Literature is more important than most students realize. Literature paints a more vivid picture of an era than the picture painted by a history book. History books only give the reader facts. Literature gives the reader emotions of the era. Literature gives the reader more of a sense of the world around the author. A literary work tells the reader how the people of the era lived.

There are two types of literature. These types of literature are non-fiction and fiction.

• Non-fiction is a literary work that is factual. It can be proved with details.
  • A biography is a story about the life of a person written by an author other than the subject.
  • An autobiography is a story about a person written by that person.
  • Articles are short pieces of literature found in a newspaper, magazine, or pamphlets which are written to inform the reader on the subject.
  • Historical literature is the recording of historical events in the order in which they happened.
  • Dramas and adaptations are the reenacting of historical or biographical events into a play for theater or film.
  • Essays are compositions which can be proven with facts and details.
• Fiction is a creative literary work that comes from the imagination of the author. Fiction may be based on fact, but did not actually happen the way it was written.
  • A fable is a short story or tale that has a moral and teaches a lesson.
  • A fantasy is a story in which anything can happen.
  • A folktale is a story passed down through generations, usually by word of mouth. Folktales include fairy tales, tall tales, and trickster tales. Folktales often have a moral or lesson to be learned, and may be a warning.
  • A legend is a story that has been passed down that cannot be proved or disproved.
  • Myths are stories or groups of stories that were passed down, usually by word of mouth. Myths often formed religions or cults. Myths often tried to explain the unexplainable. 
  • Science fiction is a form of literature that is set in the future. Science fiction often deals with concepts and technologies that do not yet exist.
  • Poetry is words and phrases set in verse sometimes with rhyme, and always with rhythm.
  • Adaptations are rewriting of a written work for the purpose of film or theater.
  • Drama is a story written to act out for an audience on film or stage.
  • Essays are opinion based compositions.

Story elements are the different parts of a story such as characters, conflicts, plot, setting, point-of-view, theme, and style and tone.

• Characters are the people or objects that have a role in stories.
  • Roles are the parts that objects or people play in a story.
    • The protagonist is the main character that can be either good or bad.
    • An antagonist is a character that causes conflict for the protagonist that can be good or bad.
  • There are several types of characters. These types of characters are: round, dynamic, stock, flat, and static.
    • Round characters are fully developed characters. The reader knows a lot about them.
    • Dynamic characters are characters that change emotionally, physically, spiritually, or mentally throughout the story.
    • Stock characters are a definite stereotype that is common in a culture.
    • Flat characters are characters in which we only know one thing about.
    • Static characters are characters that do not change throughout the story.
• Conflicts are what keep a story moving. Almost all stories have conflict. The conflicts may be person vs. person, person vs. self, or person vs. environment.
• A plot is the storyline. It can be action packed with many points of climax, suspenseful with one continually building point of climax usually toward the end, or dull with one little point of climax usually in the middle.

• The point-of-view is how the story is told by the narrator. The narrator is the person or thing that tells the story. The story may be told in the following ways:
  • Works written in first person use I, you, we, etc. The narrator is a character.
  • The omniscient narrator is all seeing, and all knowing.
  • The semi-omniscient narrator focuses on one or two people.
  • The unreliable narrator cannot be trusted. The reader is left unsure how much of the story to believe or not believe.
• The theme is the main idea of a work of literature that is repeated throughout the literary work.
• Style and tone is the atmosphere and mood given by the author throughout literary work.

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