Content and Development

With the new Holt ELA Textbooks, the Intelligent Essay Assessor™ evaluates each essay for the five analytic traits listed below. For each trait, one of the following skill levels is reported to the student: advanced, competent, limited, or emerging. View the level-specific feedback provided to students.

Content and Development

Advanced

·  uses mostly meaningful and thoughtful ideas

·  elaborates and supports most ideas with specific details, reasons, explanations, and/or examples

Competent

·  uses some meaningful and thoughtful ideas

·  elaborates and supports some ideas with a mixture of general and specific details, reasons, explanations, and/or examples

Limited

·  uses routine, predictable ideas

·  provides limited or uneven elaboration and support of ideas

Emerging

·  uses superficial, unclear, or confusing ideas

·  lacks elaboration and support

Focus and Organization

Advanced

·  consistently addresses the prompt

·  shows strong awareness of audience

·  displays a clear plan with a logical arrangement of ideas and effective use of transitions

·  demonstrates strong unity and completeness

Competent

·  addresses the prompt, but may include minor digressions

·  shows some awareness of audience

·  displays effective organization and transitions, with minor lapses

·  demonstrates general unity and completeness

Limited

·  attempts to address the prompt but frequently loses focus

·  shows little awareness of audience

·  displays basic organization, with noticeable lapses in the logical flow of ideas and few, if any, transitions

·  demonstrates minimal unity and completeness

Emerging

·  shows little attempt to address the prompt

·  shows no awareness of audience

·  displays little, if any, organization

·  lacks unity and completeness

Effective Sentences

Advanced

·  forms sentences correctly; errors in sentence formation are rare and minor

·  demonstrates exceptional sentence quality by avoiding awkward sentences

·  displays considerable variety in sentence types, lengths, structures, and beginnings

·  displays considerable fluency

Competent

·  generally forms sentences correctly but with occasional errors

·  demonstrates sentence quality with few, if any, awkward sentences

·  displays some variety in sentence types, lengths, structures, and beginnings

·  displays some fluency

Limited

·  exhibits limited sentence correctness; may contain several major errors

·  demonstrates limited sentence quality; may contain several awkward sentences

·  displays limited variety in sentence types, lengths, structures, and beginnings

·  displays limited fluency

Emerging

·  exhibits frequent and major flaws in sentence correctness

·  demonstrates poor sentence quality; may contain many awkward sentences

·  displays little or no variety in sentence types, lengths, structures, and beginnings

·  displays little, if any, fluency

Word Choice

Advanced

·  uses words that are especially appropriate to audience and purpose

·  uses many words that are precise and accurate; may be vivid and imaginative

·  may use figurative language and imagery skillfully

Competent

·  uses words that are generally appropriate to audience and purpose

·  uses some words that are precise and accurate

·  may use figurative language and imagery somewhat effectively

Limited

·  uses some words that are somewhat appropriate to audience and purpose

·  uses few, if any, words that are precise and accurate

·  may use figurative language and imagery awkwardly

Emerging

·  uses words that may not be appropriate to audience and purpose

·  uses vague or inaccurate words that may interfere with clarity and meaning

·  may use no figurative language and imagery

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics

Advanced

·  demonstrates consistent command of language conventions

·  exhibits consistent command of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization

Competent

·  demonstrates general command of language conventions

·  exhibits general command of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization

Limited

·  demonstrates limited command of language conventions, with significant errors

·  exhibits limited command of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, with significant errors

Emerging

·  demonstrates pervasive and serious errors in grammar and usage

·  exhibits pervasive errors in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization