie Mellon University

3

Excellent Good Needs Improvement Poor F Organization Essay contains an intro, main

body, and conclusion. Introduction lays out main argument and gives an outline of what the reader can expect in the essay. Each paragraph follows logically from the previous paragraph. The conclusion brings everything together, and gives the reader a sense of what further work might be done to advance the subject matter described in the paper.

Essay contains an intro, main body, and conclusion. The introduction lays out the main argument but gives the reader little idea of what to expect in the essay. Not all paragraphs follow logically from the previous paragraph. The conclusion nicely summarizes the main argument and evidence, but does not move beyond what has already been presented in the paper.

Essay contains an intro, main body, and conclusion. The introduction gives the reader an idea of what to expect in the paper, but does not effectively lay out the main argument. There is not a logical flow from paragraph to paragraph. The conclusion does little more than restate the problematic introduction. Intro and/or conclusion may be too wordy or short.

Essay has no clear organizational pattern.

Clarity and Style

All sentences are grammatically correct and clearly written. Sentence structure is varied. Writing is efficient with no padding or needless verbiage. No words are misused or unnecessarily fancy. Technical terms, words from other languages, and words from other historical periods are always explained. All information is accurate and up- to-date. Paper has been spell- checked AND proofread (ideally by you and somebody else), and contains no errors.

All sentences are grammatically correct and clearly written. An occasional word is misused or unnecessarily fancy. Technical terms, words from other languages, and words from other historical periods are usually, but not always, explained. Most information is accurate and up-to-date. Paper has been spell-checked AND proofread, and contains no more than a few minor errors, which do not adversely affect the reader’s ability to understand the essay.

A few sentences are grammatically incorrect or not clearly written. Several words are misused. Writing is inefficient with excessive needless verbiage. Technical terms, words from other languages, and words from other historical periods are rarely explained. Not all information is accurate and up-to-date. Paper has been spell-checked AND proofread, but still contains several errors. Reader’s ability to understand essay may be compromised by these errors.

Paper is full of grammatical errors and bad writing. Several words are misused. Technical terms, words from other languages, and words from other historical periods are rarely explained. Not all information is accurate and up-to-date. Paper has not been spell-checked or proofread, and contains numerous errors. Reader has a difficult time understanding essay because of errors.