The Importance Of Rubrics

According to Hamp-Lyons (2002) essay testing has been practiced for thousands of years. From the early 1970s, perceptions arose in the United States that holistic essay grading, when left to the sole instructor, can be excessively subjective, often resulting in a lack of reliability, validity and predictive assessment (Breland, 1983). Mechanical features of writing, peculiarly spelling and grammar, have been found to be highly influential factors relating to how an essay is rated. Research shows that a student’s skill level with writing conventions such as writing style, vocabulary command, verbal ability, spelling, punctuation, and grammar can have a notable impact, whether positive or negative, on how a grader rates a student’s work (Read,

Much of the debate on rubric effectiveness relating to students’ writing is examined in the field of English composition or English proficiency exams rather than writing in other academic fields. Moreover, majority of these studies have been limited to descriptive or argumentative articles rather than experimental investigations (Meier, Beverly, & Cady, 2006).

The proponents of rubrics declare that, they are less subjective; They adequately portray the objectives and criteria of writing assessment, and they give specialized input to the students. Regardless, there is a contradiction as to the quality put upon the ampleness of rubrics. The positive standpoint of the instructors who support that rubrics help, focus the nature of rubrics teachers favour, the purpose rubrics serve, and the reasons they use them. Spandel (2006), writer of several books on the subject of teaching writing, gives ground to her support of rubrics. She explains that all instructors evaluate writing according to specific criteria, regardless of the fact that they are never written down and the students are actually unaware of them. As argued by Spandel, rubrics help ensure that the evaluation procedure is objective. She clarifies that familiarizing the students with the rubric before assigning the task permits them to self-assess and maintain according to the rubric in the composition