::Writing Standards::

Writing Standards[1]

Excellent

· Addresses the assignment thoughtfully and analytically, setting a challenging task.

· Displays awareness of and purpose in communicating to an audience.

· Establishes a clearly focused controlling idea.

· Demonstrates coherent and rhetorically sophisticated organization; makes effective connections between ideas.

· Provides clear generalizations with specific detail, compelling support, and cogent analysis.

· Cites relevant sources and evaluates their validity, effectively integrating them into text when appropriate.

· Displays superior, consistent control of syntax, sentence variety, word choice, and conventions of Standard English.

· ESL/Dialect Guideline: Grammatical errors are rare and do not interfere with overall effectiveness of the paper; occasional imprecision in word choice and usage may occur.

Strong

· Addresses the assignment clearly and analytically, setting a meaningful task.

· Addresses audience needs and expectations.

· Establishes a clearly focused controlling idea.

· Demonstrates clear and coherent organization.

· Provides clear generalizations and effective support and analysis.

· Cites relevant sources, effectively integrating them into text when appropriate.

· Displays consistent control of syntax, sentence variety, word choice, and conventions of Standard English.

· ESL/Dialect Guideline: Some grammatical errors may occur throughout the paper, but do not interfere with overall effectiveness; occasional inappropriate word choice or incorrect usage may occur.

Adequate

· Addresses the assignment with some analysis.

· Addresses most audience needs and expectations.

· Establishes a controlling idea.

· Demonstrates adequate organization.

· Provides support for and some analysis of generalizations.

· Cites appropriate sources, adequately integrating them into text.

· Displays adequate control of syntax, sentence variety, word choice, and conventions of Standard English; errors do not slow the reader, impede understanding, or seriously undermine the authority of the writer.

· ESL/Dialect Guideline: Grammatical errors, inappropriate word choice or incorrect usage may occur throughout the paper but rarely interfere with effective communication.

Seriously Flawed

· Addresses the assignment inadequately.

· Shows insufficient audience awareness.

· Strays from the controlling idea, or the idea is unclear.

· Displays formulaic, random, or confusing organization.

· Lacks generalizations, or provides generalizations with inadequate support or analysis.

· Fails to cite sources or cites and/or integrates them inappropriately.

· Shows deficient control of syntax, sentence variety, word choice, and conventions of Standard English; errors impede understanding.

· ESL/Dialect Guideline: Serious and frequent errors in grammar, word choice, or usage hinder communication.

Fundamentally Deficient

· Fails to address assignment.

· Demonstrates a lack of audience awareness.

· Lacks a controlling idea.

· Lacks organization or organizes illogically.

· Displays inability to generalize, analyze, or support ideas.

· Fails to use outside sources or misuses the texts of others.

· Shows inadequate control of syntax, sentence variety, word choice, and conventions of Standard English.