How Does One Ban A Book, Anyways? Here’s One Possible Approach…–Casey Ouellette

Criteria:

• A book must have a combined score of 55 across all categories to be banned.
• All works of fiction and non-fiction start with a 3 in all categories and gain points with further trepidation. Religious texts start at 2 to protect religious freedoms. Reference books such as a dictionary or thesaurus start at 1 for being of purely educational purposes.
• * Ranked books are currently disputed in terms of placement due to a debate in meaning, intent, usage, and/or quality. As such, these scores could act as a 7, 8, 9, or 10, but will be considered a 7 until the dispute is settled.
• The maximum score for a reference book is 6, religious texts receive 12. The minimum score for all other books is 18. The maximum score that a book may receive is 60.
• The inclusion of age range is a point of reference for what audiences those levels of books are targeted at or would be appropriate for.
• Banned books that fail may be contested after a grace period of 6 months whereby they must either be censored or have their designation overruled by the supreme court.

Disclaimer:

This Rubric does not reflect the views of its creator. It was composed based off of perceived conceptions and for a purely hypothetical approach to tackling them. Vague points are products of undefined categorizing. This rubric should in no way be utilized in a proper forum, to do so would be dangerous and likely in violation of some basic rights to free speech. I write this disclaimer because I do formally object to my own creation, however much love I may have for it. I would also add much of this rubric is meant to be taken lightheartedly. With that said, I present the rubric.

This project was created by Casey Ouellette for a class at PSU that examines taboos in literature.