Short Story

SHORT STORY JUSTIFICATION:

Justification

Assignment: To write a justification for the authorial decisions you made in writing your original short story. For each of the major areas below, write a statement in which you explain why you chose to do what you did in writing your story. You may also add any additional information that helps me to better understand and appreciate your story. Please type this.

This justification statement will be given a grade for SECs and a grade for writing process.

  1. What point of view have you used and why? Why is this the most effective point of view for your story? What do you accomplish with this point of view?
  2. What is the theme/the central idea that you were trying to develop? What means did you employ to convey this theme? (Did you use symbolism, irony, etc? Where? To what effect?)
  3. How did you go about developing character? Did your point of view affect characterization? Did you use direct or indirect characterization? Did you have the character explain him or herself or others/a narrator explain? Was dialogue a tool in developing character? If so, what did you try to accomplish with your dialogue?
  4. Explain your choices in both diction and syntax. What specific word choices did you make to enhance your story? How does the syntax reflect the ideas and tone you are trying to convey? Did you use figurative language and if so, why? What is the effect of it?
  5. How would you describe the tone of your story? What means did you employ to clearly convey the tone?
  6. What type of conflict drives your story and why did you choose the conflict you have and the means of developing it? Why are the means you chose more effective than another approach?
  7. Are there any symbols, special names, foreshadowing, narrative techniques, plot tricks, or other clever devices that help to get your story’s point across? If so, what are they? Explain.
  8. What else can you tell me about your story that helps me to better understand and appreciate it?

SHORT STORY PREWRITING: Creating a Character -- See the last document below called AA Short Story Characters.

Full texts of many short stories we will be reading can be found below or online. It can often be helpful to save the story to a Pages document and to annotate it as you read, using the comments feature in Pages. This is a great way to be an active reader and to note important, confusing, interesting elements of each story as you read.

SHORT STORY JOURNAL:

1. NOTES

2. Point of View Assignment

3. Mentor Sentences

4. Close Reading

5. One-page response on setting

6. "Good Man" starter imitation

8. One-page response on irony