Excellent

• Develops ideas well and uses many specific, relevant details throughout the essay.
• Is well organized with clear transitions; maintains focus.
• Sustains varied sentence structure.
• Exhibits many specific word choices.
• Contains little or no errors in grammar and conventions; errors do not interfere with understanding.

Persuasive mode

• Clearly states the position and effectively persuades the reader of validity of argument.

Skillful

• Develops ideas with some specific, relevant details.
• Is clearly organized; information is presented in an orderly way, but essay may lack transitions.
• Exhibits some variety in sentence structure.
• Displays some specific word choices.
• May contain some errors in grammar and conventions; errors do not interfere with understanding.

Persuasive mode

• Clearly states the position and persuades the reader.

Sufficient

• Provides clear ideas, but sparsely developed; may have few details.
• Provides a clear sequence of information; provides pieces of information that are generally related to each other.
• Generally has simple sentences; may exhibit uneven control over sentence structure.
• Consists mainly of simple word choices, but may contain some specific word choices.
• Contains errors in grammar and conventions that generally do not interfere with understanding.

Persuasive mode

• States a position and adequately attempts to persuade the reader.

Uneven

• Provides limited or incomplete information; may be list-like or have the quality of an outline.
• Is disorganized or provides a disjointed sequence of information.
• Exhibits uneven control over sentence structure.
• May have some inaccurate word choices.
• Contains errors in grammar and conventions that sometimes interfere with understanding.

Persuasive mode

• While a position is stated, either it is unclear or undeveloped.

Insufficient

• Provides little information and makes little attempt at development.
• Is very disorganized or too brief to detect organization.
• Exhibits little control over sentence structure.
• Contains inaccurate word choices in much of the essay.
• Is characterized by misspellings, missing words, and incorrect word order; errors in grammar and conventions are severe enough to make understanding very difficult in much of the essay.

Persuasive mode

• Either a position is not clearly given or little attempt is made at persuasion.

Unsatisfactory

• Attempts a response, but may only paraphrase the prompt or be extremely brief.
• Exhibits no control over organization.
• Exhibits no control over sentence structure.
• Contains inaccurate word choices throughout most of the essay.
• Is characterized by misspellings, missing words, and incorrect word order; errors in grammar and conventions severely impede understanding throughout the essay.

Persuasive mode

• Little effort is made to persuade, either because there is no position taken or no support is given.