ARELLANO REVIEW CENTER

GENERAL EDUCATION – ENGLISH

What is literature?
- Literature, in its broadest sense, is any single body of written works. More restrictively, literature is
writing that is considered to be an art form, or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual
value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.
- Can be for society’s sake or entertainment’s sake.
FICTION VS NONFICTION

Fiction
 Fiction is not true
 Fiction is made out of nothing.
 Fiction is a reflection of the writer’s
imagination.
 Fiction leaves the imagination to audience or
readers and they can have their own
interpretations.
 Fiction tends to be focusing on imaginary
ideas and events.
Ex. poems, legends, fables, epics, etc.
Nonfiction
 Non-fiction is true
 Non-fiction comes out of something.
 Non-fiction is a recollection of facts.
 Simplicity, directness and clarity are most
important in non-fiction works.
 Non-fiction focuses on ideas or events that
actually took place.
Ex. documentary, biography, essay, etc.

Elements of Fiction
1. CHARACTERIZATION
- is a means by which writers present and reveal characters – by direct description, by showing the character
in action, or by the presentation of other characters who help to define each other

2. CHARACTERS
- in fiction can be conveniently classified as major and minor, static and dynamic

A. MAJOR CHARACTER
- an important figure at the center of the story’s action or theme
- The major character is sometimes called a protagonist whose conflict with an antagonist may spark
the story’s conflict.
B. MINOR CHARACTER
- Supporting the major character are one or more secondary or minor characters whose function is
partly to illuminate the major characters.
C. STATIC
- static or unchanging: they remain the same from the beginning of a work to the end.
D. DYNAMIC
- exhibit some kind of change – of attitude, purpose, behavior, as the story progresses
3. PLOT
- the action element in fiction
- the arrangement of events that make up a story
* Typical fictional plots begin with an EXPOSITION, that provides background information needed to make
sense of the action, describes the setting, and introduces the major characters; these plots develop a series of
complications or intensifications of the conflict that lead to a crisis or moment of great tension. The conflict
may reach a CLIMAX OR TURNING POINT, a moment of greatest tension that fixes the outcome; then, the
action falls off as the plot’s complications are sorted out and resolved (the resolution or dénouement). Be
aware, however, that much of twentieth-century fiction does not exhibit such strict formality of design.
4. CONFLICT
- A conflict in literature is defined as any struggle between opposing forces.
KINDS OF CONFLICT
a. man vs man
b. man vs self
c. man vs nature
d. man vs fate
e. man vs technology
f. man vs society

5. POINT OF VIEW
- refers to who tells the story and how it is told. The possible ways of telling a story are many, and more than
one point of view can be worked into a single story
However, the various points of view that storytellers draw upon can be grouped into two broad categories:
Third-Person Narrator (uses pronouns he, she, or they):
1. Omniscient: The narrator is all-knowing and takes the reader inside the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and
motives, as well as shows what the characters say and do.
2. Limited omniscient: The narrator takes the reader inside one (or at most very few characters) but neither
the reader nor the character(s) has access to the inner lives of any of the other characters in the story.
3. Objective: The narrator does not see into the mind of any character; rather he or she reports the action and
dialogue without telling the reader directly what the characters feel and think.

First-Person Narrator (uses pronoun I):

The narrator presents the point of view of only one character’s consciousness, which limits the narrative to
what the first-person narrator knows, experiences, infers, or can find out by talking to other characters.
6. SETTINGS
- is the physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs
- setting can be used to evoke a mood or atmosphere that will prepare the reader for what is to come
Major Elements of Setting
a. time
b. place
c. social environment
7. STYLE
- is the way a writer chooses words (diction), arranges them in sentences and longer units of discourse (syntax)
and exploits their significance
- style is the verbal identity of a writer
8. SYMBOL
- is a person, object, image, word, ore vent that evokes a range of additional meanings beyond and usually
more abstract than its literal significance
a. CONVENTIONAL SYMBOLS have meanings that are widely recognized by a society or culture, i.e., the
Christian cross, the Star of David, a swastika, a nation’s flag.
b. LITERARY OR CONTEXTUAL SYMBOL can be a setting, a character, action, object, name, or anything else in
a specific work that maintains its literal significance while suggesting other meanings.
9. THEME
- is the central idea or meaning of a story
- theme in fiction is rarely presented at all; it is abstracted from the details of character and action that
compose the story
10. TONE
- is the author’s implicit attitude toward the reader, subject, and/or the people, places, and events in a work
as revealed by the elements of the author’s style.
- tone may be characterized as serious or ironic, sad or happy, private or public, angry or affectionate, bitter or
nostalgic, or any other attitudes and feelings that human beings experience.
11. MOOD
- is the reader’s attitude toward the author or story being read
POETRY
- Poetry (the term derives from a variant of the Greek term, poiesis, "making") is a form of literature
that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and
metre—to evoke meanings.
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. STANZAS: Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an empty line from other stanzas.
They are the equivalent of a paragraph in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of
lines. Thus:
couplet (2 lines)
tercet (3 lines)
quatrain (4 lines)
cinquain (5 lines)
sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
septet (7 lines)
octave (8 lines)

2. FORM: A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme and/or metrical pattern, but
it can still be labeled according to its form or style. Here are the three most common types of poems according
to form:

1. Lyric Poetry: It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who expresses strong thoughts and
feelings. Most poems, especially modern ones, are lyric poems.

2. Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the plot line of a story [i.e. the
introduction of conflict and characters, rising action, climax and the denouement].

3. Descriptive Poem: It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It uses elaborate
imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is more "outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more
personal and introspective.
* In a sense, almost all poems, whether they have consistent patterns of sound and/or structure, or are free
verse, are in one of the three categories above. Or, of course, they may be a combination of 2 or 3 of the
above styles! Here are some more types of poems that are subtypes of the three styles above:
Ode: It is usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate
stanza pattern.

Elegy: It is a lyric poem that mourns the dead. [It's not to be confused with a eulogy.]It has no set metric or
stanzaic pattern, but it usually begins by reminiscing about the dead person, then laments the reason for the
death, and then resolves the grief by concluding that death leads to immortality. It often uses "apostrophe"
(calling out to the dead person) as a literary technique. It can have a fairly formal style, and sound similar to an
ode.
Sonnet: It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version, is usually written in iambic
pentameter.
There are two basic kinds of sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or
Elizabethan/English) sonnet.
A. The Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet is named after Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. The Petrarchan
sonnet consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). ABBAABBA CDECDE
B. The Shakespearean Sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a concluding couplet
(two lines). ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
The Petrarchan sonnet tends to divide the thought into two parts (argument and conclusion); the
Shakespearean, into four (the final couplet is the summary).

Ballad: It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A ballad is usually organized into
quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.

Epic: It is a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero.

Qualities of an Epic Poem:

narrative poem of great scope; dealing with the founding of a nation or some other heroic theme requires a
dignified theme requires an organic unity requires orderly progress of the action always has a heroic figure or
figures involves supernatural forces
written in deliberately ceremonial style

Other types of poems include:

Haiku: It has an unrhymed verse form having three lines (a tercet) and usually 5,7,5 syllables, respectively. It's
usually considered a lyric poem.
Limerick: It has a very structured poem, usually humorous & composed of five lines (a cinquain), in an aabba
rhyming pattern; beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, strong) with 3 feet in lines 1, 2, & 5 and 2 feet in lines 3
& 4. It's usually a narrative poem based upon a short and often ribald anecdote.
RHYME
- Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common kind of rhyme is the end rhyme,
which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is usually identified with lower case letters, and a new
letter is used to identify each new end sound. Take a look at the rhyme scheme for the following poem
I saw a fairy in the wood,
He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood,
And realized I'd been seen.
(The rhyme scheme of the poem is “abab”.)

INTERNAL RHYME occurs in the middle of a line, as in these lines from Coleridge, "In mist or cloud, on mast or
shroud" or "Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white" ("The Ancient Mariner"). Remember that most
modern poems do not have rhyme.

ELEMENTS OF NONFICTION
1. POINT OF VIEW
- A non-fiction story can be told from many of the points of view present in literary fiction. A memoir or
autobiography, for example, is a first-person account of personal events, while a standard biography is written
by a third-person narrator who has investigated or interviewed subjects before writing from a more distanced
perspective. Non-fiction may be written in second-person, using “you” as the subject, if it is in the form of a
how-to guide or instructional manual.
2. CHARACTER
- Like literary fiction, non-fiction contains characters who act within the story. Though these characters are
real people in non-fiction, they still are represented in writing with the same tools and techniques as fictional
characters. Non-fiction stories rely on the same reader empathy as fiction stories, so they must also contain
sympathetic or interesting characters for the reader to follow. Because a reader may not know the real-life
person in the story, an author must introduce and characterize the person just as a fiction writer would,
including physical details and descriptions of their behavior.
3. NARRATIVE
- A non-fiction story follows a sequence of events in the same way a fictional story might, creating a narrative
through which the story is told. Narratives in non-fiction may be linear or nonlinear, based on chronology or
some other organizing factor. An author writing about the death of her father, for example, may move around
from chapter to chapter capturing different scenes from her childhood and adulthood as they feel relevant to
different aspects of her father’s life. As with literary fiction, a non-fiction writer can use different narratives to
tell the same story in very different ways.
Examples of fiction:
1. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
- A true story about a person’s life told by that person (usually a book)

2. BIOGRAPHY
- A true story of a person’s life as told by someone else, a biographer writes it

3. ESSAY
- A short piece of nonfiction writing that deals with one subject

TYPES OF ESSAY
a. persuasive essay
b. descriptive essay
c. narrative essay
d. personal essay
e. expository essay

PROSE
- Prose is a form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural flow of speech,
and ordinary grammatical structure rather than rhythmic structure, such as in the case of traditional
poetry.