Soundings Name: ______

Writing Rubric

Date: ______

Exceeds Expectations in all facets / Exceptional / Proficient / Not Yet Proficient / Experiencing Difficulties / Major Flaws with Prompt/Essay
Focus and Overall Development / Fluent and richly developed
Excellent/clear awareness of audience and task
Distinctive voice
Original, insightful or imaginative / Fluent and fully developed
Strong awareness of audience and task
Evidence of voice
Solid / Moderately fluent, limited development of ideas
Awareness of audience and task / Lacking fluency, thinly developed
Some awareness of audience and task
Repetitive or too general / Poor fluency, limited development
Poor awareness of audience and task
Lacks clarity / Not developed
No awareness of audience or task
Inappropriate response
Restatement of topic
Organization / Carefully, but subtly organized from beginning to end
Organizational devices are clearly subordinate to meaning
Exceptional focus and clearly logical order
Flow is exceptional and enhances overall piece / Organized from beginning to end
Organizational devices are mostly subordinate to meaning
Clear focus and logical order
Flow is exceptional / Organized, but may have minor lapses in order of structure
Meaning is subordinate to organizational devices
Focused
Flow evident / Organization is lacking
Focus is unclear or limited
Poor transitions
Shifts in point of view
Lacks closure
Flow is lacking / Organization is poor
Unfocused
Thought patterns difficult to follow
Continual shifts in point of view
Resembles free-writing / Complete lack of organization or focus
Writing is too short to complete assigned task
Content and Support / Supporting details are rich, interesting and full
Details are clearly relevant, appropriate for audience/focus and enhance overall piece / Supporting details are strong
Details are relevant and appropriate for audience and focus / Details are adequate to support focus
Details are generally relevant and appropriate for audience and focus / Details do not support focus
Details lack elaboration
Important details omitted / Details are listed
Details are repeated
Too few details to support focus / Virtually no details
Details do not support focus
Style: Sentence Structure / Sentence structure enhances style and effect
Virtually no errors in structure/usage
Successfully uses more sophisticated sentence patterns / Sentence variety is appropriate to style and effect
Few errors in structure or usage
Mostly successful in using more sophisticated sentence patterns / Some sentence variety
Some errors in structure or usage
Moderately successful in using more sophisticated sentence patterns / Little sentence variety
Many errors in structure or usage
Over-reliance on simple patterns
Repetitive constructions / No sentence variety
Errors in structure or usage interfere with meaning
Too brief to demonstrate sentence variety / Lack of sentence sense
Serious errors in structure or usage
Too brief to evaluate
Style: Word Choice / Rich, effective vocabulary
Fresh, vivid vocabulary
Usage of rich vocabulary enhances overall piece / Effective vocabulary
Some attempts to use rich vocabulary
Mostly successful using rich vocabulary / Acceptable vocabulary
Few attempts to use rich vocabulary
Marginally successful using rich vocabulary
Some misuse of “big” words / Simplistic vocabulary
Limited word choice
Noticeable errors in usage of vocabulary / Vocabulary not appropriate to piece
Incorrect word choice
Numerous errors in usage of vocabulary / Inadequate vocabulary
Too brief to evaluate
Conventions: Mechanics / Minimal or no mechanical errors, relative to the length/complexity of piece / Few mechanical errors, relative to the length/complexity of piece / Some mechanical errors that do not interfere with communication
Limited text, but mechanically correct / Many mechanical errors that do not interfere with communication / Noticeable mechanical errors that interfere with communication
Errors are disproportionate to length or complexity of piece / Mechanical errors that seriously interfere with communication
Too brief to evaluate

Editor #1: ______Editor #2: ______Editor #3: ______