Students must be taught what we are assessing with a rubric if they are to succeed. Teachers must know what they are teaching before they can ensure student success. Creating charts for the wall with this information or making individual step books will help students remember what the writing domains are and how to improve.

Ideas

Choose an idea, stay on topic, and use details. Brainstorm ideas. Plan writing. Add details with the w and h words. Show; don’t tell in your writing. Narrow your topic. Use expansion. Read about the topic first. Focus.

Organization

Write a complete paper in proper order. Have a beginning, middle, and an ending. Use transition words. Link sentences into paragraphs. Make sure paper is complete.

Style

Make paper interesting, have it sound like you, and use interesting words. Stick to the purpose. Show action. Think about the audience. Remember the genre. Use strong verbs and vivid adjectives. Don’t overuse words. Begin sentences in different ways. Use different kinds of sentences. Use movability, sentence-combining, and slotting.

Conventions

Write so others can read and understand your papers. Capitalize. Punctuate. Space between words. Indent. Watch spelling. Use homophones correctly.

When creating a basic rubric using this info, weigh Ideas 40% and the other three domains 20% each.

***Summarized by WISE Writing Consulting