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Generic AP Open Essay Rubric

 

bulletAnswer ENTIRE question
bulletMention ALL PARTS of the question

 

 

9 – 8    Top score but there is little difference between a 9 and 8.  For excellent papers which combine adherence to topic with excellent organization, content, and insight, facile use of language, and mastery of mechanics.  9 essays demonstrate uncommon skill and sometimes put a cultural/historical frame around the subject.  Descriptors:  masterly, sophisticated, complex, specific, consistent, well-supported. (NO Errors, mature diction, vary sentences).

 

7        is a thinner version of the excellent paper, still impressive, cogent, convincing, but less well handled in organization insight and vocabulary.  Descriptors:  clear understanding, less precise, less well supported, maturing.  This writer has potential, but hasn’t quite got it all yet.

 

6        is an above average paper, but it may be deficient in one of the essentials mentioned above.  Paper may be less mature in thought or less well-handled in organization , syntax, or mechanics.  Descriptors:  less mature, some difficulties, but just above average.

 

5        The 5 paper is a thinner version of the 6.  Readers prefer to separate essay into top and bottom half.  The 5 defies that process.  Descriptors:  superficial, vague, and mechanical.

 

4 – 3    is an average to below-average paper which maintains the general idea of the writing prompt, shows some organization, but is weak in content, maturity of thought, language facility, and/or mechanics.  It may distort the topic or fail to deal adequately with one important aspect of the topic.  The 3 essay compounds the weaknesses of the 4.  Descriptors: incomplete, oversimplified, meager, irrelevant, and insufficient.

 

2        is the score assigned to a paper that makes an attempt to deal with the topic, but demonstrates serious weaknesses in content, coherence, and/or syntax and mechanics.  It is an unacceptable grade.  Descriptors:  serious misreading, unacceptably brief, and/or poorly written.

 

1         is given to any on topic response that has very little redeeming quality.  It may be very brief or very long, but will be scarcely coherent, usually full of mechanical errors, or completely miss the focus of the prompt.  Descriptors:  vacuous, inexact, and mechanically unsound.

 

0    is given to a response with no more than a reference to the task