Personal Narrative Rubric



Writing a Personal Narrative Essay

English IIIH

Ferrell 11/11

Narrative writing tells a story, often in chronological order. Strong narrative writing centers around a conflict, either internal, external or both. Your assignment is to write a 300-500-word personal narrative about an interesting experience you’ve had. Use MLA format.

• In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.

• Double space again and center the title. The title must apply specifically to the essay and must include a verb. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks; write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.

• Double space between the title and the first line of the text.

• Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number; number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin.

Structure your essay like a short story, beginning with exposition (i.e. establishment of characters, setting, conflict), proceeding to rising action and climax and ending with a resolution. Tell the story in chronological order (the order in which the events occurred in time). Use first-person point of view, and write in the past tense. Use specific, sensory details (i.e. imagery) to bring your essay to life. Include dialog (i.e. characters speaking to each other) and punctuate it properly.

“Do you come here often?” said Anne-Marie.

“Almost never,” I said, glancing nervously around the room.

Make your syntax interesting by varying the types of sentences you use and by varying the ways in which you begin sentences.

Here’s the rubric I’ll use to evaluate your essay:

Stimulating Ideas 1 2 3 4 5

• Focuses on a specific event or experience

• Deals with a conflict, internal, external or both

• Presents an engaging picture of the action and people involved

• Makes readers want to know what happens next

Logical Organization 1 2 3 4 5

• Includes an interesting beginning that pulls readers into the essay

• Presents ideas in an organized, chronological order

• Uses effective transitions to link sentences and paragraphs

• Flows smoothly from one idea to the next

Engaging Voice 1 2 3 4 5

• Speaks knowledgably and/or enthusiastically

• Contains specific details and dialogue

• Contains specific nouns, vivid verbs, and colorful modifiers

Grammar/Conventions 1 2 3 4 5

• 1st person point of view

• Consistent use of past tense

• Sentence structure and varied beginnings

• Spelling, punctuation, capitalization

• Unified paragraphs

• Word choice and usage

Attention to Directions 1 2 3 4 5

• Effective title

• 300-500 words in length

• Typed (no exceptions)

• 1 inch margins all around (top, bottom, left, and right)

• Double spaced

• Times New Roman 12 pt. font

BEGIN WITH A PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE:

In the tumultuous business of cutting-in and attending to a whale, there is much running backwards and forwards among the crew. H. Melville, Moby Dick

BEGIN WITH MORE THAN ONE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE:

On this public holiday, as on all other occasions, for seven years past, Hester was clad in a garment of coarse gray cloth. N. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

BEGIN WITH A SIMILE:

Like a razor also, it seems massy and heavy, tapering from the edge into a solid and broad structure. E.A. Poe "The Pit and the Pendulum"

BEGIN WITH AN ADJECTIVE OR SEVERAL ADJECTIVES:

Silent, grim, colossal--the big city has ever stood against its revilers. O. Henry, "Between Rounds"

BEGIN WITH AN APPOSITIVE:

The elephant, the slowest breeder of all known animals, would in a few thousand years stock the whole world. C. Darwin, The Descent of Man

BEGIN WITH AN INFINITIVE

To see her, and to be himself unseen and unknown, was enough for him at present. T. Hardy, Jude the Obscure

BEGIN WITH A MODIFYING CLAUSE:

When little boys have learned a new bad word, they are never happy till they have chalked it up on a door. R. Kipling, "The Phantom Rickshaw"

BEGIN WITH A NOUN CLAUSE:

What was meant by this ceremony the reader may imagine, who has already gathered some idea of the reckless irreverence of Roaring Camp. B. Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp"

BEGIN WITH A PARTICIPLE:

Crawling on all fours, I made steadily but slowly toward them; till at last, raising my head to an aperture among the leaves I could see clear down into a dell beside the marsh, and closely set about with trees, where Long John Silver and another of the crowd stood face to face in conversation. R.L. Stevenson, Treasure Island

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