Which sentence would be the most effective and clear opening of a short story? a) jackson crept down the hall with a baseball bat in his hand. b) she put the letters on the construction paper, making sure to spell everything correctly. eliminate c) after all had been said and done, stephanie knew that she had done her best in everything. d) when nick woke up for his first day of sixth grade smelling pancakes and bacon from downstairs, he knew that today was going to be a big day of change in his life.

Have you ever thought you understood a person based on a story that you have heard about them? have you ever guessed about a person's personal life because of the clothes they wore? or, have you judged a person because of their friends? although classifying people in this way is typically discouraged, authors deliberately use your preconceived ideas to you form an opinion about the character or to at least have a better understanding. can you think of a time that you made a character call about someone based on external aspects? were you correct, or incorrect? has anyone ever made an incorrect assessment of you based on external aspects? write two paragraphs about it in your journal.