Assessing with Rubrics

Test graders will use a rubric to judge the quality of your writing for assessment. They typically provide a score of 0–4, 0–6, or even 0–8 for each category on the rubric, such as Focus, Organization, Evidence, Language, and Conventions. Then they add up these scores and divide by the number of categories to get the overall average score. By using the following rubrics to judge your own assessment writing, you can become aware of what testers are looking for and can improve your scores in the future.

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

The first sentence or two of your comparison-contrast essay needs to grab your reader's interest. You can experiment with a number of different strategies to write an effective lead.

1. Start with a fascinating question.

   Would you rather be completely normal, with all the typical abilities and disabilities, or exceptional in one or two areas but impaired in others?

2. Start with a thoughtful quotation.

   "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."

   —Albert Camus

3. Provide an anecdote.

   We've all been stuck on a slow bus, starting and stopping in heavy traffic, crammed with others just waiting to get to a destination. When the patent clerk Albert Einstein was stuck on such a bus, he imagined instead riding on a photon at the speed of light . . . and came up with the Special Theory of Relativity.

4. Make a shocking statement.

   People with synesthesia process sound with the part of their brains meant to see pictures. As a result, they see music. When the rest of us hear a D major chord, they might see a bright blue mountain or a vibrantly orange rabbit.

Prewriting to Select Two Topics

If your topics truly interest you, analyzing them will be easy. You might also want to select two interesting topics from a current area of study so that your comparison-contrast essay can help you in more than one class. If you don't know what you want to write about, you can start by selecting an interesting general category from the Basics of Life list and thinking of two topics within that category.

For example, if you choose "Personality," you can compare two types of personality (introvert vs. extrovert) or two tests that measure intelligence (Stanford-Binet vs. Wechsler Intelligence Scale) or two psychological conditions (Asperger's syndrome vs. savant syndrome). If you choose "Food," you can compare and contrast two types of cuisine (French vs. German), or two processes for preserving meat (smoking vs. salt curing), or the history of two different drinks (coffee vs. tea).