Home
Course Overview
Writing Tools
Handouts
Student Resources
Personal Profile

1998 Free-Response Scoring Guidelines: Question 1

The following General Directions were written for the faculty consultants at the AP Reading:

This scoring guide will be useful for most of the essays you read. When it seems inappropriate for a particular essay, consult your Table Leader. Also consult your Table Leader about books that seem to have no response or responses unrelated to the question (scored).

The score you assign each essay should reflect your judgment of its quality as a whole. You should reward the writers for what they do well in response to the question. Remember that students had 40 minutes to read and write. The resulting essays should thus be thought of as comparable to essays produced in final exams, not judged by standards appropriate for out-of-class writing assignments.

All essays, even those scored 8 and 9, are likely to exhibit occasional flaws in analysis or in prose style and mechanics; such lapses should enter into your holistic judgment of the essay's quality. In no case, however, may an essay with many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics be scored higher than 2.

9   Essays earning a score of 9 meet all the criteria for 8 papers and in addition are especially full or apt in their analysis or demonstrate particularly impressive stylistic control.

8 Essays earning a score of 8 effectively analyze how Lamb uses techniques of language to decline Wordsworth's invitation. They refer to the text, directly or indirectly, and are likely to describe cogently how strategies such as irony, humor, syntax, and use of examples contribute to the passage's tone. Their prose demonstrates an ability to control a wide range of the elements of effective writing but is not flawless.


7
   Essays earning a score of 7 fit the description of 6 essays but provide more complete analysis or demonstrate more mature prose style.

6 Essays earning a score of 6 adequately analyze Lamb's techniques of language as he replies to Wordsworth's invitation. They refer to the text, directly or indirectly, and they may discuss or implicitly recognize the tone of the passage and how it is conveyed by strategies such as irony, humor, syntax, and use of examples. A few lapses in diction or syntax may be present, but generally the prose of 6 essays conveys their writers' ideas clearly.
5 Essays earning a score of 5 analyze Lamb's techniques in his letter but their development of Lamb's strategies is limited. They may treat techniques in a superficial way or develop their ideas inconsistently. A few lapses in diction or syntax may be present, but usually the prose in 5 essays conveys their writers' ideas.
4 Essays earning a score of 4 inadequately respond to the question's tasks. They may misrepresent Lamb's tone, analyze techniques inaccurately, or identify them without much development or understanding of how techniques contribute to Lamb's tone. The prose of 4 essays may convey their writers' ideas adequately, but may suggest immature control over organization, diction or syntax.


3
   Essays earning a score of 3 meet the criteria for the score of 4 but are less perceptive about how techniques of language convey tone or less consistent in controlling elements of writing.

2 Essays earning a score of 2 demonstrate little success in analyzing the techniques of language Lamb uses in his letter. They may substitute simpler tasks for the one at hand, summarizing Lamb's letter or simply listing examples. They may misunderstand or ignore tone. The prose of 2 papers often reveals consistent weaknesses in writing, a lack of organization, grammatical problems or control.


1
   Essays earning a score of 1 meet the criteria for the score of 2, but in addition are especially simplistic in their ideas or weak in their control of language.

0 Indicates an on-topic response that receives no credit, such as one that merely repeats the prompt.
- Indicates a blank response or one that is completely off topic.