Genre

A category of
literature. The main
literary genres are
fiction, nonfiction,
poetry, and drama.
Autobiography
• An autobiography is a
story about a person’s life
and is written by the
person who lived it. An
autobiography can be
about the person’s whole
life, part of that person’s
life, or a single event.
Biography
• A biography is a selection
about a real person's life
that is written by another
person.
Case Study
• This type of nonfiction
explains in detail how
investigators find answers
to hard questions or
solutions to hard
problems.
Expository Nonfiction
• Expository nonfiction provides
information about real-life
persons, objects, or ideas.
• Expository nonfiction may
include graphic sources, such
as charts and photos, that
show information.
• A chart is a sheet of
information.
• Facts are arranged in an easy-
to-read form.
Fantasy
• A fantasy is a make-believe
story that could never happen in
the real
world.
• Some characters and plot
situations may be realistic, while
others are exaggerated and
even silly.
• The author uses a realistic
classroom setting but then
introduces fantastic
characters who do impossible
things.
Fiction
• Fiction stories are stories
that the author has made
up.
• Fiction is an untrue story.
Characters and events
may be realistic, even
though they might be
unusual or even unlikely
in some way.
Folk Tale
• The original author is
unknown and that folk
tales often have different
versions. These stories
are passed down through
generations over many
centuries.
Historical Fiction
• Historical fiction is a
combination of
imagination and
fact, with fictional
characters and plot
placed in a factual
historical setting.
Humorous Fiction
• Humorous fiction tells the
story of imaginary people
who seem real. Story
events are true-to-life and
often funny.
• Humorous fiction has
characters and actions
that can make you laugh
and wonder how things
will turn out.
Interview
• In an interview the
interviewer asks
questions. The other
person, the subject,
answers.
• Interviews usually appear
in magazines or
newspapers.
Myth
• A myth is a tale
that has been passed
down through generations
and tells about nature
and human behavior.
Narrative Nonfiction
• A narrative is writing that
tells about events.
Narrative nonfiction tells
about events that really
happened.
Play
• Like a novel or a short
story, a play tells a story
but it is written to be
acted out for an audience.
Plays have many unique
literary elements such as
acts, scenes, stage
directions, and speech
tags.
Poetry
• Poetry is an arrangement
of words in lines having
rhythm. Sometimes those
lines rhyme, as in this
narrative poem.
Realistic Fiction
• Fiction tells stories of
imaginary people and
events, realistic fiction
tells a story that is
possible. Plausible
characters engage in
actions that seem truthful
and the story has a
reasonable outcome.
Science Fiction
• Science fiction is a kind of
fantasy that uses
scientific information to
make a story seem more
believable to the reader.
Tall Tales
• Tall tales are amusing
stories told with great
exaggeration and bigger-
than-life characters.