Narrative Checklist

Grade 11/12
Meaning: YES STARTING NOT
TO YET
Meaning I created a narrative with complex characters and
developed tension, change, and themes.
I developed particular perspectives, or points of
view, across the story.

Development:

Elaboration I developed the action, dialogue, details, and inner

thinking to develop the issue, idea, moral, lesson, or
theme as well as the characters.

I incorporated sensory language throughout my piece

to place the reader in the action of the narrative.
I zoomed into a specific moment in time as opposed
to summarizing events.
I included details that clearly relate to and suggest
meaning, including subtle details, or may foreshadow
and hint at symbolism.
I developed minor as well as central characters.
I developed a sense of place in terms of its mood as
well as physicality.
Description I developed characters over scenes, letting the reader
get to know their strengths and flaws, their hopes,
their troubles, and their uncertainties.
I showed how characters respond to trouble and
created characters that are complicated, changing,
and compelling.
I may have shown what characters don’t know but
what the reader does (dramatic irony).
I varied the pace to increase tension, develop
meaning, and manage time.
I matched my language and sentence structure to the
tone of parts of the story to convey time and place
and to develop different characters’ voices as well as
traits.

Organization and Style:

Organization I used narrative paragraphs, transitional phrases, font

changes, and spacing to clarify dialogue, time change,
 shifts in the setting or mood, interior dialogue, and
for dramatic impact.
I may have included nonlinear parts in my narrative
structure, including shifts in time, parallel narratives,
dream sequences, shifts in perspectives or voice—but
these are clear to the reader.
Beginning I created a beginning that defines a situation, place,
atmosphere, sets it within some kind of context,
foreshadows the problem(s), and defines the
significance of issues, ideas, morals, lessons, and
themes.

My beginning also introduces a particular narrative

voice and develops a point of view linked to that
voice.
Ending I wrote an ending that develops the meaning (a
stance on a social issue, a theme) and may act as
social commentary.

I gave the reader a sense of closure by showing

explicit and subtle character change and multiple
perspectives; or if problems are not solved, there is a
sense of resolution, small shifts in perspective, or a
significant illumination of an issue.
Transitions I used transitional phrases to alert my reader to the
passage of time, to connect parts of the story, to
imply cause and effect, to raise questions and doubts,
to make allusions, and sometimes to foreshadow
(as when, just as, whereby, without realizing, even
afterward, even before, later it would be clear…).
Style I developed an appropriate tone throughout my piece
that establishes a parallel mood for my reader.
I used words precisely and/or figuratively to
strengthen a particular tone or meaning.
I selected vivid and engaging verbs.
I may have used analogies, figurative language,
symbolism, and allusions and considered how diction
will have an effect on my reader.

Language Conventions:

Spelling/ I used accurate spelling throughout, except when

Grammar modified for effect. I demonstrated control of
conventions of standard English grammar.
Punctuation I varied punctuation and sentence structure to
emphasize connections, strengthen tone, and clarify
relationships and meaning.