DOCUMENT LIBRARY
Four-Point Scoring Guides
Taking Center Stage, California Department of Education, 2001, p. 76.
Four-Point Guide for Writing Tasks for Grade Seven
(Based on California’s English–language arts content standards for grade seven)
FOUR
The writing—
- clearly addresses the entire writing task.
- demonstrates a clear understanding of purpose and audience.
- maintains a consistent point of view, focus, and organizational structure, including the effective use of transitions.
- includes a clearly presented central idea with relevant facts, details, and/or explanations.
- includes sentence variety.
- contains few, if any, errors in the conventions of the English language (grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling). These errors do not interfere with the reader’s understanding of the writing.
Fictional or autobiographical narrative writing—
- provides a thoroughly developed plot line, including major and minor characters and a definite setting.
- includes appropriate strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense, narrative action).
Response to literature writing—
- develops interpretations that demonstrate a thoughtful, comprehensive grasp of the text.
- organizes accurate and coherent interpretations around clear ideas, premises, or images from the literary work.
- provides specific textual examples and details to support the interpretations.
Persuasive writing—
- authoritatively defends a position with precise and relevant evidence and convincingly addresses the reader’s concerns, biases, and expectations.
Summary writing—
- summarizes text with clear identification of the main idea(s) and most significant details in the student’s own words, and clearly reflects underlying meaning.
THREE
The writing—
- addresses most of the writing task.
- demonstrates a general understanding of purpose and audience.
- maintains a mostly consistent point of view, focus, and organizational structure, including the isolated use of single word transitions.
- presents a central idea with mostly relevant facts, details, and/or explanations.
- includes some sentence variety.
- contains some errors in the conventions of the English language (grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling). These errors do not interfere with the reader’s understanding of the writing.
Fictional or autobiographical narrative writing—
- provides an adequately developed plot line, including major and minor characters and
a definite setting.
- includes appropriate strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense, narrative action).
Response to literature writing—
- develops interpretations that demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of the text.
- organizes accurate and reasonably coherent interpretations around clear ideas, premises, or images from the literary work.
- provides textual examples and details to support the interpretations.
Persuasive writing—
- generally defends a position with relevant evidence and addresses the reader’s concerns, biases, and/or expectations.
Summary writing—
- summarizes text with the main idea(s) and important details, mostly in the student’s own words and generally reflects underlying meaning.
TWO
The writing—
- addresses some of the writing task.
- demonstrates little understanding of purpose and audience.
- maintains an inconsistent point of view, focus, and/or organizational structure, which may include ineffective or awkward transitions that do not unify important ideas.
- suggests a central idea with limited facts, details, and/or explanations.
- includes little sentence variety.
- contains several errors in the conventions of the English language (grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling). These errors may interfere with the reader’s understanding of the writing.
Fictional or autobiographical narrative writing—
- provides a minimally developed plot line, including characters and a setting.
- attempts to use strategies but with minimal effectiveness (e.g., dialogue, suspense, narrative action).
Response to literature writing—
- develops interpretations that demonstrate a limited grasp of the text.
- includes interpretations that lack accuracy or coherence as related to ideas, premises, or images from the literary work.
- provides few, if any, textual examples and details to support the interpretations.
Persuasive writing—
- defends a position with little, if any, evidence and may address the reader’s concerns, biases, and/or expectations.
Summary writing—
- summarizes text with some of the main idea(s) and details, which may be superficial; minimal use of the student’s own words; and minimal reflections of underlying meaning.
ONE
The writing—
- addresses only one part of the writing task.
- demonstrates no understanding of purpose and audience.
- lacks a point of view, focus, organizational structure, and transitions that unify important ideas.
- lacks a central idea but may contain marginally related facts, details, and/or explanations.
- includes no sentence variety.
- contains serious errors in the conventions of the English language (grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling). These errors interfere with the reader’s understanding of the writing.
Fictional or autobiographical narrative writing—
- lacks a developed plot line.
- fails to use strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense, narrative action).
Response to literature writing—
- demonstrates little grasp of the text.
- lacks an interpretation or may be a simple retelling of the passage.
- lacks textual examples and details.
Persuasive writing—
- fails to defend a position with any evidence and fails to address the reader’s concerns, biases, and expectations.
Summary writing—
- summarizes text with few, if any, of the main ideas and/or details, little or not use of the student’s own words, little or no reflection of underlying meaning.
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Four-Point Scoring Guide for Writing Tasks
for Grades Nine and Ten
(Based on California’s English–language arts content standards for grades nine and ten)
Response to Writing Prompt
FOUR
The essay –
- clearly addresses all parts of the writing task.
- provides a meaningful thesis and maintains a consistent tone and focus and purposefully illustrates a control of organization.
- thoughtfully supports the thesis and main ideas with specific details and examples.
- provides a variety of sentence types and uses precise, descriptive language.
- demonstrates a clear sense of audience.
- contains few, if any errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors are generally first-draft in nature.)
Persuasive compositions:
- authoritatively defends a position with precise and relevant evidence and convincingly addresses the reader’s concerns, biases, and expectations.
THREE
The essay–
- addresses all parts of the writing task.
- provides a thesis and maintains a consistent tone and focus and illustrates a control of organization.
- supports the thesis and main ideas with details and examples.
- provides a variety of sentence types and uses some descriptive language.
- demonstrates a general sense of audience.
- contains some errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors do not interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.)
Persuasive compositions:
- generally defends a position with relevant evidence and addresses the reader’s concerns, biases, and expectations.
TWO
The essay–
- addresses only parts of the writing task.
- may provide a thesis and maintains an inconsistent tone and focus and illustrates little, if any control of organization.
- may support the thesis and main ideas with limited, if any, details and/or examples.
- provides few, if any, types of sentences, and uses basic, predictable language.
- demonstrates little or no sense of audience,
- contains several errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors may interfere with the reader’s understanding
of the essay.)
Persuasive compositions:
- defends a position with little, if any, evidence and may address the reader’s concerns, biases, and expectations.
ONE
The essay may be too short to evaluate or–
- addresses only one part of the writing task.
- may provide a weak, if any thesis; fails to maintain a focus, and illustrates little, or no control of organization.
- fails to support ideas with details and/or examples.
- provides no sentence variety and uses limited vocabulary.
- demonstrates no sense of audience.
- contains serious errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.)
Persuasive compositions:
- fails to defend a position with any evidence and fails to address the reader’s concerns, biases, and expectations.
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Response to Literacy/Expository Text
FOUR
The response–
- demonstrates a thorough and thoughtful, comprehensive grasp of the text.
- accurately and coherently provides specific textual details and examples to support the thesis and main ideas.
- demonstrates a clear understanding of the ambiguities, nuances, and complexities of the text.
- provides a variety of sentence types and uses precise, descriptive language.
- contains few, if any, errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors are generally first-draft in nature.)
Response to informational passages:
- thoughtfully anticipates and addresses the reader’s potential misunderstandings, biases, and expectations.
Response to literary passages:
- clearly demonstrates an awareness of the author’s use of literary and/or stylistic devices.
THREE
The response–
- demonstrates a comprehensive grasp of the text.
- accurately and coherently provides general textual details and examples to support the thesis and main ideas.
- demonstrates a general understanding of the ambiguities, nuances, and complexities of the text.
- provides a variety of sentence types and uses some descriptive language.
- contains some errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors do not interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.)
Response to informational passages:
- anticipates and addresses the reader’s potential misunderstandings, biases, and expectations.
Response to literary passages:
- demonstrates an awareness of the author’s use of literary and/or stylistic devices.
TWO
The response–
- demonstrates a limited comprehensive grasp of the text.
- provides few, if any, textual details and examples to support the thesis and main ideas.
- demonstrates a limited, or no, understanding of the ambiguities, nuances, and complexities of the text.
- provides few, if any, types of sentences and uses basic, predictable language.
- contains several errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors may interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.)
Response to informational passages:
- may address the reader’s potential misunderstandings, biases, and expectations, but in a limited manner.
Response to literary passages:
- may demonstrate an awareness of the author’s use of literary and/or stylistic devices.
ONE
The response–
- demonstrates little, if any, comprehensive grasp of the text.
- provides no textual details and examples to support the thesis and main ideas.
- demonstrates no understanding of the ambiguities, nuances, and complexities of the text.
- provides no sentence variety and uses limited vocabulary.
- contains serious errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.)
Response to informational passages:
- does not address the reader’s potential misunderstandings, biases, and expectations.
Response to literary passages:
- does not demonstrate any awareness of the author’s use of literary and/or stylistic devices.
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