How Your Writing Will be Assessed

I’ve shared the course rubric we’ll use this semester, but I know that sometimes things can get buried on this site. To make the rubric more easily findable later on, I’m writing this post and tagging it with the word rubric, so if you’re looking for it later, you can look at the list of tags on the right side of the site, click rubric, and you’ll find this post. Easy, right?

The pdf version is better for printing, but I’ll paste the same text below for easier reading on a screen. (I think/hope this site is mobile-friendly?)

Quality of Ideas

• Focuses on insightful and intriguing observations, rather than explaining the obvious
• Develops multiple complex ideas, rather than repeating a single point
• Shows a willingness to take intellectual risks, exploring points that might be hard for others to see

Organization

• Orders paragraphs and sentences purposefully, not randomly
• Helps readers see how different paragraphs and sections are connected, using transitions and section headings when appropriate
• Helps readers see how the sentences in a paragraph are connected, using segues to make each sentence flow logically from those preceding it
• Helps readers enter and exit the discussion with an engaging introduction and a compelling conclusion that emphasizes the significance of this discussion

Evidence

• Supports points with evidence from outside texts when evidence is logically needed, always choosing the evidence best suited to the rhetorical situation
• Balances summary, paraphrase, and quotation with the author’s own words, never leaning too much on sources or avoiding them completely
• Strongly integrates summary, paraphrase, and quotation into the author’s sentences, always introducing outside sources and working them into the author’s grammar naturally
• Cites evidence in a way that fits with the genre of the author’s piece (e.g. linking in a blog post, following MLA or APA style for a printed essay, and so on)

Style

• Chooses words and sentences that are lively, engaging, varied, beautiful, graceful, clear, and powerful, depending on the rhetorical situation and the author’s purpose
• Shows a strong command of the grammar and punctuation of standard written English, breaking those rules only in ways that seem purposeful and fitting with the rhetorical situation and the author’s purpose