Elements of Short Story and Essay Techniques

Elements of Short Story

• Characteristic: Refers to how characters are portrayed in a story, addressing their traits and behaviors.
• Setting: Describes the time and place of a story. Includes where and when events occur.
• Plot and Structure: Sequences of events within a story.
• Plot: A graphic of rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.

Making Connections

• Making Connections: A comprehension strategy to help understand reading material better. It increases engagement with text.
• Surface Connection: Expressing literal connections. Provides limited details.
• Deep Connection: Feeling connection to the author through their thoughts, ideas and emotions.

Transitional Words

• Transitional Words: Used to connect sentences, phrases or paragraphs.
• Comparison: Showing similarities. (e.g., like, in the same manner, too, equally)
• Contrast: Show differences. (e.g., unlike, in contrast, yet)

Opinion Essay

• Opinion Essay: Introduction, body and conclusion
• Tips for Writing: State your viewpoint, provide reasons and supporting facts for your view. Construct well-developed paragraphs that support your view. Use linking words to connect sentences and paragraphs. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence.

Prediction

• Predictions: Connecting prior knowledge and new information to predict outcomes in texts. It sparks interest in reading by making predictions before reading.
• Prediction Steps: Before reading (think about text and illustration). During reading (stop and predict events). After reading (confirm or adjust predictions).

Types of Prediction

• How Prediction helps: Interacting with text, connecting with knowledge, paying attention to events, improving comprehension
• Before Prediction: Thinking about the text and illustration
• During Prediction: Stopping to predict future events
• After Prediction: Confirming or adjusting predictions

Types of Non-fiction

• Anecdote: A brief, interesting, unusual, or humorous story.
• Biography: A written story about a person's life.
• Aphorism: A short, witty statement.
• Essay: A short piece of writing discussing a single topic.
• Autobiography: A person's life story written by themselves.
• Journal: Scientific paper or a record with facts and evidence.
• Literary Criticism: A narrative that judges and gives comments on the qualities of literature.

Short Story

• Short Story: A brief narrative centered on a single event, usually with a limited scope compared to a novel.
• Setting: Describes the time and place of a story. Fewer settings compared to novels.
• Characterization: Describes characters' traits. Short stories usually focus on one or more central characters.
• Plot: A sequence of events. Usually centers on a significant experience or moment. Three main types of conflict exist

Voice/Tone

• Voice/Tone: Reflects a writer's attitude towards their subject and their readers. Varies based on purpose, subject audience and interest.

Writing Literary Analysis

• Choosing a topic: Select a topic that interests you and can be divided into literary elements such as character, themes, conflict, setting and plot.
• Focus the topic: Use brainstorming and outlining to narrow down ideas and define the aspects you want to analyze about the topic.
• Gathering textual evidence: Collect evidence like quotations highlighting important details, to back up ideas in your literary analysis.