CATEGORY

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Story Elements

The story has an inviting beginning, an organized and sequential middle, and a well-defined end.

The story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, but one of the elements is not well-defined.

The transitions between the beginning, middle, and end are blurred.

The story lacks a beginning, middle, or end.

Focus on Assigned Topic

The entire story is related to the assigned topic and allows the reader to understand much more about the topic.

Most of the story is related to the assigned topic. The story wanders off at one point, but the reader can still learn something about the topic.

Some of the story is related to the assigned topic, but a reader does not learn much about the topic.

No attempt has been made to relate the story to the assigned topic.

Use of Vocabulary

All required vocabulary is used correctly.

Most required vocabulary is used correctly.

Some required vocabulary is used correctly.

No required vocabulary is used or many words are used incorrectly.

Creative Elements

The story contains many creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has really used his/her imagination.

The story contains a few creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has used his/her imagination.

The story contains a few creative details and/or descriptions, but they distract from the story. The author has tried to use his/her imagination.

There is little evidence of creativity in the story. The author does not seem to have used much imagination.

Writing Process

Student devotes a lot of time and effort to the writing process. Works hard to make the story wonderful.

Student devotes sufficient time and effort to the writing process. Works and gets the job done.

Student devotes some time and effort to the writing process but was not very thorough. Does enough to get by.

Student devotes little time and effort to the writing process. Doesn't seem to care about story.

Organization

The story is very well organized. One idea or scene follows another in a logical sequence with clear transitions.

The story is pretty well organized. One idea or scene may seem out of place. Clear transitions are used.

The story is a little hard to follow. The transitions are sometimes not clear.

Ideas and scenes seem to be randomly arranged.

Capitalization and Punctuation

Student makes no errors in capitalization and punctuation, so the story is exceptionally easy to read.

Writer makes 1 or 2 errors in punctuation or capitalization, but the paper is still easy to read.

Writer makes more than 3 errors in capitalization and/or punctuation that catch the reader's attention and interrupt the flow. Errors impede readability.

Writer makes more than 5 errors in capitalization and/or punctuation that catch the reader's attention and greatly interrupt the flow. Errors severely impede readability.

Penmanship

Paper is written neatly.

Paper is written fairly neatly with 1 or 2 minor corrections.

Paper is written somewhat neatly with 3 or 4 corrections.

Many words are unreadable or there are more than 5 distracting corrections.