The key to having effective assessment is to have a concrete rubric that can be provided to students with the assignment and make grading easier when the assignment is submitted. Below are some of the rubrics I've used for assignments in the past.

These rubrics were originally designed based off the 2- and 4-point questions on the WASL. I continue to find them useful for short and extended responses as they give a concrete way to assess these responses without asking for a word count.

2 points	Includes two textual examples and explanation of how they support the answer.
1 point	Includes one textual example and explanation of how it supports the answer.
0 points	Includes no textual examples or no explanations of how they support the answer.

Writing is perhaps one of the most challenging assignments to evaluate. There are many abstract concepts that create a powerful paper. How do you measure a student's use of voice? How do you teach a student to organize an essay without limiting the creativity of what they might come up with? These are skills that are developed over time and with practice. Having used a variety of rubrics related to the writing process, I discovered that by focusing on the writing process—prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing—I was able to get better writing from my students while also providing a concrete grading rubric. As students were required to work on and submit multiple drafts of their work, they began to grow in their writing through the self-reflection inherent in the writing process.