Rubrics are prepared using the various elements required for writing to help standardize the grading criteria. It aids in the fair and easy judgment of the submitted works. Teachers usually share the essay rubrics with their students along with the assignment. If you learn to evaluate your skills in accordance with the rubric, it will help you to perform better in your academic writing assessments. It can also be used to judge your paper yourself, once completed.

An essay assignment will be judged against various factors. By going through your essay rubric, you will get a good idea of what your teacher wants from you. This will, in turn, make it possible for you to prepare your assignment to suit the grading system, thus ensuring good grades for your paper. Once you have finished writing your essay, you can compare it with the points mentioned in the rubric and make the necessary changes to make it an outstanding paper. The rubric changes with the type and kind of assignment but there are a few factors which usually come up in all types of rubrics.

• Format: Your assignment will come with certain guidelines on the type of formatting to be used. This is one common factor which is used for the judgment of all types of essays. Your grading will depend on how well you have adhered to the various aspects of the specified format. This will include the citations, the specifications on sections and also the spacing and margins. You will find the format to be a part of all essay rubrics.
• The topic: The topic will be judged against the guidelines as well. The relevance of the topic and the level to which it tallies with the topic guidelines will be used as a criteria to determine the points the student deserves for the choice of topic.
• The title: The title which scores the most in a rubric would be clearly informative of the contents of the paper. There will also be points for how interesting the title is. The length of the title might also be a part of the rubric.
• Your grasp of the topic: Your essay will clearly reflect your grasp of your topic. It will be judged from the way you explain your topic and the theory.
• The efficiency of presentation: It is not enough to understand the topic yourself. It is also necessary that you are able to present it in a way that is comprehensible to the audience. Hence that is another clause which you will find commonly in rubrics.
• The smoothness of transition: Even the best of essays get ruined by sharp twists and change of the platform of discussion. The smoothness of the transition from the introduction to the conclusion is often a part of the judging criteria.
• The structure: The structure of the essay as well as the sentence structure is used for evaluating the students’ writing skills.

Understanding the clauses of your essay rubric is extremely important. It can be used to frame your essay effectively, at the beginning as well as perfect it after completing it.