Imagine having to read hundreds (thousands) of badly (for the most part) written essays. By the second day, you might be bored at the very least and possible homicidal. To counteract these very human feelings, the hardworking essay markers have a system in place to ensure consistency in their scoring of the essays. But I realized that most students haven’t slogged through the Blue Book to figure out what these elements are. Here is the list of elements the Essay is being graded on.

Part 1- READING (Each Scorer will give you a score out of 4 on this section)

1. Overall Comprehension
2. Identification of Main Idea and Key Details
3. Free of Factual Errors
4. Use of Textual Evidence and References

Part 2-ANALYSIS  (Each Scorer will give you a score out of 4 on this section)

1. Depth of Understanding and Insight
2. Thorough and Well Considered Evaluation of Rhetorical Elements
3. Use of Support
4. Use of only the most Relevant Textual Elements

Part 3-WRITING (Each Scorer will give you a score out of 4 on this section)

1. Cohesive and Effective Use of Language
2. Skillful Introduction and Conclusion
3. Variety of Sentence Structures
4. Formal Style with Neutral Diction and Tone
5. Lack of Grammatical Errors

The Scores from 2 Scorers are added together to give you a number out of 8 for each section. That number is expressed as 8/8/8 (Reading/Analysis/Writing).