iRubric: Photo Essay Rubric

The essay shows little to no focus on a specific story/theme/idea. The essay does not seem to engage a local audience. Essay does not meet the minimum requirements of the assignment.

The essay demonstrates limited effort to engage a purpose for a local audience, though that purpose may not be clearly articulated or sustained throughout the essay. The essay's purpose appears scattered, inconsistent, or unaware of audience needs/expectations.

The essay demonstrates an average effort to establish a purpose, though that purpose may not strike readers as fresh, surprising, or new. The essay includes sufficient text and captions with photos to help frame the images and sustain the focus, though at times the focus may seem to drift slightly. The essay demonstrates a basic awareness of a local audience, though the essay may not fully convey the relevance of the essay's story to that audience.

The essay demonstrates a strong effort to establish a clear purpose, conveying a sense for what perspective the essay offers a local audience. Text and captions are included to frame the audience's reading of the images in light of the essay's purpose, with perhaps only one or two disconnected moments. The essay shows strong awareness of a local audience and offers a story of interest and relevance to that audience, though perhaps the relevance could at times be more powerfully conveyed.

The essay demonstrates a clear, vivid, and well-articulated purpose, which is established in an introductory paragraph and sustained throughout the essay. The focus is fresh and exciting, offering a new perspective to an existing understanding. Appropriate text and captions are included to help frame the audience's reading of the images in light of the essay's purpose. The essay demonstrates exceptional awareness of a local audience and offers a story/topic of relevance to that audience.

The essay shows little to no visible effort to include visual and textual evidence to develop the focus. The essay offers too few (or too many) photos to convey the intended focus, and too little (or too much) text is offered to frame readers' understanding of the significance of the images. It's unclear what the images and text offer the story/theme.

The essay demonstrates limited effort to include visual and textual evidence to develop the essay's focus. The essay demonstrates limited effort to include some photos and text, but still falls short of meeting the minimum requirements of the assignment.

The essay demonstrates an average effort to include visual and textual evidence to develop the essay's focus. The essay meets the minimum requirements of the assignment, including just enough photos and text to accomplish the intended purpose.

The essay demonstrates a strong effort to offer sufficient visual and textual evidence to develop the essay. The essay offers attention to key people, settings, events, and ideas, with perhaps only one or two areas that could be further discussed/shown/conveyed. Images and text work together in a balanced manner to achieve the intended purpose, with perhaps only one or two places that could use additional images or text.

Sufficient visual and textual evidence is offered to develop the story, with exceptional attention to the complexity of the topic. The essay does an exceptional job of conveying key people, settings, events, and ideas, missing no opportunities to further develop key threads. Each photo offers something essential to the collection of images taken as a whole. Images and text work together seamlessly to achieve essay's purpose, with no places that could benefit from additional images/text.

Process paper is missing or does not meet the minimum requirements.

Process paper is included and shows a limited effort to meet the requirements. Some information may be missing or incomplete.

Process paper is included and shows a basic effort to meet the requirements.

Process paper is included and clearly meets all requirements. The paper shows careful engagement with the assignment and responsible effort to include all permissions. The paper may include one or two noticeable errors/omissions.

The process paper thoughtfully describes, in sufficient detail, the process that went into the finished essay, including the topic choice, image creation/selection, design elements, and overall confidence about the finished product. Proof of informed consent is provided from any persons photographed in the essay. The process paper reflects careful attention to the assignment and thoughtful reflection, with no noticeable errors or omissions.