4. The essay-

• clearly addresses all parts of the writing task.
• provides a meaningful thesis and maintains a consistent tone and focus and purposefully illustrates a control of organization.
• thoughtfully supports the thesis and main ideas with specific details and examples.
• provides a variety of sentence types and uses precise, descriptive language.
• demonstrates a clear sense of audience.
• contains few, if any errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors are generally first-draft in nature.)

Persuasive compositions:

• authoritarvely defends a position with precise and relevant evidence and convincingly addresses the readers concerns, biases, and expectations.

3. The essay-

• addresses all parts of the writing task.
• provides a thesis and maintains a consistent tone and focus and illustrates a control of organization
• supports the thesis and main ideas with details and examples.
• provides a variety of sentence types and uses some descriptive language.
• demonstrates a general sense of audience.
• contains some errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors do not interfere with the readers' understanding of the essay.)

Persuasive compositions:

• generally defends a position with relevant evidence and addresses the readers' concerns, biases, and expectations.

2. The essay-

• addresses only parts of the writing task.
• may provide a thesis and maintains an inconsistent tone and focus and illustrates little, if any control of organization.
• may support the thesis and main ideas with limited, if any, details and/or examples.
• provides few, if any, types of sentences, and uses basic, predictable language.
• demonstrates little or no sense of audience.
• contains several errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors may interfere with the readers' understanding of the essay.)

Persuasive compositions:

• defends a position with little, if any, evidence and may address the readers' concerns, biases, and expectations.

1. The essay be too short to evaluate or-

• addresses only one part of the writing task.
• may provide a weak, if any thesis; fails to maintain a focus and illustrates little, or no control of organization.
• fails support ideas with details and/or examples.
• provides no sentence variety and uses limited vocabulary.
• demonstrates no sense of audience.
• contains serious errors in the conventions of the English language. (Errors interfere with the readers' understanding of the essay.)

Persuasive compositions:

• fails defend a position with any evidence and fails address the readers' concerns, biases, and expectations.

Non-scoreable

Standards and Assessment Division California Department of Education