GED Essay Scoring Rubric
This tool is designed to help readers score an essay. Two readers read the GED essay, each giving a score between 1 and 4. The average of the two is the final score for the essay portion of the test. The score must be at least 2 to pass the test. Remember that an essay off of the given topic receives no score.
| Effective 4 | Adequate 3 | Marginal 2 | Inadequate 1 | |
| Response to prompt | Presents a clearly focused main idea that addresses the prompt | Uses the writing prompt to establish a main idea | Addresses the prompt, tough the focus may shift | Attempts to address prompt but with little or no success in establishing a focus |
| Organization | Establishes a clear and logical organization | Uses an identifiable organizational plan | Shows some evidence of an organizational plan | Fails to organize ideas |
| Development and Details | Achieves coherent development with specific and relevant details and examples | Has focused but occasion-ally uneven development; incorporates some specific detail | Has some development but lacks specific details; may be limited to a listing, repetitions, or generalizations | Demonstrates little or no development, usually lacks details or examples or presents irrelevant information |
| Conventions of
EAE
(Edited American English) |
Consistently controls sentence structure and the conventions of EAE | Generally controls sentence structure and the conventions of EAE | Demonstrates inconsistent control of sentence structure and the conventions of EAE | Exhibits minimal or no control of sentence structure and the conventions of EAE |
| Word Choice | Exhibits varied and precise word choice. | Exhibits appropriate word choice | Exhibits a narrow range of word choice, often including inappropriate selection | Exhibits weak and/or inappropriate words |