·  Essay controlled by clear, precise, well-defined thesis: is sophisticated in both statement and insight

·  Identifies historical figure’s views in a clear, concise and complete manner

·  Clear, specific, argumentative thesis central to the essay; may have left minor terms undefined

·  Describes historical figure’s views

·  General thesis or controlling idea; may not define several central terms

·  Thesis vague or not central to argument; central terms not define

Body Paragraphs

·  Well developed main points directly related to the thesis.

·  Supporting examples are concrete and detailed.  

·  Driven by broad, comprehensive review of primary and secondary research

·  Three or more main points are related to the thesis, but one may lack details. 

·  Primary and secondary research are apparent

·  Three or more main points are present.

·  Primary and secondary research are encyclopedic and superficial

·  Poor development of ideas.   

·  The narrative is undeveloped, and tells rather than shows, the story.

·  Research cursory

·  Appropriate, clear and smooth transitions; arrangement of paragraphs seems particularly appropriate

·  Distinct units of thought in paragraphs controlled by specific and detailed topic sentences; clear transitions between developed, cohering, and logically arranged paragraphs that are internally cohesive

·  Some awkward transitions; some brief, weakly unified or undeveloped paragraphs; arrangement may not appear entirely natural; contains extraneous information

·  Simplistic, tends to narrate or merely summarize; wanders from one topic to another; illogical arrangement of ideas

·  Writing is smooth, skillful, coherent.  Sentences are strong and expressive with varied structure. Words are well chosen.  

·  The essay has few, if any, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, or usage errors.  

·  Writing is clear and sentences  have varied structure. 

 ·  Punctuation, spelling, capitalization are generally correct, with few errors. (1-2)

·  Writing is clear, but sentences may lack variety.   

·  A few errors in punctuation, spelling, capitalization. (3-4)

·  Writing is confusing, hard to follow.  Contains fragments and/or run-on sentences.  

·  Distracting errors in punctuation, spelling, capitalization.