AP English
Short Story Essay
Select a Story: Now that you have read a selection of short stories, choose one story that stands out to you.
“The Aleph” by Jorge Borges
“The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates
“Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff
“Greasy Lake” By T. Coraghessan Boyle
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” by Fritz Leiber
Assignment: Write an essay analyzing how key elements, motifs, and techniques are used to develop the theme of the
story. Do not summarize the plot. Instead, this should be a close analysis of the writer’s craft in connection to the
meaning of the story. References to Foster’s ideas should be used as secondary support for analyzing the motifs and
meaning of the story.
Annotations: Go through the story and annotate thoroughly for techniques, elements, and motifs. Look for point of
view, character, setting, symbolism, irony, figurative language, imagery, and motifs and archetypes from our discussions
of Foster’s book. Highlight important quotes and write the significance or impact in the margin. You will turn your
annotations in for a grade.
Rough Draft: Write a rough draft of your essay. Consider the following structure for your essay:
Introduction: This paragraph should include the title of the story, the author, an introduction to the story and its
context, the important techniques you will focus on, and the theme you will discuss. Your thesis statement should
specifically identify what you will focus on to interpret the story.
Thesis Statement: Construct a thesis statement that indicates the focus of your analysis and the relation of that focus to
the meaning of the story. Your thesis should state your interpretation of the story. It should not be so obvious that your
reader will say “so what?” Don’t settle for trite generalizations. Instead, make a statement which indicates thought and
depth, and which requires support and proof. Your goal should be to illuminate for the readers some point that they
might not have noticed upon first reading the story. Note that these stories offer multiple interpretations, so your
interpretation might be different from mine. The important criterion to keep in mind is: can you prove it with evidence
from the text?
Body: These paragraphs should analyze examples from the story and the techniques used in order to support the thesis
statement that you have developed. Identify a focal point to develop in each body paragraph, and make sure all of your
points support the theme of the story that you have chosen. Find strong evidence in the text to support your thesis, and
organize your essay around these quotations and examples. Be sure to cite the page number in parenthesis (according
to MLA format) when inserting the quote in your essay. Most important, you should include analysis of the quotes that
directly connects to your thesis. Don’t rely on generalizations or paraphrase of the story, but discuss the importance of
the evidence for your thesis. Your essay should focus on explaining your interpretation of the story and how the theme
develops from the techniques and elements.
Conclusion: This paragraph should not simply restate the thesis or introductory paragraph. You should synthesize or
draw conclusions from the analysis you have done in the body of your essay. You may also choose to connect your
analysis to more universal ideas in order to support your thesis. You need to develop some new insight in this paragraph
that leaves the reader with an overall understanding of the story.
Format and Due Date: Your essay should be in MLA format—typed, double-spaced, and 12-point font. There is not a
specific length requirement, but it needs to be (like a skirt) LONG ENOUGH to cover the subject. You should submit a
hard copy of your essay, as well as an electronic version to Turnitin.com by Friday, October 26th.
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Short Story Essay Scoring Guide
These superior, well-focused, persuasive essays address the prompt directly and in a convincing manner.
Specific references to the short story with strong direct quotes are used to persuasively demonstrate the
writer’s use of literary elements, techniques, and motifs, as well as support the thesis. They are free of
plot summary and demonstrate the writer's ability to discuss the short story and its craft with insight and
understanding. Exceptional insight about the short story is included with discussion of the layers of
meaning and a clear synthesis of the connection between craft and meaning. Contextual analysis is
9-8
integrated into the interpretation of the short story, as well as direct reference to secondary support,
such as Foster’s ideas about motifs. The writing reflects more sophisticated and varied syntax, clear and
purposeful organization, facile use of language, mastery of mechanics, and an understanding of the
essential components of an effective essay. A 9 essay is one that offers such a superior interpretation and
presentation that there is little room for revision, while an 8 is impressively insightful, but still has room
for improvement.
%
10095
These highly competent essays respond to the prompt directly, although some of the analysis of literary
techniques, elements, and motifs may be implicit rather than explicit. A 7 essay is in many ways a less
developed, less thorough, less perceptive or less specific version of the 8-9 papers, but it is still
remarkable, cogent, and generally convincing. A 6-7 essay demonstrates the writer's ability to analyze a
literary work, but reveals a more limited understanding of the writer’s craft and little attention to context.
Although the analysis is more simplistic than the 8-9 papers, an interpretation of the short story should be
7-6
90-85
present, and direct quotes should be included to demonstrate this. Contextual analysis and reference to a
secondary source, such as Foster, should be included, though may not be as strong or developed as essays
in the 8-9 range. These essays are well-written but with less maturity and control than the top papers.
Generally, 6 essays present less sophisticated analysis with weaker evidence and/or less consistent
command of the elements of effective writing (such as organization, syntax, or mechanics) than essays
scored 7.
5
Superficiality characterizes a 5 essay. Discussion of meaning may be undeveloped, mechanical, or
inadequately related to the chosen details. Although the writer’s craft is discussed, the interpretation of
meaning is simplistic or vague. Typically, these essays reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing.
References to the text are included, but the quotes are not well-integrated or analyzed well and
connections between the craft and meaning of the story are not clearly explained. Although the context
of the story may be mentioned, its significance to the story is not developed. Essays in this range usually
demonstrate inconsistent control over the elements of composition and are not as well conceived,
organized, or developed as the upper-half papers. On the other hand, the writing is sufficient to convey
the writer's ideas, and a basic understanding of the short story is demonstrated.
80-70
These lower half essays compound the problems found in the 5 essay. Discussion is likely to be
unpersuasive, vague, undeveloped or even misguided. The meaning they deduce may be inaccurate,
undeveloped, and not clearly connected to the writer’s craft. These essays may contain
misinterpretations of the question or the story and little, if any, supporting evidence or contextual
4-3
analysis. Instead, these essays rely on paraphrase and plot summary at the expense of analysis. The
writing may convey the writer's ideas, but it reveals weak control over such elements as diction,
organization, syntax or grammar. Essays that are particularly poorly written or demonstrate a serious
misunderstanding of the prompt or story may be scored a 3.
65-60
These essays make an attempt to deal with the story, but demonstrate serious weakness in content,
coherence, and/or syntax and mechanics. Often, they are unacceptably brief, rely on paraphrase or
summary, and compound the weaknesses of essays in the 4-3 range. There may be no direct reference to
2-1 the story at all or misinterpretation of the story. These essays are poorly written on several counts,
including distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. Although the writer may have made some effort
to answer the question by addressing the story and its craft, the essay has little clarity or coherence.
Essays that are incoherent, inept, off-topic, or brief will be scored a 1.
55-50