ESSAY GRADING SHEET

STRUCTURE	YES	NO
Does the essay conform to the assignment?
Does the essay attempt to make a point?
Is the thesis sentence easy to locate? (Hopefully, it’s the final sentence of paragraph #1.)
Is the thesis sentence written properly? (announcement?)
Does each body paragraph contain a clear topic sentence?
Are the body paragraphs logically related and sequenced?
Are there structural problems with any of the body paragraphs? Unity? (details that don’t belong) Coherence? (details out of order) Faulty logic? (fallacies and sophistries)

CONTENT	YES	NO
Do the body paragraphs fully develop the essay’s thesis? (overall completeness)
Is each body paragraph sufficiently developed? (paragraph completeness) (Does each body paragraph provide adequate quality and quantity of details?) If not, which ones need more attention?
Is the thought in the essay easy to follow? (Does the essay use effective transitions to move from point to point?)
Is the introductory paragraph engaging? Would it make a reader want to read on?
Does the final paragraph contain a comfortable and appropriate conclusion?

DELIVERY	YES	NO
Does the essay reflect thorough revision and editing?
Does the essay conform to MLA/APA guidelines for margins, line-spacing, citations, etc?
As the reader, do you feel comfortable in the essay writer’s care?
Are there distracting mechanical errors? If so, which? Sentence fragments? Comma splices? Run-on sentences? Words commonly confused (Homonyms) errors? Subject-verb agreement errors? Singular/plural errors? Pronoun confusion (unclear antecedent? Diction (Wording) problems? Wordiness? Clichés? Punctuation? Spelling? Other?
If the essay contains other people’s property—their words, ideas, illustrations, and the like), are documentation (MLA or APA) guidelines correctly followed?
If applicable, does the essay have a Works Cited (MLA) or References (APA) page(s)?

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: