A General Writing Rubric

We will assess all written work using the following guidelines. We will be more tolerant of spelling and grammatical errors for in-class essays than in paper written outside of class that should be carefully proofread. Your writing should observe the conventions of grammar and syntax, being especially careful to avoid run-on sentences and sentence fragments. Your diction should be interesting (but not like your consulted a thesaurus for every word), your sentence structure varied. Writing should reveal “a mind at work.”

Every essay should contain the following:

Introductory paragraph

  • An introductoryparagraph which arrests the reader’s attention and works smoothly towards the thesis statement, which is the LAST sentence of the introduction.

Body paragraph

  • Several body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should begin with an analytical topic sentence, an analytical statement of the inference or argument that you will present and prove in the paragraph. Your topic sentence SHOULD NEVER BE A PLOT SUMMARY. For example, this is not a topic sentence: “The play opens up with Nora hiding the Christmas tree.” There is no inference made there. What is implied about Nora when she hides the Christmas tree? What is implied that we see the tree first?
  • Use of the literary-critical vocabulary (think about your poetry terms and the elements of fiction we learned) is helpful when creating a topic sentence; for example, “Richard Wilbur’s diction evokes an ominous mood.” To prove your argument, you should use one or more examples from the text, both giving the example and showing its relationship to your topic sentence. (Think ICE and claim, evidence, warrant).
  • Each body paragraph should conclude with a concluding sentence, which does not merely summarize the plot or what the paragraph just said, but in fact draws a conclusion; it is NOT the job of this sentence to introduce the next paragraph.

Transitions

  • Transitions between paragraphs. This transition comes at the beginning of the new paragraph, not at the end of the previous paragraph. Because the transition is not the main idea, do not make it the main clause. For example, “In addition to creating an ominous mood, Wilbur’s language suggests that the adult is deceiving the child and obscuring a frightening truth.” (The transition is before the comma).

Concluding paragraph

  • This on is the most difficult to write. Do NOT simply repeat the introduction. This is a departure from what you have been taught in the past. Do not say “I think.” However, this is the point where you can make some judgment, can see the work in a larger context. Should children be sheltered from the brutality of life? When does it become appropriate to tell children the truth, even when it is cruel and predatory? A concluding paragraph on the 2007 poetry question might address these questions. Good concluding paragraphs are easier to recognize that to describe!

Title

  • An essay written out of class should have a title that points to your thesis directly or indirectly. For instance, “Innocence Preserved.”