GRADE CRITERIA RUBRIC
| Paper Element | Professional- Very good 5-4 |
Good to Average 3-2 |
Poor (Not suitable for university assignment) 1-0 |
| Title | Title clear & informative. Hints at scope, approach, argument | Contains elements of scope or purpose | Title tells little about content, argument or scope of work |
| Introduction & Thesis | Establishes purpose, thesis clearly, explicitly. Objective. Captures reader's attention | Less clear. States significance but thesis buried. | Some or no indication: social, temporal & geographic limits |
| Body Content Communication | Paper effectively captures reader's attention and communicates purpose, tone and topic. | Paper is generally well written; lacking in purpose or topic | Paper poorly related purpose. Reader distracted. |
| Organization | Excellent use of language, ordered and clear links to thesis statement | Some connection to thesis statement. Some lack of clarity | Lack of care, time and effort |
| Development and analysis | Impressive depth of insight/analysis. Well developed process where author presents ideas and uses other's ideas for support. Offers opposing viewpoint. | Adequate depth. Recitation of other's ideas coherently. Issues overlooked. No opposing viewpoint. | Little or no depth or insight. Lack of understanding of material read. |
| Referencing | Wide variety of well-researched, quality sources. Few if any non-reviewed internet sources. Clear consistent use of chosen referencing system. Few formatting errors. No missing sources. | Reliance on non-academic sources. Fairly consistent use of referencing system, several errors in usage. Lacks integration | Serious problems with referencing system, or several systems being used. Plagiarism material not checked for validity |
| Conclusion | Effectively closes the paper. Ties together all elements = Effectively integrated | Adequate integration and conclusion | Weak conclusion and integration |
| Overall cohesion | Clear, readable, coherent & mature. Avoids empty & pretentious language.Avoids ambiguities-abstractions. | Readable; somewhat coherent. Uses empty language; at times ambiguous. | Poorly constructed, unreadable, very ambiguous or pretentious |
| Format & style Grammar/spelling | Grammatically and typographically superior. (No errors or 1 per page) | Grammatical and typographical error (2-3 errors per page) | Significant grammatical and typographical errors (4+ per ) |
| Structure and transitions | Clear sentences. Variety of paragraph and sentence length. Strong clear leads. Smooth transitions | Sentences somewhat muddled with little variety in length. | Poor grammar in sentence and paragraph structure. Awkward |
| Graphics & tables, charts….format & structure | Properly placed and supplementary, Skillfully and attractively done with clear labels & descriptions | Lacking labels or descriptions. Not placed proper. Format not clear | Poorly placed. No labels or descriptions.Structure lacking |
| Overview & Presentation | Attractive and neatly presented. Effective, insightful document. Original approach and energetic | Average presentation. Interest but lacks insight. | Poorly presented. Lacks interest and not effective. |
| Total points | |||