ESSAY QUESTION STANDARDS

SCORE CHARACTERISTICS

13-15

• A comprehensive, well-organized essay focused on the question
• Well-developed thesis
• Confronts conflicting nature of the evidence
• Provides in-depth analysis of documents & substantial relevant outside info
• Generally error free

10-12

• Well-developed essay which addresses the question
• Clear thesis
• Analyzes documents and includes considerable outside information
• May contain minor errors

7-9

• Addresses question generally
• Limited thesis supported by evidence
• More descriptive than analytical, use of documents
• Some relevant outside information
• May contain errors, usually not major

4-6

• Essay is a partial restatement of question
• Unsupported thesis
• Paraphrases documents with little or no analysis
• Little or not outside information
• May contain serious errors

1-3

• Essay is poorly developed, reflects inadequate understanding of the question
• May have no thesis
• Incomplete listing of documents
• Erroneous and/or irrelevant outside information

ESSAY SCORING

15-100%

14-98%

13-96%

12-94%

11-92%

10-90%

9-88%

8-85%

7-82%

6-78%

5-75%

4-72%

3-68%

2-65%

1-62%

0-50%

NO PAPER 0%