Checklist of Basic Writing Skills
One of Kenyon’s central educational goals is for our students to “learn to formulate ideas rigorously and communicate them
effectively, in speaking and in writing.” Please use the criteria below to characterize the work of each of the students in one of your
classes on one writing assignment to which you feel most of these criteria apply. If a criterion is not applicable to the writing
assignment you’re using for this exercise, place a mark in the column labeled N/A. Otherwise, circle or mark the column that best
characterizes the student’s work (using “Good” and “Marginal” to represent work falling between the characterizations described in
the adjoining columns). Complete one sheet per student and send the whole stack to the Associate Provosts’ Office by campus mail,
along with a note describing the course, the assignment, and the level (or range of levels) of the students in the class. If your
department’s senior exercise would be an appropriate assignment on which to use this tool, please evaluate your seniors’ work on it
and attach a copy of the senior exercise assignment as it is communicated to your students. If you prefer to use a spreadsheet to
record your responses to each student’s work, please let us provide you with the spreadsheet we will be using to analyze these data.