A Story on an Act of Courage: Model Answer That Needs No Danger
Quick answer: An original 180-word exam story on an act of courage with no physical danger, set at a Delhi school assembly, with notes on why it scores and three other plots.
An act of courage in an exam story does not need a fire or a flood. Standing up in front of a laughing class, admitting a fault, or defending someone unpopular is courage too, and it is easier to make believable in 180 words than a rescue. Whatever act you choose, show the fear before it, the cost during it and the result after it. The model below is about 180 words and set at a morning assembly in Delhi, with no danger to anyone except a boy's reputation.
The weak version of this story announces that the character was very brave and then describes a heroic act. Examiners mark content for plausibility, and a twelve-year-old who feels no fear is not plausible.
The task
Typical wording: 'Write a story in 150 to 200 words on an act of courage.' Outlines vary: 'a classmate is mocked ... nobody speaks ... one student decides ... the reaction ... the next day.' Choose the kind of courage before you start; the quiet kind is often more original.
Model answer
The Second Reader. Every Friday one student read a passage at morning assembly, and that Friday it was Ishaan's turn. Ishaan stammered. Everyone in Class 7 knew it and most of them had stopped noticing, except on days like this, when he stood at the microphone in front of six hundred people and the first word would not come.
The laughing started at the back. It was not loud, but it spread the way laughing does, and Ishaan's face went the colour of the school tie. Faizan, standing in the front row of 7B, felt his own stomach turn over.
He had not planned to move. He found himself walking up the three steps to the stage with his heart going like a drum, taking the sheet from Ishaan's hand, and saying into the microphone, 'We will read it together.' They read it together, a sentence each. Ishaan stammered on two words and nobody laughed, because Faizan waited for him each time as though waiting were normal.
The principal said nothing about it. But the following Friday she asked for two readers, and the school has had two readers ever since.
Why it earns marks
Against the three heads:
Three other ways to take the same topic
Each shows fear before, cost during, result after. Writers of 13 and over who want a mark on this kind of story outside school can enter Writory's monthly short story contest, where every entry receives a score out of 100 and a certificate.
What writers can take from this
- Courage without danger is easier to write and often more original.
- Show the fear in the body: stomach, heart, hands, voice.
- Make the act cost the character something visible.
- One line of dialogue can be the whole act.
- Let the result be a change in a habit, not a reward.
- Never use the words 'brave' or 'courage' in the story.
Try it yourself
Write a 180-word story about an act of courage that lasts less than ten seconds, and spend the first two paragraphs on the minute before it.
Questions
How long should an act of courage story be?
Whatever the question states: 100 to 120 words for CBSE Class 9, 150 to 200 for school exams, 300 to 350 for ICSE. Cut the principal's paragraph to reach 120; the reading together is the ending.
Can the act of courage be the narrator's own, in first person?
Yes, but keep the narrator surprised by what they did, not proud of it. 'I had not planned to move' is the right register; 'I bravely stepped forward' is not.
Should the story have a moral?
Only if asked. 'Courage is often quiet' would fit the model above, but the two readers every Friday already carry it.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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Enter the Writory Short Story Contest and have your own story read and scored out of 100. Entries close 25 November. That first entry makes you a Writorian.