Obituary
You will pretend to be a writer for the obituary section of the newspaper. You will base
your obituary on the life of the figure or character you selected for your eulogy and use
your analysis of the NY Times obituary section to conform to AP style.
Please read and follow the guidelines below very carefully.
The obituary can be for a character that is still living at the end of the book. You can
fabricate information that is not known, such as a character or person’s date and cause
of death, occupation, etc.
The obituary must be at least 500 words in length and should include the following:
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Full name of the character/person
Date of birth
Date of death
Age at the time of death
Cause of death
Education
Occupation
Major accomplishments/achievements
Names of the character’s parents
Names of the character’s closest deceased and surviving relatives
Place of residence
Place of funeral/burial
A Student Planning Sheet is provided to help you organize your presentation.
On the day of your presentation, you will turn in the following:
1.
2.
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4.
Your obituary
The text of your eulogy
Completed self-assessment rubrics for both.
Completed peer-assessment rubrics for both
Your grade will be based on the accompanying rubrics. Please take time to review the
rubrics before creating and presenting your obituary and eulogy. Be sure to complete the
rubric for each task and bring it to class with you the day of your presentation.
Student Planning Sheet
Before writing the obituary, you will need to gather information about the deceased
person or character. Remember that the obituary can be for a character that is still living
at the end of the book, movie, play or in real life. You must make up information that is
not known, such as the date and cause of death, but it should make sense or be amusing.
Name of Deceased
Date of Birth
Date of Death
Age at the Time of Death
Cause of the Death
Education
Occupation
Major Accomplishments/Achievement
Names of the Character’s Parents
Names of the Character’s Closest
Surviving Relatives
Place of Residence
Place, date and time of Funeral/Burial
Name:_________________________
Obituary Rubric
Person/character:__________________________________________________________
Criteria
Obituary is about an interesting
character or person
Obituary does not include irrelevant
information or information about other
people or characters.
Obituary includes important information
about the character’s life and death.
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Possible Number
of Points
Student’s
Score
Mrs.
Tassey’s
Score
_______
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/5
Reason:
/5
Reason:
/20
Reason:
Date of birth
Date of death
Age at the time of death
Cause of death
Education
Occupation
Major accomplishments and/or
achievements
Name of character’s parents
Name of the character’s closest
surviving and deceased relatives
Places of residence
Place of funeral/burial
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Obituary includes accurate or logical
information based on fact or character.
Reason:
Tone and style of the obituary is
appropriate—AP style.
Reason:
/20
/10
Obituary is typed.
/10
Reason:
Obituary does not contain spelling,
grammar, or punctuation mistakes.
Reason:
The obituary meets length requirement, 500
words.
Reason:
Total Points:
Comments:
/10
/10
/100