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WAC
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Criteria for Scoring Writing in Writing-Intensive
Courses
4/Strong. Superior student writing will exhibit the following characteristics:
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Purpose: Convincingly achieves a clearly articulated purpose
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Context: Exceeds all the requirements of the context or assignment
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Audience: Reflects sensitivity to the audience’s needs; anticipates and
responds to the audience’s questions and expectations
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Content: Presents convincing support for all claims and conclusions with
adequate and appropriate conventions
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Organization: Effectively and explicitly organizes content in a logical
and coherent structure; assists reader to grasp structure and to locate
specific information
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Secondary Material and Documentation: If appropriate, effectively incorporates,
explicates, and documents secondary material using appropriate conventions
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Design: Effectively utilizes principles of document design and, if
applicable, effectively and attractively displays visual information using
appropriate conventions
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Style and Mechanics: skillfully adapts style to the audience, document,
and discipline; contains few, if any, mechanical and spelling errors.
3/Competent. Competent student writing will exhibit the following characteristics:
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Purpose: Defines a purpose, and adequately addresses it
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Context: Addresses requirements of the context or assignment
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Audience: Reflects the effort to adapt writing to the needs of an audience,
but may fail to anticipate adequately the audience’s questions and expectations
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Content: Presents claims and conclusions and supports them with content
that is appropriate and minimally adequate; may make superficial claims
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Form: Utilizes an appropriate form of document and mechanically adheres
to the form’s conventions
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Organization: Organizes content in a coherent structure; provides minimal
assistance to reader in understanding structure
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Secondary Material and Documentation: If appropriate, incorporates and
documents secondary material using appropriate conventions
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Design: Conforms mechanically to principles of document design and, if
applicable, displays visual information using conventional conventions
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Style and Mechanics: May not exhibit stylistic variety; demonstrates competent
writing but may contain flaws in grammar and spelling.
2/Weak. Weak student writing will exhibit the following characteristics:
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Purpose: Defines a purpose but does not adequately achieve it or may confuse
reader about purpose
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Context: May fail to consider some requirements of the context or assignment
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Audience: does not adequately reflect the effort to adapt writing to an
audience
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Content: Presents claims but does not support them with adequate or appropriate
content; may contain irrelevant or unnecessary material and poorly developed
ideas; may fail to draw appropriate conclusions
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Form: Utilizes an appropriate form of document but lacks understanding
of the form’s conventions
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Organization: May confuse reader about logic of organization; does not
inform reader about structure; structure may fail to cohere
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Secondary Material and Documentation: May not incorporate adequate material
or may rely too heavily on secondary sources; may not adequately integrate
or explicate secondary material; may document sources inappropriately
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Design: Does not reflect understanding of document design and, if applicable,
does not adequately display visual information
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Style and Mechanics: Style may be stilted or inappropriate for audience;
reflects a pattern of mechanical and spelling errors.
1/Incompetent. Incompetent student writing will exhibit the following
characteristics:
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Purpose: Does not define a purpose or may express contradictory purposes
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Context: Ignores essential requirements of the context or assignment
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Audience: Reflects insensitivity that may offend or alienate the audience
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Content: Consistently presents superficial and unsubstantiated claims;
contains content that is neither appropriate nor adequate
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Form: Utilizes an inappropriate form of document and/or reflects ignorance
of the form’s conventions
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Organization: Organizes content in an incoherent or illogical manner
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Documentation: May fail to incorporate secondary material or may include
plagiarized material
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Design: Document is unprofessionally or unattractively designed and, if
applicable, does not display information visually or does so in an unprofessional
manner
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Style and Mechanics: Style is immature or inconsistent; contains frequent
and serious errors in mechanics and spelling that may inhibit comprehension.
The notes above were compiled by Ellen Millsaps (Carson-Newman College)
from information obtained at the National WAC Conference, Ithaca, NY June
3, 1999.
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