The Grading Rubric
for Short Stories

The piece is excellent: clear and concise. The piece has a great beginning, quickly presents a problem which is the focus of the story, has a great ending; doesn't use too much dialogue or narration. The piece is well-paced, with lots of information about character and setting.

The piece is a joy to read: surprising and pleasing. The writing flows; the writer employs a variety of different sentence structures and a vocabulary which is right for the audience and piece; there are no confusing words or phrases; the writer doesn't switch verb tense in weird places.

The piece has no fragments or run-ons; it almost always follows other rules about punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or paragraphing.

The presentation is especially effective and easy to read.

The piece is quite good: clear and concise. The piece has a nonstandard beginning, quickly presents a problem which is the focus of the story, and has a real ending. The writer doesn't use too much dialogue or narration. The piece is well-paced, with necessary information about character and setting.

The writing flows; the writer employs a variety of different sentence structures and a vocabulary which is right for the audience and piece; there are nearly no confusing words or phrases; the writer doesn't switch verb tense in weird places.

The piece has nearly no fragments or run-ons; it almost always follows other rules about punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or paragraphing.

The presentation is effective and easy to read.

The piece is well written. The piece has a good beginning, has a big problem which the characters try to solve, and has a good ending. The writer may use too much dialogue or narration. The piece may sometimes be unevenly paced, with some information about character and setting.

The writing is clear; there are nearly no confusing words or phrases; the writer doesn't switch verb tense in weird places.

The piece has very few fragments or run-ons; it almost always follows other rules about punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or paragraphing.

Presentation is easy to read.

The piece is acceptable. It has a standard beginning. It may present more than one problem or present the problem so late in the story that it cannot be fully developed. There may be a sudden, overused, or bogus ending. The writer may use almost all dialogue or all narration. The pacing is uneven--it may skip stretches of time awkwardly. There will be little information about setting or character.

The writing is understandable; there may be some confusing words or phrases; the writer may switch verb tense in weird places.

The piece has some fragments or run-ons. It usually follows other rules about punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and paragraphing.

The presentation is easy to read.

The piece is hard to follow; it is not very well organized or thought out. There may not be a big problem; there may be a chopped-off or bogus ending. There may be weird skips in time simply to get to the end. The writer may use no details about characters and setting.

The writing is difficult or nearly impossible to understand--confusing words or phrases may obstruct meaning. The writer may switch verb tense in weird places.

The piece may have many fragments or run-ons. It does not often follow other rules about punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or paragraphing.

The presentation may be sloppy.

The story is nearly nonexistent. The writer probably does not make any attempt at a coherent organization. There is no clear organization or purpose. The writing is difficult or nearly impossible to understand--confusing words or phrases may obstruct meaning. The writer may switch verb tense in weird places.

The piece may have many fragments or run-ons; it usually does not follow other rules about punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or paragraphing.

The presentation may be so sloppy that understanding may be nearly impossible.

The writeup is essentially nonexistent.

The writing is difficult or nearly impossible to understand.

The piece may have many fragments or run-ons; it usually does not follow other rules about punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or paragraphing.

The presentation may be impossible to understand.