2025-2026 English 10: Tuesday

Today - if I have checked off your outline - you will work on the essay below. It is due on Thursday. If you finish please look up the new set of vocabulary words at the bottom of this post.

In an essay with a thesis statement (or a controlling idea) compare “There Will Come Soft Rains” to the "The Pedestrian" and/or “Harrison Bergeron” (so three stories) by either characters, symbols, allusions or themes. Make sure you use specific examples from the text to back up your thesis.

Grading:

Thesis – 10 pts

Examples from text – 15 pts

Grammar – 5 pts

	4	3	2	1
Thesis Statement	Clear and defendable thesis, hook and order of development connect with thesis	Defendable thesis, hook present	Thesis statement attempted, but might be clunky, wordy, or unclear	No thesis
Evidence	2 pieces of evidence for each point; evidence is analyzed and makes connections between the evidence and the thesis	Two pieces of evidence for each point; some analysis is made between the evidence and thesis but it might be taken out of context, misinterpreted or oversimplified	Evidence form at least two sources. No analysis is made between the evidence and the thesis.	Body paragraphs either simply restates the thesis or the evidence is unclear or unrelated to the prompt; or less than two sources are provided.
Sophistication of Writing	Effective paragraph structures, high level vocabulary, vivid writing, varied sentence structures and effective rhetorical choices	Some high level vocabulary and some variety of sentence structures. Some effective rhetorical strategies.	Essay use same words over and over again. Sentences are wordy and/or clunky.	Student makes sweeping generalizations or comparisons that are oversimplified. Very little variety in word choice and sentence structure.
Grammar/Conventions	1-2 small mistakes that do not impair reading	3-5 small mistakes that do not impair reading	Many mistakes; and/or reading impaired by mistakes made	Writing is plagued with errors