Parts of a Story  

Beginning	Middle	End
Introduction and focus, pulls in the reader Good if you jump right into it and begin the story right away. The prompt may be stated or implied, or it may come later in the middle of the story. It shouldn't drag on. The beginning is crucial in a narrative; it sets the stage for everything else that follows. All the following questions should be answered as quickly as the story begins: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?	Development, Movement, action, focus on prompt, elaboration's and details This is the heart or the meat of the story - the most important part in the development of the problem or the situation. The middle should be well elaborated with lots of action to show what is happening. If you have not mastered writing the middle, you will start listing things - descriptions that don't move, or sentences relaying states of being that don't develop the story or provide any action, just statements of being. For example: the house is blue, the car is red, and he is cool). Some listing is okay, as long as the other components of good writing are evident. Papers that list and stall, or list and end in a hurry are typical "2" papers. The details and elaboration must be relevant to what is happening in the story; otherwise it is listing.	Ties up all loose ends, has a resolution and a reaction Only papers with endings are passing papers. At the end of the story the reader should know what happened or what the result of the problem or situation was. You should also express a resolution (problem/situation resolved and how) and a reaction.