Note that these descriptions should not be the titles of your draft. In most of these topics no thesis is given. It is part of your task of writing the paper to find the thesis you want to support, and also craft the title of your essay accordingly.
The referees are supposed to address each of the items in the following rubric when refereeing the paper, but are supposed to use their own words. This rubric will also serve as the guide for obtaining a letter grade on the essay.
F | B- | A | |||
Introduction Thesis |
weak introduction of topic and thesis, thesis is weak and lacks an arguable position | good introduction of topic and thesis, the thesis is a clear and arguable statement of position | exceptional introduction that grabs interest of reader, the thesis is exceptionally clear, arguable, and well developed | ||
Organization | Ideas seem to be randomly arranged, no attempt for paragraph organization; writing may be repetitious or too redundant. | Organization is evident, but maybe not best possible | Good organization of essay; all paragraphs are appropriate and purposeful; Coherence (paragraph to paragraph) and cohesion (sentence to sentence) are effective throughout paper. | ||
Facts, Evidence |
limited information on topic with lack of accurate facts | paper is well researched in detail with accurate and critical evidence from a variety of sources | paper is exceptionally researched with critical evidence from a wide variety of sources | ||
Examples | Examples do not support the thesis at all. | Examples support the thesis | Examples provide a lot of support for thesis | ||
Examples are vague or distracting | Examples are nonspecific or abstract | Examples are specific and concrete | |||
Conclusion | -lack of summary of topic, thesis & subtopics with weak concluding ideas | -good summary of topic, thesis and all subtopics with clear concluding ideas | -excellent summary of topic (with no new information), thesis & all subtopics in proper order with concluding ideas that leave an impact on reader | ||
Focus on assigned topic | No attempt has been made to relate the essay to the assigned topic. | The entire essay is related to the assigned topic ... | ... and allows the reader to understand much more about the topic. | ||
Language Conventions | inconsistent grammar, spelling and paragraphing throughout paper | Fewer than 4 errors in punctuation and grammar, and fewer than 4 words are misspelled | paper is very concise, clear, with consistently proper grammar, spelling and paragraphing | ||
the paper is written in inappropriate point of view | appropriate point of view | appropriate point of view | |||
Bibliography | lack of proper format and many sources missing or incomplete | mostly proper format used with all sources shown and a variety of sources | proper, detailed format with all sources shown and a wide variety of sources |