Sample rubric for research paper

In a research paper, a thesis statement should clearly outline what the topic of the essay is and the broad category of facts that will be included. Because a thesis statement is such an important part of an essay or paper, it often gets its own scoring category on a rubric. For our example rubric, the category 'Thesis Statement' covers this.

When grading a research paper, if the author has clearly reinforced all of their claims with sources, they would earn a three in this category. If the author makes many claims that do not have sources, they would obviously earn a lower score, all the way down to zero.

Rubrics can be used to score work by assigning a point value to a student's performance in each of the categories. A clearer example of this will be detailed throughout the rest of the lesson. Our example rubric will use a point scale of 0-3. Zero is the lowest score a student can receive in a category and three is the highest.

Subject A Scoring Guide (University of California) In holistic reading, raters assign each essay to a scoring category according to its dominant characteristics. The categories below describe the characteristics typical of papers at six different levels of competence.