1. Intro to Short Stories
Ms. De La O
English 9

2. What is a short story?

3. Short Stories vs. Novels
Length
Complexity
Character Development

4. How to Approach Reading
Literal Reading
Inferential Reading
Critical Reading

5. Literal Reading
Reading for details and facts.

6. Inferential Reading
A conclusion that is reached on the basis of evidence
Key in active reading

7. Critical Reading Evaluate a piece.
We are all critics when we read as soon as we give feedback.

8. Literary Elements

9. Setting
The time and place of the story

10. Plot line What are the five key parts of a plot line? 1. Exposition
2. Rising action
3. Climax
4. Falling action
5. Resolution

11. Metaphor and Simile Comparisons
A simile uses “like” or “as”; a metaphor does not.

12. Point of View The view from which a story is told First-person
Third-person limited
Third-person omniscient

13. First-person Point of View
Tells the story from a character’s perspective.
I, me, we

14. Third-person limited
Told from the perspective of a character, but it is not the character who is telling the story.

15. Third-person Omniscient
Tells the story from a “God-like” point of view
The narrator is all-knowing

16. Conflict The struggle between two opposing forces. Internal conflict
External conflict

17. Tone
The attitude the writer takes towards the subject or the reader

18. Theme
Underlying idea
Exploration of important questions and issues.

19. Characterization The way characters’ personalities are developed.
Direct characterization
Indirect characterization

20. Traits
Alll the aspects of a person's behavior and attitudes that make up that person's personality

21. Foreshadowing
Clues or details that hint at upcoming events in a story.
Symbols and omens.

22. Symbol
Something that stands for something else.

23. Flashback
A scene that interrupts the current action in order to give some sort of background information.
It tells of earlier events that are probably still important to the story.

24. Suspense Feeling of uncertainty or anxiety in a story.
What keeps us reading

25. Irony A contrast between what is said and what is meant.
A contrast between what is expected and what happens.

26. Alternate Ending
Describe the ending of a story that was planned or debated but ultimately unused in favor of the actual ending

27. Motive
Analyzing characters often entail deciphering their motives (reasons) behind an action

28. Personification
A form of figurative language in which something that is not human is given human characteristics

29. Allusion
Figure of speech that refers to a well-known story, event, person, or object in order to make a comparison

30. Onomatopoeia
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named