Research Paper Rubric

	Clarity	Effectiveness	Organization	Technical
A	Essay is written with few or no grammatical errors. Sentences are not over-packed or too short. The writer has a variety of sentence structures that he/she uses in presenting ideas.	The essay has an excellent thesis statement that clearly lays out the purpose of the paper. The essay is effective in staying on topic and discussing the importance of the issue at hand. The content in the body paragraphs build off of this thesis statement	The essay has an effective opening paragraph followed by subsequent body paragraphs, each with effective topic sentences that give the body paragraphs structure and organization. The essay has a strong conclusion that wraps up the thoughts on the topic	The essay is written in MLA format with little to no errors with in-text citations or the work’s cited page. The paraphrasing and summarizing of outside sources completely avoids unintentional plagiarism.
B	Essay has some grammatical and structural errors but they do not deeply impact the clarity of the writing. Minor issues remain on writing effective sentences.	The thesis statement is mostly effective in introducing the topic, purpose, and direction of the essay. The content in the body paragraphs sometimes strays from the thesis, but comes back to the writer’s original intentions for a majority of the essay. The essay contains good substance on the topic at hand.	The essay has a good opening paragraph followed by subsequent body paragraphs, each with topic sentences that give the body paragraphs structure and organization. The essay has a conclusion that wraps up the essay.	The essay is written in MLA format with little a few errors with in-text citations and the work’s cited page. The paraphrasing and summarizing of outside sources mostly avoids unintentional plagiarism.
C	Essay has a noticeable amount of grammatical and structural errors which at times takes away from the clarity of the writing. Sentences may be over-packed or too short with little structural variety.	The thesis statement is somewhat flawed in introducing the topic, purpose, and direction of the essay. The content in the body paragraphs often stray from the thesis, The essay contains some substance on the topic at hand.	The essay has a somewhat flawed opening paragraph or body paragraphs. Although body paragraphs are present, they contain some organizational issues possibly due to weak or missing topic sentences.	The essay uses MLA formatting as a guide but strays from it at times. There are errors with citing texts in the essay. The essay might have some issues with unintentional plagiarism. Non-reputable sources may be cited at times.
D and below	Essay has an abundance of grammatical and structural errors which makes the writing very difficult to understand	The thesis statement is either confusing or is seriously flawed in introducing the essay’s purpose and topic. The content of the essay is inconsistent with the thesis. The substance of the body paragraphs is seriously flawed.	The essay is seriously flawed in its organization of the body paragraphs. Topic sentences are absent, and the ideas discussed are not presented in a logical manner.	The writer does not understand MLA formatting nor correct citations. Unintentional plagiarism might be a looming issue. Wikipedia or other non-reputable sources are cited for a considerable portion of the essay.

Technical- 20 points: Does your essay have the appropriate number of pages (at least 4)? Are in text citations used properly? Does the essay follow MLA formatting? Is there a Works Cited Page?

Clarity- 20 points- Do grammatical errors disrupt the clarity of the essay? Does the writer avoid redundancy? Are sentences over-packed? Are sentences too short and lack content? Are there sentences that could have been combined to have created more substantive ones? Are the sentence structures and patterns correctly assembled and used in a variety of ways?

Organization- 20 points: Is the essay properly organized? Is there an effective opening paragraph followed by subsequent body paragraphs? Does each paragraph have an effective topic sentence? Do the body paragraphs build off of this topic sentence or are they disorganized? Are the body paragraphs organized into sub-topics? Is there a conclusion paragraph that sums up the purpose of the essay?

Effectiveness- 20 points: Is there a strong thesis statement that lays out the purpose of the paper? Does the essay and the content in the body paragraphs build off of this thesis statement? Does the essay contain overall substance on the topic at hand?

Rough Draft- 20 points: Did the rough draft contain at least one in-text citation? Did it reach the three page minimum?