| Content: The Argument | Organisation: Paragraphing, Coherence, and Cohesion | Vocabulary: Range and Accuracy | Grammar: Range and Accuracy | |
| 7 | Your essay is convincing, insightful and interesting. The opening engages the reader and the ending is powerful. Your arguments demonstrate a clear and full understanding of the issues and associated factors, suggesting that you have done wide reading on the topic. All your arguments are relevantly and substantially developed. At least one counter-argument is presented, and convincingly refuted.All citations are very well chosen to support a point, very well paraphrased, and very effectively integrated into the paragraph. | The organisation of your essay is skillfully managed. The introduction and conclusion are well-structured and very helpful. The argument laid out in the body paragraphs is balanced (considers different perspectives and comes to a reasonable conclusion based on those perspectives) and logical (clearly and consistently reasoned). All aspects of cohesion are managed very well, so that your writing flows very smoothly and fluently. | Your use of vocabulary is very good. You use a wide range of vocabulary appropriately and with some precision. This range includes idiomatic and academic vocabulary. You have only made a couple of minor errors or ‘slips’. | Your use of structures is very good. You have accurately used a wide range of grammatical structures. You use an academic style.You have only made a couple of minor errors or ‘slips’. |
| 6 | Your essay is thoughtful and quite substantial, so that the reader is convinced of your point of view. There is a clear and relevant thesis.Your arguments demonstrate understanding of the issues, suggesting that you have done quite a lot of reading on the topic. All your arguments are developed and are supported in a variety of ways. (e.g. by relevant examples, explanations, details, and/or data, etc).At least one counter-argument is presented, and appropriately refuted.Citations are well paraphrased, and support – do not replace – your ideas. They are integrated into the paragraph well. | Your essay is organised very well. The introduction and conclusion are well-structured. All body paragraphs have a single, clear controlling idea.You make good use of different devices to create links between your ideas. These help your reader follow the development of your ideas. | Your use of vocabulary is good. You have used a range of vocabulary to write about the topic. This range includes less-common words and phrases. You show that you are aware of collocation and the need to use academic vocabulary. You may have made a few errors but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written. | Your use of structures is good. You have used a range of sentence structures. You show that you are aware of academic style.You may have made a few errors but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written.You have written a number of error-free complex sentences. |
| 5 | Your essay is quite a good argument, so that the reader is generally convinced of your point of view. A good attempt has been made to put forward and support a clear and relevant thesis.All of your arguments make sense, and are quite well developed and supported. (e.g. by relevant examples, explanations, details, and/or data, etc), suggesting that you have done some selective, careful reading on the topic.At least one counter-argument is presented, and appropriately refuted.Citations are quite well paraphrased, and support – do not replace – your ideas. They are integrated into the paragraph quite well. | Your ideas are logically developed and your essay has a clear structure. The introduction and conclusion are quite well-structured. The introduction contextualises the issue with an appropriate amount of background information, states the thesis and (possibly) provides a plan of the essay. The conclusion restates the thesis and gives a complete summary of all key arguments.Most body paragraphs are unified around a single, clear controlling idea expressed in a topic sentence. You have tried to connect ideas in different ways, apart from just using connectives. | Your use of vocabulary is quite good. You have used a range of vocabulary with some flexibility to write about the topic. This means that you avoided repetition by using synonyms or other word forms.Your vocabulary choices show that you were aware that you were writing for an academic audience.You may have made some errors but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written. | Your use of structures is quite good. You have used a range of sentence structures with some flexibility – so you avoided repeating the same structures. Your choice of structures show that you were aware that you were writing for an academic audience.You may have made some repeated grammatical errors, but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written. |
| 4 | Your essay is an adequate argument, so that the reader is somewhat convinced of your point of view. A fair attempt has been made to put forward and support a relevant thesis.Most of your arguments make sense, though they may not be very strong, suggesting that while you have done some reading on the topic, you may not have understood some of the issues.Your arguments are only just adequately developed, and adequately supported (e.g. by relevant examples, explanations, details, and/or data, etc). Support is also provided by citations, but they may be integrated clumsily into the paragraph. | Your ideas are logically developed and your essay has an appropriate structure. There is an introduction with some background information and a thesis statement; and a conclusion which restates the thesis and summarises the argument. There are 3 – 4 body paragraphs, which are focused, although the controlling idea of each paragraph may not be entirely clear.The way you have connected ideas may be clumsy or not seem natural at times. | Your use of vocabulary is adequate for the task. You have used an adequate range of vocabulary to write about the topic. However, you may have repeated particular words and phrases.You have made errors in word choice and word form, perhaps quite a lot if you were taking risks and trying to use a wider range of vocabulary, but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written. | Your use of structures is adequate for the task. You have used both simple and complex structures. However, you may have repeated particular structures. You have made errors, perhaps quite a lot if you were taking risks and trying to use a wider range of structures, but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written. |
| 3 | Your essay is a less than adequate argument, so it is not very convincing. A thesis is put forward, but it may not be well supported. Your development of your arguments may be limited, or rambling. Not all support, including the citation(s), may be relevant. It may seem that your reading on the topic has been limited, not very selective or not very careful. There are problems with your use of citations. It could be that your citation(s) replace rather than support your ideas, or that there are so many citations that few of your own ideas are obvious. Perhaps you have used a quotation instead of a paraphrase, or your paraphrasing is so poor that it might as well be a quotation. | The overall structure of your essay may be unclear or confused or incomplete. There is an introduction with a thesis statement, but the introduction may otherwise be incomplete, or it may contain information that should not be there.There may not be an obvious or adequate conclusion. The body paragraphs may not have a controlling idea, or it may be hard to identify one, and they may be unfocussed. The structure of your essay/argument may be incomplete, e.g. there may be no counter arguments, or counter arguments may not be refuted.The logical connections between your ideas may not always be clear. You have used a limited range of connectives appropriately to link ideas, but you might have made some errors in use of these linking words too. | Your use of vocabulary is not quite adequate for the task. You have used a limited range of vocabulary to write about the topic. You seem to know a few less common words or phrases, but you may not have always used them accurately or appropriately. It is noticeable that you repeat the same words or same word form.You have made noticeable errors, but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written. | Your use of structures is not quite adequate for the task. You have used both simple structures and a limited range of complex structures. You may seem to know a complex structure, but you may not have been able to use it accurately or appropriately. It is noticeable that you repeat some structures.You have made noticeable errors, but these do not affect the reader’s ability to understand what you have written |
| 2 | Your essay is a limited or barely relevant argument. Your point of view or thesis may not be clear. You may not have written enough.Your arguments may not be developed; or are only supported in a minimal or barely relevant way. It is obvious that your reading on the topic has been limited, or not very selective or carefulThere are problems with your use of citations. Perhaps you did not include any citations, or you included so many that it is difficult to determine what your own ideas are. | The overall structure of your essay may be difficult to identify, or may be inappropriate for an argument essay. There is an introduction, but it may not put forward a thesis statement, and may not be appropriate or helpful.There may not be an obvious or adequate conclusion. The body paragraphs are not adequate. They may not have a clear focus and/or it may be difficult to identify the structure of your argument in the body paragraphs.You have tried to make logical connections between your ideas in places, but you have only used connectives to do this, and they may be repetitive or the wrong ones. | Your use of vocabulary is limited. You have used a very small range of vocabulary to write about the topic. You show that you really only know how to use common, high frequency words and phrases, although you may have taken some less-common words from your sources. You have made quite a lot of errors. Sometimes they make it difficult for the reader to understand what you have written. | Your use of structures is limited. You have tried to use complex sentence structures but you have only written simple structures accurately. You have made quite a lot of errors. Sometimes they make it difficult for the reader to understand what you have written. |
| 1 | Your essay is not an adequate or relevant argument. You do not express a point of view. You may not have written much at all.Your arguments are not developed and are only supported in a minimal or barely relevant way, if at all. It’s hard to imagine that you have done any reading on the topic.Your use of sources is not evident or you may have committed plagiarism | There does not seem to be any overall structure to your essay, OR you do not seem to have used paragraphs and your essay looks like one block of text. If there is an introduction and a conclusion, they are probably not helpful. If there are paragraphs, they are not focused.Ideas are not organised logically and although you have used some connectives to try to link your ideas, many have been used incorrectly. | Your use of vocabulary is very limited. You have only used common, high frequency words. This might mean that you were not really able to write fully about the topic.It may be hard to judge what vocabulary is yours, because you have use so much language from your sources. This could be considered plagiarism.You have made many errors. These make it difficult for the reader to understand what you have written. | Your use of structures is very limited. You probably only used simple sentence structures.It may be hard to judge what sentence structures are yours, because you have use so much language from your sources. This could be considered plagiarism.You have made many errors. These make it difficult for the reader to understand what you have written. |
| 0 | You did not submit your essay on time OR Turnitin reports more than 50% of matched text, and we consider that you have committed plagiarism. | You did not submit your essay on time OR Turnitin reports more than 50% of matched text, and we consider that you have committed plagiarism. | You did not submit your essay on time OR Turnitin reports more than 50% of matched text, and we consider that you have committed plagiarism. | You did not submit your essay on time OR Turnitin reports more than 50% of matched text, and we consider that you have committed plagiarism. |
References Bonus Mark: 1 bonus mark is awarded IF you got the ‘mechanics’ of your citations right. This means that for in-text citations, you provided the author’s surname + year of publication in parentheses AND all your references are listed, alphabetically and correctly, in a list of references at the end of your essay.
Penalties for Late Submission: If you send your essay to your instructor within 24 hours of the deadline, you will lose 1 mark for each criteria. After 24 hours, you will be awarded 0 for all criteria.