1.5  Using Rubrics to Score Essays and Improve Your Writing

If you study the rubric or scoring guide that follows, you can see the key points that separate one score from another. When you get a score on a rubric, you can see just how good your writing was on each trait or characteristic. For example, if you had scores of 5 on every trait except organization, and your organization score was a 3, you know what you need to work on most. You also know just what you need to do.

     The "3" score tells you your essay showed a basic structure but lacked transitions and was not unified and consistent throughout. If you want the "5" score for organization, your essay will have to show a logical structure or pattern with some transitional devices. So, you need to learn some organizing patterns and some transitional devices. Later sections of this Guide will show you how.

Did you Ever Use a Rubric?

     A rubric is an organized scoring or evaluation guide which shows levels of performance and the criteria or measures for each level. While we often don't take the time to make up a rubric each time we have to make a decision or evaluate we could, and understanding a scoring rubric will help you improve your writing score.

Here is my personal rubric for judging chocolate chip cookies. It's a 4-point rubric, with 4 being the highest score.

Score Levels Traits (Domains) 4 3 2 1 Chips At least 10 chips per cookie, cookies not broken 6-9 chips per cookie, some broken cookies 2-5 chips per cookie, cookies mostly broken 0 chips per cookie, all cookies broken Nuts 5-6 halves or big pieces 3-4 halves; some small pieces A number of small pieces Only scraps and nut dust Dough Moist, soft, chewy Soft, chewy Not so soft, dry Bulletproof, fossilized

     Your rubric for chocolate chip cookies might look different. That's a matter of personal taste. When we are scoring writing, however, it's important to have a rubric that works the same for everybody, and that everybody understands. You've seen description of very effective, just adequate, and not even adequate writing for each of the traits or characteristics on the rubric.

     Click on the hyperlink to view an entire analytic rubric. Read across rows and down columns to see descriptions that serve as the markers for each level on each trait. It's only a little more complicated than the cookie rubric.

     The 6-point rubric you've been looking at is an analytic rubric that is, it breaks writing down into 5 traits and scores each trait. Other analytical rubrics in this programs judge the same five traits on a 4-point scale.

     The holistic rubric (click on the hyperlink to view the holistic rubric) judges the overall effectiveness of the writing, but does not give scores for each trait. Holistic rubrics also come in 6-point and 4-point versions.

     Don't let all these rubrics give you a headache. Think of them as different types of vehicles to get you where you want to go with your writing.

     Whether you have a car or a truck, a 5-speed or an automatic transmission, 2-wheel or 4-wheel drive, you still have to get it started, maneuver it without crashing, follow directions to your destination, make adjustments along the way, and recognize when you've arrived so you can stop.

     No matter what the rubric is, the same five traits of effective writing will determine the score. The descriptions of very effective, less effective but adequate, and ineffective or inadequate writing will remain the same.

How do I tell a "6" from a "4" from a "2". Sarah has just completed her writing assignment as one component of her portfolio and her teacher has rated the essay as a 6 overall (holistic) and a 6 for each domain (Focus & Meaning, Content & Development, Organization, Style & Language Use, and Mechanics & Conventions). Read Sarah's essay Just Say No and using evidence from the rubric, prove Sarah did indeed earn a 6 using the 6-Point Holistic Rubric.

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