Integrating Writing and Research Skills: Development and Testing of a Rubric to Measure Student Outcomes

Abstract

This article describes a scoring rubric focused on assessing performance on literature review papers, developed as part of a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project. The rubric was the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between a public affairs faculty member and two English department faculty members. It was piloted on a control group and was tested for interrater reliability. Using it as a pre/post-test measurement, results indicated higher scores on the literature review assignment after the rubric was used. The multiple benefits of using a rubric for improving student performance on such an assignment as both an instruction tool and a scoring instrument are discussed.