Short Story Comment Criteria

I would like your short story comments to answer the following six questions:

I - What was the conflict of story? Was it internal or external? How was it resolved? How invested were you in the resolution of the conflict? What could have made the story more dramatic?

II - Good stories have main characters who change over time. How does the protagonist or antagonist change over the course of the story? What is his or her great insight, epiphany, or development? How is this change important to the story? How would the story be different if the character didn't change?

III. What was your favorite part of the story? Did it occur in the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, or resolution? Pick a line that you liked, copy and paste it into the comment box, put quotes around it, and explain what it was about it that stood out to you.

IV - Overall, what is this tale's best quality? It could be its characters, the conflict, the resolution, the description of the setting, the story arc, use of dialogue, etc. Use specific details and references to the story to fully explain yourself.

V - What is the story's theme? What seeds does the author plant that allow the theme to grow and bloom by the end of the story?

VI - What is the main thing the author needs to revise before Mr. B-G grades this story? Take a look at the assignment sheet and the grading criteria to pick something specific that should help your classmate make a meaningful improvement.

In total, each story comment should be about three to four paragraphs (12 to 16 well-written, informative sentences). Your comments should appear below the story you are responding to. When asked to choose an identity, use your Google/Blogger ID. Comments not posted according to these instructions should be deleted.

I would like you to respond to a minimum of one short story per class (3 total).

* Please have a printed copy of your comments ready for me to check at the start of class on Tuesday, Jan. 26th. Your classmates and I thank you for your valuable feedback.

One or no comments = zero credit
Two comments = a "check minus"

Three comments = a "check"
Five comments = a "check plus"

Click here for a copy of the short story assignment sheet. The school-wide writing rubric which I will be using to grade your story can be accessed by clicking on this link. For general information about posting blog comments, please click here.