Personal and Fictional Narrative Scoring Rubric
SIX TRAITS 4 3
Includes a clearly presented
central idea with relevant
facts, supporting details,
and/or explanations
Establishes well-developed
IDEAS/CONTENT
characters, situation/plot,
point of view, setting and/or
conflict
Uses multiple sensory
details
Organizing structure is very
clear and includes
paragraphs and effective
transitional words/phrases
ORGANIZATION Has a thoroughly-developed
sequence of events or time
order that strongly engages
the reader and moves to a
powerful conclusion
Voice is appropriate to the
topic, purpose, and audience
Writing is exceptionally
VOICE expressive and engaging
Uses a range of narrative
devices (dialogue, suspense,
etc.)
Sentences have natural flow
and rhythm
SENTENCE FLUENCY
Sentence length, structure,
and complexity is varied
Uses extensive precise and
creative verbs, adverbs,
WORD CHOICE
nouns, and adjectives that
paint a visual image
Spelling, capitalization,
punctuation, paragraphing,
and grammar are effective
CONVENTIONS and make the paper easy to
read and understand
Contains few if any errors in
conventions
Includes a central idea with
relevant facts, supporting
details, and/or explanations
Establishes characters,
situation/plot, point of view,
setting and/or conflict
Uses sensory details
Organizing structure that
includes paragraphs and
adequate transitional
words/phrases
Has a sequence of events or
time order that strongly
engages the reader and
moves to a conclusion
Voice is present
Shows an awareness of an
audience
Writing is somewhat
engaging
Uses some narrative devices
Sentences flow
Sentence structures are
correct and varied
Uses precise and creative
verbs, adverbs, nouns, and
adjectives that begin to
paint a visual image
Spelling, capitalization,
punctuation, paragraphing,
and grammar are mostly
correct
Errors don’t make writing
difficult to read and don’t
interfere with the meaning
2 1
Lacks a central idea, but may
Includes a central idea with
contain marginally related
limited facts, supporting
facts, details, and/or
details, and/or explanations
explanations
Attempts to establish
Lacks the development of
characters, situation/plot,
characters, situation/plot,
point of view, setting and/or
point of view, setting and/or
conflict
conflict
Organizing structure is
weak with an inconsistent Organization has no clear
focus and very few structure, focus, or
paragraphs paragraphs
Has a minimum sequence of Has weak sequences that fail
events or time order that to engage the reader or
fails to engage the reader conclude
and/or conclude
Voice is inconsistent or
weak
Writing shows little sense Little or no voice is present
of audience Writing shows no real
Uses few narrative devices personal involvement
or none at all
Has fragmented, run-on, or Sentences are incomplete,
confusing sentences unclear, and/or lacking in
Sentence structures are variety
limited in variety
Uses dull, highly repetitive
Use limited word choice and
word choice with little or no
descriptive language
descriptive language.
Spelling, capitalization,
punctuation, paragraphing,
Spelling, capitalization,
and grammar create
punctuation, paragraphing,
problems that slow the
and grammar errors are so
reader or cause confusion
numerous that they make
Contains frequent
writing difficult to follow
convention errors that are
noticeable