Good questions can help focus readers' attention on the elements writers use to add depth to their stories. The questions on this worksheet do just that and encourage readers to think critically about a story and author's purpose.

Get ready to read The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 with a lesson about historical fiction. Spanning several centuries, the resource prompts learners to guess the historical era of a story based on a word or phrase...

If you're planning on including Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in your science fiction unit, use a concept analysis guide to frame your instruction. It covers literary elements such as setting, narrative voice, and theme, as...

Teach your young readers how to summarize a text using a strategy called Somebody Wanted But So. Kids identify the character (Somebody), the motivation (Wanted), the conflict (But), and the resolution (So). The resource comes with...

Two excerpts from Early American author Washingtom Irving about his preference for writing short works and why.

Some excellent guidelines to consider when evaluating your setting in a short story or novel. Discusses the importance of setting, some examples, as well as practical advice in setting your story. W.11-12.3d Sensory/precise lang narratives

The full-text of Somerset Maugham's short story Louise as well as commentary.

A review of Jean Toomer, an influential writer during the Harlem Renaissance. Presents a biography and a look at his contributions to short fiction.

This site, part of one on medicine and the humanities from New York University, provides links to discussions of four of O'Connor's stories. The discussions included summaries of and commentaries on the stories.

Read Edward Everett Hale's famous short story here. Scroll down and choose "Previous," for criticism and interpretation of the story by Henry S. Canby.

This site from the encyclopedia Wikipedia provides a brief biography on the life and work of novelist William Faulkner is found on this site. It contains information on his style of writing and the themes of many of his works. There is...

As part of a revision and writing section of BBC Bitesize, this page provides several tips involved in writing dialogue and description for short story fiction.

This webpage from New York University contains a summary of and commentary on Bernard Malamud's short story "Idiots First." A list of keywords with links to other works with similar subjects is also provided.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Rudolph Fisher, an American short-story writer and novelist associated with the Harlem Renaissance whose fiction realistically depicted black urban life in the North, primarily Harlem.