3 Examples of Scoring Rubric for English Writing

A scoring rubric is a tool teachers use to assess students’ performance. It is an assessment guide that describes evaluation criteria (or grading standards) based on students’ expected outcomes and performances.

Rubrics are often used to score or grade written assignments or oral presentations. Moreover, rubrics can also be used for self-evaluation, reflection, and peer review. As the Office of Graduate Studies Teaching at UNL confirmed in 2017, scoring rubrics are incredibly useful for assessing complex tasks or assignments like written work (e.g., assignments, essay tests, papers, portfolios), presentations (e.g., debates, role plays), group work, or other types of work products or performances (e.g., artistic works, portfolios).

Typically, scoring rubrics are presented in a table containing several criteria to be rated, quality descriptions for each criterion, and a rating scale for the quality descriptions. Each rubric consists of grading criteria and the associated point values for each criterion.

Rubrics are “powerful tools for both teaching and assessment,” which means they are used not only for assessment but also to help students improve their writing skills (Reddy and Andrade, 2010). As a result, rubrics can be used in writing classes to help teachers evaluate students’ performances and to assist teachers in their teaching.

Teachers will grade students’ performances based on the criteria and indicators outlined in the rubrics, provide relevant feedback, and guide students in improving their performance. More importantly, rubrics are frequently used as part of “a learner-centered approach to assessment” (Reddy and Andrade, 2010), which involves students in evaluating their performance.

Students can self-evaluate their work and provide feedback to one another through rubrics because rubrics are pretty clear, with detailed explanations (Sundeen, 2014). As a result, students can better understand their writing difficulties.

Example 1

Criteria	Limited 1	Adequate 2	Proficient 3	Excellent 4
Structure	Bad organization of topic subtopic	Acceptable organization of topic subtopic	Satisfactory organization of topic subtopic	Excellent organization of topic subtopic
Grammar	Never using correct grammar in statements	Sometimes using correct grammar in statements	Often using correct grammar in statements	Always use correct grammar in statements
Terminology	Never using the precise technical term	Sometimes using the precise technical term	Often using the precise technical term	Always using the precise technical term
Content	Never present concrete facts with evidence	Sometimes present concrete facts with evidence	Often present concrete facts with evidence	Always present concrete facts with evidence

Adapted from Andrade (1997)

Example 2

Components of Writing	4-Excellent	3-Good	2-Fair	1-Poor	Weighting
Content (C)	Present the information in well-chosen details across the paragraph	Present the information with details in parts of the paragraph	Present the information with some details	Present no clear information	3
Vocabulary (V)	Good vocabulary choice	Error in vocabulary choice are few and do not interfere with understanding.	Errors in vocabulary choice are and sometimes interfere with understanding.	Many errors in vocabulary choice that severally interferes with understanding	2.5
Grammar (G	Good in grammar	Errors in grammar choice are few and do not interfere with understanding.	Errors in grammar choice are and sometimes interfere with understanding.	Many errors in grammar choice that severally interferes with understanding	2.5
Mechanics (M)	Good in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization understanding	Error in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are few.	Error in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization and sometimes interfere with understanding.	Error in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization severely interfere with understanding	2

Adapted from Brown (2007, p.352).

Example 3

Aspects	5	4	3	2	1
Writing Authenticity	Very original	Original	Fairly Original	Less Original	Not Original
Content accordance with the title	Content is very in accordance with the title	Content is in accordance with the title	Content is fairly in accordance with the title	Content is in less accordance with the title	Content is not in accordance with the title
Text harmony	The harmony of the text is very precise	The harmony of the text is precise	The harmony of the text is quite precise	The harmony of the text is less precise	The harmony of the text is not precise
Vocabulary selection	Vocabulary selection is very appropriate	Vocabulary selection is appropriate	Vocabulary selection is quite appropriate	Vocabulary selection is less appropriate	Vocabulary selection is inappropriate
Grammar options	The selection of grammar is very proper	Selection of grammar is proper	The selection of grammar is quite proper	Selection of grammar is less proper	Selection of grammar is improper
Vocabulary Writing	Vocabulary writing is very precise	Vocabulary writing is precise	Vocabulary writing is quite precise	Vocabulary writing is less precise	Vocabulary writing is not precise
Writing Tidiness	Writing is neat and easily readable	Writing is untidy but easily readable	Writing is neat but not easily readable	Writing is untidy and hardly readable

Rukmini & Saputri (2017)

References & Recommended Reading

Andrade, H.G. (1997). Understanding Rubrics. Educational Leadership, 54 (4), 14-17.
Reddy, Y. M. & Andrade, H. (2010). A review of rubric use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35, 435-448.
Rukmini, D., & Saputri, L. A. D. E. (2017). The authentic assessment measures students’ English productive skills based on the 2013 curriculum. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(2), 263-273.
Sundeen, T. H. (2014). Instructional rubrics: effects of presentation options on writing quality. Assessing Writing, 21, 74-88
Stiggins, R. J. (2004). Student-involved assessment for learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.