This document contains rubrics used by Grantham University to evaluate soft skills in undergraduate students. It includes rubrics for communication, critical thinking, diversity, professionalism, lifelong learning, and other skills. Each rubric has four levels of achievement - proficient, advancing, developing, and emerging. The rubrics provide descriptions of the types of work or abilities demonstrated by students at each level. For example, in the communication rubric, a proficient student would produce writing free of errors that is clear and concise, while an emerging student's writing may lack clarity and organization. The document aims to provide a common framework for evaluating students' soft skills development at Grantham University.

1. Grantham University Soft-Skills Rubrics-Undergraduate
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Proficient Advancing Developing Emerging
COMMUNICATION
4pts 3pts 2pts 1pt 30%
The writing is clear and
concise and is free of errors,
demonstrating proficiency in
using citations, and following
style guidelines in terms of
formatting, conventions, and
grammar, and is structured in
a way that readers can easily
follow. Appropriate tools and
graphics are used.

2. The writing is clear and concise
but may contain minimal errors
in using citations, formatting,
conventions, or grammar. The
development of ideas is in a
logical, sequential order, though
some significant points are not
fully developed. Tools may not
be used in the most efficient
manner.
The writing is clear, though it
may contain minimal errors in
using citations, formatting, or
style/grammar conventions.
Writing is sometimes unfocused,
may diverge from main point,
lacks a logical organizational
strategy, and/or leaves some
significant points
underdeveloped.
The writing addresses the

3. assignment criteria, however,
lacks sufficient clarity, and few
details are provided or details
provided are incorrect or
unrelated to the topic. Errors in
using citations, formatting, or
style/grammar conventions can
hinder the transmission of
ideas. Essay demonstrates
little to no organization of ideas,
and lacks development of ideas.
10/30%
Writing and Using
Appropriate Tools
The author approaches the
analysis of the research
project purposefully and
critically, fully exploring the
learning situation,
demonstrating a full
comprehension of subject
matter, and showing an ability
to blend the learning
experience with the course
content.
The author identifies
relationships among ideas
encountered within the various
stages of the research project
and how these relationships
contribute to a deeper

4. understanding of the question
at issue. Essay demonstrates
an understanding of the
concepts studied and an ability
to apply those concepts in
writing.
Author identifies connections
between ideas, but doesn’t fully
explore the ways these ideas
relate. Essay demonstrates
understanding of the material,
but lacks detail or depth in
response.
The author identifies central
ideas, but does little to connect
ideas to each other or to the
main point of the essay. The
author demonstrates
understanding of the purpose of
intellectual inquiry, but is reliant
on authority figures (such as the
instructor or sources examined)
to clarify or determine the
meaning of a given task.
10/30%
Content

5. The author’s voice is clear and
adopts an appropriate
academic tone. The essay
demonstrates an awareness of
audience, and seeks to meet
their needs and expectations.
Author’s voice is clear and
academic in tone. It is evident
that audience has been
considered though some needs
or expectations were
overlooked.
Author’s voice is often clear, but
does not always adopt an
academic tone. Audience has
been considered but many of
their needs or expectations
have not been met.
Author’s voice is awkward or
buried in the writing and lacks
academic tone. It is evident
that audience has not been
considered throughout the
writing of the essay.

6. 10/30%
Using Appropriate
Voice
Adapted from rubrics posted on AAC&U website-
Undergraduate-Spring 2015
C
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Proficient Advancing Developing Emerging CRITICAL
THINKING

7. 4pts 3pts 2pts 1pt 30%
Information from drawn from
source(s) or through
experience and observation is
thoroughly questioned and
results in a comprehensive
analysis or synthesis.
Information from source(s) or
through experience and
observation is questioned
enough to provide the basis for
a coherent and in-depth
analysis.
Information from source(s) or
through experience and
observation is taken with some
questioning of its validity or
accuracy, but interpretation or
evaluation of ideas presented
lacks sufficient depth or
analysis.
Information from source(s) or
through experience and
observation is taken without
questioning its validity or
accuracy. There is little to no

8. interpretation or evaluation of
ideas presented.
7.5/30%
Questioning
Information
Author identifies and evaluates
relevant point of view and
uses questions to determine
accuracy, relevance, and
completeness of information.
Author identifies a different
point of view and may
superficially evaluate the point
of view.
Author may identify a different
point of view but fails to explain
the point of view. May include
irrelevant or insignificant
aspects of the point of view.
Author does not identify or

9. describe a different point of
view. Only repeats information.
Does not distinguish between
fact and opinion.
7.5/30%
Evaluating Information
Evaluation of solutions
considers important factors in
problem-solving, such as the
context of the problem, logic
and reasoning, and the
feasibility and potential impact
of solutions. The discussion is
well documented and
comprehensive.
Evaluation of solutions considers
important factors in problem-
solving, such as the context of
the problem, logic and
reasoning, and the feasibility
and potential impact of
solutions.
Evaluation of solutions considers
important factors in problem-
solving, such as the context of

10. the problem, logic and
reasoning, and the feasibility
and potential impact of
solutions, but lacks sufficient
depth to provide any real
answers.
Evaluation of solutions considers
important factors in problem-
solving, such as the context of
the problem, logic and
reasoning, and the feasibility
and potential impact of
solutions, but remains
superficial.
7.5/30%
Evaluating
Solution
s
Examines issues with a full,
thorough understanding of the

11. roles context and agenda play
in the formulation of ideas, the
decision-making process, and
in presenting a position.
Identifies personal agenda as
well as the agenda of others.
Considers context in evaluation
of ideas and in making
decisions.
Accounts for some context
when engaging in ideas and in
decision making. Identifies the
agenda of others, but does not
show a full understanding his or
her own biases.
Understands context at a
surface-level, but does not
demonstrate an awareness of

12. the role it plays in taking a
position.
7.5/30%
Considering Context
Adapted from rubrics posted on AAC&U website-
undergraduate-level-Fall 2014
R
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13. R
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Proficient Advancing Developing Emerging DIVERSITY
4pts 3pts 2pts 1pt 15%
Author demonstrates an ability
to suspend judgment of
culturally challenging ideas
and demonstrates awareness
of the benefits of multiple
perspectives as they apply to
understanding and problem-
solving.
Author demonstrates an ability
to suspend judgment of
culturally challenging ideas and

14. demonstrates awareness that
examining cultural differences is
valuable to understanding one’s
self and others.
Author demonstrates a
willingness to consider views of
culturally different others, but
shows some difficulty
withholding judgment with the
ideas of culturally different
others.
Author demonstrates a
receptiveness to culturally
different ideas, but shows
difficulty withholding judgment
of views that challenge his or
her own.
7.5/15%

15. Recognizing
Differences
Through the project, the
author asks complex and
detailed questions about
viewpoints other than his or
her own, and actively seeks
answers to those questions by
articulating other viewpoints
thoroughly and accurately.
Through the project, the author
actively seeks understanding of

16. viewpoints other than his or her
own. Questions demonstrate a
real sense of intellectual inquiry.
Through the project, the author
poses questions to increase
personal understanding of the
viewpoints of others, but
questions tend to be cursory
and lack depth.
Through the project, the author
shows limited interest in points
of view other than his or her
own. Shows limited ability to
engage in ideas outside of the
lens of his or her worldview.
7.5/15%
Exploring Differences

17. Adapted from rubrics posted on AAC&U website-
undergraduate-level-Fall 2014
PR
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19. TY
Proficient Advancing Developing Emerging RESPONSIBILITY
4pts 3pts 2pts 1pt 15%
Author demonstrates the ability to
recognize and understand complex
professional, social, and ethical
issues and their complexities as
encountered through the project.
Is able to identify and adapt to
relationships among ideas beyond
those presented within the issue
itself.
Author demonstrates the ability to
recognize and understand
professional, social, and ethical
issues when presented in complex
ways. Is able to analyze and adapt
to relationships between ideas
pertaining to examined issue.

20. Author demonstrates the ability to
recognize basic ethical issues, and
shows an ability to break down the
complexities associated with the
situation on a basic level.
Author demonstrates the ability to
recognize basic ethical issues, but
does not show an ability to break
down the complexities associated
with the situation being examined.
5/15%
Recognizing Ethical
Issues
Work matches assignment
requirements and often goes
beyond what is asked for.
Work is thorough,
comprehensive, and advances
the issue being examined.

21. Work matches assignment
requirements and, in some
cases, goes beyond what is
asked for. Work is original and
comprehensive give the time-
restraints of the task.
Work matches assignment
requirements, and a clear effort
has been made to produce
original work.
Work mostly matches
assignment requirements, and
an effort has been made to
produce original work.
5/15%
Demonstrating
Professionalism

22. Throughout the project, the
student embraces his or her
role within and responsibilities
to a community, and keeps
those elements central to the
decision-making process in an
effort to better the community.
Demonstrates an
understanding that success is
reliant on the engagement of
all members within the
community, and actively seeks
ways to mutually benefit the
group.

23. Throughout the project, the
student demonstrates an
understanding of his or her role
within and responsibilities to a
community, as well as the roles
and responsibilities of others.
Demonstrates the view that
others are necessary members
of the community who have the
ability to make worthwhile
contributions to the group.
Throughout the project, the
student demonstrates an ability
to understand, at a basic level,
his or her role and
responsibilities within a
community, and adjusts his or
her actions in a responsible
way. Sees others as important
members of the community.

24. Throughout the project, the
student demonstrates an ability
to understand, on a surface-
level, the importance of his or
her role and responsibilities
within a community.
Demonstrates an awareness of
the stake others hold within a
given community.
5/15%
Understanding
Community Roles and
Responsibilities
Adapted from rubrics posted on AAC&U website-
undergraduate-level-Fall 2014

25. LI
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Proficient Advancing Developing Emerging LIFELONG
LEARNING
4pts 3pts 2pts 1pt 10%
Throughout the project, the
student reviews prior learning,
both inside and outside of the
classroom, and sees

26. connections between formal
and informal learning
experiences, drawing
connections between life-
learning and formal learning,
and showing an understanding
of how each can inform the
other as they apply to new
situations.
Throughout the project, the
student reviews prior learning,
both inside and outside of the
classroom, and sees
connections between learning
experiences, drawing
connections between disciplines,
and finding ways to apply
information or skills learned in
new academic situations.

27. Throughout the project, the
student reviews prior learning,
both inside and outside of the
classroom, and makes some
connections between learning
experiences.
Throughout the project, the
student reviews prior learning,
both inside and outside of the
classroom, but makes few or no
connections between learning
experiences.
5/10%

28. Using Formal and
Informal Learning
Sees academic learning as a
process of examining ideas
addressed in one discipline and
applying those ideas to
another. Additionally, student
sees learning, both inside and
outside of the classroom, as
valuable and interconnected.
Is able to apply learning from
different sources to develop a
broader, more comprehensive
perspective about the
implications of individual
learning experiences.
Sees learning in classes as
valuable, and can recognize
how the learning accomplished
in one class can apply to
another. Is able to apply
learning from different sources

29. to develop a broader
perspective about the
implications of individual
learning experiences.
Sees learning in classes as
valuable, and can recognize, on
a surface-level, how learning in
one class can apply to another,
though the student may
experience some difficulty in
drawing connections between
disciplines or learning outside
the classroom.
Views learning in most classes
as valuable, but experiences
some difficulty in drawing
course-to-course connections or
applying learning between
disciplines. May experience
difficulty in drawing connections
between classroom learning and

30. life experiences.
5/10%
Applying Learning
Across Situations
TOTAL
Adapted from rubrics posted on AAC&U website-
undergraduate-level-Fall 2014
Title of Paper:
"The internal sociology of the criminal justice system and its
effectiveness on the Black and Hispanic Community."

31. Focus of the paper is:
“Racial Profiling in the Black and Hispanic community.”
Outline and Annotated Bibliography
Using your project proposal as a guide, develop an outline for
your course paper and attach an annotated bibliography of a
minimum of six (6) peer-reviewed resources. When you have
completed your work, submit it to the drop box as a single
document. Please refer to the following guidelines to help you
shape your work:
Outline
Your outline should include the following:
A brief introduction identifying your topic area, a working
thesis statement, and a clearly defined statement on the position
you are taking in this project
A brief outline of each subpoint you will make to support your
thesis statement (each subpoint you make will eventually
become a body paragraph or two in your paper—you should
plan to make several subpoints throughout your paper)
Introduce bar, pie and graphs correlated to your research and
add them to your outline
A brief statement referring to how you might conclude your
paper

32. You should expect to alter and define your position as you craft
your paper, but you should use your outline to help you stay on
track throughout the research and writing process.
Annotated Bibliography
Your annotated bibliography should include a full, APA-style
citation followed by a brief annotation of at least six (6) peer-
reviewed resources.
Each of your annotations should do the following:
Identify the name of the source and the author(s)
Summarize the main point(s) the author(s) makes and any
relevant supporting subpoints
Include a statement referring to the quality of the source (is it
effective?) and how you might use it in your research project to
support your position.
_____________________________________________________
________________________________
Synopsis of what the paper is about and angle I am approaching.
How do the two areas you have selected relate to the issue?
My two discipline areas are Criminal Justice and Sociology.
Criminal Justice simply can be defined as the system through
which crimes and criminals are identified, apprehended, judged,
and punished. The criminal justice system is comprised of three

33. parts: Law Enforcement, The Courts, and Corrections.
Sociology is about human behavior within a given environment
or merely put the study of social problems and how they interact
with the given situation. I have already refined my initial
research title from "The Internal Sociology of the Criminal
Justice System and its Effectiveness on Today's Society" to
"The internal sociology of the criminal justice system and its
effectiveness on the Black and Hispanic Community." I am sure
my title will be refined again as my focus of the paper will
center around Racial Profiling. How the two areas are related,
directly put one cannot exist without the other. If there lives a
mutual understanding shaped by norms and values, society can
get along (Sociology). Once those norms are violated a penance
must be sanctioned--that is Criminal Justice.
How do they appear to overlap?
Society is structured on a set of mutual understandings that
essentially endeavor us all get along and maximize our
experiences with one another. These mutual understandings are
fashioned by shared norms, values, and ideologies that allow us
to agree mutually and live amongst one another. When these
norms, values, and ideologies conflict with one another, or our
communicative wires get crossed, it formulates struggle. To
avoid conflict, we have prearranged sanctions (laws) that
prevent deviance from those norms, values, and ideologies.

34. Some of these sanctions are informal (dirty looks, finger
pointing, teasing, name calling, suspension from school, etc.)
and some are formal (apprehension, arrest, jail, prison, etc.).
The more extreme the norm, value, and ideology, the higher the
sanction. The study of these norms, values, and ideologies and
their associated penalties is precisely what sociologists consider
primary to the discipline. Criminal justice is the study of this
specific aspect of the more substantial body of work that is done
in sociology.
What challenges have you encountered so far in finding
information relevant to your topic and how will you address
those challenges?
Fortunately, this topic is relevant and current, so finding
information is plentiful. The challenge will be to identify the
data received to accurate, current and view today's numbers.
Police Department are known to downplay their numbers when
it comes to Racial Profiling as this is against the law and can
carry a hefty fine followed by a civil lawsuit. The Uniform
Crime Report (UCR) published by the FBI annually currently
don't reflect 201's crime reported numbers, demographics, urban
vs. rural area crimes, etc., so identifying what's actual data will
be challenging. I will address this challenge by utilizing the
following handy tools to complete my research paper: Internet,
Peer-reviewed journals, some UCR data, Police reports, Traffic

35. stop data, UTA Criminal Justice Department and a general study
of SB 1849, Texas Legislature, (the Sandra Bland ACT).
_____________________________________________________
_______________________________
Final Project
Throughout the course, you have been working toward
completing this paper. This week, you will have the opportunity
to share the final result of your hard work with your professor.
Please take the time to review the following documents to make
sure your paper aligns to these requirements.
See attached docs:
Conceptualizing the Paper
Grantham University Soft Skills Rubric
In addition, please review the paper requirements listed below
to ensure you have covered everything. When you are satisfied
with your paper, submit it to this week’s drop box.
Requirements of the Paper
Your paper should be at least 2,500-3,000 words long (this can
range anywhere between 8-10 pages or more).
The paper should have at least 10 cited resources within the
paper. At least six (6) of these resources must be peer-reviewed
library resources.
Your paper must combine information from two different
disciplines – preferably disciplines you’ve taken at least one

36. class in during your college career.
Your paper must be in APA format, using the 6th edition of the
APA Publication Style Guide.
All information drawn from external sources must be cited
properly, both within the text of your essay and in a references
page.
Conceptualizing the Paper
Use the example below to organize your thoughts and the
information you find as you develop your
paper. Please note: This is intended to supplement the text, not
replace it! (Refer to Figure 1.1. of the
text for a graphic overview of the research process.)
Ask a question: Identify an issue of concern or personal
curiosity relating to your profession.
Example: Should college athletes be paid to play?
Identify two bodies of knowledge: Which two disciplines will
be used to help answer the question?
Example: History and Sociology

37. Conduct a literature review: What research has been done to
help answer this question?
Hint #1: Make notes in the center column (see below) as
resources are identified and read.
Hint #2: Compile an annotated bibliography as you find
information as this will help you keep your
sources organized and references correct.
History All Students:
Notes/Observations
Responsibilities
CJ Students:
In addition to above, must also

38. address:
ntrast of
historical and contemporary
police functions, issues, and
response to crime
Sociology
Theories and/or concepts
(taken from research)
Notes made from resources.
Each of the bullet points above
must be addressed in the
paper.
Theories and/or concepts

39. (taken from research)
Bringing It Together: Discuss the question extensively using
information from the middle column above.
Conclusion: End the discussion with a conclusion—answer the
question! Please note, there are two
parts to the conclusion:
personal views have changed based
on what you’ve learned.
going forward.