Mystery Short Story Rubric

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Ideas and Content:
Story includes characters, setting, clues, and misleading clues.

• Mystery elements are well-developed.
• Use of characters, clues, and misleading clues are creative, surprising, original, and appropriate.
• Major and minor characters are fully-developed and add flavor to the story.
• Setting appropriately enhances the plot.
• An appropriate number of logical and subtle clues match with the setting and plot.

• All mystery elements are included and most are fairly well-developed.
• Use of characters, clues, and misleading clues is appropriate.
• The mystery has some well-developed major characters.
• Setting is appropriate for the plot.
• Clues are logical and match the setting and the plot.

• One or two mystery elements are well-developed while others may be described superficially.
• Some characters, clues, and misleading clues are frequently unbelievable or undeveloped.
• The setting is inappropriate, vague, or not mixed in with the plot.
• There are few clues, and they are obvious and unsurprising.

• Few mystery elements are included in the story.
• Characters are unbelievable and/or poorly written.
• Setting is not described or is inappropriate for the plot.
• There are no clues or misleading clues.

• Mystery story grabs the readers’ attention immediately and holds it throughout the story. 
• Story has several “cliffhangers” that make the reader want to keep reading.
• The logical, yet surprising, storyline keeps readers’ attention.
• The ending pulls the story together in a suspenseful manner.

• Story invites the reader in.
• Story is easy for the reader to follow.
• Story has logical storyline. 
• Ending makes sense and leaves the readers satisfied. 

• Beginning or ending is weak and the reader struggles to get started or finish the story.  
• The story is not logical in places. 

• The reader can not follow the direction of the story. 

Voice:
Story is appealing, full of the unusual and unexpected, and natural to read.

• Story has voice that is intriguing and appealing. 
• The mystery story was written to be enjoyed. 

• Story has voice that is expressive and honest.
• Story appeals to the reader.

• Story has voice that is artificial and insincere.
• Writer has no sense of the reader.

• Story has voice that is mechanical and lifeless. The story is flat.

• Story shows creative use of intriguing, interesting, and surprising language, especially strong verbs and nouns that add to the mystery. 
• Word choice builds suspense and adds to the voice and content of the story. 

• Language is creative.
• Word choice is natural to a mystery story.

• There are a few uses of creative language.
• Some words are used incorrectly.

• Language is vague and redundant.        
• Words are used incorrectly.
• It is hard for the reader to make sense of the words.

• Sentences are varied in length and structure.
• Good phrases and sentence structure are used throughout the story. 

• Sentence structure is varied.

• Sentence patterns are repetitious.
• Some sentences are either too long or too short.

• Sentence structure is awkward.
• Sentences are either too long or too short.

• There are no convention errors.

• Few slight convention errors do not take away from the content of the story. 

• Convention errors detract from meaning and the content of the story.

• Many convention errors. Story makes no sense because of so many convention errors.