Short Story Grading Rubric

4
Content

Your story has a clear beginning,

middle, and end. It builds to a
climax and comes to a resolution
of the main conflict.

You have a first line that quickly

hooks readers and pulls them
into the story.

Characterization

You have an example of indirect

characterization highlighted for
your PROTAGONIST and
ANTAGONIST. It clearly leads
readers to an inference of
character traits.

Name:_____________________________________
3

PLOT STRUCTURE
Your story has a beginning,
Your story is not well developed.
but it lacks direction in the
Readers get bored because there is no
middle or the ending is
suspense, or they have so many
abrupt and doesnt offer
questions that it is confusing to read
closure
HOOK
Your first line is interesting,
You just started the storyyou dont
but it lacks connection to
have an interesting first line.
the rest of your story.

INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
You have effective indirect
You have highlighted characterization
characterization highlighted
for your protagonist and/or antagonist,
for the PROTAGONIST or the
but it is not developed enough to lead
ANTAGONIST, but not both.
readers to an inference about
character traits.

This story reflects minimal

effort. There is no real plot
structure. There are not
enough events to complete a
plot diagram.
Your first line makes no
attempt to engage readers.
It may even confuse them or
make them want to stop
reading.
You have not highlighted
examples of indirect
characterization for your
protagonist and antagonist.

DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

Descriptive
Writing

Word Choice

Conventions
You will select TWO
paragraphs from your
paper to be graded for
conventions. This does
not mean you shouldnt
pay attention to
conventions
throughout your story,
but you get to decide
where I focus my
attention for this area.

Formatting

You have one effective example

of direct characterization
highlighted.
You have included two
paragraphs that use sensory
language to describe a place, an
event or a character. Readers will
have no trouble visualizing
because your description is so
vivid.
You have identified three places
where you changed a tired,
uninteresting, overused word
into something more vivid and
specific.
You do not have fragments or
run-ons in the paragraphs you
have designated for grammar
grading.

You describe two people,

places, or events, but you do
not rely on sensory language
to help the reader to
experience these things.

You have only included one descriptive

paragraph OR the descriptions you
have included are so underdeveloped
that readers will not get a good sense
of whatever it is you are trying to
describe.

You only identified two

You only identified one place where
locations where you
you changed an overused word into
changed an overused word
something more specific and
into something more
interesting.
interesting.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
You have one sentence
You have two sentence structure issues
structure issue in your
in your grammar paragraphs.
grammar paragraphs.

You have not identified an

example of direct
characterization
You have not included
descriptive paragraphs in
your story.

You have not identified any

instances where you
changed an overused word
into something more
interesting.
You have three or more
sentence structure issues in
your grammar paragraphs.

VERB TENSE
Your story does not randomly
shift verb tense. Readers can
follow it easily.

There are no errors in

capitalization and punctuation.
You have followed all formatting
requirements:
Heading: Name, Hour, Date,
single-spaced, left aligned
Line Spacing: Double
Font Size: 11 or 12 pt.
Font Style: Arial
Alignment: Left
Color Coding: See instruction
sheet

You change tenses

frequently and randomly.
Readers have difficulty
following the story line.
CAPITALIZATION & PUNCTUATION
You have 1 or 2
You have 3-4 capitalization and/or
capitalization and/or
punctuation errors.
punctuation errors.
One formatting element is
Two formatting elements are not as
not as specified.
specified.

You have five or more errors

in capitalization and/or
punctuation.
More than two formatting
elements are not as
specified.

Total Score: _____________/40

Comments: