| A | B |
|---|
| Allegory | A story in which the characters and action represent an idea or a truth about life. |
| Autobiography | A writer's story of his or her own life. |
| Biography | A writer's account of some other person's life. |
| Comedy | Writing that deals wit life in a humorous way, often poking fun at people's mistakes. |
| Drama | Also called a play, this writing form uses dialogue to share its message and is meant to be performed in front of an audience. |
| Essay | A short piece of nonfiction that expresses the writer's opinion or shares information about a subject. |
| Fable | A short story that often uses talking animals as the main characters and teaches an explicit moral, or lesson. |
| Fantasy | A story set in an imaginary world in which the characters usually have supernatural powers or abilities. |
| Folktale | A story originally passed from one generation to another by word of mouth only. |
| Historical Fiction | A made-up story that is based on a real time and place in history, so fact is mixe with fiction. |
| Myth | A traditional story intended to explain some mystery of nature, religious doctrine, or cultural belief. |
| Novel | A book-length, fictional prose story. |
| Parable | A short story that explains a belief or moral principle. |
| Poetry | A literary work that uses concise, colorful, often rhythmic language to express ideas or emotions. |
| Prose | A literary work that uses the familiar spoken form of language, sentence after sentence. |
| Realism | Writing based on real or imaginary scientific developments and often set in the future. |
| Science Fiction | Writing based on real or imaginary scientific developments and often set in the future. |
| Short Story | Shorter than a novel, this piece of literature can usually be read in one sitting. |
| Tall Tale | A humorous, exaggerated story often based on the life of a real person. |
| Tragedy | Literature in which the hero is destroyed because of some tragic flaw in his or her character. |
