The rubrics and descriptors below are designed generically; they can be altered to fit a specific assignment. The grader should decide on weights for each feature based on what he or she values, and the features may be altered as well.

The points add up to 50. They should be doubled if one person grades and added together if two people grade. In the latter case, the point spread should not be more than seven. If it is, a third grader should arbitrate, or one grader should re-score.

	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor
Accuracy	10	8	6	4
Development	10	8	6	4
Audience/Genre	10	8	6	4
Organization	5	4	3	2
Spelling	5	4	3	2
Punctuation & Grammar	5	4	3	2
Usage	5	4	3	2

Accuracy
Excellent: All facts included are correct and complete; facts complement the argument or reinforce the thesis and are appropriate to the reader’s level of understanding.
Good: All facts are correct and complete and mostly complement the argument or reinforce the thesis and are appropriate to the reader’s level of understanding.
Fair: All major facts are correct but may be missing crucial contextual information or be tangential to the argument or thesis. Generally appropriate for the audience.
Poor: At least one, and sometimes more, major facts are incorrect; facts are correct but taken out of context so they are distorted; facts are irrelevant to the argument or thesis or inappropriate to the audience.

The rubric below is used in the class for training Undergraduate Writing Assistants. Their assignment is to do a grammatical analysis of a piece of writing they select. Since they are training to help with writing-intensive classes, there is a heavy emphasis on correctness, punctutation, and other writing issues.

Again, the points add up to 50. They should be doubled if one person grades and added together if two people grade. In the latter case, the point spread should not be more than seven. If it is, a third grader should arbitrate, or one grader should re-score.

Descriptor

	High	Middle	Low
Analysis/ Content	Covers the content required and then some. Goes into accurate details about the grammatical features and connects them to the author’s style, content, or purpose (the rhetorical situation). Points out things an average reader may not even notice without consideration. Gives many examples to illustrate points.	Covers the content required and not much more. Details are there but are not very full, and may sometimes be inaccurate. Examples are given but are not ample.	Describes but does not analyze. Tells what is there but not why, or how it relates to the rhetorical situation or style. Many inaccuracies.
Rhetorical Appropriateness	The style and tone are exactly suited to a memo written in an academic setting. The writer addresses the reader and the concerns of the reader.	The style and tone are fairly well-suited to an academic stetting but may not be personally suited to the memo recipient. A few word choices or other stylistic choices may be slightly off.	The style and tone are unsuited to a memo and to an academic setting. The writer ignores or misses the concerns of the reader.
Organization	There is an evident principle of organization. There may be headings, and if so they guide the reader. Topic sentences may also guide the reader. The memo is easy to skim. Everything the forecast mentions will be discussed is included.	The principle of organization may be present but may not be the best choice (i.e., it may be chronological, ordered by how the essay being analyzed is ordered, rather than logical, according to categories such as “apostrophes,” “diction,” etc. Headings might be lacking where they would have helped.	There is no evident principle of organization, and transitions between paragraphs are weak or non-existent. Sometimes transitions are present but they are awkward or highly mechanical.
Introduction/ Conclusion	Introduction: Sets the context for the memo—what the memo writer is doing and why—and explains the rhetorical situation for the writing being analyzed. Includes a brief summary of content of the essay being analyzed and a thesis. May also include a forecast statement (“In this memo I will . . .”  or  “This memo explains . . .”). Conclusion: If the introduction does not include the thesis, the conclusion does. Reviews major points and makes some general comments about the author’s style or about writing.	Introduction: Provides the required rhetorical situation and describes the piece being analyzed, but neglects the thesis. Conclusion: Summarizes or reviews the major points.	Introduction: Dives right into the assignment without more than a mention of what is being analyzed. Misses or does a very surface job of describing one of the major components (rhetorical situation; summary of content). Conclusion: Just ends.
Usage & Grammar Punctuation Spelling	Conforms to the norms of edited American English. Uses language concisely and eloquently. Flows well from one sentence to the next and reads well aloud. Sentence lengths and types vary to give the prose rhythm. The few errors there may be do not get in the way of reading fluently. There are adequate transitions or links between sentences.	May be a little wordy in places, where sentences could be combined, but reads fairly well. Diction may be correct but is not always lively. Matter-of-fact and correct, but not really showing a personality doing the writing. Errors are minor and not distracting.	Errors are distracting and show a lack of understanding of sentence-level grammar or the basic conventions of edited American English.