Murphy Rubric for AP Lil – Poetry Analysis Essay Name:
Category / Distinguished / Proficient / Emerging / IncompleteWriting Focus / The essay skillfully identifies and expresses the poet’s message.
Background/Contextual evidence is clearly and thoughtfully expressed, and directly relates to the understanding of the poems message
The essay adeptly points to significant evidence (CD material) in the chosen poem.
The essay’s commentary or explanation of evidence is clearly and thoughtfully expressed, as the essay links this evidence back to the paragraph’s topic sentence and/or the essay’s thesis statement.
The essay makes clear and thoughtful connections to cultural, personal and/or historical context, and engages in significant, related “deeper analysis” / The essay adequately identifies and expresses the poet’s message
Background/Contextual evidence is adequately expressed, and relates to the understanding of the poems message
The essay points to significant evidence (CD material) at times
The essay’s commentary or explanation of evidence is adequately expressed as the essay links this evidence back to the paragraph’s topic sentence and/or the essay’s thesis statement. At times the commentary or explication may be simplistic, redundant, or convoluted.
The essay makes connections to cultural, personal and/or historical context, and engages in related “deeper analysis” / The essay attempts to identify and express the poet’s message, but oversimplifies or lacks clarity in the attempt.
Essay attempts to express Background/Contextual evidence, and relate it to the understanding of the message
The essay attempts to point to evidence (CD material) to support the essay’s identification of the poets message
The essay attempts to comment on or explain evidence, but, more often than not, the essay is not able to make logical connections between devices and their effects
The essay makes attempts to make connections to cultural, personal and/or historical context, and attempts to engages in “deeper analysis” / This essay makes almost no attempt to respond to the writing task, or does so in a way that is vague and unconvincing.
Background/Contextual evidence is not established, and/or unrelated to an understanding of the poems message
The writing does not use evidence (CD material) from the poem
The essay is unacceptably thin or brief and does not focus on analysis of literary or poetic devices
The essay does not attempt to make connections or engage in “deeper analysis”
Organization / The well-developed INTRODUCTION engages the readers and develops a significant and compelling message
BODY PARAGRAPHS are gracefully and logically organized.
Paragraphs have smooth, effective, and varied transitions.
A powerful CONCLUSION leaves a lasting impression of the poem with the reader. / The introduction engages the readers and conveys the message of the poem
Body paragraphs are logically organized.
Paragraphs have smooth transitions.
The conclusion is present, but may not leave a lasting impression of the poem with the reader. / The introduction attempts to engage the reader, although it may lack originality and/or may not convey the message of the poem
The essay is understandable, but body paragraphs may lack logical organization.
Paragraphs lack smooth transitions.
The conclusion lacks a compelling aspect and is simply a repetition of ideas. / The introduction does not attempt to engage the reader or it does not convey the message of the poem. It may be missing altogether.
Lack of logical organization of body paragraphs hinders meaning and understanding.
Paragraphs lack transitions.
The conclusion is missing.
Category / Distinguished / Proficient / Emerging / Incomplete
Effective use of Language / The essay contains varied sentence types and uses precise, descriptive language.
Writing is smooth, skillful, and coherent throughout the essay.
The writer demonstrates a clear sense of audience and uses the appropriate vocabulary for that audience.
Diction is at college level, but not overly stiff or formal.
The essay contains several memorable, quotable lines that help the essay to stand out from other essays. / The essay contains varied sentence types and uses some descriptive language.
Writing is smooth and coherent throughout most of the essay. The sentence structure is generally correct, though some awkward sentences do appear.
The writer demonstrates a general sense of audience and uses some vocabulary for that audience.
Diction is mostly at the college level, but may have some examples of unsophisticated or poor/incorrect word choices.
The essay contains a few memorable or quotable lines that help the essay to stand out from other essays. / The essay lacks sentence variety, and uses basic, predictable language. Many consecutive sentences begin with the same words, are of the same length or the same sentence construction.
Writing lacks flow to achieve coherence throughout the essay. Many awkward sentences.
The writer demonstrates little sense of audience and does not adjust the vocabulary for an audience.
Vague word choices leave the reader with questions. Diction is simplistic and lacks flair.
The essay lacks memorable or quotable lines that help the essay to stand out from other essays. / The essay contains no sentence variety.
Writing lacks coherence. Work contains multiple incorrect sentence structures (more than 3.)
The writer demonstrates no sense of audience, uses limited vocabulary, and makes no adjustments.
Diction is elementary and/or inappropriate, and often writing is awkward due to many examples of poor/incorrect word choice.
The essay lacks memorable or quotable lines that help the essay to stand out from other essays, or is memorable for its errors.
Conventions and MLA Format / The essay is virtually error-free.
Punctuation, spelling, grammar, and capitalization are correct. No errors interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.
Essay is properly MLA formatted. / The essay contains few errors in the conventions of the English language.
Errors do not interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.
Essay is MLA formatted with a few minor, non-distracting errors. / The essay contains numerous errors in the conventions of the English language.
Errors may interfere with the reader’s understanding of the paper.
Essay has multiple lapses in MLA formatting, but an attempt to follow the format is obvious. / The essay contains serious errors in the conventions of the English language.
Errors interfere with the reader’s understanding of the paper.
MLA formatting was not attempted.