CATEGORY

Conventions 

of Language

Organization

Development 

of Main Idea

Purpose

and Style

Genres and

Characteristics

4 (exceeds District standards)

You used capital letters, commas, periods, and other kinds of punctuation very well. You also spelled almost all of your words right.

Your writing is focused. The ideas fit together well. Most of your writing follows smoothly from your introduction and leads to your conclusion. Your sentences and paragraphs are smoothly linked with good transition words (first, last, next, then, etc.)

You stated your main ideas really well and gave facts that helped to support them. You explained what you wanted to say and gave some details (either from the story or from your own knowledge).

You did a great job of writing from beginning to end. You obviously planned out what you were going to say, wrote a first draft, made changes where you needed to, and produced a well thought out piece of writing. You clearly understood why you were writing this piece and who would be reading it. You were not afraid to use complex sentences and different kinds of sentences that helped to make your writing interesting.  Your writing sounds original and I really hear your personality coming through.

Fictional or autobiographical narrative

The plot of your story is very interesting and detailed.  You have lots of different characters and the setting of your story is clear.  You used advanced elements such as dialogue or suspense to make the story interesting.

Response to LIterature

You show that you really understand the text by writing opinions about the text with clear ideas and using specific examples and details and examples from the text. 

Persuasion

Your arguments defending your position on the issue are very exact.  You use evidence to help support your opinion.  You anticipate that your reader might have a different opinion and you give reasons why your opinion is more valid.

3 (meets District standards)

Most of the time you used capital letters, commas, periods, and other kinds of punctuation pretty well. You may have had some spelling problems, but the reader could still understand your story well.

Your writing is mostly focused and without a lot of jumping around. You have used some smooth transitions and some of your writing is smoothly linked.

You stated your main ideas pretty well and gave some good facts to support them, although some of your facts might have been off topic. You gave some explanation and details. 

You did a good job of thinking through and planning your writing as well as making changes when necessary. You knew why you were writing this piece and who would be reading it. You had some variety in your sentences.

Fictional or autobiographical Narrative

You wrote a good, solid plot for your story.  You have major and minor characters, and you use some good story elements such as dialogue or suspense.

Response to Literature.

Your writing shows that you understand the text. 

2 (approaching District standards)

You only used capital letters, commas, periods and other punctuation right some of the time. Some words were not spelled right and sometimes the words did not fit in the sentences correctly. This sometimes made your story hard to read.

Some of your ideas do not follow each other logically. You may have some repeated ideas or words or give extra information that does not make your writing clearer. Your writing has some focus, but you tend to jump around in your ideas.

You had an idea of what you wanted to say, but your main idea is not very clear. You didn't give enough details or explain your idea well enough. You used only a few kinds of sentences over and over again.

You did a good job on some parts of the writing process, but you missed some of them. You may not have planned out your writing well or made the changes you should have. You didn't seem to have a clear idea of why you were writing this piece or who would read it.

1 (below District Standards)

You did not use capital letters, commas, periods, and other punctuation in the right places or you left it out totally. There were a lot of spelling mistakes that made your story hard to understand.

Your writing is hard to understand because your ideas jump around. You don't have many good transitions (next, then, first, last, etc.). You aren't clear about what you want to say about the prompt. Your introduction and conclusion don't help make your ideas clear.

Your main idea was very hard to figure out, and you didn't give any details to support it. Your sentences all sounded the same.

You really only did one part of the writing process correctly. You need to work on planning your writing, making changes, thinking about why you are writing and figuring out who will read it.