Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 – Editorial

Draft Grading Rubric (subject to change)

___/Point value

Technical content (50 points):

___/5  Main issue or provision that you are discussing is clear in the first paragraph.

___/5  The issue chosen is placed in a context that helps reader understand its importance.

___/15  There are at least three arguments supporting the provision and they are clear to a lay audience and attributed to a source (who made the arguments or claims).

___/15  There are at least three argument opposing the provision and they are clear to a lay audience and attributed to a source (who made the arguments or claims).

___/5  Author’s opinion makes sense given the prior discussion (can’t bring up new topics in opinion that are not discussed in body of paper without a full discussion of why they may have been omitted by all the authors previously discussed).

___/5  Author’s opinion offers insight and thoughts that make it clear they comprehend the issue at more than a superficial level.

Communication skill and overall impact (50 points):

___/5  Hook is interesting and ties to issue at hand [without dominating paper].

___/5  All paragraphs have topic sentences, conclusions and transitions assist reader in following the arguments.

___/5  Author’s opinion is clearly separated from discussion of other’s thoughts and evidence.

___/5  Bibliography complies with standard format chosen.

___/10  Sentences are grammatically sound and free of punctuation, spelling and other distracting errors.

___/5  Sentences are in active voice, clearly stated and not overly long (hard for on-line readers).

Overall impact:

___/5  The author’s opinion is persuasive in the context of the whole paper.

___/10  The reader gets the impression, from the work as a whole, that the student selected an important issue, understands it well and took time to communicate in a way to hold the reader’s interest.

Source: Carol W. Springer, 9/02/2004