| Excellent | You have an excellent storyline that includes sensory details, conflict, resolution, and other narrative elements. You included at least one conversation. Your story is written in a correct order of events. | Your narrative has a clear beginning, middle, and end. You use transition words properly and have a complete introduction that sets up your “literary elements” for your story and a conclusion. | You demonstrate an excellent use of language, including literary devices. Your sentences are clear and provide a visual image to the reader. You have an attention-grabbing introduction. | You use a variety of sentence structures. You have very few errors in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation. The errors that are there do not make the writing unclear. |
| Good | You have a developed storyline with some sensory details, and other narrative story elements. You included some dialogue, but not in the form of a conversation. Your story is written in a correct order of events. | Your narrative has a clear beginning, middle, and end. You use transition words properly. You may have an introductory paragraph, but it might not set your story up clearly or contain too much information. You have a conclusion. | You show a good use of language, and use at least one literary device. Your sentences are clear and sometimes provide a visual image to the reader. You have a clear introductory sentence, but it might not be an attention-grabber. | You use a variety of sentence structures. You have some errors in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation. A few of these errors may make parts of the writing unclear. |
| Okay | Your storyline has some details, but does not follow the general rules of writing a narrative. You attempted to include dialogue, but it may not be used correctly. Your story events are not always in order. | Your main events are in order. You do not have a complete introductory paragraph or a complete conclusion. | You have some mistakes in language, which make it difficult to understand some points. You do not use literary devices, and visual images are not clear. Your introductory sentence is boring or an overused phrase. | You do not use a variety of sentence structures, and some sentences may be fragments. There are many errors in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation. |
| Needs Improvement | Your storyline is missing some important details, and it is not written in narrative form. Your story events are not always in order. | Your main events may not be in correct order, which makes the narrative hard to understand. Your introductory paragraph and conclusion are incomplete or missing. | You have very little control of your language and sentences. You do not have literary devices or images for the reader. You don’t have an introductory sentence. | Many sentences are awkward or are fragments. There are many grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation errors. These errors make the narrative very difficult to read. |