| Grade | Background | Summary | Evidence | Review | Mechanical | |
| A | Gives relevant information about author and intended audience, positions text in scholarly debate. | Clearly describes thesis, argument and conclusions of text. Shows good understanding of relevant main points and avoids extraneous detail. | Perceptively describes and evaluates the kinds of evidence used to support the claims in the text , suggesting other potentially useful sources that would tend to confirm or refute argument. | Thoughtful evaluation of strenghts and weaknesses of text, pointing to other texts that seem to support or weaken argument. | Well organised presentation that fits time limits, presented with some animation rather than read,, creative use of handouts, visuals or other supports. | |
| B | Gives some information about author and how text fits in scholarly debate. | Clearly describes thesis, argument and conclusions of text, but sometimes gets bogged down in detail. | Describes and evaluates the kinds of evidence used to support the claims in the text. | Thoughtful evaluation of sthrengths and weaknesses of text, with some reference to other material. | Clearly organised presentation that stays close to time limit, mostly presented and with some use of visual supports. | |
| C | Some mention of background information. | Describes some elements of thesis and argument, but misses or misunderstands some parts of the text. | Describes most of the evidence used, and shows some ability to evaluate usefulness and relevance of evidence. | Shows some understanding of strenghts and weaknessness of text, gives limited or no reference to other material. | Shows some organisation, but may be too long, no visual supports. | |
| D | Missing. | Misses or misunderstands major parts of text. | Describes some of the evidence used, but is not able to evaluate relevance and usefulness. | Mostly ignores evaluation and focuses on summary. | Lack of organisation, clearly too long. | |
| E | Missing. | Lacks basic understanding of the issue or assignment. | Limited or no description of sources/evidence. | None or little support for argument, misuse of sources (misunderstanding sources, using sources that are not relevant to argument). | Lack of organisation, no understanding of time restraints, read rather than presented. |
(courtesy:http://www.utdallas.edu/~pkj010100/Grading%20rubrics.htm)
