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.