Creative Writing Models

Here you'll find links to excellent creative writing models. All feature teacher comments in the right margin to explain the way the essays reflect the criteria of the school writing rubric.

If you have questions about some of the margin comments, please ask a Writing Center teacher or your own teacher.

Poem: "Alabama in the 1930s"

This poem started with a photograph for inspiration.It makes excellent use of a focused image and carefully chosen details to build emotional intensity.

Monologue on To Kill a Mockingbird

This monologue expresses Mayella's point of view toward Tom and reveals her inner loneliness. The author uses details from the text to make inferences about the character's thoughts and feelings.

Poem: "Sincere?"

This poem asks the reader to reexamine his thoughts on a word that we use often. It uses a recurring image, simple language to make an impact.

Fiction War Story: "Red Sun"

This short story creatively captures a harsh truth about the modern war experience. The author uses a lot of powerful imagery and repetition to capture this soldier's experiences.

Additional Scene for Catcher in the Rye: "The Ride of Realization"

This assignment called for the writer to place the main character, Holden Caulfield, in an entirely new setting and use literary elements including voice, symbolism, and characterization. By the end the writer needed to bring Holden to a clear realization either that it's better to be a child or that it's better to be an adult. In this piece, the writer skillfully uses voice and description to show Holden's movement from a self-centered adult-like character to someone who embraces his child-like side in order to please his little sister.

Satire: "Reality TV"

This satirical piece which was written in a unit following the reading of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The assignment required students to create a new episode from the book in which the characters face a modern situation. This particular piece mocks America's obsession with reality TV.