Assignment: Outline and the Opening SceneEach weekly Assignment will contribute to your Final Project short story, which will be due on Day 7 of Week 5. The outline will be the first step of the writing process used to develop your short story for your Final Project. You will apply what you have learned about the elements of creative writing to begin your own short story, and you will need at least two days to complete this assignment. For this week’s Assignment, you will be creating a short story outline and the opening scene.

Questions about this assignment? Post them in the Contact the Instructor area on the left navigation bar. That way, everyone in the class will see, and benefit from, the Instructor’s response.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the Final Project Introduction and Overview document in the Learning Resources.
• Review the assigned portions of Part I, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 in Shaping the Story.
• In preparation for beginning your short story, consider the following questions:
  • What type of short story do you want to tell?
  • What kind of introduction do you want your story to include?
  • Which genre characteristics will your story include?
• Reflect on questions you might ask yourself in order to put yourself in the place of the reader.
• Complete “Progressive Writing Exercise #1: The Story Cloud Diagram” on page 16 of Shaping the Story.
  • Decide which components of each “Story Cloud” to use for your short story.
• Once you have a direction that your story will take, use it as a base to complete the Day 1 and Day 2 parts of the “Progressive Writing Exercise #2: Writing Your Opening Scene” on page 26 in Shaping the Story.

The assignment:

Part 1: Develop a 1-page outline of your short story.

Part 2: Complete the “Progressive Writing Exercise #2” on page 26 of Shaping the Story and write a 1-page opening scene for your short story. You will need at least two days to complete this assignment.

By Day 7

Submit your outline and opening scene. In order to receive full credit, all assignments are due on time. Should you encounter an unanticipated and uncontrollable life event that may prevent you from meeting an assignment deadline, contact the Instructor immediately to request an extension. Your Instructor’s contact information is in the Contact the Instructor area on the left navigation bar. For a full description of the late policy, please refer to the “Policies on Late Assignments” section of your Syllabus.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention WK1Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension) as the name.
• Click the Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 1 Assignment link. You will also be able to View Rubric for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as WK1Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension) and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.