Assign a separate score for various components of the paper. Doing so will allow students to see how a high or low score in one section affects the quality of their paper in general. The six areas of assessment to include are ideas and content, organization, word voice, voice, sentence fluency and conventions. Assign a score of one through five for each area, with one being the lowest possible score and five being the highest.
In this rubric, teachers do not assign a separate score for each section. Instead, they consider the paper as a whole and how the various factors influence one another. Papers receive grades of Q (quality), A (acceptable) and NA (not acceptable). Which score a student receives depends upon how well he followed the steps of the assignment, if he used proper grammar and sentence structure and if all of the requirements of the paper are met.
Provide a self assessment sheet for students. Include sentences such as "Each paragraph begins with appropriate topic sentence"; "Proper spelling and grammar"; and "Essay demonstrates thought and good understanding." Have students circle "yes" or "no" next to each one of these statements. If you want, include a certain number of points for each "yes" statement and students can add them up at the end to see what their score is. You can use this as a supplementary assessment tool also.
Create a rubric with grades of one through four on it. Include categories such as the writing, narrative, summary and the response to literature. Tweak the rubric to make sense with the specific project you have assigned. Demonstrate what a four-paper will accomplish in each of those categories, what a three-paper will accomplish in each of those categories and so forth. Give one grade for the entire paper.