COMPOSING/WRITTEN EXPRESSION 4 3 2 1 CENTRAL IDEA Clear, consistent focus on a central idea Clear awareness of intended audience Reasonably consistent focus on central idea Some awareness of intended audience Inconsistent focus on central idea Limited awareness of audience Little or no focus on a central idea No awareness of audience ORGANIZATION AND UNITY Strong with an effective thesis statement Follows a logical plan are unified with few digressions Maintains a consistent point of view Uses transitions to connect ideas within and across paragraphs Skillful with evidence of a thesis statement Evidence of an plan Few minor digressions Point of view may shift Uses transitions effectively within and across paragraphs Weak introduction with a statement of intent or weak thesis statement Inconsistent organizational plan Lack of unity due to major digressions Shifts in point of view Limited or inconsistent use of transitions within and across paragraphs No with no purposeful thesis statement Little or no of ideas unity due to major digressions Shifts in point of view Absence of transitions connecting ideas EVIDENCE AND DETAILS Fully elaborated containing precise, relevant examples, reasons, events, and/or details which support purpose and May contain lapses relevant examples, reasons, events, and/or details Some details clarify the writer’s Contains limited elaboration, examples, illustrations, reasons, events, and/or details Few details clarify the writer’s purpose Ideas may be a list of general, Contains little or no evidence (examples, reasons, events, and/or details) Little or no elaboration List of general unrelated statements , ,
audience Details clarify the writer’s purpose and clearly elaborate purpose statements Length is inadequate for CONCLUSION Strong, effective conclusion Good conclusion Weak or ineffective conclusion Very limited or no conclusion FLOW Rhythmic flow resulting from purposeful sentence variety Sentences incorporate of ideas, and/or effective embedding of modifiers Some rhythmic flow and sentence variety Some sentences use of ideas, and/or embedding modifiers Uneven rhythmic flow, limited sentence variety, repetitive sentence patterns Little subordination of ideas No rhythmic flow or sentence variety, a tedious No or embedding modifiers WORD CHOICE Contains specific word choice, descriptive language, and selected information purposeful tone Strong evidence of writer’s voice Contains some specific word choice, descriptive language, and selected information Evidence of tone Some evidence of writer’s voice Limited word choice, descriptive language and or selected information Inconsistent tone Occasional use of writer’s voice Lacks tone and voice, little or no specific word choice, descriptive language, and/or selected Little or no evidence of writer’s Writing Rubrics 8.7 Writing Usage/Mechanics Rubric
You must be able to recognize nouns and be able to determine if they are common/proper, singular/plural/collective, or possessive. Common nouns – refer to any noun that is not naming a particular person, place, thing, or idea Proper nouns – refer to the name of a particular person, place, or thing Common Proper principal Mrs. Watkins school Liberty High School shoes Vans **Common nouns begin with lower-case letters unless they are the first word in a sentence. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter because they are names.** Singular Nouns – name ONE person, place, thing, or idea Plural Nouns – name more than one person, place, thing, or idea Collective Nouns – singular nouns that name a group of individuals Singular Plural Collective player players team student students goose geese flock ***Most plural nouns add –s or –es to the end of the singular noun to show that there is more than one; some plural nouns make other changes to the word (woman – women)*** Possessive Nouns – show ownership of something else; what is being owned must be a noun catcher’s mask – the catcher owns the mask **Possession is shown through the use of an apostrophe (‘) in nouns; there are different rules for singular and plural possessives that will be discussed later.** 8.8 Grammar Notes Rules for Possessive Nouns (From: )
Common Prepositions (this is NOT all of them) about above across after against along among around at before behind below beneath beside between by down during except for from in inside into like near of off on over past through throughout to toward under until up upon with within without underneath 8.8 Grammar Notes Clauses and Types of Sentences Clause – contains a subject and a verb Independent Clause – contains a subject, a verb, and forms a complete thought (can be a complete sentence by itself) Dependent Clause – contains a subject and a verb but does NOT form a complete thought; a dependent clause begins with a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun (also called subordinate clause; it CANNOT be a complete sentence. By itself, it is a FRAGMENT). A simple sentence contains one independent clause. It may have more than one subject or more than one verb, but is only one complete thought. Examples: I went to the store. (one subject, one verb, one complete thought) My mom and I went to the store. (two subjects, one verb, one complete thought) I went to the and bought popcorn. (one subject, two verbs, one complete thought)
If a direct quote is interrupted in the middle, don’t start the second part of the quote with a capital letter. Example: “I can’t believe,” my brother told me, “that you didn’t wash your hands before you made lunch.” Punctuation (commas, periods, question marks, etc.) comes BEFORE the quotation mark. If the quotation is at the end of a sentence, the comma to set off the quote comes before the first quotation mark and the period to end the sentence comes before the final quotation mark. If a quote comes at the beginning of a sentence, the comma to set it off comes before the final quotation mark. Quotation Marks for Titles Quotation marks should be put around the title of the following short types of works: songs, short stories, essays, poems, one-act plays, section titles of longer works, chapter title, articles in newspapers/magazines/journals, episodes of radio/tv series. Dialogue When writing dialogue (conversations in narrative writing), write each person’s words as a new paragraph (even if it’s only a word or two). Separate each person’s words from the narration using commas as described in number five above. 8.8 Mechanics Notes Use of Commas Follow the rules below to decide when to add a comma to your writing. Remember, using commas when you don’t need them is just as wrong as not using commas when you do need them! Use commas to separate words/groups of words in a series of three or more. If the last two items have the conjunction and or or between them, you may use a comma before the conjunction but this is not required. Use commas to separate two adjectives describing the same noun, IF the of the adjectives could be changed without changing the meaning. Use a comma before the coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) in a compound sentence. Use a comma after words or phrases that introduce or interrupt a sentence.
C – conventional situations – dates, addresses, friendly letters p. 646 C – compound sentences – two sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction, p. 637 A – a series of items - p. 633-34 I – introductory - words, phrases, clauses, p. 644 N – nonessential p. 639-40