Imitation assignments ask students to write an original scene in the manner of Hemingway, using short declarative sentences, concrete nouns, and restrained emotion. They are popular because they push students to notice style from the inside. They are also tricky to grade, since a convincing imitation depends on choices that are easy to feel and hard to measure.

A useful first step is to define what you mean by Hemingway's style before students begin. In the stories collected in The Complete Short Stories, that usually includes plain vocabulary, repetition with small variations, heavy use of the conjunction "and," and dialogue that circles around its real subject. Giving students a short list of features, drawn from passages you studied together, makes the target concrete and the grading defensible.

Be careful not to reward mere sentence shortness. Students quickly learn that chopping every sentence into fragments sounds vaguely Hemingway-like, but the effect is usually monotonous rather than controlled. Your rubric should reward intentional variation, such as a long, flowing sentence that builds momentum before a short one that lands with weight.

Criteria for Assessing Imitation

Divide the grade between how well the student captures the stylistic features and how well the piece works as writing in its own right. A student can imitate the surface of the style while producing a flat scene, and another can write a moving scene that drifts from the model. Grading both dimensions encourages students to treat imitation as a way of learning craft rather than a mechanical exercise.

• Uses concrete, plain diction instead of abstract or ornamental language
• Varies sentence rhythm on purpose, including repetition and the occasional long sentence
• Lets dialogue carry subtext without having characters state their feelings directly
• Keeps the narrator's emotion implied rather than explained
• Chooses a setting and detail that feel specific and observed

Adding a Reflection to Strengthen Assessment

A short reflective paragraph, in which students identify three stylistic choices and connect each to a passage from the stories, turns the assignment into analysis as well as creative writing. It also protects you from guessing at intent, since a student who wrote a long sentence on purpose can say so. Graders often find that the reflection is the best indicator of how deeply a student understood the style.

The reflection also gives you a place to catch overreliance on one story. Students sometimes copy the structure of "Hills Like White Elephants" almost exactly, substituting new characters and a different topic. Asking them to compare their scene with the original in a brief note helps them see where they borrowed too heavily and where they truly adapted the technique.

Writing Feedback on Creative Work

Feedback on creative imitation should be specific about sentences, not general about effect. Telling a student that the piece "doesn't feel like Hemingway" does not help, while pointing out that three consecutive sentences begin with the same pronoun and the same verb gives them something to fix. Marking one or two strong lines for praise also shows students what the target sounds like when it works.

Teachers who grade many of these pieces often find their comments becoming repetitive, since fragments, over-explained emotions, and generic settings appear again and again. Rubric-aligned automated feedback can cover those predictable issues, leaving you room to respond personally to the more original choices. Students benefit from both kinds of response, as they get consistent guidance and individual recognition.

Connecting Imitation Back to Analysis

The strongest use of this assignment pairs it with an analytical essay on the same stylistic features. Students who have just tried to write dialogue with subtext are far more perceptive when they analyze it in "Cat in the Rain" or "The Killers." The writing exercise gives them a feel for the difficulty of leaving things unsaid.

Consider letting students revise their imitation after the analytical unit, using what they learned to improve their scene. Comparing the two versions shows growth that a single assignment cannot capture, and it gives you a strong piece of evidence for the progress of each student. That longer arc turns a one-off creative exercise into a real lesson in how style is built.