Scoring Guideline: Middle School
Score = 6Excellent* Develops ideas well and uses many speciﬁc details related to the topic.
* Is well organized with clear transitions; maintains focus.
* Sustains varied sentence structure.
* Exhibits speciﬁc word choices.
* Contains little or no errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation; errors do not interfere with understanding.
Persuasive mode
* Clearly states the position and eﬀectively persuades the reader of a certain viewpoint.

Score = 5Skillful* Develops ideas with some speciﬁc details.
* Is clearly organized; information is presented in an orderly way, but essay may lack transitions.
* Exhibits some variety in sentence structure.
* Contains some speciﬁc word choices.
* May contain some errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation; errors do not interfere with understanding.
Persuasive mode
* Clearly states the position and persuades the reader.

Score = 4Suﬃcient* Provides clear ideas, but not fully developed; may have few details.
* Provides a clear sequence of information; provides pieces of information that are generally related to each other.
* Generally has simple sentences; may exhibit uneven control over sentence structure.
* Contains mostly simple word choices, but may display some speciﬁc word choices.
* Contains errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation that generally do not interfere with understanding.
Persuasive mode
* States a position and adequately attempts to persuade the reader.

Score = 3
Uneven* Provides limited or incomplete information; may be list-like or have the quality of an outline.
* Is disorganized or provides a disjointed sequence of information.
* Exhibits uneven control over sentence structure.
* May have some inaccurate word choices.
* Contains errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation that sometimes interfere with understanding.
Persuasive mode
* While a position is stated, either it is unclear or undeveloped.

Score = 2
Insuﬃcient* Provides little information and makes little attempt at development.
* Is very disorganized or too brief to detect organization.
* Exhibits little control over sentence structure.
* Contains inaccurate word choices in much of the essay.
* Is characterized by misspellings, missing words, and incorrect word order; errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, andpunctuation are severe enough to make understanding very diﬃcult in much of the essay.
Persuasive mode
* Either a position is not clearly given or little attempt is made at persuasion.

Score = 1
Unsatisfactory* Attempts a response, but may only restate the prompt or be extremely brief.
* Exhibits no control over organization.
* Exhibits no control over sentence structure.
* Contains inaccurate word choices in most of the essay.
* Is characterized by misspellings, missing words, and incorrect word order; errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, andpunctuation severely interfere with understanding throughout the essay.
Persuasive mode
* Little eﬀort is made to persuade, either because there is no position taken or no support is given.
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