| A | B |
|---|
| fiction | a made up story |
| prose | writing that generally uses standard sentences and paragraph structure |
| fable | a story that teaches about human nature by showing what happens to characters who are greedy, selfish, proud, and so on. Usually feature animals as main characters |
| fantasy | a type of fiction that contains events, places or both details that could not exist in the real world |
| folktale | a story that is handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, revealing the values and beliefs of the culture that produced it; can contain magic characters and events |
| historical fiction | a story that takes place during a particular historical time often with characters taking part in historic events; characters' beliefs and dialogue are true to the period |
| mystery | a story in which the main character spends most of the plot looking for clues to solve a problem or crime |
| myth | an ancient story created to explain the workings of the world, featuring god-like heroes and sometimes involving battles of good versus evil |
| parable | a story that teaches about human nature by showing the results of different ways of acting and thinking; the characters are usually people |
| realistic fiction | a story about a situation that could happen in real life, with familiar character types and settings |
| science fiction | a story with scientific or technological problems—such as a malfunctioning robot, meteor shower, or an unfriendly alien—that is often set in the future or somewhere else in the universe |
| nonfiction | a true writing about people, places and events |
| biography | a story of a person's life written by someone else |
| autobiography | nonfiction writing |
| historical document or speech | Constitution of the United States is an example. |
| informational book/article | a text written to give facts about a particular subject, such as history, science, or culture |
| interview | a series of questions asked by the author and answered by the subject |
| other types of nonfiction | journal, letter, newspaper, newsmagazine |
| informative nonfiction | a type of nonfiction that is mainly written to provide informational information |
| literary nonfiction | a type of nonfiction writing that deals with real places and events |
| essay | a short nonfiction that describes, discusses or analyzes a single topic from the author's point of view; essays often reveal the author's bias |
| informal (personal) essay | an essay that explains how the author feels about a subject |
| formal essay | an essay that is of serious and scholarly nature and is rarely found in literature books |
