The A final draft generally shows:

Exceptional understanding and thinking: goes beyond a solid grasp of material and competence in discussion to gain insights that are not only personal but illuminating contributions to a particular moment in the course.

Powerful coherence: Essay moves flexibly, fluently, and with vitality, yet with enough control and purpose to convey both an overall sense of unity and a growing sense of unity and a growing development of ideas from start to finish.

Bold yet suitable expression: lively, literate, and appropriate diction, syntax, and general style.

Well-developed proofreading skills: produces effective, conventional mechanics and citations.

The B final draft generally shows:

Good understanding and thinking: an ability to absorb and analyze material for the purpose of constructing a meaningful discussion.

Coherence: a clear sense of order and unity of focus.

Effective expression: Diction and sentence structures are intelligent and appropriate for expression of the writer's understanding.

Sufficient proofreading skill: produces mechanics (including spelling and grammar) and citations that are usually conventional.

The C final draft generally shows:

Limited understanding: Reliance on the self-evident, on cliches, and on rehash of course content produces uninformative (though not necessarily "wrong") discourse.

Uncertain or merely mechanical coherence: lack of point-to-point connections; little or no sense of overall organization or unity of focus. Or depends on a simplistic "list" (First,... Next,... Finally,...) structure.

Minimal expressiveness: limited range of diction and syntax; vague language and simple, loose, or monotonously similar sentence structures.

Uneven proofreading or mechanics: depending on whether style is plain or complex; inconsistent or missing references and citations.

D and F final drafts show:

Weak understanding: Due to incomprehension, failure to grapple with the topic, or lack of interest, the essay's ideas and substance are superficial, too elementary, or wrong.

Incoherence: wandering paper, lacking in focus, organization, or point-to-point links.

Poor expression: diction, idiom, and sentence problems.

Many mechanical errors.

©Bainbridge High School, 9330 NE High School Road, Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110

04/09/99