ELEMENTS OF SHORT STORIES

A short story is a relatively brief fictional narrative or story written without using any rhymes
of rhythms. The short story has a beginning, a middle, and an end and is composed of
the following elements:

 Theme - the central idea or belief in a short story. It is the author's underlying meaning
or main idea that he is trying to convey. The theme may be the author's thoughts about
a topic or view of human nature.
To find the theme, ask yourself these questions:
1.What is the story about?
2.What is the central idea?
3.What observation did the author make about human nature?

 Plot - a series of events and character actions that relate to the central conflict. The
plot has a beginning, middle, and end. The short story usually has one plot so it can be
read in one sitting.

To identify the plot, ask yourself these questions:

1.What happens in the beginning of the story?
2.What happens in the middle of the story?
3.What happens at the end of the story?

 Character - a person, or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in the action of a
short story. Short stories use few characters. One character is clearly central to the
story with all major events having some importance to this character.

 Setting - the time and place in which it happens. Authors often use descriptions of
landscape, scenery, buildings, seasons or weather to provide a strong sense of setting.

 Point of View - The author’s choice of the teller of the story. The point of view is
important to the total structure and meaning of the short story.
To find the point of view, ask yourself who is telling the story.

 Conflict - a struggle between two people or things in a short story. The main character
is usually on one side of the central conflict. On the other side, the main character may
struggle against another important character, against the forces of nature, against
society, or even against something inside himself or herself (feelings, emotions, illness).
 ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. FORM - The way a poem looks – or its arrangement on the page.
• LINES - verse
1. Verse name for a line of poetry written in meter. Named
according to the number of “Feet” per line.
• Monometer one foot
• Dimeter two feet
• Trimeter Three feet
• Tetrameter four feet
• Pentameter five feet
• Hexameter six feet
• Heptameter seven feet
• Octometer eight feet

• STANZA’S -lines that are grouped together

1. Stanza a division in a poem named for the number of lines it
contains.
1. Couplet two-line stanza
2. Triplet three-line stanza
3. Quatrain four-line stanza
4. Sestet six-line stanza
5. Septet seven-line stanza
6. Octave eight-line stanza
• FORMAL STRUCTURE VS. FREE VERSE
2. SOUND – reinforces poems meaning
1. RHYME - Repetition of sounds at the ends of words.
• INTERNAL RHYME- use of rhyming words within a
line • EXTERNAL RHYME – rhymes at end of lines
 2. RHYTHM - Pattern of
sound created by
stressed and
unstressed syllables in
a line of poetry. Also
known as the BEAT.

• METER – Name for “pattern of sound” that is

repeated in poems.

 Foot One unit of meter. There are five basic

feet:
o Iambic: An unaccented syllable
followed by an accented one (re
peat)
o Anapestic: Two unaccented
syllables before one accented (in ter
rupt)
o Trochaic: An accented syllable
followed by an unaccented (old er)
o Dactylic: An accented syllable
followed by two unaccented (o pen
ly)
o Spondaic: Two accented syllables
(heart break)
3. REPETITION - Repeating of sounds, words, phrases, or
lines in a poem.
• Helps poet emphasize an idea or convey a certain
meaning.
• Alliteration – type of figurative language that
lends itself to repetition.
4. ONOMATOPOEIA - Type of figurative language that lends itself
to create “SOUND” in a poem.
3. IMAGERY - Words and phrases that appeals to the five senses. Descriptions of people
or objects stated in terms of our senses.
EXAMPLE “She sprinkles raindrops in my face on a sunny day.”
 4. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - Whenever you describe something by comparing it with
something else. Any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish
new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject.
• SIMILE - Comparison of two things using the words “like or “as”
EXAMPLE: – Her smile was as cold as ice.
• METAPHOR - Comparison of two things essentially different but with some
commonalities; does not use “like” or “as”.
My heart is as numb as a potato.
• ALLITERATION - The repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more
neighboring words or syllables.
The wild and woolly walrus waits and wonders when we’ll walk by.
• ASSONANCE - A resemblance of sound in words or syllables.
Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese.
• HYPERBOLE - Big exaggeration, usually with humor.
Mile-high ice-cream cones
• PERSONIFICATION - Giving something human qualities.
The stuffed bear smiled as the little girl hugged him close.
• ONOMATOPOEIA - Type of figurative language that lends itself to create “SOUND” in a
poem.
Naming a thing or an action by imitating the sound associated with
it.
• OXYMORONS - Two words together that are opposites but together mean something.
Painfully beautiful
Deafening silence
• CLICHÉ - A word or phrase that has become overly familiar or commonplace.
No pain, no gain.
• IDIOMS - The language peculiar to a group of people.
Mad as a wet hen.
 5. Tone - conveys the speaker’s implied attitude toward the poem’s subject. Tone is an
abstraction we make from the details of a poem’s language: the use of meter and rhyme (or
lack of them); the inclusion of certain kinds of details and exclusion of other kinds; particular
choices of words and sentence pattern, or imagery and figurative language (diction). Another
important element of tone is the order of words in sentences, phrases, or clauses (syntax).

ARISTOTLE’S SIX ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

Aristotle considered these six things to be essential to good drama:
• Plot: This is what happens in the play. Plot refers to the action; the basic storyline of the play.
• Theme: While plot refers to the action of the play, theme refers to the meaning of the play.
Theme is the main idea or lesson to be learned from the play. In some cases, the theme of a
play is obvious; other times it is quite subtle.
• Characters: Characters are the people (sometimes animals or ideas) portrayed by the actors
in the play. It is the characters who move the action, or plot, of the play forward.
• Dialogue: This refers to the words written by the playwright and spoken by the characters in
the play. The dialogue helps move the action of the play along.
• Music/Rhythm: While music is often featured in drama, in this case Aristotle was referring to
the rhythm of the actors' voices as they speak.
• Spectacle: This refers to the visual elements of a play: sets, costumes, special effects, etc.
Spectacle is everything that the audience sees as they watch the play.

THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

 
Introduction: For a five-page essay, this element should be kept to a minimum! Please do not
write a “funnel introduction”; we do not have the space to waste on generalities. Think of the
introduction merely as a way to launch elegantly into your thesis statement. It can help to look
at your motive for the paper (see below) as a means to this end.
 
Thesis: This is the key insight that you intend to convey. A thesis should lay out an argument
and set the stage for the exploration that will follow. An example: “Demodocus’s song and
Odysseus’s response bring to the fore distinctions between personal memory and public
memory, or history.”
 
Motive: There should be something in your essay that offers a challenge: frames an ambiguity,
explores a difficulty, asks a question. The motive provides the answer to the question, “Why
bother writing this essay?” Note that this means that the question your essay explores should
not have an obvious answer. A good motive surprises us with something we had not thought of
before. General examples of good motives include:
 
-The truth is different from what one would expect on first reading.
-There is an interesting complexity or ambiguity that has gone unnoticed.
-A standard reading of a work needs challenging.
-The text is especially hard to make sense of, and its logical argument needs sorting out.
-A question presents itself in the text to which there may be a hidden answer.
-Something that seems minor in the text actually turns out to be very important.
 
Key Terms: Every coherent argument rests on a few recurring key terms, oppositions, and
distinctions. Make sure that your reader can figure out what they are, and make sure that you
have chosen the right words to indicate them.
 
Body Paragraphs: These should consist of (1) a claim, (2) evidence, and (3) an analysis of your
evidence. See also the next two elements for further remarks on how body paragraphs should
progress.
 
Complication or Development: A strong essay makes various turns and divides into sub-topics.
It should also gain complexity as it progresses. This process can be helped immensely by
revision. Look at your own thoughts and see how you can add another level to them, what new
questions your own comments raise. Then include that new level in your revised essay by
answering some of your own questions. Development (or the lack thereof) often registers in
the transitions between paragraphs: pay special attention to these.
 
Implication or Significance: One important type of complication is to draw out or briefly
speculate upon the broader significance of what you have been arguing—the implication of
your analysis of a given text for the author’s works in general, or for the genre, or for the
period.   Such reflections can often make a strong conclusion.
 
Conclusion: This does not need to repeat your thesis, although it is a good idea for the
conclusion to remind your reader of the overall themes of your essay by establishing the
broader implications of your thesis. Take things one step beyond the work you have been
dealing with, but make sure not to go too far astray, or to generalize too much. You want to be
suggestive, not confusing or clichéd.

THE NATURE OF LITERATURE

Literature is language in use that provides insights and intellectual stimulation to the reader. As
one explores literature, he likewise discovers the beauty of language.
The language that is used by literature differs from ordinary spoken or written language.
Literature uses special words, structure, and characteristics. Primarily the language of literature
differs from ordinary language in three ways: language is concentrated and meaningful; its
purpose is not simply to explain, argue, or make a point but rather to give a sense of pleasure in
the discovery of a new experience; and it demands intense concentration from the readers. It
indicates that the language of literature has originality, quality, creativity, and pleasure.

THE FUNCTIONS OF LITERATURE

Dulce and Utile

Dulce – to entertain; to give pleasure and enjoyment
Utile – to instruct
4Rs of Literature
Recreation – Literature is a means of reassembling reality. We want to see what we cannot see
in reality.
Recognition – Literature helps us recognize the people and their contribution.
Redemption – Literature is a means of modification of behavior.
Revelation – Literature is a means of recording history. It reveals the past, the present, and the
future.
All the above definitions describe literature from different perspectives. Still, there are certain
things that are common to them. They all recognize the fact that:

i. Literature is imaginative
ii. Literature expresses thoughts and feelings
iii. Literature deals with life experiences
iv. Literature uses words in a powerful, effective and yet captivating manner
vi. Literature promotes recreation and revelation of hidden facts.
Literature is thus summed up as permanent expressions in words
(written or spoken), specially arranged in pleasing accepted patterns or
forms. Literature expresses thoughts, feelings, ideas or other special
aspects of human experiences.
 REFERENCES :

1. http://film-english.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/the-5-elements-of-a-short-
story.pdf
2. https://www.scribd.com/doc/20131952/Elements-of-Short-Stories-What-is-a-Short-
Story
3. http://gridirongrammar.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/8/3/22833318/elements_of_poetr
y_ppoint.pdf
4. http://www.unm.edu/~hookster/Elements%20of%20Poetry.pdf
5. http://www.eluprogram.com/Elements_Of_Drama.pdf
6. https://writerscentre.yale-nus.edu.sg/resources/elements-of-a-good-essay/elements-
of-a-good-essay/
7. https://anelepapers.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/literature-definition-nature-and-
function/