Contains sound ideas which are developed through relevant examples

Clear with some development of topic but few examples or details

Occasionally clear and relevant to topic but few ideas and little or no development of ideas through examples

Vague and unclear with little substance or too short

Contains effective thesis statement, topic sentences, introduction, body and conclusion and clear transition

Fulfills basic essay structure requirements but thesis statement and/or topic sentences weak or weak transitions.

Some organization evident but sketchy and inconclusive

Vague and unclear with little substance or too short

Occasional errors in tenses and subject-verb agreement that do not affect overall coherence

Some errors in tenses and subject agreement

Numerous grammatical errors in tense and subject verb agreement that interfere with essay's clarity

Consistent misuse of tenses and subject verb agreement throughout.

Demonstrates basic fluency in sentence structure with errors that generally do not affect meaning. Using compound and complex sentences.

Demonstrates proficiency in structuring sentences with some errors that may interfere with clarity

Some variety in sentence structure but weak syntactically somewhat repetitious.

Use only simple sentence structure with frequent errors in syntax; many run on and fragments .

Few errors in punctuation and spelling, few errors in usage and diction

Some errors in punctuation and spelling some errors in usage and diction

Frequent errors in punctuation and spelling frequent errors in usage and diction

Lacks paragraph form; consistent errors in punctuation and spelling; consistent errors in usage and diction