• How-tos – instructional manuals on how to do

things
PROSE
• Memoir – is a type of autobiography but
Prose Fiction- refers to any prose whose characters, focuses on the events rather than on the life of
settings, and plot are made up by the writer’s the author himself /herself.
imagination.

 Short story- a prose with only one plot or

storyline

 Novel- a lengthy narrative with multiple plots

and usually employs multiple characters and
settings. A novel is divided in to chapters.
 Short stories and novels could either be based
on fantasy, realistic fiction, mystery, folktales,
adventures, etc.
Folktales are stories in the oral tradition, or tales
that people tell each other out loud, rather than
stories in written form. 
Folktales can be classified as:
 Fable- a brief story meant to tell a lesson or
a moral.
- The characters are all animals.
 Fairy tale – a story with magical elements.
Characters are usually fairies, elves, giants,
and other magical creature.
 Legend – usually deals with heroes and
heroines and explains the origins
something.
 Myth – this is similar to legends but myths
usually involve supernatural beings like
gods and goddesses.
Prose Non-fiction - refers to factual narratives and
real-life data and or events without any alteration.
• Biography – history of someone else’s life
• Autobiography – a biography written by a
person about his/her own life.
• Essay- a short composition usually done to
explain or argue about a particular topic.
ELEMENTS OF A SHORT STORY
Plot – the events in the story or the series of actions
that make up the story. Basically, the plot is what
happens in the story.
Traditionally, it is divided into five parts:
1. Introduction/Expository
The reader meets the characters and discovers
the setting. Reader’s interest is aroused here. The
conflict that drives the story’s action is discovered
at the end of the introduction.
2. Rising action
Builds up the story (the longest part) – a series
of steps that lead to the climax. You get more
information about conflict and character here.
3. Climax
Here, the reader finds out what happens to the
conflict, or how the conflict might be resolved. The
story may not be yet finished, but the reader now
has a good understanding of what way is it going to
go.
4. Falling action
The plot begins to wrap up in this section of the
story. This is usually brief.
5. Denouement/ conclusion/resolution
This part follows quickly after the climax and
provides the last pieces of information for the
reader. “Denouement” is a French term for
 “unknotting” ; you may therefore think of
denouement as the “untangling” of the plot.
PLOT DIAGRAM: also known as Freytag’s Pyramid,
the story diagram or plot diagram, was invented in
1864 by Gustav Freytag to visually represent the
five plot parts and their relationship with one
another.
Character
-A character is a person, or sometimes an
animal, who takes part in the action of a short story or
other literary work.  5. things other characters say about the character
Character types
Protagonist -the main character in the story.
The protagonist is usually, but not always a “good
guy.”
Antagonist - the force against the protagonist.
The protagonist is usually another character , but not
always, especially if the conflict is “person against Self.”
The antagonist is usually described as “ the Bad Guy.”
Although that description doesn’t work if the conflict is
person against self or person against environment.
Flat – this is a minor character with one or
maybe two sides to the personality. These characters
might not seem very realistic or life- like because so
little is known about them.
Round – these characters are believable and
complex people with several sides to their personality.
They are lifelike and behave like real people would, if
real people were in those situations.
Dynamic- also known as a kinetic character, a
dynamic character changes in some important way
because of plot events.
For example: a cruel old man might see the error of his
ways and become generous and kind.
Static – These characters are the opposite of
dynamic characters. These people don’t change through
the course of a story. They have the same personality
throughout.
Character Analysis: the author may choose any of six
ways to reveal a character to a reader. The reader must
therefore be prepared to watch for “clues “ about each
character in these same six ways:
1. Physical appearance
2. Things the character says
3. Things the character does
4. things the character thinks
6. Author information
Setting – the author may choose to state the setting
clearly or leave it to the reader to infer from textual
clues (such as weather).
There two parts to a complete setting:
EMOTIONAL SETTING – mood or atmosphere
PHYSICAL SETTING – time, place, season
THEME
The message of the story stated in one or two
complete sentences . When a person describes a story’s
theme, the person is describing what can be learned
about life and/or people from the story.
CONFLICT
A conflict in literature is defined as any struggle
between opposing forces. Usually, the main character
struggles against some other force. This type of conflict
is what drives each and every story. Without it, the
story would have no point or purpose. There needs to
be some struggle in order for the reader to get involved
and care about what might happen to the characters.
There are two types of conflict that can drive a story.
The first is an internal conflict. In this case, the struggle
actually occurs inside a character, usually
the protagonist, or main character. With internal
conflicts, the character could be struggling with a
decision he must make or with his own weaknesses in
his personality.
The second type of conflict is an external conflict. This
conflict takes place outside of the protagonist. External
conflicts are struggles between the protagonist and
some other force outside of his body. The main type of
external conflict occurs when the protagonist struggles
against the antagonist, which is a character who mainly
opposes the protagonist. However, other types of
external conflicts can also arise due to other characters,
acts of nature, or society itself in which the character
lives.