Your story must be original. You cannot copy or closely follow other short stories that you have read. You must come up with your own characters and plot, and your short story must be fictional. If you have written short stories in the past, that is great, but for this assignment you need to write something completely new. You may use material from the journals you wrote this semester to help generate some ideas.
Your story may be based on actual events in history, whether in the distant past or not so long ago. This is called historical fiction. You just have to make sure that the characters and plot are fictional. Additionally, your story can be an example from any short fiction genre, including (but not limited to) fantasy, science fiction, Dystopian, Gothic, slice of life, mystery, or romance, but it needs to reflect one or many themes that we have examined and discussed this semester (identity, assimilation, cultural conflict, “the other,” the American Dream, family).
Complete pre-writing (plot outline, character files) to organize your ideas before writing your first draft. You can do this in whatever way works best for you.
Your story must include dialogue. When writing dialogue, make sure it is clear to the reader which character is speaking. Also make sure you begin a new paragraph whenever you switch speakers. Your dialogue needs to be written properly with quotation marks. (Refer to the stories we have read to get examples for writing dialogue.)
Since this is different than the academic formal writing you have done in the past, you have more freedom when it comes to language usage. You may use first-person and second-person pronouns, and contractions and other colloquialisms are also acceptable. Proper spelling is still important.
