Rubric for Writing a Narrative Essay
Student Name
Period 8-
SHORT STORY RUBRIC / Distinguished 4/ Proficient 3 / Developing 2 / Needs Improvement 1
Engaging the Audience / Engages the audience with an interesting introduction that makes the audience connect with the story and the writer / Adequately engages the audience / Makes an attempt to engage the audience but is not successful / Does not try to engage the audience or establish the context of the story
Elements of a Short Story / Establishes a situation, plot, point of view, setting, conflict, and resolution using careful detailand emotion / Provides an adequately developed plot, but needs more depth with conflict, resolution, detail, and emotion / Barely develops the plot; conflict and resolution are sketchy; more detail needed; emotion minimal / The plot is difficult to follow or understand and requires further development; lacks conflict and resolution; minimal detail/emotion
Organization / Balances and unifies all narrative elements required in an essay; chronology of events very clear / Shows a clear attempt at balancing and unifying the story; chronology of events evident / Shows minimal effort to balance and unify the story; chronology of events confusing / There is little or no organization present; chronology of events not present
Style and Fluency / The ideas are clearly and effectively developed; writing is fluent and polished with effective verbs, adjectives, and transitions; thesis clear / Most ideas are clearly expressed; writing is generally fluent, with some use of effective verbs, adjectives, and transitions; thesis adequate / Some ideas may not be clearly expressed; fluency and transitions may be lacking; infrequent use of effective, verbs, adjectives, and transitions; thesis unclear / Many ideas are difficult to understand; fluency and transitions are lacking;few effective verbs, adjectives, and transitions; no thesis
Grammar, Editing, Revising, and Proofreading / Demonstrates mastery of the rules of the English Language including punctuation, spelling, and grammar. / Makes good attempt to revise/edit with only a few errors in punctuation, spelling, grammar / Efforts to revise/edit are made but with many errors in punctuation, spelling, grammar remaining / Shows little to no evidence of proofreading, with many punctuation, spelling, grammatical errors
Special Sentence Structures /
- Effective dialogue incorporated into essay correctly
- Three different brushstrokes correctly written, highlighted, and labeled
- 3rdperson narrative clearly maintained
- Dialogue incorporated, but not totally effective and/or punctuated correctly
- Twodifferent brushstrokes correctly written, highlighted, and labeled
- 3rdperson narrative maintained adequately
- Minimally effective dialogue and/or not punctuated correctly
- Onedifferent brushstrokes correctly written, highlighted, and labeled
- 3rdperson narrative weak
- Ineffective/no dialogue
- No brushstrokes evident
- Narrator not evident
Format / Meets all of the requirements:
- One page
- typed, Times New Roman, size 12
- double spaced
- MLA heading
- correctly punctuated and capitalized title
- pages numbered (MLA format)
- One page
- typed, Times New Roman, size 12
- double spaced
- MLA heading
- correctly punctuated and capitalized title
- pages numbered (MLA format)
- One page
- typed, Times New Roman, size 12
- double spaced
- MLA heading
- correctly punctuated and capitalized title
- pages numbered (MLA format)
- One page
- typed, Times New Roman, size 12
- double spaced
- MLA heading
- correctly punctuated and capitalized title
- pages numbered (MLA format)
McKimmey, Anderson, and Torres
2011 STAAR Writing Project