Purely in terms of the depth of
description, this second rubric is far superior. It is possible that some learners find this kind of rubric intimidating because it contains too much text. It would probably be good enough to write just a detailed description of the required behaviour or skill as shown in the fourth column.

Both of the above examples assign equal scores to each criteria. This assumes that they are all equally important. Ideally one would want to combine the features of both rubrics. Good assessment tools should ideally, but not exclusively, include:

• Clearly described criteria
• Clear description of allocation of scores
• Weighted scores for more important criteria
• Opportunity for self-assessment and teacher assessment
• A comment field.