Basic Writing Conventions Rubric

Student Name: ________________________________________

Meets Standards 4
Proper Nouns (Salt lake City, Mt Olympus) Names (John. Ms. Burnell) Historical Events (Holocaust, Civil War) The Letter I (I am serious!) Acronyms (IRS, SLC, USA, SNAFU) Beginning of ANY sentence. Periods at the end of every sentence Commas used properly (after clauses, before tags, to indicate a pause in thought or speech, etc.) QUOTATION marks (direct quotes) Parenthesis (citing) NO EMOTICONS! Ever. Variety in sentence beginnings Variety in sentence length and structure Writing is easily understood when read aloud Writing/comprehension flows from one sentence to the next Tenses are in agreement

Approaching Standards 3
Minor errors in capitalization have occurred.

Below Standards 2

Unacceptable 1
Clearly did not make an effort to capitalize properly.

Capitalization

Punctuation

Minor errors in period usage Commas are left out at times Quotation marks are inappropriately used (he hugged her) Parentheses used for additional thoughts (Jack (that jerk) bought a cake.) Sentences usually begin the same way Sentences have some variety in in length and structure, but tend to be the same When read aloud, writing can be confusing There is some confusion with comprehension of presented ideas Occasionally paper switches between tenses Sentences always begin the same way Sentences are the same in in length and structure When read aloud, writing is confusing The flow is choppy or unorganized The paper switches tenses throughout

Punctuation is not used well in any way.

The sentences are boring, unclear, or impede readers comprehension.

Sentence Fluency

Spelling

Do NOT use texting abbreviations (LOL, UR, R) Word check has been employed Use a dictionary

Spelling sucks.

Word Choice

The proper word is used to express meaning (there vs. their, your vs. youre) Different words are used which have the same meaning (Spectacular! Amazing!)

Erroneous use of words (I love there books.) Same word is used over and over

No attempt has been made to use the proper word, or vary words.

Check in box indicates an emphasis placed on a particular element.