7/28/2019 Literary Essay Evaluation
1/2
Name Literary Essay Rubric
6 5 4 3 2 1
LEVEL OFCOMPREHENSION&FOCUS
a sophisticated thesisreveals an in-depthanalysis of the
text
a sound thesisdemonstrates aplausibleinterpretation of
thetext
a clear thesisdemonstrates someinterpretivecomprehension of
thetext
a thesis demonstratesa basicunderstanding of thetext
the thesis is sogeneral/simple itdoes not needdevelopment ;
anobvious fact
no evidence of athesis OR thethesis does notdemonstrate areading
of the
text
ORGANIZATION
exhibits a sophisticatedand coherent structurethrough
skillfulplacement of ideas andeffective transitioning
exhibits a coherentstructure with logicalplacement of ideasand
smoothtransitions
exhibits a logicalstructure and hasrelatively
smoothtransitions
exhibits a rudimentarystructure that has fairlysmooth
transitionscombined with somechoppy ones
much of the essayseems out oforder, illogical andhas very
fewtransitions
essay has little tono sense oflogical order
SUPPORT &FOCUS
ideas are original,clearly developed andsupported with
effective,relevant, and specificreferences in order toanalyze the
text
ideas are developed,making use ofrelevant and specificreferences
in order tointerpret the text
most ideas aredeveloped, withinterpretation of thetext, making
use ofrelevant and specificreferences from the
text
ideas are brieflydeveloped, using somerelevant and
specificreferences from thetext combined
withparaphrasing/summary
most ideas areundeveloped,repetitive, orsupported onlywith
summary oftext
ideas areundeveloped,unsupported, orsupported withirrelevant
text orsummary
LEAD/INTRO.
innovative, originalintroduction thatindicates writers graspof
topic, purpose andaudience
pulls the reader intothe piece, introducesthe text and
thesis
standard lead andintroduction to thesis
(it works)
lead is attempted,introducing the textand thesis
lead is attempted,but does little tointroduce essay
too short, non-existent, orunfitting for theessay
CONCLUSION
writer comes to aconclusion, leavingreader satisfied
andthinking
writer comes to aconclusion aboutthesis/text, leavingreader
satisfied
writer comes to aconclusion, tiesessay together
restates thesis, may besuperficial
short or superficial,just tacked on theend
non-existent ordoes not make apoint
VOICE
DictionSyntaxImageryTone
utilizes terminologyappropriate to genre,
chooses distinct words,and varies sentence lengthand grammatical
structureto create an original andconfident voice both fittingto
the purpose of the essayand intended audience
utilizes terminologyappropriate to genre,
makes conscious wordchoice, and varies somesentence length
andgrammatical structure tocreate a convincingvoice
utilizes terminologyappropriate to genre,
and varies somesentence length andgrammatical structure;voice is
stronger insome parts of essay
attempts to utilizeterminology appropriate
to genre, experimentswith varied sentencelength and
grammaticalstructure; a hint of voiceis present in essay
writing shows littleawareness of varying
grammaticalstructures or wordchoice to fit purposeof essay;
voice mayonly be present inlead and conclusion
no voice and noawareness of
audiencedemonstrated ;sentences areawkward, rambling,fragmented
and/orconfusing
CONVENTIONSmastery of conventions:no spelling, punctuationor
format errors(including MLA format &citing text)
strong conventions:correct format; one ortwo reasonable errorsin
punctuation, verbtense, spelling,and/or MLA format
a few grade-appropriate errors informat, spelling,punctuation,
verbtense, or MLA format
some grade-appropriate errorscombined withcareless errors
inspelling, conventions,editing or MLA format
frequentspelling/editingtyping and MLAformat errors
Too many errorsin spelling,conventions, orMLA format to
beconsidered a finaldraft
Conventions must earn at least a 4 in order for the overall
essay to earn anything higher than a 4.
