RHETORIC

Measure

Excellent
4

Good
3

Average
2

Poor
1

Failing
0

Identifies and describes

audiences of course activities,
exercises, and assignments

Excellent identification and

description of relevant
audiences in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Good identification and

description of relevant
audiences in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Adequate identification
and description of relevant
audiences in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Poor identification and

description of relevant
audience in course
activities, exercises,
and assignments

Fails to identify or
describe any relevant
audiences in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Identifies and describes

situations and constraints in
course activities, exercises, and
assignments

Excellent identification and

description of situations and
constraints in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Good identification and

description of situations
and constraints in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Adequate identification
and description of
situations and constraints
in course activities,
exercises, and assignments

Poor identification and

description of
situations and
constraints in course
activities, exercises,
and assignments

Fails to identify and

describe situations and
constraints in any
course activities,
exercises, and
assignments

Discusses how audiences

shaped content in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Excellent discussion of how

audiences shaped content in
course activities, exercises,
and assignments

Good discussion of how

audiences shaped content
in course activities,
exercises, and assignments

Adequate discussion of
how audiences shaped
content in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Poor discussion of
how audiences shaped
content in course
activities, exercises,
and assignments

Fails to discuss how

audiences shaped
content course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Explains how specific documents

solve practical problems in
course activities, exercises, and
assignments

Excellent explanation of how

specific documents solve
practical problems in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments

Good explanation of how

specific documents solve
practical problems in
course activities,
exercises, and assignments

Adequate explanation of
how specific documents
solve practical problem in
at course activities,
exercises, and assignments

Poor explanation of
how specific
documents solve
practical problem in
course activities,
exercises, and
assignments

Fails to explain how

specific documents
solve practical problems
in course assignment or
fails to discuss how
specific documents
solve practical problems
in course activities,
exercises, and
assignments

Discusses the role of

technologies used to compose
and design documents, including
collaborative technologies

Excellent discussion of the

role of technologies used to
compose and design
documents, including
technology used in
collaboration

Good discussion on the

role of technologies used
to compose and design
documents, including
technology used in
collaboration

Adequate discussion on
the role of technologies
used to compose and
design documents,
including technology used
in collaboration

Poor discussion on the

role of technology
used to compose and
design documents,
including technology
used in collaboration

Fails to discuss the role

of technologies used to
compose and design
documents, including
technology used in
collaboration

Excellent
4

Good
3

Document edited for grammar,

mechanics, spelling

Excellent use of clear and

succinct prose; no
grammatical, mechanical,
or typographical errors; no
usability issues

Good use of clear and

succinct prose; unique
grammatical, mechanical,
or typographical errors
which mildly affect
usability

Document employs audienceappropriate style (diction, syntax,

paragraphs, tone)

Excellent match of level of

formality and technicality
to audience; no gender- and
culture- inappropriate
language

Document designed for internal

consistency and readability,
including design features: header,
bullets, lists, and other advanced
organizers and consistency in
formatting elements (fonts,
headers/footers, etc.)
Document designed for consistent
appeal (aesthetic and
professional) and usability,
including the design principles:
contrast, repetition, alignment,
proximity, and lack of noise

DESIGN

WRITING

Measure

Average
2

Poor
1

Failing
0

Adequate uses prose;

somewhat unclear or
wordy prose; unique
grammatical,
mechanical, or
typographical errors
which affect usability

Poor use of grammar,

mechanics, spelling;
significant use of
unclear or wordy
prose; unique
grammatical,
mechanical, or
typographical error
which distract or
unintentionally amuse
users

Fails in the use of

unclear and wordy prose
throughout; unique
grammatical,
mechanical, or
typographical errors
which make the
document fails in its
goals

Good match the level of

formality and
technicality to audience
(clear understanding with
1-3 minor issues); no
gender- and cultureinappropriate language

Adequate use of
audience-appropriate
diction; somewhat
matches level of
formality and
technicality to audience
(understanding with 4-5
minor issues; no genderand culture-inappropriate
language

Poor use of audienceappropriate diction;

significant mismatches
of level of formality
and technicality to
audience (lacks clear
understanding with 6-7
minor or 1-3 major
issues); 1-3 instances
of gender- and
culture-inappropriate
language

Fails to match the level

of formality and
technicality to audience
(lacks
total understanding with
significant major issues);
4 + instances gender- and
culture-inappropriate
language

Excellent match of design

elements to document
genre; design conforms to
genre expectations and is
free from error

Good match of design

elements to document
genre; design contains 13 genre-specific error

Adequate match of
document design;
somewhat matches of
design elements to
document genre; design
contains 4-5 genrespecific errors

Poor match of design

elements to document
genre; design contains
6-7 genre-specific
errors

Fails to match the

appropriate design
elements to document
genre; design contains
more than8 genrespecific errors

Excellent use of design

principles such as
repetition, alignment,
contrast, and proximity;
clear, readable typography;
excellent and ethical use of
graphic; design contains no
questionable or confusing
choices

Good use of design

principles; clear, readable
typography; good and
ethical use of graphics;
design contains 1-3
questionable or
confusing choices

Adequate match of
document design;
somewhat matches the
use of design principles
in most areas; a few
problems with
typography; adequate
and ethical use of
graphics; design contains
4-5 questionable or
confusing choices

Poor match of design

principles; significant
problems with
typography; poor use
of graphics or graphics
with questionable
ethics; design contains
6-7 questionable or
confusing choices

Fails to match the

appropriate design
principles; problems with
typography that defeat
usability; lack of
required graphics or
unethical graphics;
design contains more
than 8 questionable or
confusing choices

Excellent
4

Good
3

Average
2

Poor
1

Identifies specific collaborative

challenges in activity, exercise, or
assignment specifically and how
they addressed them

Excellent identification
of course activities,
exercises, and
assignments from the
course where students
had to face collaborative
challenges (scheduling,
conflict resolution,
technology, workload)
AND explanations of
how they addressed
those challenges

Good identification of
course activities,
exercises, and
assignments from the
course where students
had to face collaborative
challenges (scheduling,
conflict resolution,
technology, workload)
AND explanations of
how they addressed
those challenges

Adequate identifications
of collaborative
challenges, but does not
refer to how they
addressed those
challenges in specific
assignments or exercises

Poor identification of
collaborative challenges
in activity, exercise, or
assignment and does not
refer to how they
addressed those
challenges in specific
assignments or exercises

Fails to identify
collaborative challenges
in activity, exercise, or
assignment specifically
or how to address those
challenges

Explains why technical

communicators adapt technical
documents for users in other cultural
contexts

Excellent match of
document characteristics
to audiences cultural
contexts and needs

Good match of
document characteristics
to audiences cultural
contexts and needs

Adequate matches of
document characteristics
to audiences cultural
contexts and needs

Poor matching of
document characteristics
to audiences cultural
contexts and needs

Fails to address
audiences cultural
contexts and needs

Identifies skills for successful crosscultural communication

Excellent identification
of appropriate skills
used/needed for
successful cross-cultural
communication

Good identification of
appropriate skills
used/needed for
successful cross-cultural
communication

Adequate identification
of skills used/needed for
successful cross-cultural
communication

Poor identification of
skills used/needed for
successful cross-cultural
communication

Fails to identify skills

used/needed for
successful cross-cultural
communication

Discusses strategies for researching

other cultures

Excellent discussion of
strategies used for
researching other
cultures

Good discussion of
strategies used for
researching other
cultures

Adequate discussion of
strategies used for
researching other
cultures

Poor discussion of
strategies used for
researching other
cultures

Fails to discuss strategies

used for researching
other cultures

Identifies potentially problematic

communication situations and
students ethical responsibility
within those situations (e.g.,
plagiarism, research, truthful
representation of data, audience
analysis)

Excellent description of
potentially problematic
situations in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments (e.g.,
plagiarism, data
representation, research,
audience analysis) AND
identifications of
activity, exercise, or
assignment from the
course where students
had to be ethically
responsible

Good description of
potentially problematic
situations in course
activities, exercises, and
assignments (e.g.,
plagiarism, data
representation, research,
audience analysis)
AND identifications of
activity, exercise, or
assignment from the
course where students
had to be ethically
responsible

Adequate identification
of a potentially
problematic situation in
course activity, exercise,
and assignment, and/or
does not describe the
situation or refer to
activity, exercise, or
assignment specifically

Poor identification of
potentially problematic
situation in course
activity, exercise, and
assignment, and/or does
not does not describe
the situation or refer to
activity, exercise, or
assignment specifically

Fails to identify either

potentially problematic
ethical situations in
course activity, exercise,
and assignment

ETHICS

CULTURAL
CONSIDERATIONS

COLLABORATION

Measure

Failing
0