City Vision Writing Rubrics and Suggestions

Written Papers

Many writing assignments at City Vision University are evaluated using a rubric - a set of standards that help with grading. The columns across the top of the rubric, called Ratings, show what your professors expect you to do in order to exceed expectations, meet expectations, etc., for each of the Criteria listed in the rubric.

Most of our courses use the General Written Assignment Rubric. Some Business and Nonprofit Management courses use the Management Major Project Rubric. A few courses have their own rubrics, such as the Prior Learning Assessment rubric, which is described in the Prior Learning Assessment course.

Our English Composition course uses a version of the General Written Assignment Rubric, but with more emphasis on the quality of your writing and the use of proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. You can judge how well you have done in each of the rubric categories by asking yourself the following questions:

• Application of Course Content: Does your paper adequately answer the question(s) from the assignment?
• Assignment Completion: Have you met all the other assignment requirements, like the length requirement (if it is supposed to be 5 pages, etc.)?
• Critical and Coherent Thinking: Does your paper make use of the information you have been learning in the course, plus additional research (appropriately cited, in APA format)? Does your paper prove a point based on this information?
• Written Communication: Did you use proper grammar and spelling? Do the paragraphs and sentences flow in a way that is easy to read and understand?

If you want to get an even better sense of how good your paper is, look at the items in the exceeds expectations, meets expectations, etc. boxes for each of these categories, and see whether your paper does what is stated in them. Note that, in every course besides English Composition, the Application of Course Content is the most important category. Therefore, it is most important to answer the assignment question, and meet all the other assignment requirements.

Forum Discussions

Forum discussions are evaluated according to the Discussion Forum Rubric. Our Writing Format and Forum Requirements page describes how to write good forum posts. See also these recommendations for giving good forum feedback.

Peer Review

Some courses have Peer Review assignments, where a small part of your grade is based on feedback you give to your peers. Spend enough time reading their assignment that you can give them feedback beyond just saying "Good job" or "I liked this", since feedback like that doesn't help them know how to improve. Think about what was unclear from their writing, and mention that in your feedback. That is a good way to help them improve. Always make sure, though, to be respectful in your responses to your peers even if you had trouble understanding their writing. Follow the Golden Rule, and consider what type of feedback you would want to receive. See more guidance on how to do an effective peer review here.