Drama Essay Rubric
Student __________________________
Content
Introduction provides a hook that gets the reader’s attention ____/3
Introduction includes the title and author of the text being discussed ____/3
Introduction states what character is being discussed ____/3
Introduction provides background for an uninformed audience ____/3
Introduction provides a thesis statement that lays out a plan for
body of the essay ____/3
First body paragraph focuses on how the character is revealed at
the beginning of the play ____/3
First body paragraph contains an effective topic sentence that
introduces the main focus of that paragraph ____/3
First body paragraph includes a direct quote from the text ____/3
First body paragraph is at least five sentences ____/3
Second body paragraph how the character changes throughout
the course of the play ____/3
Second body paragraph contains an effective topic sentence that
Introduces the main focus of that paragraph ____/3
Second body paragraph includes a direct quote from the text ____/3
Second body paragraph is at least five sentences ____/3
Third body paragraph focuses on how the character is described
near the end of the play ____/3
Third body paragraph contains an effective topic sentence that
Introduces the main focus of that paragraph ____/3
Third body paragraph includes a direct quote from the text ____/3
Third body paragraph is at least five sentences ____/3
Each body paragraph contains enough information to support
the thesis ____/3
Conclusion restates or reminds the reader of the thesis ____/3
Conclusion effectively wraps up the important points of the
essay ____/3
Conclusion provides a creative closure that provides a good
ending to the discussion ____/3
There is a logical and organized progression of ideas throughout
the essay ____/3
The essay has an appropriate and formal tone ____/3
Quotation marks are used correctly to indicate direct quotes ____/3
A variety of sentence lengths and structures are used throughout
the essay ____/3
Works Cited
Works Cited begins on a new page ____/3
Works Cited is the same font and size as the essay ____/3
Works Cited is double spaced ____/3
Works Cited title is centered ____/3
Works Cited title is placed on the top line of the page ____/3
Citations begin flush to the left. Second line of any entry is indented ____/3
One source is listed on the Works Cited page ____/3
Source is referenced with a correct parenthetical citation in each
body paragraph ____/3
Citation is in correct MLA format ____/3
Books, magazine, web page titles are underlined or in italics ____/3
Short story, articles, and web page articles are in quote marks ____/3
All important words in titles begin with capital letters ____/3
There are appropriate period, commas, and other punctuation
between pieces of information ____/3
All parenthetical citations within the essay can be easily found
on the Works Cited page ____/3
Formatting
Essay includes a page number in the top right corner of each page ____/3
Student’s last name is placed before the page number ____/3
There is a space between the student’s last name and the page
number ____/3
Last name and page number are placed on the page using the
“Insert” tool ____/3
Essay includes a heading in the top left corner of the first page
that includes the student’s name, the date of submission,
the title of the assignment, and the final word count ____/3
Essay heading is NOT placed on the page using the “Insert” tool ____/3
Essay includes a title that is centered, the same size font as the
essay, no quotation marks, is not all caps, no bold, no italics,
no underlines ____/3
Essay font is Times New Roman, size 12 ____/3
Essay paragraphs are indented using the tab key instead of spacing ____/3
Essay is double spaced ____/3
Essay includes 1-inch margins ____/3
Grammar and Deductions
Essay contains no sentence, grammatical, and/or punctuation
errors ____/-0
Essay contains 2-5 sentence, grammatical, and/or punctuation
errors ____/-5
Essay contains 6-10 sentence, grammatical, and/or punctuation
errors ____/-10
Essay contains 11+ sentence, grammatical, and/or punctuation
errors ____/-15
Essay is not written in third person, essay contains personal
pronouns ____/(up to) -10
Essay contains contractions ____/(up to) -10
Essay contains extra spaces between paragraphs ____/(up to) -4
TOTAL ______________________/150 = ______________________ / 100%
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