iRubric: Cause/Process Essay rubric

Clear understanding and application of primary/immediate or process analysis.

Demonstrates above average understanding of primary/immediate or process analysis. Some elements or content needs a little more development.

Essay displays an acceptable level of understanding of the cause/effect elements, though the use of these elements still needs some development.

Essay demonstrates a minimal acceptable level of understanding of primary/immediate or process analysis. Elements or content need significant development.

No clear use of any of the concepts presented in class.

Each body paragraph contains a clearly focused topic sentence that relates to the thesis of the essay.
Details in the essay are concrete and specific, and they effectively represent the causes, effects, or steps of the process and show how they are related to the topic of analysis. There are enough details to clearly analysis the topic, and each cause, effect, or process step has sufficient details for clear analysis.

Each paragraph contains a topic sentence that relates to the thesis statement.
Details are concrete and specific, but they are not engaging and interesting. There are sufficient details for the analysis, but they could be clearer.

Body paragraphs show an acceptable level of development and flow. More development could be used in terms of establishing purpose, content, or transitions between ideas.

There are no apparent topic sentences in the paragraphs, or they do not relate to the thesis statement.
Details are either wrong or lacking, or they are not related to the topic sentence or the analysis.

Body paragraphs do not display an acceptable level of development of the essay does not meet length requirements.

Writing is smooth, skillful, and coherent. Sentences are strong and expressive with varied structure. Consistent and appropriate tone and word choice is used throughout the paragraph. Transitions are appropriate and add to the effectiveness of the paragraph.

Writing is clear and sentences have varied structure. There is consistent tone and word choice is appropriate with fairly good use of transitions to guide the reader.

Sentence level writing is above average in its use of vocabulary and other writing elements. Consistency is better than the Fair level.

Writing is clear, but sentences may lack variety. The tone is inconsistent and word choice, while adequate, could be better. While transitions are present they do not add to the overall effectiveness of the paragraph.

Essay word choice and flow do not meet college level expectations.