The following descriptions attempt to draw a rough profile in four
general categories of papers that fall into the high, middle and
low range. Instructors should keep all these categories in mind
when judging a student's writing and should not be overly influenced
by problems in a particular category. However, serious problems
in any one of these categories will obviously undermine an essay.
The essay is unified around and focused on a significant
central idea. It raises expectations and fulfills them. It
proceeds in a discernible direction.
The essay is mostly on one subject. It has discernible order
and some feeling for a central idea and its parts. The writer
stays on the topic, but may not always be in control of it.
The reader isn't always sure of the direction the essay will
The writer doesn't have any idea, implied or stated, on which
to focus, or, conversely, may present the reader with far
too many unrelated general ideas. The essay has no discernible
direction or may set up false expectations in the mind of
The main idea is developed logically in coherent, unified
paragraphs. The essay includes definitions of key words-definitions
that are naturally integrated into the student's thesis. The
transitions from paragraph to paragraph are effective, and
there is an easy and natural movement from the general to
the specific, both in ideas and language. Generalizations
are supported with extensive concrete detail.
Some paragraphs may be insufficiently developed or lack unity
and coherence. Paragraphs may not be linked to each other
or to the main idea of the essay. Illustrations and examples
may be insufficient. Sometimes examples will not be subordinated
to the generalizations they support. Occasionally an example
will get out of control and take over a paragraph or even
the whole essay.
Ideas are fragmented. Paragraphing is arbitrary. There are
either too many unrelated generalizations or too many details
that are inappropriate or irrelevant. Examples are often not
properly subordinated to the ideas they support. There are
few real connections between the paragraphs, and the essay
will probably stop without concluding anything, or have a
mechanical or false conclusion tacked onto it.
|STYLE (Sentences, tone, diction, point
Related words and ideas are kept together, and all general
and abstract terms are elaborated as soon as possible. There
is some variety in the length and type of sentences employed
by the writer, and the transitions (implicit or explicit)
between sentences are smooth and effective.
The writer succeeds in creating a voice that expresses
his or her feelings and point of view. There is a deliberate
use of tone and sense of audience.
Vocabulary is interesting, varied, and effective.
The writer is aware of the connotations of the words he or
she uses and is imaginative in the choice of language.
The style may be monotonous. There probably won't be enough
variety in sentence structure or in the length of the
sentences. The writer may fail to place proper emphasis on
the main idea of a sentence, combine closely related ideas
in successive sentences, or employ subordination to achieve
emphasis. The writer will not always keep related ideas and
words together in a sentence, and this failure will result
in dangling or misplaced modifiers and ambiguities that slow
down a reader's comprehension. Often the syntax of a sentence
will not reflect the logical relationship of its discrete
clauses. There will probably be many places where there is
no real transition from one sentence to another.
There is some attempt to use tone; however, the tone
may be inconsistent, occasionally inappropriate, or reflect
a wavering sense of audience. The reader is not always sure
of the writer's attitude toward audience or subject matter.
The writer may be unsure of the connotations of some
of the words he or she uses or employ cliches or jargon. Verbs
may be weak (too many state-of-being verbs or passive constructions).
Word choice is not always as imaginative or interesting as
it could be, and the language at times may be either too formal
and stilted or too informal.
Sentences are often short and choppy or long and incoherent.
The writer doesn't seem to know how to create emphasis
in a sentence or how to relate clauses in a sentence. Syntax
rarely reflects the logic of the idea the writer wishes to
express. There are few transitions between sentences, and
the lack of focus in the essay not only contributes to this
fault, but also results in over generalization and redundancy
at the sentence level. Because the writer doesn't understand
the principles of sentence structure very well, there are
problems of faulty parallelism, dangling elements, and misplaced
inodif ers. Ambiguities abound. The reader is often forced
to reread sentences and provide the connections that the writer
has left out. There may be run-on sentences or sentence fragments.
The writer has little or no sense of audience and
is often unsure of his or her own attitude toward the subject
under discussion. Tone and point of view may constantly shift
as the essay develops. Frequent tense shifts and errors in
pronoun agreement are often symptoms of the writer's failure
to establish a strong and consistent point of view.
Language may be stilted and overly formal, too informal and
slangy, selfconscious, juvenile, or simply unidiomatic. Choice
of words is limited and unimaginative, and the writer often
has no real sense of the connotations of the words used. The
writer may rely too heavily on state-of-being verbs, vague
adjectives, and cliches.
The essay has almost no misspellings and punctuation errors.
It is generally free of mechanical errors and grammatical
irregularities that would annoy, distract, or mislead the
The essay may not have very many mechanical problems, and
if they do exist, there are not enough of them to annoy and
distract the reader or impede comprehension.
There will probably be enough mechanical errors to annoy
the reader and impede comprehension. These may include
misspellings, problems with verb endings, punctuation errors,
pronoun reference and agreement, and run-on sentences and
sentence fragments, with their accompanying punctuation errors.
The following questions state, in abbreviated form, the above criteria:
1. Does the author have a main idea and does he or she stick
2. Does the author make defensible assertions and supply adequate
details to support these
3. Do the sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly?
4. Do the sentence patterns vary?
5. Is the essay relatively free of grammatical errors, punctuation
errors, and misspellings?
High B+ à A+
Middle C+ à B
Low NC (no credit) à C