Communication Skills Rubric
 

Behavior	1: Needs Improvement	2: Acceptable	3: Good
Physical
Poise & posture: upright, alert, attentive posture	slouching or leaning
Appearance: clean, good hygiene, appropriate dress for occasion & audience	unclean or unkempt clothes, too formal or casual
Movement: occasional movement toward and from audience, and side to side	immovable or continuous movement
Gestures: occasional gestures that supplement and match verbal points	over or under using gestures, unusual mannerisms
Eye contact: briefly looking at all members of audience individually, while also scanning general audience	overattention to some people, general gaze only
Expression: smiling and other facial expression that matches content	flat expression or mismatched with content or audience
Confidence: self assured and relaxed in front of people	anxious and self conscious
Verbal
Inflection: uses emphasis, pauses, and vocal changes to highlight words and potentiate audience response	monotonic or distracting affectation to inflection
Volume: audible projection of voice to farthest person in audience	too soft or loud
Fluency: familiarity with terms enabling comfortable rate of flow	awkward pauses, mannerisms such as "Uhmm", reading paper
Articulation: correct and clear pronunciation of words	mispronunciation or poor articulation
Vocabulary: uses proper terms for topic, level, and audience	use of cliches, jargon, colloquialisms, idioms
Pace: speaks at a rate that enables people to follow	speaking too fast or slow
Interaction
Self monitoring: monitors audience response and adjusts style accordingly (e.g., check understanding, prompting questions, etc.), rephrases as needed	continues presentation without attending to audience feedback or adjusting style
Questioning: restates questions so all can hear and ensure understanding of question	responds to question without restating
Strategy
Goal clarity: provides clear outcome for presentation that helps set expectations	to apparent goal, purpose or expressed outcome
Introduction: engaging and appropriate introduction of thesis and purpose	background, context, or relevance to audience missing or uncertain
Organization: information presented in clear, organized, and logical order	disorganized, confusing
Argument: presents argument and evidence to support key points	personal opinion or reliance on others without evidence
Time management: paces delivery to time available, leaving time for interaction and questions	finished too early, rushed to get done
Transitions: clear transitions from point to point	dangling ideas, abrupt breaks
Conclusion: identifies what audience should leave with	unclear what the point is or what audience should expect to conclude or do
Communication Aids
Audio-visual technology: familiar and skillful use of equipment	problems and delays that should have been prepared for
Graphics: clear, legible, attractive, supplement and demonstrate key points	illegible, inconsistent, irrelevant graphics