Study Resources: College Composition
To become aware of the processes and principles involved in presenting your ideas logically and expressing them clearly and effectively, you should practice writing. Ideally, you should try writing about a variety of subjects and issues, starting with those you know best and care about most. Ask someone you know and respect to respond to what you write and to help you discover which parts of your writing communicate effectively and which parts need revision to make the meaning clear. You should also try to read the works of published writers in a wide range of subjects, paying particular attention to the ways in which the writers use language to express their meaning.
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Online Resources
These resources, compiled by the CLEP test development committee and staff members, may help you study for your exam. However, none of these sources are designed specifically to provide preparation for a CLEP exam. College Board has no control over their content and cannot vouch for accuracy.
Modern States: College Composition
Free online CLEP College Composition course from Modern States Education Alliance.
- Go to Modern States
edX: AP English Language and Composition Exam Prep
This course focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing and the rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts.
College Composition Exam
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.
Essay Rubric: Grading Students Correctly
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Lectures and tutors provide specific requirements for students to meet when writing essays. Basically, an essay rubric helps tutors to analyze an overall quality of compositions written by students. In this case, a rubric refers to a scoring guide used to evaluate performance based on a set of criteria and standards. As such, useful marking schemes make an analysis process simple for lecturers as they focus on specific concepts related to a writing process. Moreover, an assessment table lists and organizes all of the criteria into one convenient paper. In other instances, students use assessment tables to enhance their writing skills by examining various requirements. Then, different types of essay rubrics vary from one educational level to another. Essentially, Master’s and Ph.D. grading schemes focus on examining complex thesis statements and other writing mechanics. However, high school evaluation tables examine basic writing concepts. In turn, guidelines on a common format for writing a good essay rubric and corresponding examples provided in this article can help students to evaluate their papers before submitting them to their teachers.
General Aspects
An essay rubric refers to a way for teachers to assess students’ composition writing skills and abilities. Basically, an evaluation scheme provides specific criteria to grade assignments. Moreover, the three basic elements of an essay rubric are criteria, performance levels, and descriptors. In this case, teachers use assessment guidelines to save time when evaluating and grading various papers. Hence, learners must use an essay rubric effectively to achieve desired goals and grades, while its general example is:
What Is an Essay Rubric and Its Purpose
According to its definition, an essay rubric is a structured evaluation tool that educators use to grade students’ compositions in a fair and consistent manner. The main purpose of an essay rubric in writing is to ensure consistent and fair grading by clearly defining what constitutes excellent, good, average, and poor performance (DeVries, 2023). This tool specifies a key criteria for grading various aspects of a written text, including a clarity of a thesis statement, an overall quality of a main argument, an organization of ideas, a particular use of evidence, and a correctness of grammar and mechanics. Moreover, an assessment grading helps students to understand their strengths to be proud of and weaknesses to be pointed out and guides them in improving their writing skills (Taylor et al., 2024). For teachers, such an assessment simplifies a grading process, making it more efficient and less subjective by providing a clear standard to follow. By using an essay rubric, both teachers and students can engage in a transparent, structured, and constructive evaluation process, enhancing an overall educational experience (Stevens & Levi, 2023). In turn, the length of an essay rubric depends on academic levels, types of papers, and specific requirements, while general guidelines are:
High School
- Length: 1-2 pages
- Word Count: 300-600 words
- Length: 1-3 pages
- Word Count: 300-900 words
University (Undergraduate)
- Length: 2-4 pages
- Word Count: 600-1,200 words
Master’s
- Length: 2-5 pages
- Word Count: 600-1,500 words
- Length: 3-6 pages
- Word Count: 900-1,800 words
![college composition essay rubric Essay rubric](https://wr1ter.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/essay-rubric.jpg)
Element | Description |
---|---|
Thesis Statement | A well-defined thesis statement is crucial as it sets a particular direction and purpose of an essay, making it clear what a writer intends to argue or explain. |
Introduction | An introduction captures a reader’s interest and provides a framework for what a paper will cover, setting up a stage for arguments or ideas that follow after an opening paragraph. |
Content | High-quality content demonstrates thorough understanding and research on a specific topic, providing valuable and relevant information that supports a thesis. |
Organization | Effective organization ensures author’s ideas are presented in a clear, well-structure, and logical order, enhancing readability and an overall flow of a central argument. |
Evidence and Support | Providing strong evidence and detailed analysis is essential for backing up main arguments, adding credibility and depth to a final document. |
Conclusion | A strong conclusion ties all the main numbers together, reflects on potential implications of arguments, and reinforces a thesis, leaving a lasting impression on a reader. |
Grammar and Mechanics | Proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation are vital for clarity and professionalism, making a whole text easy to read and understand. |
Style and Tone | Correctness in writing style and author’s tone appropriate to a paper’s purpose and audience enhances an overall effectiveness of a particular text and engages a reader. |
Citations and References | Accurate and complete citations and references are crucial for giving credit to sources, avoiding plagiarism, and allowing readers to follow up on the research. |
Note: Some elements of an essay rubric can be added, deled, or combined with each other because different types of papers, their requirements, and instructors’ choices affect a final assessment. To format an essay rubric, people create a table with criteria listed in rows, performance levels in columns, and detailed descriptors in each cell explaining principal expectations for each level of performance (Steven & Levi, 2023). Besides, the five main criteria in a rubric are thesis statement, content, organization, evidence and support, and grammar and mechanics. In turn, a good essay rubric is clear, specific, aligned with learning objectives, and provides detailed, consistent descriptors for each performance level.
Steps How to Write an Essay Rubric
In writing, the key elements of an essay rubric are clear criteria, defined performance levels, and detailed descriptors for each evaluation.
- Identify a Specific Purpose and Goals: Determine main objectives of an essay’s assignment and consider what skills and knowledge you want students to demonstrate.
- List a Key Criteria: Identify essential components that need to be evaluated, such as thesis statement, introduction, content, organization, evidence and support, conclusion, grammar and mechanics, writing style and tone, and citations and references.
- Define Performance Levels: Decide on a particular scale you will use to measure performance (e.g., Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor) and ensure each level is distinct and clearly defined.
- Create Descriptors for Each Criterion: Write detailed descriptions for what constitutes each level of performance for every criterion and be specific about what is expected at each level to avoid misunderstanding.
- Assign Number Values: Determine a specific range for each criterion and performance level and allocate numbers in a way that reflects an actual importance of each criterion in an overall assessment.
- Review and Revise: Examine a complete rubric to ensure it is comprehensive and clear and adjust any descriptions or number values that seem unclear or disproportionate.
- Test a Working Essay Rubric: Apply a grading scheme to a few sample compositions to see if it effectively differentiates between different levels of performance and make adjustments as necessary.
- Involve Peers for Feedback: Share marking criteria with colleagues or peers for feedback and insights on clarity and fairness that you might have overlooked.
- Provide Examples: Include examples of complete papers or writing excerpts at each performance level and help students to understand what is expected for grading.
- Communicate With Students: Share a complete rubric with students before they begin an assignment and explain each criterion and performance level so they understand how their work will be evaluated and what they need to do to achieve highest marks.
Essay Rubric Example
Organization
Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay contains stiff topic sentences and a controlled organization.
Very Good/6 points: A paper contains a logical and appropriate organization. An author uses clear topic sentences.
Average/4 points: A composition contains a logical and appropriate organization. An author uses clear topic sentences.
Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text has an inconsistent organization.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): A complete document shows an absence of a planned organization.
Grade: ___ .
Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay shows the absence of a planned organization.
Very Good/6 points: A paper contains precise and varied sentence structures and word choices.
Average/4 points: A composition follows a limited but mostly correct sentence structure. There are different sentence structures and word choices.
Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text contains several awkward and unclear sentences. There are some problems with word choices.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): An author does not have apparent control over sentence structures and word choice.
Excellent/8 points: An essay’s content appears sophisticated and contains well-developed ideas.
Very Good/6 points: A paper’s content appears illustrative and balanced.
Average/4 points: A composition contains unbalanced content that requires more analysis.
Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text contains a lot of research information without analysis or commentary.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): A complete document lacks relevant content and does not fit the thesis statement. Essay rubric rules are not followed.
Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay contains a clearly stated and focused thesis statement.
Very Good/6 points: A paper comprises a clearly stated argument. However, a particular focus would have been sharper.
Average/4 points: A thesis statement phrasing sounds simple and lacks complexity. An author does not word the thesis correctly.
Needs Improvement/2 points: A thesis statement requires a clear objective and does not fit the theme in a paper’s content.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): A thesis statement is not evident in an introduction paragraph.
Excellent/8 points: A submitted is clear and focused. An overall work holds a reader’s attention. Besides, relevant details and quotes enrich a thesis statement.
Very Good/6 points: A paper is mostly focused and contains a few useful details and quotes.
Average/4 points: An author begins a composition by defining an assigned topic. However, a particular development of ideas appears general.
Needs Improvement/2 points: An author fails to define an assigned topic well or focuses on several issues.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): A complete document lacks a clear sense of a purpose or thesis statement. Readers have to make suggestions based on sketchy or missing ideas to understand an intended meaning. Essay rubric requirements are missed.
Sentence Fluency
Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay has a natural flow, rhythm, and cadence. Its sentences are well-built and have a wide-ranging and robust structure that enhances reading.
Very Good/6 points: Presented ideas mostly flow and motivate a compelling reading.
Average/4 points: A composition hums along with a balanced beat but tends to be more businesslike than musical. Besides, a particular flow of ideas tends to become more mechanical than fluid.
Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text appears irregular and hard to read.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): Readers have to go through a complete document several times to give this paper a fair interpretive reading.
Conventions
Excellent/8 points: An author demonstrates proper use of standard writing conventions, like spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage, and paragraphing. A person also uses correct protocols in a way that improves an overall readability of an essay.
Very Good/6 points: An author demonstrates proper writing conventions and uses them correctly. One can read a paper with ease, and errors are rare. Few touch-ups can make a submitted composition ready for publishing.
Average/4 points: An author shows reasonable control over a short range of standard writing rules. A person also handles all the conventions and enhances readability. Writing errors in a presented composition tend to distract and impair legibility.
Needs Improvement/2 points: An author makes an effort to use various conventions, including spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar usage, and paragraphing. A provided text contains multiple errors.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): An author makes repetitive errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage, and paragraphing. Some mistakes distract readers and make it hard to understand discussed concepts. Essay rubric rules are not covered.
Presentation
Excellent/8 points: A particular form and presentation of a text enhance an overall readability of an essay and its flow of ideas.
Very Good/6 points: A chosen format has few mistakes and is easy to read.
Average/4 points: An author’s message is understandable in this format.
Needs Improvement/2 points: An author’s message is only comprehensible infrequently, and a provided text appears disorganized.
Unacceptable/0 (zero): Readers receive a distorted message due to difficulties connecting to a presentation of an entire text.
Final Grade: ___ .
Grading Scheme
- A+ = 60+ points
- F = less than 9
Differences in Education Levels
An overall quality of various types of texts changes at different education levels. In writing, an essay rubric works by providing a structured framework with specific criteria and performance levels to consistently evaluate and grade a finished paper. For instance, college students must write miscellaneous papers when compared to high school learners (Harrington et al., 2021). In this case, assessment criteria will change for these different education levels. For example, university and college compositions should have a debatable thesis statement with varying points of view (Mewburn et al., 2021). However, high school compositions should have simple phrases as thesis statements. Then, other requirements in a marking rubric will be more straightforward for high school students (DeVries, 2023). For Master’s and Ph.D. works, a writing criteria presented in a scoring evaluation should focus on examining a paper’s complexity. In turn, compositions for these two categories should have thesis statements that demonstrate a detailed analysis of defined topics that advance knowledge in a specific area of study.
Recommendations
When observing any essay rubric, people should remember to ensure clarity and specificity in each criterion and performance level. This clarity helps both an evaluator and a student to understand principal expectations and how a written document will be assessed (Ozfidan & Mitchell, 2022). Consistency in language and terminology across an essay rubric is crucial to avoid confusion and maintain fairness. Further on, it is essential to align a working scheme with learning objectives and goals of an essay’s assignment, ensuring all key components, such as thesis, content, organization, and grammar, are covered comprehensively (Stevens & Levi, 2023). Evaluators should also be aware of the weighting and scoring distribution, making sure they accurately reflect an actual importance of each criterion. Moreover, testing a rubric on sample essays before finalizing it can help to identify any mistakes or imbalances in scores. Essentially, providing concrete examples or descriptions for each performance level can guide students in understanding what is expected for each grade (Taylor et al., 2024). In turn, an essay rubric should be reviewed, revised, and updated after each educational year to remain relevant and aligned with current academic standards. Lastly, sharing and explaining grading assessment with students before they start their composition fosters transparency and helps them to put more of their efforts into meeting defined criteria, ultimately improving their writing and learning experience in general.
Common Mistakes
- Lack of Specificity: Descriptions for each criterion and performance level are too vague, leading to ambiguity and confusion for both graders and students.
- Overcomplicating a Rubric: Including too many criteria or overly complex descriptions that make a scoring assessment difficult to use effectively.
- Unbalanced Weighting: Assigning disproportionate number values to different criteria, which can mislead an overall assessment and not accurately reflect an actual importance of each component.
- Inconsistent Language: Using inconsistent terminology or descriptors across performance levels, which can confuse users and make a rubric less reliable.
- Not Aligning With Objectives: Failing to align a particular criteria and performance levels with specific goals and learning outcomes of an assignment.
- Omitting Key Components: Leaving out important criteria that are essential for evaluating a paper comprehensively, such as citations or a conclusion part.
- Lack of Examples: Not providing examples or concrete descriptions of what constitutes each performance level, making it harder for students to understand expectations.
- Ignoring Grammar and Mechanics: Overlooking an actual importance of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, which are crucial for clear and professional writing.
- Not Updating an Essay Rubric: Using outdated rubrics that do not reflect current educational standards or specific assignment needs.
- Insufficient Testing: Failing to test a grading scheme on some sample documents to ensure it effectively differentiates between levels of performance and provides fair assessments.
Essay rubrics help teachers, instructors, professors, and tutors to analyze an overall quality of compositions written by students. Basically, an assessment scheme makes an analysis process simple for lecturers, and it lists and organizes all of the criteria into one convenient paper. In other instances, students use such evaluation tools to improve their writing skills. However, they vary from one educational level to the other. Master’s and Ph.D. assessment schemes focus on examining complex thesis statements and other writing mechanics. However, high school grading criteria examine basic writing concepts. As such, the following are some of the tips that one must consider when preparing any rubric.
- Include all mechanics that relate to essay writing.
- Cover different requirements and their relevant grades.
- Follow clear and understandable statements.
DeVries, B. A. (2023). Literacy assessment and intervention for classroom teachers . Routledge.
Harrington, E. R., Lofgren, I. E., Gottschalk Druschke, C., Karraker, N. E., Reynolds, N., & McWilliams, S. R. (2021). Training graduate students in multiple genres of public and academic science writing: An assessment using an adaptable, interdisciplinary rubric. Frontiers in Environmental Science , 9 , 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.715409
Mewburn, I., Firth, K., & Lehmann, S. (2021). Level up your essays: How to get better grades at university . NewSouth.
Ozfidan, B., & Mitchell, C. (2022). Assessment of students’ argumentative writing: A rubric development. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies , 9 (2), 121–133. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1064
Stevens, D. D., & Levi, A. (2023). Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning . Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Taylor, B., Kisby, F., & Reedy, A. (2024). Rubrics in higher education: An exploration of undergraduate students’ understanding and perspectives. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2023.2299330
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Blog > Common App > The Best College Application Essay Rubric
The Best College Application Essay Rubric
Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University
Written by Kylie Kistner, MA Former Willamette University Admissions
Key Takeaway
Are your eyes blurry from staring at your college essay for hours on end? It's time to pull out a rubric. Rubrics are scoring tools that can help you identify changes to make before you submit.
If you’re reading this post, you probably have a finished draft of your college essay. Congrats!
Now, you might be wondering: what do I do now?
It’s time to evaluate what you’ve written so you can get to editing.
But evaluating writing is difficult. Different people have different opinions about what a piece of writing should do or look like, so one person may love an essay that another person hates. Unlike disciplines with clearer, more objective solutions to problems (think math or chemistry), writing leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
Even in college admissions, what resonates with one admissions officer may be uninspired to a different one.
But if everyone has different opinions, then how do you know whether what you’ve written is good?
Enter: a rubric.
Rubrics are excellent tools to help you evaluate your writing. They’re those pesky tables that your English teachers have probably stapled to the back of your AP Lit essays.
While rubrics won’t eliminate differences of opinion, they can help you understand how your essay stacks up to a generally agreed-upon set of standardized college essay conventions.
In this post, we break down what a rubric is and how you can use one to score your essay. We also give you some tips for editing after you evaluate your essay.
What is a rubric?
Rubrics can have different layouts. But in general, they are tables that outline the specific criteria that a piece of writing should meet. They often measure factors like organization, theme, grammar, and more.
The table then ranks each of these categories on a numerical scale. A lower score means that the essay needs a lot of improvement in that particular category. A higher score means that the essay excels in that category.
Overall, the point of a rubric is to help you evaluate your own essay in a semi-objective way.
This is important because it gives you guidance about how to proceed with your editing process. Just like you should have a plan before you start drafting, you should also have a plan before you start editing.
Application deadlines will be here before you know it, so being strategic about your editing process will help you use your time efficiently. You’ll know where your essay is weakest, so you can focus most of your effort there. You’ll also know where your essay excels, so you can use those sections to build momentum for the rest of your essay.
Alright—let’s go through the rubric.
College Essay Rubric Breakdown
We developed this rubric to help our Essay Academy students assess their essays. If you’d like to join the ranks of Essay Academy members and get a fuller version of this rubric, check out the Essay Academy program .
But this version is available free for download below. It’s designed specifically for the Common Application, and it lists five categories that all good college essays should excel at.
Thematic Development: What is your essay’s theme, and how well do you develop it?
Meaningful Topic: Is your topic meaningful, deeply personal, and vulnerable?
Strengths: Does your essay convey a core strength?
Structure: How well is your essay organized?
Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation: Is your essay free of errors? Does it demonstrate skill in standard written English?
Attention to each of these categories is necessary to writing a successful college essay.
To help you evaluate how well your essay does in each category, the rubric lays out a ranking system, with 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest.
Each column of the table shows a numerical rank and a description of what an essay that scores in that category will look like.
1: The essay does not meet the requirements of the category and needs significant improvements.
2: The essay makes an earnest attempt at meeting the requirements of the category, but it still needs improvement.
3: The essay meets the requirements of the category but does not exceed them.
4: The essay exceeds the requirements of the category. It is exemplary.
These measurements apply to each of the five categories.
An essay that deserves a “4” in “Thematic Development,” for example, will “retain clear and prompt-fitting focus that develops a clear, consistent main idea throughout the entire essay.”
![college composition essay rubric A rubric for the Common Application Essay that includes notes about topic selection, strengths, and structure](https://admitreport.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Common%20App%20Essay%20Rubric%20-%20Admit%20Report.png?width=800&height=475&name=Common%20App%20Essay%20Rubric%20-%20Admit%20Report.png)
Now that we’ve gotten the rubric basics down, let’s talk about how to score your essay.
How to Score Your Essay with a Rubric
For the rubric to be useful, you’ll need to score your essay in each category. That means that you’ll need to re-read your essay and honestly evaluate it.
First, a brief note on critical evaluation is in order. Throughout the writing process, there are times to be critical of yourself and times to be forgiving. Evaluating your essay is a time to be critical. That doesn’t mean tearing yourself down or being too harsh on yourself. It does mean being realistic with yourself and not sugarcoating your evaluation. It’s better for you to be critical now than for an admissions officer to be critical later. The consequences of you being critical will be a better final draft. The consequences of an admissions officer being critical could be a rejection.
This process is a little tedious, so we’ll go step by step.
Step 1: Before you being reading, explore the rubric thoroughly and understand what each of the categories asks you to do. You might also consider reading our guide to writing a college essay to get a more holistic view of what you’re aiming for.
Step 2: Start by thinking about the first four categories (thematic development, meaningful topic, strengths, and structure). These are the biggest categories that will have the most significant impact on the overall makeup of your essay.
Step 3: Re-read your essay with these criteria in mind, and circle your scores on the rubric. Don’t worry about fixing them quite yet.
Step 4: Then think through the final category (grammar, spelling, and punctuation).
Step 5: Re-read your essay again, paying particular attention to these sections. As you go, feel free to note any glaring errors, run-on sentences, or odd word choice you notice.
Step 6: Circle your grammar score on the rubric
You should now have five total scores, one in each category.
Step 7: Take the lowest scores, and that’s where you’ll start your revisions.
Using a Rubric to Edit Your College Essay
Once you’ve evaluated your college essay, it’s time to begin editing.
Make a list of which revisions you want to prioritize first based on your lowest scores. Look at the description for a “4” score in those categories. What do those descriptions list that your essay doesn’t have? Make note of each thing you need to improve.
Then get to editing. It’s a good idea to copy and paste your essay into a new document so you don’t lose any of your original work, just in case you want to recover anything.
Start with the larger issues first—those of theme, meaning, strength, and structure. You’ll want to prioritize the biggest revisions because those will likely affect all parts of your essay. Prioritizing these first will help you avoid doing work that you’ll later delete anyway.
Once you’re done with your revisions, re-score your essay using the rubric. You can even hand your essay and the rubric to a trusted adult to score. If you still have areas of improvement, revise again.
When you’re scoring 3-4 in every category, you’ll know you’re ready to submit.
( Psst—need more editing help? Let's work together .)
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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.
- Workshop Recording (Spring 2024)
- Workshop Registration
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. |
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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 level | Concerns (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 points | 80-90 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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Home > Resources > Academic essay rubric
Academic essay rubric
This is a grading rubric an instructor uses to assess students’ work on this type of assignment. It is a sample rubric that needs to be edited to reflect the specifics of a particular assignment.
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CLEP College Comp Essay
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What was your essay score, and what effect did it have on your final score? How did you prepare for those random topics like,"Only impossible goals in life are the ones we set for ourselves" and things like that?
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12 Tips for Answer Georgia College and State University Personal Essay Questions
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
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Writing a strong personal essay is an essential component of the application process when you apply to Georgia College and State University (GCSU). In the personal essay questions , the themes of career goals, personal growth, and community service are often emphasised. The university asks the students to elaborate on why they are interested in a particular field of study or recount a challenging situation they went through and how they managed to resolve it.
Students can demonstrate their skills, achievements, and values by using real-life experiences as examples. In addition, the university’s personal essay questions require students to strike a balance between self-reflection and storytelling. Students must also present clear knowledge of how their experiences and prospective goals relate to the institution’s values.
However, some students do not have enough skills to effectively answer such questions while applying to university. So, this guide is for such students. Here, we will provide tips on writing a personal statement and answering such essay questions in your university application.
How to Answer Georgia College and State University Personal Essay Questions?
Georgia College aims to extend education outside of the classroom to support students' critical thinking abilities. Thus, they have incorporated such questions into the enrolment applications. Below are the 12 tips that will provide assistance with your essay questions and improve your chances of having your application accepted.
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1. Know the Best Ideas for Your Essay
The personal essay questions Georgia College and State University are meant to add more insight into your application. In addition, the response to such personal essay topics helps the admission committee to know more about you. To write a strong essay, make sure that your thoughts are coherent and reflect your own experiences.
Here, we are providing you with some tricks to come up with amazing ideas:
- Understand the prompt.
- Read the question carefully.
- Get the core ideas.
Ideas Brainstorming
- Recall life events that have shaped who you are today.
- Think about how your social, academic or cultural backgrounds have influenced you.
- Remember times when you overcame challenges or achieved milestones in life.
- Focus on strengths or areas of passion for you.
Your ideas must:
- Be relevant to the prompt.
- Be realistic.
- In line with what the university stands for.
2. Reflect on Your Experiences
As you prepare to apply to university, remember the experiences that have contributed to shaping you the way you are now. Your essay should show how these developments, interests, and objectives align with the university's mission and values.
Think about the following points while you reflect on your experiences:
Obstacles and Challenges
What barriers or hurdles have hindered your progress in the past, and what methods did you capitalise on to go beyond them? Which abilities were sharpened from these experiences? How did these experiences affect your outlook towards life and your goals?
Positions and Duties in Leadership
Retrace your steps and recount what you acquired. Restate lessons you learned from playing a leading role.
Academic Accomplishments and Interests
Reverse the positions, think about yourself, and concentrate on your various achievements in class. How did you develop an interest in these areas, and what have they done to help you reach your goals?
Development of the Self and Self-Awareness
Apart from considering one’s personal developments, consider the times when challenges or disappointments were faced and dealt with. When and how did you confront these challenges? What did you learn about yourself while doing so?
As you think about these events, think about the following questions:
- What skills did this encounter assist me in developing or improving?
- What changes has this encounter brought to my ambitions and goals?
- In what way does this experience relate to my aspirations and objectives?
- What values or principles did this experience instil or reinforce in me?
- What precise moments or stories can I draw on?
3. Don't Tell them a Story They Want; Tell them What You Want
When crafting your essays for applications, it is easy to get into the comfort zone of writing in a way that seems pleasant to the members of the admissions committee. This approach, however, often fails to showcase your point. Instead, it is advisable to be unapologetically bold and tell the story you want to tell, regardless of who it will appeal to. Understand that it is very important to be real in your essay.
When writing your personal statement, consider these points:
- Focus on how the engagement aspects of your essay have been drawn from your unique experiences.
- Explain how being unique comes from expressing yourself on your own rather than what you believe the college would prefer to hear.
- Explain why authentic stories are more interesting as they are true and emotional.
- Argue that for your essay to capture attention, it is important to be free, vulnerable, and take risks in your narrative.
- Expressing your wishes reveals more about your true self, and that is what the college is looking for.
4. Be Authentic
Finding one’s values, beliefs, and passions is the heart of authenticity. This starts in the inner space where you try so hard to know yourself and decide which of your values are the most important. There is authenticity in overcoming the temptation to conform to other people’s expectations or remain true to one’s core beliefs. This offered a foundation of integrity and formed the basis of all other forms of honest living.
Here are some remarkable aspects of authenticity:
![college composition essay rubric college composition essay rubric](https://accessglobal.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/uploads/froala_editor/images/1724870966679.png)
5. Keep it Concise
A well-developed statement is probably an important component of your university application. Therefore, this comprehensive guide is an opportunity to demonstrate your unique features, life history and aspirations to the admission committee.
Moreover, when it comes to providing an essay that stands out, there is a need to ensure that it is written interestingly and coherently and let it remain on topic. Here are some of the suggestions that can help you achieve this:
- Ensure that there is no room for ambiguity.
- Provide your readers with relevant examples.
- Avoid needless information.
- Choose simple and straight-to-the-point words.
6. Think Outside the Box!
Do not restrict yourself with commonly known details about yourself but be brave and include little more creativity in your paper.
Here are a few helpful hints that will assist you in doing so:
- Refusal may be miserable, but reluctantly tell the admissions committee your fabulous and unique achievements.
- In ways that are explosive to emotions or stretch one's imagination, draw a picture on the spare part of the essay and tell a story instead of better structuring it.
Most people approach the task of doing something different as a way of trying to succeed personally and professionally.
7. Use Proper Grammar and Spelling
In a personal statement, an applicant must pay attention to the structure of the essay, including spelling and grammatical conventions. To eliminate such mistakes, it is recommended to:
- Carry out a basic form to improve the writing of the essay.
- Utilise online resources for grammar and spell check.
- Seek feedback.
With these guidelines, students make sure that there will be no errors in answers to personal essay questions about grammar. It is also necessary to organise the document properly to be favourable to the admission board. In addition, you can also get samples from legit essay writing firms in the UK to understand the structure of personal essays for university applications.
8. Revise Often and Edit
Here, we are going to look into the need to edit and revise the answers we have written for the personal essay questions. By following these strategies, you can make your essay stand out.
- Remove unnecessary elements and improve the organisation of your work.
- Make your arguments and their supporting evidence stronger.
- Improve grammatical errors and sentence fluency.
- Express more of who you are through words and speech.
- Rectify gaps and inconsistencies in your narratives.
Editing your essay requires you to also look at the spelling, grammar or punctuation of the essay. When doing so, particularly pay attention to grammar, punctuation, length of sentences, word choice, and consistency.
How to start Editing your Essay?
Essay revision is checking the content, structure, and flow of the essay. While undertaking this process, take into consideration the following:
- Am I clear and focused in my thesis statement?
- Does the flow of my answers make sense?
- Do my anecdotes and examples of work support my points?
- Am I able to use the same voice/tone throughout the essay?
- Is there anything else that I could include to give more details?
9. Highlight Your Strengths
To stand out from other applicants, highlight your strengths in the essay. Before you put your pen on paper, spare a minute or two and try to recall particular events, achievements, and traits. To focus on your academic achievements, ask yourself:
- What are the specific achievements I have attained and the strong skills I possess in university?
- What are the objectives and aspirations I have about my career?
- What factors make me different from other people?
To highlight the strong points in your answer to personal essay questions, you can use examples and narratives. In addition, it is also advisable to highlight your soft skills and let your readers feel your passion and excitement.
10. Demonstrate Your Fit
A powerful piece detailing your personal experiences only works when you show how you fit into Georgia College and State University, its beliefs, and its aim. In addition, add the following salient features to your response to personal essay questions:
Background in Academia
Talk about your academic history first, highlighting any academic projects that show your readiness for the school you are applying to. Give details of any awards, competitions, or activities that underscore your achievements in your area of study.
Experience That Matters
Mention any planned internships or previous work experience which is relevant to the degree or course you are looking for. Explain how these experiences shaped your career goals.
Link to the University
Why do you want to study at Georgia College and State University? Justify why you believe this particular university is the most suitable for you. Explain how you will be useful to the school community considering the faculty members, research facilities and university culture.
Long-term Vision
Explain what the future is going to hold for you, particularly how you see the contribution you will make to the field of your choice after you finish the degree. Mention how your university education and experiences will create opportunities for you to achieve these goals and promote positive change as well. You may make arguments that positively reinforce yourself in terms of why you are a strong prospect for the program you are applying to.
11. Get Started Early
It is very important to start dealing with the Georgia College and State University personal essay questions as soon as possible. If you plan early, you will have sufficient time to arrange and write the essay content and predictably proofread it. This is why it is necessary to commence at the earliest point.
Why, then, should you get started early? Here are some of the reasons:
- Stress is decreased when you start early!
- You'll generate more ideas if you give yourself more time to brainstorm!
- You may demonstrate to the admissions committee that you are serious about attending the university.
- You are prepared to put in the time and effort to learn more about it by researching it and its core values.
- You'll have more time to proofread, edit, and refine your responses.
12. Seek Help When Needed
Assistance seeking is very important, particularly when responding to a personal essay question. One can feel immense pressure to perform well, and this is understandable. Furthermore, it’s important to recognise when you are stuck and need help.
A teacher, mentor, or guidance counsellor offers support to craft a good paper. You can also purchase your essay from online resources that will lead to successful admission to your desired university.
How to answer Georgia College and State University Personal Essay Questions?
Here are the tips for answering these question types;
- Do not be afraid of making your voice heard.
- Structure a clear and interesting essay.
- Make use of the words and writing skills that you already have.
- Write about yourself. But don't try to encapsulate your whole life!
- Answer the question that has been asked.
- Read it over again!
- Write on the internet in a networked word processor.
What should be included in College and State University Personal Essay Questions?
It is best to talk about both positive and negative matters, a humiliating experience, or a quality or interest that exemplifies your values. If you are honest about the issue, character flaws, or sad childhood events, the reader will find it far more credible.
In addition, it will exhibit your personal life experiences that the admission panel wants to know. So, by including all the information, you can fulfil the true objective of such essay types in application forms.
The importance of the personal essay questions in the Georgia College and State University application process enables candidates to make the best impression and talk more about themselves. An effective essay can provide a student’s perspective to the admission committees, which are usually standardised, and help to distinguish them from everyone else.
Moreover, students can show in their essays how well they will integrate themselves into the programs by spinning a good and well-organised narrative. Finally, submitting an excellent personal essay shows that the candidate is open and honest. In addition, the applicant understands what the university is all about and its values.
Students who follow such practice can write a good manuscript, which allows them to develop their competencies and increase their chances of being accepted into university. Thus, they can begin their developmental, educational, and achievement-oriented journey and fulfil all their academic and career ambitions.
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The College Composition exam has a total testing time of 125 minutes and contains: 50 multiple-choice questions to be answered in 55 minutes. 2 essays to be written in 70 minutes. Essays are scored twice a month by college English faculty from throughout the country via an online scoring system.
1 Essays earning a score of 1 meet the criteria for the score of 2 but are especially simplistic or weak in their control of writing or do not cite even one source. 0. Essays earning a score of zero (0) are on-topic responses that receive no credit, such as those that merely repeat the prompt. —. Essays earning a dash (—) are blank ...
Writing rubrics take the mystery out of what your professor is looking for in a well-written essay. While rubrics are used at all levels, college-level writing rubrics are often very detailed about expectations, and scoring is done according to how the student covers the topic and employs writing skills in an organized, effective way.
AP English Language Scoring Rubric, Free-Response Question 1-3 | SG 1 Scoring Rubric for Question 1: Synthesis Essay 6 points Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Row A Thesis (0-1 points) 4.B 0 points For any of the following: • There is no defensible thesis. • The intended thesis only restates the prompt.
Scoring rubrics and guidelines are designed to measure college-level skills and knowledge. Test takers respond to two essay topics, spending approximately 45 minutes on each. Each essay is scored by at least two separate readers. College Composition and Spanish with Writing essays are graded by college professors. Below are additional facts ...
Essay Rubric Directions: Your essay will be graded based on this rubric. Consequently, use this rubric as a guide when writing your essay and check it again before you submit your essay. Traits 4 3 2 1 Focus & Details There is one clear, well-focused topic. Main ideas are clear and are well supported by detailed and accurate information.
sistently fair, reasonable and logical. Body paragraphs offer focused, richly developed, sophisticated, original, and. Revised Spring 2013. Composition Essay Rubric Use of TextRelevant quotes, paraphrases and concepts from the reading to support and il. ustrate ideas are missing or inadequate. Neglects to or weakly integrates quotes and par.
The CLEP College Composition essay section requires you to write two distinct essays within 70 minutes. The first essay is based on your readings, observations, and personal experiences. The ...
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.
edX: AP English Language and Composition Exam Prep. This course focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing and the rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts. Go to edX. Review test prep materials, online resources, and more to help you prepare for the College Composition CLEP Exam.
In addition to the multiple-choice section, the College Composition exam includes a mandatory essay section that tests skills of argumentation, analysis, and synthesis. This section consists of two essays, both measure a candidate's ability to write clearly and effectively. The first essay is based on the test taker's reading, observation, or
Use this lesson to familiarize yourself with the CLEP College Composition essay portion. Find a description of the exam, sample prompts, and the scoring rubric to help you practice. Read CLEP ...
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.
An essay rubric refers to a way for teachers to assess students' composition writing skills and abilities. Basically, an evaluation scheme provides specific criteria to grade assignments. Moreover, the three basic elements of an essay rubric are criteria, performance levels, and descriptors. In this case, teachers use assessment guidelines to ...
effectively, powerfully; rich, well-chosen variety of sentence styles and length. sentence patterns; shows some errors in sentence construction; some non-standard syntax usage. of structure; little or no variety; no grasp of sentence flow. excessively, almost exclusively; frequent errors of sentence structure.
2: The essay makes an earnest attempt at meeting the requirements of the category, but it still needs improvement. 3: The essay meets the requirements of the category but does not exceed them. 4: The essay exceeds the requirements of the category. It is exemplary. These measurements apply to each of the five categories.
Arrangement of essay is unclear and illogical. The writing lacks a clear sense of direction. Ideas, details or events seem strung together in a loose or random fashion; there is no identifiable internal structure and readers have trouble following the writer's line of thought. Few, forced transitions in the essay or no transitions are present.
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 ...
This page titled 4.3: The College Essay Assignment- Analysis, Rubrics, and Critical Thinking is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Athena Kashyap & Erika Dyquisto ( ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative) . This page explains how to unpack writing prompts and how to approach a writing assignment.
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Written by the Brandeis University Writing Program and revised by Ryan Wepler YALE COLLEGE ENGL 114: Grading Rubric The A Essay makes an interesting, complex—even surprising—argument and is thoroughly well-executed.While an A essay is the result of serious effort, the grade is based on the essay's content and presentation.
College Composition I requires three separate APA formatted essays, one of which is an expository essay. ... Your essay will be graded based on the following rubric: Category Unacceptable (0-1 ...
Master the 5x5 essay method. (Introduction with Thesis, Point #1, Point #2, Point #3, and Conclusion). Know how to make inline citations in APA format. Practice writing timed essays. Here's a great list of practice prompts. Make an outline and develop a thesis before beginning your essay. Take a firm position and support it -- don't be wishy-washy.
Students facing the college application process typically dread one component: the Common App essay. Students are presented with six essay prompts, as well as a seventh option, which is "topic ...
Writing a strong personal essay is an essential component of the application process when you apply to Georgia College and State University (GCSU). In the personal essay questions, the themes of career goals, personal growth, and community service are often emphasised. The university asks the students to elaborate on why they are interested in a particular field of study or recount a ...