The 3 criteria of a short story (developed by Edgar Allan Poe):

What are the reasons for reading? 

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Himself

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Fate/Destiny

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Technology

Man vs. Unknown/Supernatural

Establishes the setting, introduces characters, and sows seeds for future conflicts.

A series of crises followed by epiphanies that build in intensity.

The moment of highest emotional intensity from which the outcome can be seen.

Usually the shortest part of the story; follows the climax, in which the pieces of the story begin to settle.

Also called the denouement; suspense ends with the final unraveling of the conflict.

The sequence of events in a story; without conflict, it cannot exist.

Author's attitude toward his subject; can be ironic, satirical, humorous, serious, etc. 

The underlying message of the story (e.g., good vs. evil; hard work pays off):

Location of the story in time and place

The creation of imaginary persons so that they seem lifelike.

A character that changes little, if at all.

A character who is changed by actions and experiences.

A character used in contrast with another.

The vantage point from which the author presents a story.

The narrator is a character in the story.

The narrator is outside the story but tells the thoughts and feelings of only one character.

The narrator is outside the story and tells the thoughts and feelings of all characters.

The words spoken by the characters, shown in quotations, do three things:

1. Move the plot

2. Identify conflict

3. Provide characterization

Something that stands for itself and also stands for something else.

A hint of what is to come; creates suspense.

An occurrence in which a character remembers an earlier event that happened before the current point in the story.

Holding up the conventions of society for ridicule or scorn; using humor to point out what is wrong with society.

A statement that at first seems contradictory, but actually makes complete sense.

A direct comparison stating that one thing is another.

A direct comparison using "like" or "as".

The actual dictionary definition of a word.

Creating pictures with words

The feeling or atmosphere created while reading a text.

The anxious feeling that the events of a story produce

Using the character's thoughts, feelings, words, and actions to characterize the character.

When an author directly tells the reader about a character, what is this called?

The main character of the story.

The character who opposes and complicates things for the main character.

A brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event.

The use of words to mean something different from what they appear to mean; saying one thing but really meaning another.

A figure of speech that contains words which seem to contradict each other.

A reference to a person, place, thing, event, or statement from literature, history, religion, mythology, or politics.

If you say, "the scissors danced a thousand dances across the paper as the art student began his project," what kinds of literary devices are you using?

A play on words.

idiom

A character's moment of insight and understanding; the "light bulb" moment.

Universal patterns in literature found throughout the world; often an idea, symbol, pattern, or character type.

A humorous imitation of a literary work; one that exaggerates or distorts the characteristic features of the original.

An extended comparison of relationships or the similarity or difference between two things.

The reader knows more than the character.

a repetition of grammatical structure throughout the literary work

a story with two or more levels of meaning that represent real concepts

an image, sound, action, or other figure that keeps repeating throughout a work and help develop the theme (Spirit of Adventure)

word choice; includes vocabulary and syntax