AP ESSAYS SCORING RUBRICLITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAYS ONLY

Score/Grade Description
9 (100) A 9 builds on the content strengths of the 8 while also offering especially well written and/or
unique analysis. This essay offers an idea or series of ideas that are beyond the usual analysis for
the given prompt. Some grammatical/organizational errors may be present but the strength of
the essays ideas far overshadows those errors.
8 (97) An 8 has all the qualities of a 7 but has three or more particularly well-written and detailed
ideas that are absent in a 7 essay. Some grammatical/organizational errors may be present but
the strength of the essays ideas far overshadows those errors.
7 (92) A 7 has all the qualities of a 6 but has one or two particularly well-written and detailed ideas
that are absent in a 6 essay.
6 (88) The 6 essay is a well written essay that has solid examples. There might be some deficiencies in
completeness of thought or organization, but holistically the essay is superior to the 5.
5 (85) This essay makes a solid attempt at analysis but lacks in either organization, completeness of
thought or more than one major distracting grammatical error.
4 (80) The 4 essay reads like a solid outline of a much better essay. This is the beginning of a good
essay but needs more details/specifics.
3 (78) The essay begins to address the prompt but is somewhat incomplete or resorts to excessive
summary.
2 (70) The essay begins to address the prompt but is either incomplete or riddled with distracting
grammatical/organizational or content errors.
1 (60) An off-topic or wholly incomplete essay
0 No writing present

Below are some possible feedback items checked for this specific essay. Please meet with me for questions and more
feedback if youd like. ONLY CHECKED ITEMS APPLY

Content Organization Style

You have one or more good ideas in Your thesis doesnt introduce any Your writing here is too informal, like
this essay but it needed more general, overarching big picture youre talking to a friend instead of
depth/analysis theme/analysis/talking point writing for an academic setting

Your discussion of a literary term was
incorrect (e.g. you talked about one
term when you actually meant a
different one) to the extent that it
hurt your overall essay
You mentioned one thing in your
thesis but something completely
different in your body paragraphs, so
the essay needs to be organized
better
Your writing is too simplistic with a
lot of short, declarative sentences.
You need to work on improving your
writing to a college-level syntax
(sentence-structure and variety).

You use quoted material excessively
in this essay and sometimes
incorrectly
Your conclusion is missing or Your handwriting is much too
inadequate difficult to read, make sure to write
Quoted material isnt set up
in clear print next time

Theres not enough quoted material
in this essay, it might even read like a
summary instead of analysis
You misread the passage/prompt.
You misunderstood what was being
talked about or what was asked of
you to do.
You did not include a second citation
in one of your body paragaphs
correctly: either with no lead-in or Lets make sure to write in pen next
other explanation time
You need transitional phrases/words
within body paragraphs to make it
DO WE NEED TO TALK?
flow better Please see me about this essay one-
Ideas dont flow naturally from
on-one so we can talk more about it
ASAP.
paragraph to paragraph. It seems
one paragraph might be better in
another location: you might consider
re-arraigning the order of
paragraphs