iRubric: Personal Essay rubric

Maintains clear focus on the thesis and supports it with sophisticated discussion and appropriate,well-told narration. Writer's journey towards this perspective is clearly revealed.

Maintains focus on thesis through discussion and narration. Writers traces path to this perspective.

Focus on thesis is inconsistent. Explanations and narrative are brief and not revealing. It is somewhat clear how writer arrived at this.

Focus on thesis is lacking almost entirely. No explanations or narrative. Writer's journey to this perspective is unclear.

Written with a clear, strong tone,
and with a very creative
approach to the
essay. Variety of sentence structure adds significant interest.

Written in a clear tone and
takes a creative approach
to the essay. Some variety of sentence structure add interest.

Writer uses a weak or bland tone without much creativity. Sentence structure shows competence.

The essay has a weak and bland tone in an all-too-brief essay. Sentence structure errors detract from writing.

Process and final product demonstrate significant effort in addressing focus areas.

Process and final product show effort and progress in focus area.

Some effort shown in working on focus areas.

No evidence of effort towards improvement in focus areas.