Expository Writing Rubric

These are the six factors in the rubric (for each level):

• Ideas and insights on a limited topic
• Use of a rhetorical strategy
• Organization
• Development
• Style
• Grammar, punctuation, and spelling

Work by an Accomplished Writer will have some or all of these qualities:

• Offers a fresh take, full of compelling ideas or insights, on a topic that is limited to what is manageable in an essay of a certain length.
• Makes sophisticated use of an appropriate rhetorical strategy in exploring, analyzing, and probing ideas on or perceptions of a topic.
• Is organized so that the connection between each paragraph and the thesis is made transparent, and so that the essay progresses logically and with a sense of inevitability toward its conclusion, which seems fully justified and accounted for by what has come before.
• Is developed with strong and continuous attention to specific detail and in a manner that examines a topic fully and convincingly.
• Is stylistically vivid, vigorous, clear, succinct, and precise throughout.
• Is largely free of errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Work by a Proficient Writer will have some or all of these qualities:

• Offers logically consistent and sometimes fresh and intriguing ideas or insights on a sufficiently limited topic (for an essay of a certain length).
• Makes skillful use of an appropriate rhetorical strategy in exploring and analyzing ideas on a topic.
• Is organized so that each paragraph relates clearly to the thesis and so that the essay moves logically toward a conclusion, which follows from what went before.
• Is developed with continuous attention to specific detail and in a manner that sufficiently covers a topic.
• Is stylistically skillful but is not as vivid, vigorous, clear, succinct, and/or precise as it might be.
• May contain a few errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Work by a Satisfactory Writer will have some or all of these qualities:

• Offers ideas on a topic but the ideas and insights are not particularly fresh or intriguing; the topic may not be sufficiently narrowed for an essay of a certain length.
• May make use of an appropriate rhetorical strategy in exploring ideas on a topic.
• Is not always coherently organized; it may not be clear how each paragraph relates to the thesis; the essay moves, perhaps in rambling fashion, toward a conclusion, which may not fully follow from what has gone before.
• Is insufficiently developed; detail is often non-specific; does not do justice to the topic.
• Is stylistically adequate (i.e., capable of basic communication) but is distinctly lacking in vividness, vigor, clarity, succinctness, or precision.
• Contains a number of errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Work by a Developing Writer will have some or all of these qualities:

• Offers few ideas or insights on a topic; the topic is probably ill-defined and inappropriately large for an essay of a certain length.
• Does not make adequate use of a rhetorical strategy, or may use an inappropriate rhetorical strategy.
• Is incoherently organized; may ramble or contain distracting digressions; may or may not have a conclusion.
• Is notably under-developed; most details are non-specific.
• Is stylistically inadequate in every important way.
• Contains numerous serious errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Work by a Remedial Writer will have some or all of these qualities:

• May or may not have a discernible topic; if it does, the topic is probably impossibly large for an essay of a certain length.
• May not use a rhetorical strategy (or the rhetorical strategy may be indiscernible).
• Is lacking in any clear pattern of organization.
• Is extremely under-developed; all or most details are non-specific.
• Is stylistically out of control.
• Contains numerous and frequent errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.