Rubric for Evaluating Essays 0
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2
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4
Blank paper
Incorrect purpose, mode, audience
Correct purpose, mode, audience
Correct purpose, mode, audience
Correct purpose, mode, audience
Foreign language
Brief, vague
Some elaboration
Moderately well elaborated
Effective elaboration
Illegible, incoherent
Unelaborated
Some details
Clear, effective language
Consistent organization
Not enough content to score
Rambling
Gaps in organization
Organized (perhaps with brief digressions)
Sense of completeness, fluency

Lack of language control
Limited language control

Poor organization

The following lines are spoken by Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act II, Scene ii:

Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep’—the innocent sleep, / Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, / The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, / Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, / Chief nourisher in life’s feast . . .

In an essay, discuss the meaning of these lines for Macbeth. Why do you think Shakespeare chose to portray Macbeth as so conscience-stricken by his deed? How would the story be different if Macbeth’s actions caused him no moral suffering?

An expository essay instructs, provides information, or explains. in this essay, you are presenting information and explaining why you think the ideas and work of the individual you chose had an effect on european thought. but before you begin writing the essay, you need to organize the information you’ve gathered by creating an outline. directions: your taking notes sheet should have you identify and organize the information you found while doing your research. now it is time to create an outline to organize the information in the way you will present it in your essay. you may decide not to use all the information you gathered, but be sure you do not leave out anything that you believe is important to support your thesis. your essay should include an introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. each paragraph should cover one main topic and should correspond to a roman numeral (i., ii., iii.) on the outline. the main topics should cover: the person’s accomplishment and contributions, and the effect of his or her accomplishments or contributions on european thought. write a topic sentence for each paragraph of your essay. be sure it tells the reader what the section will be about and how the information relates to your thesis statement. your topic sentence for the introductory paragraph might say something like “johannes gutenberg’s invention changed the way people communicated.” a topic sentence for the second paragraph—the first main topic—might be something like "gutenberg’s printing press changed the way books were produced and the way knowledge was communicated.” decide which pieces of information you will use to support your topic sentences. (these ideas or groups of facts are called subtopics.) subtopics follow capital letters and periods (a., b., and c.) on your outline. add this information beneath your topic sentence. you can further divide subtopics into specific facts. in an outline, specific facts follow arabic numerals and periods (1. 2. 3. 4.) end your outline and essay with a concluding paragraph. write a concluding paragraph that summarizes the main ideas of your essay and restates your thesis statement in some way. write no more than four or five sentences. worth 241 points