How do I interpret rubrics with general/vague language? [closed]

Question

I'm an undergraduate student and I've found that for many assignments, rubrics are not very specific and describe adjacent grade bands with almost identical wording. For instance:

0-19%	20-29%	30-39%	40-49%	50-59%	60-69%	70-79%	80-89%	90+
The explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is missing from the report	The explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is extremely weak.	The explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is discussed in very limited terms.	The explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is adequate.	The explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is satisfactory.	The explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is good.	The detailed explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is very good.	Excellent explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation.	Exceptional explanation of how the business process works and its purpose within the organisation is exceptionally detailed.

The last few grade bands will usually always converge to the same sentence, with the adjective replaced (like in this case, detailed to excellent to exceptional).

What differentiates the last few bands? Could anyone explain how to interpret them and how can I make sure my work gets there?

Answer 1

Since this gradation is chopping the possible marks into ten categories, it is not particularly surprising that the transition from one category to the next involves a fairly small change. It is also not surprising that the language is qualitative in nature (and therefore somewhat vague) since it has to accommodate a wide range of work in a wide range of fields, with allowance for reasonable discretion by the academics marking that work.

You have correctly noted the differences in language for the last three bands (i.e., from detailed, to excellent, to exceptional). These are words with a literal meaning that can be understood in general terms --- detailed means something like, having many details or facts; showing attention to specifics; excellent means something like excelling relative to expected quality; exceptional means something like of such high quality that it constitutes an exception to the general quality of work. Since these are qualitative judgments there is some art in their interpretation and so you would need to seek the opinion of the grader if you want to know how they will apply this. All that can really be said in general is that academics will use their experience in teaching and assessing student work to judge what constitutes "detailed" work, what constitutes "excellent" work and what constitutes "exceptional" work.