Final Project: Short Story and Query Letter
The Final Project that was assigned in Week 1 is due by Day 7 of this week. Please be sure your project meets the specified criteria before submitting it.
Each week’s Assignment has built to the successful completion of a short story for your Final Project. By now, your story should demonstrate short story elements, techniques of development, elements of craft, and what you have learned from revision. This week, you will implement your peers’ feedback to finalize your short story to make it suitable for the publisher of your choice. For that publisher, you will also construct a query letter in order to promote your short story for publication.
To prepare for this assignment:
- Review the Final Project Introduction and Overview document in the Week 1 Learning Resources.
- Review the assigned portion of Chapter 12 in Shaping the Story. Complete “Progressive Writing Exercise #12 in Shaping the Story” to understand how rewriting sections of your writing can result in the creation of a better final version of your short story. How will looking at your short story from a “micro-level” help you make “macro-level” revisions to your short story?
- Review the websites related to making revisions to written works in the Learning Resources.
- Reflect on your background. What are some unique things that you have done and special experiences that you have had?
- Consider the following questions with regard to writing a query letter.
- How might you describe your short story in a query letter? What makes your short story unique?
- How might you best represent you and your short story? What are the most effective elements of a query letter to ensure your texts will be considered by a publisher?
- Think about the inspiration behind your short story, and how it relates to your experiences.
- Consider how your work matches the publisher’s other materials. Think about similarities in terms of topics, style, and form that the publisher usually produces.
The assignment:
Part 1: Revise and write 2 – 5 additional pages to your second draft, culminating in an 8- to 10-page final draft of your story.
Part 2: Write a 1- to 2-page query letter directed to a publisher for submission of your your finalized short story. Be sure to include the following:
- A brief introduction of yourself.
- A description of your short story.
- Reasons why the publisher should accept your short story. How is your short story different and special?
Writing and Formatting Expectations:
- Make sure that your final draft:
- Is in a 10- or 12-point font, such as Times New Roman or Verdana.
- Is double-spaced.
- Has 1-inch margins for top, bottom, left, and right.
- Make sure that your query letter:
- Is written from the “I” point of view. After all, this is your letter.
- Has the first sentence of each paragraph indented. Block paragraphs are not acceptable for this assignment.
- Is in business letter, single-spaced format.
By Day 7
Submit your Final Project. 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 Final Project for review and grading, do the following:
- Please save your Final Project using the naming convention “WK5Proj+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
- Click the Final Project Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Final Project.
- Click the Week 5 Final Project 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 “WK5Proj+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.
Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Final Project Rubric
Check Your Final Project Draft for Authenticity
To check your Final Project draft for authenticity:
Submit your Week 5 Final Project draft and review the originality report.
Submit Your Final Project by Day 7
To submit your Final Project:
Week 5 Final Project
Week in Review
This week you evaluated strategies for writing query letters directed to a publisher and execute a short story demonstrating the elements of creative writing. You also justified the value of creative writing skills and texts for publication. In the final week you will reflect on the skills you learned in the first five weeks and consider the knowledge you have gained by examining the work of seasoned writers.