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Writing Resources

Grading rubric: final research paper, anthropology.

Distribution of paper grade determined by the five key components of a paper:

  • Thesis and Motive (20%) . Thesis: the paper's main arguments presented clearly in the introduction and evolving throughout the paper. Motive: why the paper's key question(s) and thesis are interesting and important — the motivation for the paper.
  • Evidence (25%) . The core data of your paper. The evidence/data used should support your thesis and analysis, be the best available and include precise and well-cited examples and quotations.
  • Analysis (25%) . Takes the evidence beyond mere description or reporting; explores the evidence in insightful ways to support the paper's claims; pushes the initial argument forward to develop new or more complex claims; makes the paper interesting and exciting to read.
  • Structure (15%) . The organization and logic of the presentation of the paper, including introduction, body sections, conclusion and appropriate transitions.
  • formatting (grammar, punctuation, title, citations, works cited page, careful proofreading, appropriate length
  • clarity (clear, easily understandable prose; a clear thesis or point for each paragraph that is directly relevant to the paper’s thesis and helps move the paper's overall project and argument forward; ideally, most paragraphs will begin and/or end with a clear topic statement conveying the paragraph's main point), and
  • creativity (varying, engrossing and sophisticated prose).

Use of course texts: Recall that your paper must make use of at least three course texts . These can be used to help develop the Thesis/Motive, Evidence and/or Analysis elements of the paper.

Sarah Lamb & Casey Miller Developed at Brandeis University through a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation

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Faculty Spotlight

 Professor Daniel Kryder

"A rubric for evaluating writing, while flexible enough to allow for wide variation across modes of instruction, works to both guide students' writing and structure faculty grading."

University Writing Program

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Written by Arthur Russell

Just about every discussion of rubrics begins with a caveat: writing rubrics are not a substitute for writing instruction. Rubrics are tools for communicating grading criteria and assessing student progress. Rubrics take a variety of forms, from grids to checklists , and measure a range of writing tasks, from conceptual design to sentence-level considerations.  

As with any assessment tool, a rubric’s effectiveness is entirely dependent upon its design and its deployment in the classroom. Whatever form rubrics take, the criteria for assessment must be legible to all students—if students cannot decipher our rubrics, they are not useful.  

When effectively integrated with writing instruction, rubrics can help instructors clarify their own expectations for written work, isolate specific elements as targets of instruction, and provide meaningful feedback and coaching to students. Well-designed rubrics will draw program learning outcomes, assignment prompts, course instruction and assessment into alignment. 

Starting Points

Course rubrics vs. assignment rubrics.

Instructors may choose to use a standard rubric for evaluating all written work completed in a course. Course rubrics provide instructors and students a shared language for communicating the values and expectations of written work over the course of an entire semester. Best practices suggest that establishing grading criteria with students well in advance helps instructors compose focused, revision-oriented feedback on drafts and final papers and better coach student writers. When deploying course rubrics in writing-intensive courses, consider using them to guide peer review and self-evaluation processes with students. The more often students work with established criteria, the more likely they are to respond to and incorporate feedback in future projects.

At the same time, not every assignment needs to assess every aspect of the writing process every time. Particularly early in the semester, instructors may develop assignment-specific rubrics that target one or two standards. Prioritizing a specific learning objective or writing process in an assignment rubric allows instructors to concentrate time spent on in-class writing instruction and encourages students to develop targeted aspects of their writing processes.  

Developing Evaluation Criteria

  • Establish clear categories. What specific learning objectives (i.e. critical and creative thinking, inquiry and analysis) and writing processes (i.e. summary, synthesis, source analysis, argument and response) are most critical to success for each assignment? 
  • Establish observable and measurable criteria of success. For example, consider what counts for “clarity” in written work. For a research paper, clarity might attend to purpose: a successful paper will have a well-defined purpose (thesis, takeaway), integrate and explain evidence to support all claims, and pay careful attention to purpose, context, and audience. 
  • Adopt student-friendly language. When using academic terminology and discipline-specific concepts, be sure to define and discuss these concepts with students. When in doubt , VALUE rubrics are excellent models of clearly defined learning objective and distinguishing criteria.  

Sticking Points: Writing Rubrics in the Disciplines  

Even the most carefully planned rubrics are not self-evident. The language we have adopted for writing assessment is itself a potential obstacle to student learning and success . What we count for “clarity” or “accuracy” or “insight” in academic writing, for instance, is likely shaped by our disciplinary expectations and measured by the standards of our respective fields. What counts for “good writing” is more subjective than our rubrics may suggest. Similarly, students arrive in our courses with their own understanding and experiences of academic writing that may or may not be reflected in our assignment prompts. 

Defining the terms for success with students in class and in conference will go a long way  toward bridging these gaps. We might even use rubrics as conversation starters, not only as an occasion to communicate our expectations for written work, but also as an opportunity to demystify the rhetorical contexts of discipline-specific writing with students.

Helpful Resources  

For a short introduction to rubric design, the Creating Rubrics guide developed by Louise Pasternack (2014) for the  Center for Teaching  Excellence and Innovation is an excellent resource.  The step-by-step tutorials developed by North Carolina State University and DePaul Teaching Commons are especially useful for instructors preparing rubrics from scratch.  On the use of rubrics for writing instruction and assignments in particular, Heidi Andrade’s “Teaching with Rubrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” provides an instructive overview of the benefits and drawbacks of using rubrics.  For a more in-depth introduction (with sample rubrics), Melzer and Bean’s “Using Rubrics to Develop and Apply Grading Criteria” in  Engaging Ideas  is essential reading. 

Cited and Recommended Sources

  • Andrade, Heidi Goodrich. “Teaching with Rubrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” College Teaching , vol. 53, no. 1, 2005, pp. 27–30, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27559213  
  • Athon, Amanda. “Designing Rubrics to Foster Students’ Diverse Language Backgrounds.” Journal of Basic Writing , vol. 38, No.1, 2019, pp. 78–103, https://doi.org/10.37514/JBW-J.2019.38.1.05  
  • Bennett, Cary. “Assessment Rubrics: Thinking inside the Boxes.” Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences , vol. 9, no. 1, 2016, pp. 50–72,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/24718020  
  • Broad, Bob. What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing . University Press of Colorado, 2003. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.2307/j.ctt46nxvm  
  • Melzer, Dan, and John C. Bean. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . 3rd ed., Jossey-Bass, 2021 (esp. pp. 253-277), https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/lib/jhu/detail.action?docID=6632622  
  • Pasternack, Louise. “Creating Rubrics,” The Innovative Instructor Blog , Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation, Johns Hopkins University, 21 Nov. 2014.  
  • Reynders, G., et al. “Rubrics to assess critical thinking and information processing in undergraduate STEM courses.” International Journal of STEM Education vol. 7, no. 9, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00208-5  
  • Turley, Eric D., and Chris W. Gallagher. “On the ‘Uses’ of Rubrics: Reframing the Great Rubric Debate.” The English Journal , vol. 97, no. 4, 2008, pp. 87–92, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30047253  
  • Wiggins, Grant. “The Constant Danger of Sacrificing Validity to Reliability: Making Writing Assessment Serve Writers.” Assessing Writing , vol. 1, no. 1, 1994, pp. 129-139, https://doi.org/10.1016/1075-2935(94)90008-6  

Rubric Design

Main navigation, articulating your assessment values.

Reading, commenting on, and then assigning a grade to a piece of student writing requires intense attention and difficult judgment calls. Some faculty dread “the stack.” Students may share the faculty’s dim view of writing assessment, perceiving it as highly subjective. They wonder why one faculty member values evidence and correctness before all else, while another seeks a vaguely defined originality.

Writing rubrics can help address the concerns of both faculty and students by making writing assessment more efficient, consistent, and public. Whether it is called a grading rubric, a grading sheet, or a scoring guide, a writing assignment rubric lists criteria by which the writing is graded.

Why create a writing rubric?

  • It makes your tacit rhetorical knowledge explicit
  • It articulates community- and discipline-specific standards of excellence
  • It links the grade you give the assignment to the criteria
  • It can make your grading more efficient, consistent, and fair as you can read and comment with your criteria in mind
  • It can help you reverse engineer your course: once you have the rubrics created, you can align your readings, activities, and lectures with the rubrics to set your students up for success
  • It can help your students produce writing that you look forward to reading

How to create a writing rubric

Create a rubric at the same time you create the assignment. It will help you explain to the students what your goals are for the assignment.

  • Consider your purpose: do you need a rubric that addresses the standards for all the writing in the course? Or do you need to address the writing requirements and standards for just one assignment?  Task-specific rubrics are written to help teachers assess individual assignments or genres, whereas generic rubrics are written to help teachers assess multiple assignments.
  • Begin by listing the important qualities of the writing that will be produced in response to a particular assignment. It may be helpful to have several examples of excellent versions of the assignment in front of you: what writing elements do they all have in common? Among other things, these may include features of the argument, such as a main claim or thesis; use and presentation of sources, including visuals; and formatting guidelines such as the requirement of a works cited.
  • Then consider how the criteria will be weighted in grading. Perhaps all criteria are equally important, or perhaps there are two or three that all students must achieve to earn a passing grade. Decide what best fits the class and requirements of the assignment.

Consider involving students in Steps 2 and 3. A class session devoted to developing a rubric can provoke many important discussions about the ways the features of the language serve the purpose of the writing. And when students themselves work to describe the writing they are expected to produce, they are more likely to achieve it.

At this point, you will need to decide if you want to create a holistic or an analytic rubric. There is much debate about these two approaches to assessment.

Comparing Holistic and Analytic Rubrics

Holistic scoring .

Holistic scoring aims to rate overall proficiency in a given student writing sample. It is often used in large-scale writing program assessment and impromptu classroom writing for diagnostic purposes.

General tenets to holistic scoring:

  • Responding to drafts is part of evaluation
  • Responses do not focus on grammar and mechanics during drafting and there is little correction
  • Marginal comments are kept to 2-3 per page with summative comments at end
  • End commentary attends to students’ overall performance across learning objectives as articulated in the assignment
  • Response language aims to foster students’ self-assessment

Holistic rubrics emphasize what students do well and generally increase efficiency; they may also be more valid because scoring includes authentic, personal reaction of the reader. But holistic sores won’t tell a student how they’ve progressed relative to previous assignments and may be rater-dependent, reducing reliability. (For a summary of advantages and disadvantages of holistic scoring, see Becker, 2011, p. 116.)

Here is an example of a partial holistic rubric:

Summary meets all the criteria. The writer understands the article thoroughly. The main points in the article appear in the summary with all main points proportionately developed. The summary should be as comprehensive as possible and should be as comprehensive as possible and should read smoothly, with appropriate transitions between ideas. Sentences should be clear, without vagueness or ambiguity and without grammatical or mechanical errors.

A complete holistic rubric for a research paper (authored by Jonah Willihnganz) can be  downloaded here.

Analytic Scoring

Analytic scoring makes explicit the contribution to the final grade of each element of writing. For example, an instructor may choose to give 30 points for an essay whose ideas are sufficiently complex, that marshals good reasons in support of a thesis, and whose argument is logical; and 20 points for well-constructed sentences and careful copy editing.

General tenets to analytic scoring:

  • Reflect emphases in your teaching and communicate the learning goals for the course
  • Emphasize student performance across criterion, which are established as central to the assignment in advance, usually on an assignment sheet
  • Typically take a quantitative approach, providing a scaled set of points for each criterion
  • Make the analytic framework available to students before they write  

Advantages of an analytic rubric include ease of training raters and improved reliability. Meanwhile, writers often can more easily diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of their work. But analytic rubrics can be time-consuming to produce, and raters may judge the writing holistically anyway. Moreover, many readers believe that writing traits cannot be separated. (For a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of analytic scoring, see Becker, 2011, p. 115.)

For example, a partial analytic rubric for a single trait, “addresses a significant issue”:

  • Excellent: Elegantly establishes the current problem, why it matters, to whom
  • Above Average: Identifies the problem; explains why it matters and to whom
  • Competent: Describes topic but relevance unclear or cursory
  • Developing: Unclear issue and relevance

A  complete analytic rubric for a research paper can be downloaded here.  In WIM courses, this language should be revised to name specific disciplinary conventions.

Whichever type of rubric you write, your goal is to avoid pushing students into prescriptive formulas and limiting thinking (e.g., “each paragraph has five sentences”). By carefully describing the writing you want to read, you give students a clear target, and, as Ed White puts it, “describe the ongoing work of the class” (75).

Writing rubrics contribute meaningfully to the teaching of writing. Think of them as a coaching aide. In class and in conferences, you can use the language of the rubric to help you move past generic statements about what makes good writing good to statements about what constitutes success on the assignment and in the genre or discourse community. The rubric articulates what you are asking students to produce on the page; once that work is accomplished, you can turn your attention to explaining how students can achieve it.

Works Cited

Becker, Anthony.  “Examining Rubrics Used to Measure Writing Performance in U.S. Intensive English Programs.”   The CATESOL Journal  22.1 (2010/2011):113-30. Web.

White, Edward M.  Teaching and Assessing Writing . Proquest Info and Learning, 1985. Print.

Further Resources

CCCC Committee on Assessment. “Writing Assessment: A Position Statement.” November 2006 (Revised March 2009). Conference on College Composition and Communication. Web.

Gallagher, Chris W. “Assess Locally, Validate Globally: Heuristics for Validating Local Writing Assessments.” Writing Program Administration 34.1 (2010): 10-32. Web.

Huot, Brian.  (Re)Articulating Writing Assessment for Teaching and Learning.  Logan: Utah State UP, 2002. Print.

Kelly-Reilly, Diane, and Peggy O’Neil, eds. Journal of Writing Assessment. Web.

McKee, Heidi A., and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss DeVoss, Eds. Digital Writing Assessment & Evaluation. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State University Press, 2013. Web.

O’Neill, Peggy, Cindy Moore, and Brian Huot.  A Guide to College Writing Assessment . Logan: Utah State UP, 2009. Print.

Sommers, Nancy.  Responding to Student Writers . Macmillan Higher Education, 2013.

Straub, Richard. “Responding, Really Responding to Other Students’ Writing.” The Subject is Writing: Essays by Teachers and Students. Ed. Wendy Bishop. Boynton/Cook, 1999. Web.

White, Edward M., and Cassie A. Wright.  Assigning, Responding, Evaluating: A Writing Teacher’s Guide . 5th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015. Print.

Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

A rubric is a scoring tool that identifies the different criteria relevant to an assignment, assessment, or learning outcome and states the possible levels of achievement in a specific, clear, and objective way. Use rubrics to assess project-based student work including essays, group projects, creative endeavors, and oral presentations.

Rubrics can help instructors communicate expectations to students and assess student work fairly, consistently and efficiently. Rubrics can provide students with informative feedback on their strengths and weaknesses so that they can reflect on their performance and work on areas that need improvement.

How to Get Started

Best practices, moodle how-to guides.

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Step 1: Analyze the assignment

The first step in the rubric creation process is to analyze the assignment or assessment for which you are creating a rubric. To do this, consider the following questions:

  • What is the purpose of the assignment and your feedback? What do you want students to demonstrate through the completion of this assignment (i.e. what are the learning objectives measured by it)? Is it a summative assessment, or will students use the feedback to create an improved product?
  • Does the assignment break down into different or smaller tasks? Are these tasks equally important as the main assignment?
  • What would an “excellent” assignment look like? An “acceptable” assignment? One that still needs major work?
  • How detailed do you want the feedback you give students to be? Do you want/need to give them a grade?

Step 2: Decide what kind of rubric you will use

Types of rubrics: holistic, analytic/descriptive, single-point

Holistic Rubric. A holistic rubric includes all the criteria (such as clarity, organization, mechanics, etc.) to be considered together and included in a single evaluation. With a holistic rubric, the rater or grader assigns a single score based on an overall judgment of the student’s work, using descriptions of each performance level to assign the score.

Advantages of holistic rubrics:

  • Can p lace an emphasis on what learners can demonstrate rather than what they cannot
  • Save grader time by minimizing the number of evaluations to be made for each student
  • Can be used consistently across raters, provided they have all been trained

Disadvantages of holistic rubrics:

  • Provide less specific feedback than analytic/descriptive rubrics
  • Can be difficult to choose a score when a student’s work is at varying levels across the criteria
  • Any weighting of c riteria cannot be indicated in the rubric

Analytic/Descriptive Rubric . An analytic or descriptive rubric often takes the form of a table with the criteria listed in the left column and with levels of performance listed across the top row. Each cell contains a description of what the specified criterion looks like at a given level of performance. Each of the criteria is scored individually.

Advantages of analytic rubrics:

  • Provide detailed feedback on areas of strength or weakness
  • Each criterion can be weighted to reflect its relative importance

Disadvantages of analytic rubrics:

  • More time-consuming to create and use than a holistic rubric
  • May not be used consistently across raters unless the cells are well defined
  • May result in giving less personalized feedback

Single-Point Rubric . A single-point rubric is breaks down the components of an assignment into different criteria, but instead of describing different levels of performance, only the “proficient” level is described. Feedback space is provided for instructors to give individualized comments to help students improve and/or show where they excelled beyond the proficiency descriptors.

Advantages of single-point rubrics:

  • Easier to create than an analytic/descriptive rubric
  • Perhaps more likely that students will read the descriptors
  • Areas of concern and excellence are open-ended
  • May removes a focus on the grade/points
  • May increase student creativity in project-based assignments

Disadvantage of analytic rubrics: Requires more work for instructors writing feedback

Step 3 (Optional): Look for templates and examples.

You might Google, “Rubric for persuasive essay at the college level” and see if there are any publicly available examples to start from. Ask your colleagues if they have used a rubric for a similar assignment. Some examples are also available at the end of this article. These rubrics can be a great starting point for you, but consider steps 3, 4, and 5 below to ensure that the rubric matches your assignment description, learning objectives and expectations.

Step 4: Define the assignment criteria

Make a list of the knowledge and skills are you measuring with the assignment/assessment Refer to your stated learning objectives, the assignment instructions, past examples of student work, etc. for help.

  Helpful strategies for defining grading criteria:

  • Collaborate with co-instructors, teaching assistants, and other colleagues
  • Brainstorm and discuss with students
  • Can they be observed and measured?
  • Are they important and essential?
  • Are they distinct from other criteria?
  • Are they phrased in precise, unambiguous language?
  • Revise the criteria as needed
  • Consider whether some are more important than others, and how you will weight them.

Step 5: Design the rating scale

Most ratings scales include between 3 and 5 levels. Consider the following questions when designing your rating scale:

  • Given what students are able to demonstrate in this assignment/assessment, what are the possible levels of achievement?
  • How many levels would you like to include (more levels means more detailed descriptions)
  • Will you use numbers and/or descriptive labels for each level of performance? (for example 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and/or Exceeds expectations, Accomplished, Proficient, Developing, Beginning, etc.)
  • Don’t use too many columns, and recognize that some criteria can have more columns that others . The rubric needs to be comprehensible and organized. Pick the right amount of columns so that the criteria flow logically and naturally across levels.

Step 6: Write descriptions for each level of the rating scale

Artificial Intelligence tools like Chat GPT have proven to be useful tools for creating a rubric. You will want to engineer your prompt that you provide the AI assistant to ensure you get what you want. For example, you might provide the assignment description, the criteria you feel are important, and the number of levels of performance you want in your prompt. Use the results as a starting point, and adjust the descriptions as needed.

Building a rubric from scratch

For a single-point rubric , describe what would be considered “proficient,” i.e. B-level work, and provide that description. You might also include suggestions for students outside of the actual rubric about how they might surpass proficient-level work.

For analytic and holistic rubrics , c reate statements of expected performance at each level of the rubric.

  • Consider what descriptor is appropriate for each criteria, e.g., presence vs absence, complete vs incomplete, many vs none, major vs minor, consistent vs inconsistent, always vs never. If you have an indicator described in one level, it will need to be described in each level.
  • You might start with the top/exemplary level. What does it look like when a student has achieved excellence for each/every criterion? Then, look at the “bottom” level. What does it look like when a student has not achieved the learning goals in any way? Then, complete the in-between levels.
  • For an analytic rubric , do this for each particular criterion of the rubric so that every cell in the table is filled. These descriptions help students understand your expectations and their performance in regard to those expectations.

Well-written descriptions:

  • Describe observable and measurable behavior
  • Use parallel language across the scale
  • Indicate the degree to which the standards are met

Step 7: Create your rubric

Create your rubric in a table or spreadsheet in Word, Google Docs, Sheets, etc., and then transfer it by typing it into Moodle. You can also use online tools to create the rubric, but you will still have to type the criteria, indicators, levels, etc., into Moodle. Rubric creators: Rubistar , iRubric

Step 8: Pilot-test your rubric

Prior to implementing your rubric on a live course, obtain feedback from:

  • Teacher assistants

Try out your new rubric on a sample of student work. After you pilot-test your rubric, analyze the results to consider its effectiveness and revise accordingly.

  • Limit the rubric to a single page for reading and grading ease
  • Use parallel language . Use similar language and syntax/wording from column to column. Make sure that the rubric can be easily read from left to right or vice versa.
  • Use student-friendly language . Make sure the language is learning-level appropriate. If you use academic language or concepts, you will need to teach those concepts.
  • Share and discuss the rubric with your students . Students should understand that the rubric is there to help them learn, reflect, and self-assess. If students use a rubric, they will understand the expectations and their relevance to learning.
  • Consider scalability and reusability of rubrics. Create rubric templates that you can alter as needed for multiple assignments.
  • Maximize the descriptiveness of your language. Avoid words like “good” and “excellent.” For example, instead of saying, “uses excellent sources,” you might describe what makes a resource excellent so that students will know. You might also consider reducing the reliance on quantity, such as a number of allowable misspelled words. Focus instead, for example, on how distracting any spelling errors are.

Example of an analytic rubric for a final paper

Above Average (4)Sufficient (3)Developing (2)Needs improvement (1)
(Thesis supported by relevant information and ideas The central purpose of the student work is clear and supporting ideas always are always well-focused. Details are relevant, enrich the work.The central purpose of the student work is clear and ideas are almost always focused in a way that supports the thesis. Relevant details illustrate the author’s ideas.The central purpose of the student work is identified. Ideas are mostly focused in a way that supports the thesis.The purpose of the student work is not well-defined. A number of central ideas do not support the thesis. Thoughts appear disconnected.
(Sequencing of elements/ ideas)Information and ideas are presented in a logical sequence which flows naturally and is engaging to the audience.Information and ideas are presented in a logical sequence which is followed by the reader with little or no difficulty.Information and ideas are presented in an order that the audience can mostly follow.Information and ideas are poorly sequenced. The audience has difficulty following the thread of thought.
(Correctness of grammar and spelling)Minimal to no distracting errors in grammar and spelling.The readability of the work is only slightly interrupted by spelling and/or grammatical errors.Grammatical and/or spelling errors distract from the work.The readability of the work is seriously hampered by spelling and/or grammatical errors.

Example of a holistic rubric for a final paper

The audience is able to easily identify the central message of the work and is engaged by the paper’s clear focus and relevant details. Information is presented logically and naturally. There are minimal to no distracting errors in grammar and spelling. : The audience is easily able to identify the focus of the student work which is supported by relevant ideas and supporting details. Information is presented in a logical manner that is easily followed. The readability of the work is only slightly interrupted by errors. : The audience can identify the central purpose of the student work without little difficulty and supporting ideas are present and clear. The information is presented in an orderly fashion that can be followed with little difficulty. Grammatical and spelling errors distract from the work. : The audience cannot clearly or easily identify the central ideas or purpose of the student work. Information is presented in a disorganized fashion causing the audience to have difficulty following the author’s ideas. The readability of the work is seriously hampered by errors.

Single-Point Rubric

Advanced (evidence of exceeding standards)Criteria described a proficient levelConcerns (things that need work)
Criteria #1: Description reflecting achievement of proficient level of performance
Criteria #2: Description reflecting achievement of proficient level of performance
Criteria #3: Description reflecting achievement of proficient level of performance
Criteria #4: Description reflecting achievement of proficient level of performance
90-100 points80-90 points<80 points

More examples:

  • Single Point Rubric Template ( variation )
  • Analytic Rubric Template make a copy to edit
  • A Rubric for Rubrics
  • Bank of Online Discussion Rubrics in different formats
  • Mathematical Presentations Descriptive Rubric
  • Math Proof Assessment Rubric
  • Kansas State Sample Rubrics
  • Design Single Point Rubric

Technology Tools: Rubrics in Moodle

  • Moodle Docs: Rubrics
  • Moodle Docs: Grading Guide (use for single-point rubrics)

Tools with rubrics (other than Moodle)

  • Google Assignments
  • Turnitin Assignments: Rubric or Grading Form

Other resources

  • DePaul University (n.d.). Rubrics .
  • Gonzalez, J. (2014). Know your terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics . Cult of Pedagogy.
  • Goodrich, H. (1996). Understanding rubrics . Teaching for Authentic Student Performance, 54 (4), 14-17. Retrieved from   
  • Miller, A. (2012). Tame the beast: tips for designing and using rubrics.
  • Ragupathi, K., Lee, A. (2020). Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading: The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education. In: Sanger, C., Gleason, N. (eds) Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

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SS MWH Research Paper: Rubric Final Research Paper

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Research Paper Rubic

2020-2021 Modern World History Research Paper Rubric

Criteria

Highly Effective

Effective

Not Effective

Not Present

Thesis 

Develop a defensible thesis in response to the essential question. Identify multiple claims as part of the thesis. 

The claim is precise and thoughtful and clearly outlines major reasons to address the topic.

The claim takes a clear position on the topic and outlines the major reasons used to address the topic.

The claim is identifiable, but may not outline the reasons or the included reasons are weak.

There is no thesis/claim given in the paper.

Evidence from Sources 

Does the student use and cite the sources in support of the thesis?

Student uses at least five sources. Student properly cites sources using footnotes in Chicago Style.

Majority of textual evidence from sources are accurately used. Insightful grouping of sources to corroborate or contradict each other when appropriate. Sources are properly cited.

Textual evidence is accurately used. Some sources corroborate or contradict each other when appropriate. Sources are cited.

Sources are mentioned, but are described and briefly discussed, and some may be inaccurate.  Sources may be partially cited.

There are few to no sources mentioned, most are inaccurate, and they are not cited.

Analysis and Application 

 

(Evidence - Sourcing Credibility) 

(Synthesis)

 

Does the student show logical reasoning? Does the student use sourcing information to analyze meaning, perspective, and reliability? Does the student appropriately address opposing claims?

Exceptionally explains and elaborates the significance and or context of the evidence and how it supports the arguments and the claim. Sourcing when appropriate identifies the most information about the context of the source and uses that information to understand and analyze its meaning, perspective, and reliability to strengthen the argument. Acknowledges and effectively rebutes opposing claims and conflicting evidence by pointing out limitations or by making concessions or refutations over the course of the paper. Effectively uses few quotations to further the argument and quotations are integrated and explained in the paper.

Explains and elaborates the significance and or context of the evidence and how it supports the arguments and the claim. Sourcing identifies information about the source’s origin and attempts to use this information to support the argument by considering meaning, perspective, and or reliability. Acknowledges and addresses opposing claims and some conflicting evidence over the course of the paper.  Uses few quotes to support the argument and explains purpose for quotes in the paper.

Attempts to explain the significance and or context of evidence and how it supports the claim but analysis is unclear. Sourcing when appropriate sometimes identifies the origins of sources , but does not yet use the information to demonstrate and understanding of the meaning, perspective, and reliability of the sources themselves. Does not acknowledge and opposing claim or conflicting evidence. Uses quotes without supporting their purpose in the paper.

There are no attempts to explain the significance or put the argument within its correct historical context.  The information is confusing and does not support the argument. Either uses quotes which are irrelevant and unsupportive to the argument.

Historical Context

Does the student contextualize arguments using historic content specific language? Historical information is substantial, accurate, and interwoven in support of the argument. Relevant content vocabulary is interwoven into the argument.

Relevant historical information is substantial, relevant, accurate, and interwoven to support the argument. Use of relevant content vocabulary is accurately interwoven in the argument.

Relevant historical information is accurate and supports the argument. Contains accurate and relevant content vocabulary. 

Little relevant historical information is included. May not connect to the argument or may contain fatal errors. Use of content vocabulary is attempted, but may not be accurate or may not support the argument.

No relevant historical information is included.  Contains many fatal errors in argument and content use.  Does not use any relevant historical vocabulary to support the argument. 

Organization and Grammar

Does the student write coherent claim/thesis, body paragraphs, and conclusion? Does the student use language appropriate to the audience, purpose and context?

Maintains a formal tone throughout and there is excellent control of language techniques and sentences. Transitional words and phrases are used fluidly and elegantly to connect ideas. Few to no grammatical errors in usage, spelling, and punctuation. Paper includes an introduction, thesis/claim, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Maintains a formal tone with minor inconsistencies. There is good control of language techniques and sentences. Transitional words and phrases are used logically to connect ideas. Some errors in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation, but these do not interfere with meaning. Paper includes an introduction, thesis/claim, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Tone is informal and inconsistent and or language/ sentence formation is unclear and difficult to understand. Traditional words or either missing or sometimes used incorrectly. Many grammar usage, spelling, punctuation errors make the paper difficult to read and understand.

Paper not turned in.

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  1. 46 Editable Rubric Templates (Word Format) ᐅ TemplateLab

    rubric for final research paper

  2. Final Paper Rubric

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  3. Research Paper Grading Rubric • iWorkCommunity

    rubric for final research paper

  4. 46 Editable Rubric Templates (Word Format) ᐅ TemplateLab

    rubric for final research paper

  5. Research Paper Rubric Undergraduate

    rubric for final research paper

  6. 46 Editable Rubric Templates (Word Format) ᐅ TemplateLab

    rubric for final research paper

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  1. CAPSTONE PAPER RUBRIC

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  5. 492W Project 6 Final Biz Plan Rubric Review Sprg24

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COMMENTS

  1. Example 1

    Example 1 - Research Paper Rubric

  2. PDF Research Paper Rubric.xls

    The central purpose or argument is not consistently clear throughout the paper. The purpose or argument is generally unclear. Content. Balanced presentation of relevant and legitimate information that clearly supports a central purpose or argument and shows a thoughtful, in-depth analysis of a significant topic. Reader gains important insights.

  3. PDF SAMPLE RUBRIC FOR GRADING A RESEARCH PAPER

    the paper. Paper contains a "roadmap" for the reader. There is a logical flow to the topics/arguments. Conclusion follows clearly from the arguments presented. Thesis is clear and ap-propriate. Thesis fairly well sup-ported. Paper is fairly well orga-nized. Conclusion follows from the rest of the paper. Thesis is fairly clear. Inconsistent ...

  4. PDF Research Paper Grading Rubric

    Research Paper Grading Rubric. For your research paper, every component of the entire assignment (outline, drafts, etc.) is subdivided into two grading schemes: content and presentation. 70% of the allotted points for the assignment are for the content of your submission, and 30% is for the presentation of the content.

  5. PDF Research Paper Grading Rubric

    Introduction 12 points. Demonstrates that student has outstanding understanding of the research subject matter. Provides the reader with the necessary information to understand the present study. Piques the readers interest and makes the importance of the question real. Gives appropriate information to previous studies that has an impact on the ...

  6. PDF Example of a Grading Rubric For a Term Paper in Any Discipline

    The C paper. Adequate but weaker and less effective, possibly responding less well to assignment. Presents central idea in general terms, often depending on platitudes or cliches. Usually does not acknowledge other views. Shows basic comprehension of sources, perhaps with lapses in understanding.

  7. PDF Final Research Paper Rubric(s)

    Final Research Paper Rubric(s) Please make sure to submit the final draft of your final research paper in print as well as digitally and have this rubric stapled to the final draft when you submit it. No (0) Not really (0.5) Somewhat (1.0) Mostly (1.5) Completely (2.0) Does your research paper include a proper heading, a strong title, and your

  8. Grading Rubric: Final Research Paper

    Grading Rubric: Final Research Paper Anthropology. Distribution of paper grade determined by the five key components of a paper: Thesis and Motive (20%). Thesis: the paper's main arguments presented clearly in the introduction and evolving throughout the paper. Motive: why the paper's key question(s) and thesis are interesting and important ...

  9. Rubrics

    Rubrics are tools for communicating grading criteria and assessing student progress. Rubrics take a variety of forms, from grids to checklists, and measure a range of writing tasks, from conceptual design to sentence-level considerations. As with any assessment tool, a rubric's effectiveness is entirely dependent upon its design and its ...

  10. PDF Rubric for Evaluating the Final Research Paper

    Rubric for Evaluating the Final Research Paper Final Research Paper The final research paper is 10-12 pages (3200 - 3850 words, excluding reference list, abstract, and title page) and incorporates feedback from the drafting process. Elements Points Content Title Page Abstract and Key Words /5 Effectively summarizes research paper (between 130 ...

  11. Rubric Design

    A complete analytic rubric for a research paper can be downloaded here. In WIM courses, this language should be revised to name specific disciplinary conventions. Conclusion. Whichever type of rubric you write, your goal is to avoid pushing students into prescriptive formulas and limiting thinking (e.g., "each paragraph has five sentences").

  12. PDF Final Dissertation Paper Rubric

    Final Dissertation Paper Rubric

  13. PDF AP Research Performance Task Rubric: Academic Paper

    The paper identifies the topic, purpose, and focus of the inquiry and explains why further investigation of the topic is needed. 4 . The paper articulates the significance of the topic of inquiry by connecting it to the larger discipline, field, and/or scholarly community. It defines its scope by specifying the parameters, limits, or

  14. PDF Research Paper Grading Rubric

    Research Paper Grading Rubric. For your research paper, every component of the entire assignment (outline, drafts, etc.) is subdivided into two grading schemes: content and presentation. 70% of the allotted points for the assignment are for the content of your submission, and 30% is for the presentation of the content.

  15. PDF Final Research Paper & Annotated Bibliography Rubric

    Final Research Paper & Annotated Bibliography Rubric . Below is the rubric for your final research paper and its annotated bibliography. Aside from the points awarded for each section of the rubric, I will give one point for a correct heading (as per the syllabus) on your paper. Please submit both a digital and a hard copy of your

  16. PDF Writing Assessment and Evaluation Rubrics

    Holistic scoring is a quick method of evaluating a composition based on the reader's general impression of the overall quality of the writing—you can generally read a student's composition and assign a score to it in two or three minutes. Holistic scoring is usually based on a scale of 0-4, 0-5, or 0-6.

  17. Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

    Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

  18. Example 9

    Example 9 - Original Research Project Rubric

  19. PDF Grading Rubric for Research Paper (150 Points Possible)

    Grading Rubric for Research Paper (150 Points Possible) 1. 20 Points for submitting the final draft on time, i.e., prior to the due date and time. 2. No title (-10 points) -- Lose 10 points for not having a title. Title should be specific for your paper. Generic titles such as "Cap and Trade Research Paper" are not acceptable. 3.

  20. PDF EXPERT PROFICIENT APPRENTICE NOVICE

    Figure 1: Research Paper Rubric EXPERT PROFICIENT APPRENTICE NOVICE INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE the writer's own insights. The paper demonstrates that the author fully understands and has applied concepts learned in the course. Concepts are integrated into The writer provides concluding remarks that show analysis and synthesis of ideas.

  21. PDF FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS GRADING RUBRIC

    • Begins by giving an overview of the paper's topic and its main arguments (10 pts) _____ • Describes what research you conducted and included in the body of the paper (10 pts) _____ • Mentions what kind of sources you used (10 pts) _____ • States your major findings, arguments, and conclusions (10 pts) _____

  22. Rubric Final Research Paper

    Rubric Final Research Paper 2; Research Paper Rubic. 2020-2021 Modern World History Research Paper Rubric . Criteria. Highly Effective. Effective. Not Effective. Not Present. Thesis . Develop a defensible thesis in response to the essential question. Identify multiple claims as part of the thesis.

  23. PDF Research Presentation Rubrics

    Research Presentation Rubrics