Evaluating Your Writing Using a Rubric

Gatsby Test Short Response Questions

The 6 Traits of Good Writing

• Content

• Organization

• Voice

• Word Choice

• Sentence Fluency

• Conventions

Content: Explanation

• This is the heart of the paper--what the writer has to say. It should be a topic that is important to the writer and should be small enough to handle in the paper. It should express the ideas clearly so every reader can understand and it should provide the reader with interesting insights. A solid, well-defined theme holds the paper together, giving a meaningful, focused, and detailed exploration of the topic.

Content Exemplars

• 1. The mood of this passage is gloomy and hopeless. Fitzgerald creates this mood through his word choice and through the use of figurative language. Fitzgerald’s choice of words and phrases such “desolate,” “grotesque gardens,” and “men who move dimly” helps him paint a picture of a location where the mood is somber and gloomy. Further, he uses figurative language to create further contrast between the Valley of the Ashes and the wealth and beauty of more wealthy parts of Long Island like East & West Egg. By calling the Valley of Ashes a “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens” he uses a simile to compare this industrial area to a horrific garden. He undermines his readers expectations of the pleasant place a garden should be which further contributes to a sense of spookiness in the Valley of the Ashes. This mood leaves us with a feeling of fear or uneasiness about the Valley of the Ashes, like it is a place where something bad may happen.

Content Rubric

• Advanced/5The writing is focused, well developed, and enhanced by details.

– A. The thesis is clear and concise.– B. The thesis is strongly supported by well-chosen and integrated details.– C. Ideas are engaging or sophisticated.

• Acceptable/3The writing may be focused, but it is only partially developed and may lack necessary details.

– A. The thesis is present; however, it may be too broad or predictable.– B. The thesis is supported by details, but the details may be general,

obvious, or insufficient in number.– C. Ideas are trite.

• Unacceptable/1The writing lacks focus, is incompletely developed, and has few details.

– A. The thesis is without direction or not evident.– B. Support for the thesis is minimal or non-evident; details are limited or

unclear.– C. Ideas are trite.

Grade Yourself!

• Grade it: Give each of your short response answers a grade of 1, 3 or 5

• Back it up: Write one + and one for each response

• Revise it: Take home your writing tonight and rewrite both short responses for a final grade

• To receive full credit you must have:– Your original short response answer un-editted– Your self-evaluation of your work– You newly written responses