Student Support Services
Scholarship Essay Rubric
Essay prompt:
In 250-500 words, tell us how your involvement with Student Support Services in the 2016-17 academic
year has influenced your educational journey. Focus specifically on the ways SSS events and services
have benefited you as a first-generation college student, a student with high financial need, and/or a
student with a documented disability. If your contact with SSS has been limited, please feel free to write
about other relevant UWL events, services, and experiences.
Criteria:
Relevance (0-3 pts)
Thoroughness (0-3 pts)
Organization (0-2 pts)
Grammar/Mechanics/Usage (0-2 pts)_
Total: 0-10 pts
•
Relevance:
o Essay does not respond to prompt / is deliberately false (0 pts)
o Essay is incomplete / contains excessive discussion of unrelated issues (1 pt)
o Essay only briefly discusses relevant topics / introduces unrelated issues (2 pts)
o Essay responds to the prompt meaningfully / focuses only on related issues (3 pts)
•
Thoroughness:
o Essay completely lacks relevant detail / is deliberately false (0 pts)
o Essay contains significant omissions of detail (1 pt)
o Essay includes many relevant details, but some may be missing (2 pts)
o Essay deals fully with the entire prompt (3 pts)
•
Organization:
o Essay is unorganized or illogical / rambles or repeats ideas / is deliberately false (0 pts)
o Essay contains minor problems of organization or logic / does not always effectively transition
between ideas (1 pt)
o Essay is well organized and logically presented / contains smooth, clear transitions between
ideas (2 pts)
•
Grammar/Mechanics/Usage:
o Essay contains major problems with mechanics of language and awkward sentence construction
/ is frequently difficult to understand / is deliberately false (0 pts)
o Essay contains only minor issues with mechanics / is generally easy to read (1 pt)
o Essay is written in clear, readable prose / contains no errors in grammar, spelling, or
punctuation (2 pts)