A good prompt does two jobs at once: it draws out a student's best thinking and it produces writing that is straightforward to score. Cowan's The Nose gives teachers a compact story with a clear sequence, where the Deputy Inspector's nose disappears, turns up around town, and returns. That structure supports many kinds of prompts, from summary to opinion to creative extension. The challenge is picking prompts whose scoring criteria match what the prompt actually asks.

Start with the skill you want to see, and then write the prompt to demand it. If you want sequencing, ask students to explain what happens first, next, and last. If you want inference, ask what the Deputy Inspector might be feeling and how the story shows it. Vague prompts like "Write about The Nose" invite a scattered range of responses that are almost impossible to compare.

Prompt wording also controls length and difficulty. A prompt asking for "a paragraph with three details" tells students how much to write and gives you a simple counting tool for scoring. A prompt asking for "an explanation of why the story is funny" invites a wider range of reasoning and calls for a more flexible rubric. Choose based on the time you have to grade and the skill you are targeting.

Prompt Types Matched to Scoring Focus

Summary prompts should be scored for accuracy and for keeping events in the order they happen in the story. Inference prompts should be scored for reasonable conclusions that are supported by specific story details. Opinion prompts should be scored for a clear position and reasons that connect back to the text rather than to personal taste alone. Creative prompts should be scored for a consistent premise and a visible link to the original story.

• Summary: explain what happens to the Deputy Inspector's nose from beginning to end
• Inference: describe how the Deputy Inspector might feel and point to a detail that shows it
• Opinion: decide whether the story is more silly or more serious and give two reasons
• Creative: write a new scene in which the nose visits one more place in town
• Reflection: explain what the story might be saying about pride or appearance

Keep Each Prompt Focused on a Single Skill

Prompts that ask students to summarize, analyze, and give an opinion all in one response tend to produce muddled writing and muddled scores. If a student excels at summary but struggles with opinion, a single combined score hides that pattern. Split the tasks into separate short writes when possible. You will get cleaner data about what each student can do and a clearer sense of what to teach next.

Focused prompts also make it easier to give feedback. When a response is only about inference, your comment can address inference alone without wandering through everything else. Students then receive one clear message instead of a scattered list. That clarity often leads to better revisions than a long comment covering several problems at once.

Add Constraints That Make Scoring Simpler

Small, visible constraints help both students and the person doing the grading. Asking students to include a specific number of details, to use a transition word between ideas, or to end with a concluding sentence gives you clear things to check. These constraints should support the skill rather than turn writing into a checklist exercise. Use them sparingly, especially with confident writers who may find them limiting.

Length guidelines are another useful constraint. A range such as one to two paragraphs prevents extremes, where one student submits three sentences and another submits a full page. Use the range as guidance and not as a scoring criterion, since good thinking can fit in a short space. State this plainly so students do not equate more words with a better grade.

Preview Prompts With Sample Responses

Before assigning a prompt, write a strong response yourself, or generate one and edit it. This exercise reveals whether the prompt is clear, whether the expected length is realistic, and whether the rubric would reward what you wrote. Many teachers discover that a prompt they thought was obvious has two equally valid readings. Fixing the wording before students begin prevents confusion and inconsistent scoring later.

Keep a folder of prompts along with their rubrics and a few anonymous student samples from earlier years. That collection becomes a working library that saves planning time each fall and helps new colleagues get started. If your department uses an AI grading tool, the same prompts and rubrics can be loaded directly so that scoring stays consistent from class to class. Over time, the library improves with every revision.