Essay Scoring Guide Letter Grade

"A" essay
Content:
- Complies with all parts of the assignment.
- not only informs the reader, but explains, persuades and enlightens her or him as well.
- develops thoughts by using explanation, example analysis and illustration
- Displays original thinking by:
achieving fresh insight into the topic; placing a well-known idea into a novel context; discovering broad significance for a specific idea or instance; identifying and resolving a contradiction.
- provides accurate and complete documentation for all borrowed material.
- personal examples will not be included. "I" and "you" will not be used.
- The tone will remain academic.
- Quotes used will be relevant and explained.
- There will be very few if any, MLA errors.

Organization:
- Has a recognizable thesis, clearly stated.
- has paragraphs which are organized around recognizable topic sentences
- has paragraphs which relate logical to the thesis
- has effective transitions between paragraphs
- has clearly identifiable introduction and conclusion

Style:
- demonstrates a creative, individual approach to writing
- shows a variety of sentence lengths and sentence openers
- displays accurate and vivid word choices
- uses a variety of sentence patters, such as long, cumulative and periodic sentences.
- uses parallel structures, compound sentences using semicolons and conjunctions which control rhythm pace, and emphasis

Mechanics :
Has no serious errors in grammar, punctuation or spelling

"B" essay
Content:
- complies with all parts of the assignment
- not only informs the reader, but explains, persuades, and enlightens her or him as well.
- attempts to develop thoughts by using explanation, example, analysis, and illustration.
- attempts to display original:
thinking in one or more of the ways listed for the "A" paper: but may do so with less originality and/or less support for ideas.
- Displays no obvious logical fallacies; logic may be more flawed that for "A" paper.
- Provides accurate and complete documentation for all borrowed material.
- Still primarily avoids "I" and "you" but could have one or two "slips"
- the tone remains academic in most parts.
- quotes will be relevant and explained but perhaps not as clearly or frequently
- MLA work cited and in text will be almost all correct, with perhaps an error or two.

Organization:
- has recognizable thesis, clearly stated
- has paragraphs which are organized around recognizable topic sentences
- has paragraphs which relate logically to the thesis
- has transitions between paragraphs
- has an introduction and conclusion

Style:
- shows a variety of sentence lengths and sentence openers.
- displays accurate and interesting word choices.
- uses a variety of sentence patters, as listed for the "A" paper, but perhaps not as frequently

Mechanics:
has no more than one serious error in grammar, punctuation or spelling

"C" essay
Content:
- complies with the main parts of the assignment
- finds significance in the topic beyond the writer's own individual response to it
- does not merely describe or provide basic information on the topic. Provides some analysis, detail or generalization
- provides accurate and complete documentation for all borrowed material.
- Might use "I" or "you" and personal examples
- overall is academic might have less of a formal tone
- quotes will be relevant and explained but not as fully
- MLA will be passing; there are a few errors but nothing major

Organization:
- Has a recognizable thesis, clearly stated
- Has paragraphs which relate logically to the thesis in most cases.
- has transitions between most paragraphs.
- has recognizable beginning, middle and end.

Mechanics:
- has no more than three serious errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation
- clearly indicates the ability to write correct simple, compound, and complex sentences

* I received this hand out from an English teacher