Studying the short-story / Sixteen short-story classics with introductions, notes and a new laboratory study method for individual reading and use in colleges and schools.

by Unknown

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Briefly write out the plot of the story.

2. Which incidents are essential to the story (plot incidents)?

3. Which incidents could be altered without vitally changing the story (developing incidents)? For a discussion of these types of incidents see the present author’s Writing the Short-Story, pp. 174-181.

4. Show how one such change could be made.

5. Does the external (visible or bodily) action stand out as clearly as the internal (invisible or soul) action?

6. (a) Is the story probable? (b) Usual? (c) Convincing?—That is, does it seem real?

7. What are its strongest points, to you?

8. Criticise its weak points, if any.

9. Can you suggest any improvements?

10. (a) Do you know any stories similar in theme? (b) If so, which is the better story, to you, and why?

11. Briefly write out the plots of three stories of action or adventure, taken from any book or magazine.

12. Compare one of them with one of these two stories.