Reading Skills Fiction
Reading Skills – Fiction Notes taken from Reader’s Handbook
Elements of Fiction 
- Protagonist and antagonist – conflict exists in fiction usually between the protagonist (main character) and the antagonist (person, thing or force that works against the antagonist).
- Author’s Purpose – to explain, inform, entertain, persuade, enlighten or reveal an important truth. This is the reason for creating a work.
- Character – a person, an animal, or an imaginary creature that takes part in the action of the story. A character can be directly identified and described or hinted at with clues. Minor characters are less important. Static characters stay the same. Dynamic characters change from the beginning to the end
- Dialogue and dialect – dialogue is words spoken by characters in a literary work. Dialect is a form of language that is spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people.
- Genre – the category or type of literature
- Mood – the feeling that a literary work gives to the readers.
- Point of view – the vantage point from which a story is told. First person the story is told by one of the characters. Third person the story is told by a narrator who stands outside the story and observes.
- Plot - the action or sequence of events in a story. The plot diagram shows the five parts of a plot: 1- exposition, 2 – rising action, 3- climax, 4- falling action, 5-resolution. Five types of Conflict – person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. nature, person vs. self, person vs. fate ( a problem that seems to be uncontrollable).
- Setting – the time and place in which the action of a literary work occurs.
- Style – the way the author uses words, phrases and sentences to express ideas. Style includes the author’s word choice, sentence structure, and use of literary devices.
- Symbol – a person, place, thing or event used to represent something else.
- Theme – statement about life that the author wants to convey to the reader. Sometimes this is clear; other times it must be inferred or guessed at.
