Overall development: How well has the writer communicated with the reader? Has the writer shown an awareness of the audience and purpose for writing? Is the piece of writing written in the appropriate form for the assignment? (If you were assigned to write a descriptive paragraph, did you actually describe.)
Organization: Does the piece of writing have a clear and logical flow throughout? (introduction, body conclusion)
Support: Does the writer include examples, reasons and descriptions to support the ideas in the paper?
Sentence structure: Are the sentences complete and correct? Are the sentences varied in structure and length? (Don't just use short sentences. Start with a phrase or combine some sentences.)
Word choice: Has the writer used a variety of words? Are all words used correctly? Does the writer use fresh and vivid language? (Get out you thresaurus. Avoid a lot, very, really. Try to be specific.)
Mechanics: Does the writer use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization and paragraphing techniques? (Use the tools available to you. Spell and grammar check you work. Proofread everything carefully before handing it in to be evaluated.)
1. Organize your thoughts before writing. Always do some sort of thinking or prewriting activity prior to writing.
2. Follow all rubric guidelines and answer the questions asked.
3. Build every paragraph like a good hamburger. (topic sentence = first bun, supporting details = all the meat and good stuff, second bun = closing sentence) Build burgers (paragraphs) with lots of yummy details.
4. Read your piece of writing aloud as part of the editing process. Many times you will be able to hear things that you can't see. Reading it aloud also helps you to focus on each word.
5. Don't worry about making the first draft perfect. Just sit down and get started. Get your ideas down in some form (i.e. free writing, a web, an outline, listing, a picture, whatever you need to do). Save your editing until you have the ideas down then you can work on refining the ideas.
6. Do not use personal pronouns (I, you, us) unless quoting someone or writing a personal narrative.
7. Know the difference between it's and its and there, their and they're.
8. Carefully proofread your work and always try to do your very best!