Evaluation Checklist: ESSAY #1

EVALUATION Checklist: ESSAY #1                      NAME______________________________
(Prepared Outside Class)
WR 121, Fall 2004, Prof. C. Agatucci                                          Grade________
Worth 20% of course grade                                        ___1/2 grade penalty if submitted LATE

___ Submitted on time: Revision Option available. Note Well: Original graded Essay #1 & Cora's evaluation checklist must be resubmitted with Optional Revision for regrading.

___I. BASIC REQUIREMENTS for Final Draft are met (Yes or No)

___1. Manuscript Preparation Requirements (see WR 121 Syllabus)
___2. Essay Genre & Topic Choice
___3. Essay Length about 1000 words
___4. Required "Outside" Source In-Text Citation & Works Cited: Plagiarism Avoided
LEARNING OUTCOME 4: Employ one or more sources responsibly (without plagiarizing)…
___5. Clarity, Coherence, Correctness (Command of Standard Written English)
LEARNING OUTCOME 1 Write essays that . . . conform to standard edited English.

___II. ESSAY WRITING SKILLS (Out of Class Essay, Free-Choice Topic)
___Content, Author Engagement: college-level critical/creative thinking demonstrated (e.g. imaginative treatment, insightful analysis, relevant issues/complexity explored, does not oversimplify or ignore contradictions); clear sense of author engagement & topic knowledge;
___Audience: strong sense of audience: author is writing to communicate with targeted audience & general (incl. “uninformed”) WR 121 college-level readers.

___LEARNING OUTCOME 1: Write essays that [A] use a thesis to establish control over content; [B] supply relevant and adequate supporting details drawn from observation, personal experience and reading; [C] employ organizational strategies of effective beginnings, transitions, and endings; . . .

___A. Thesis/Purpose, Unity, Title: Thesis & purpose clearly established (or implied) & well placed; essay is unified by (sticks to) stated/implied thesis & central purpose, with timely thesis transitions integrated to connect body points/topic sentences to essay thesis; effective title forecasts (explicitly or implicitly) topic focus/thesis/theme.
___B. Body Paragraph Structure & Development: each body paragraph presents a clear main idea (explicit/implicit topic sentence) unifying the rest of the paragraph; good idea progression (unnecessary restatement and circling are avoided); effective balance of meaningful generalization and specific supporting development; specific development is effective to clarify, support, elaborate, illustrate, dramatize, make vivid the author’s general points--to "show" readers what the author means; body points important to support of thesis/purpose are accorded proportional emphasis & development, and are well explained/analyzed/interpreted; body content is well selected to achieve the overall essay purpose/thesis.
___Well-selected citation is incorporated smoothly and grammatically correctly into essay - using ellipses points, brackets, block quotation if applicable. Commentary accompanies citation to interpret/explain its relevance to student’s essay/point.
___C. Organization & Coherence: Overall, organizational plan/arrangement of ideas is sound, logical, effective; introduction and conclusion are appropriate to thesis/purpose and effective; internal body paragraph organization is strong, and paragraphs breaks are logical and "readable"; reasoning is convincing and logical; strong coherence, continuity, clarity maintained in the essay--e.g., through explicit, accurate transitions, clear expression, few major sentence errors, grammatical consistency in person, tense, pronoun reference, etc.

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES - OUTCOME 3 Demonstrate ability to use a variety of expository essay patterns
. . . ______________________________________________________________________
STYLE: LEARNING OUTCOME 5 Demonstrate, in an essay, a sustained style employing rhetorically effective tone, persona, diction [Word Choice], idiom, and syntax [Sentence Structure].