Genres Review Sheet
Three major genres: Drama, poetry, and prose
Drama- written for actors in plays where character names come before each line of
dialogue
Poetry- type of writing that uses lines and stanzas as the basic units of expression
Prose- type of writing that is similar to everyday language (essays, short stories,
novels)
Subgenre- a subcategory within a particular genre
Ex: A type of genre would be poetry, and a subgenre of poetry would be lyric
poetry (a specific type of poetry)
**Know definitions and characteristics for the following terms:
Adventure-long and usually dangerous journey is taken to achieve a goal or find a
treasure
Autobiography- a true (nonfiction) story about the life of a person, written by that
person, ex: Barrio Boy
Biography- a true (nonfiction) story about the life of a person, written by someone
else
Fable- a brief story written in prose that has animals as characters and teaches a
lesson, ex: “Anansi and his Visitor, Turtle”
Folktale- short story with unusual situations, ex: “Aunty Misery”
Legend- a story from the past that may be based on reality but cannot be proved,
ex: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, “Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese
Zodiac”
Myth- stories that explain natural occurrences to ancient man; characters were
gods and goddesses, ex: “Icarus and Daedalus”
Parable- a brief story that teaches a religious moral or lesson...a parable is
different from a fable because a fable uses animals
Science Fiction- action packed stories that are based in the past, present, and/or
future that deal with aliens, outer space, super realistic elements; place can be
Earth, or another location that real scientists theorize may exist;
ex: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, “All Summer in a Day”
Suspense/Mystery- story with a puzzle or crime to be solved by clues in a story
Tall Tale- a type of folk tale that contains major exaggerations about the
characters, their physical attributes, and their deeds, describes an aspect of frontier
life
Ex: “The Bunyans”
Dialogue- conversation between characters in a literary device
Hyperbole- an extreme exaggeration used to make a point
ex: The bag weighed a ton.
**There will be short passages from stories that you will have to read and select
what type of story it is based on its characteristics.
Open-ended Question: There will be one question on the test that requires you to
write a short answer.
You will:
1. Choose from one of the following stories we have read in class:
“Anansi and His Visitor, Turtle”
“All Summer in a Day”
“Icarus and Daedelus”
“The Bunyans”
“Aunty Misery”
2. State what type of story it is (fable, science fiction, myth, tall tale, folktale,
,etc.)
3. List three details about the story that makes it that type of writing. Do this by
writing 3-5 sentences about it.