Determine whether you will create a six-trait rubric or a seven-trait rubric. The seventh trait, presentation, gauges students' formatting of their work and may include proper handwriting or use of the correct font and spacing. If you want to grade students purely on their writing ability, you may wish to omit this trait, but if you want to grade them based on their ability to format their work correctly, include it.
Create a chart with six columns and seven rows if you are using six traits, or six columns and eight rows if you are using seven traits.
Leave the top left cell of your rubric blank. In each of the other cells on the top row, write "1 -- Beginning," "2 -- Emerging," "3 -- Developing," "4 -- Capable" and "5 -- Experienced." At this point, you should have filled in each of the cells of the first row except for the first one on the left.
Write "Ideas & Content" in the first cell of the second row. Write "Organization" in the first cell of the third row; "Voice" in the first cell of the fourth row; "Word Choice" in the first cell of the fifth row; "Sentence Fluency" in the first cell of the sixth row; "Conventions" in the first cell of the seventh row; and "Presentation," if you are using it, in the first cell of the seventh row.
Write the qualities of an essay whose use of theme, topic and supporting details would earn an "A" in the "5 -- Experienced" column for "Ideas & Content." Consider how well the student focuses on and develops main ideas, including which supporting details they choose and how much time they spend adding those details to elaborate on main ideas. You can either write a broad description of any exemplary essay's ideas or write a specific description of ideas for your assignment, such as "Gives strong reasons why 'The Pearl' is an allegory about the American Dream."
Write the qualities of an essay whose organization would earn an "A" in the "5 -- Experienced" column for "Organization." Consider the student's introduction and conclusion, the use of transitions and the sequencing from one idea to the next.
Write the qualities of an essay whose use of voice would earn an "A" in the "5 -- Experienced" column for "Voice." Consider the student's ability to use writing to connect with an audience, the student's engagement with the topic and how well the student expresses her purpose in writing.
Write the qualities of an essay whose word choice would earn an "A" in the "5 -- Experienced" column for "Word Choice." Consider the student's ability to use accurate and specific words, the use of varied vocabulary, the avoidance of unnecessary slang, the use of figurative language and the avoidance of cliches.
Write the qualities of an essay whose sentence fluency would earn an "A" in the "5 -- Experienced" column for "Sentence Fluency." Consider the student's use of varied sentence structure and mastery of more complex sentence types, the flow from one sentence to another and the avoidance of fragments and run-on sentences.
Write the qualities of an essay whose grammar would earn an "A" in the "5 -- Experienced" column for "Conventions." Consider the student's use of punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar.
Write the qualities of an essay whose formatting and presentation would earn an "A" in the "5 -- Experienced" column for "Presentation." Consider the student's handwriting and word spacing if the paper is handwritten, the student's use of fonts, borders and line spacing if the essay is typewritten and the use and placement of graphs, charts and other visual aids regardless of the mode of writing.
Write the qualities of an essay whose use of theme, topic and supporting details would earn a "B" in the "4 -- Capable" column for "Ideas & Content." Write the qualities that would earn a "C" in the "3 -- Developing" column, the qualities that would earn a "D" in the "2 -- Emerging" column, and the qualities that would fail in the "1 -- Beginning" column.
Repeat step 11 for each of the writing traits.