The Basic Elements of a Short Story

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The BasicElements of a Short Story

• 9th Grade English I/Literacy

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Definition of a Short Story

• Tells about a single event or experience
• Fictional (not true)
• 500 to 15,000 words in length
• Can be read in one sitting
• Few characters, one plot, one theme, one setting
• Creates an impression on the reader

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Basic Elements of a Short Story

• Plot/Conflict
• Character(ization)
• Setting
• Theme
• Point of View

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Short Story Elements

• Plot The story line, or action of a narrative.
  Usually, plot is divided into five parts
• Exposition
• Complication (rising)
• Climax
• Denouement (falling)
• Conclusion

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Short Story Elements

• Conflict The central source of tension and drama
  in the story.
• Conflict is sometimes referred to as the story
  problem that must be solved
• 4 common types of conflict ???

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Short Story Elements

• Characterization
• The presentation of fictional beings as credible
  persons
• Also, the particular methods of description,
  detail, action and dialogue that the author uses
  to make his or her characters believable.

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Short Story Elements

• Setting the environment in which a story takes
  place
• Often times the storys action and characters are
  effected by setting both physically and
  psychologically
• Ex large city vs. deserted island

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Short Story Elements

• Theme The central idea or main point of a
  literary work usually dealing with universal
  truths or human experience such as love, good vs.
  evil, life and death

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Short Story Elements

• Point of view The perspective from which the
  story is told and what the narrator sees from
  that vantage point.
• Omniscient
• Limited

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Basic Elements of a Short Story

• Plot/Conflict
• Characterization
• Setting
• Theme
• Point of View

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Short Story

• Great writers are able to use the elements of the
  short story with such precision that the reader
  is caught up in the action of the story. This is
  a trademark of a great author and story.

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Goals for Our Short Story Unit

1. You will identify which elements are intended to
   be very obvious by the authors throughout our
   unit.
2. You will learn to distinguish the various points
   of view from which a story is told.
3. You will learn about all of the previously
   mentioned short story elements.