A short story is a short work of fiction. Fiction is prose writing that does not depend on verses, meters or rhymes for its organization and presentation.

A short story is much shorter than a novel, another major literary genre (type). Typically short stories have fewer than 50 pages and have a surprise that is pivotal to its structure and meaning. There are six key elements of fiction in fine short stories: character, setting, conflict, point of view, plot and theme.

A character is a person (or sometimes even an animal) who takes part in the action of a short story or other literary work. The setting of a short story is the time and place in which it happens: “place” can be internal as well as external. Authors often use descriptions of many aspects to provide a strong sense of setting. A plot is a series of events and character actions by characters that are arranged to lead to a central conflict. A conflict is a struggle between people or forces. The protagonist or central character is usually on one side of the primary conflict. A point of view refers to how a story is told. The theme is the central idea or point belief in a fictional work, both novels and short stories. Below is a summary of one short story’s plot:

O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” (1906) is a short story about a young couple at Christmas who have very little. Indeed, $1.87 is all Della, the young wife, has on Christmas Eve. Della felt this was not enough to buy her husband, James, a worthy Christmas gift. Even though they were poor, materially, James and Della each had one thing, in addition to one another, that they cherished, besides each other. James loved his gold watch that had been passed down generations, and Della treasured her long, beautiful hair. Each took great pride in these objects. Nonetheless, in an effort to buy James a present, Della sells her hair for a wig and receives $20. Next, Della purchases a wonderful chain worthy of James’ watch. When James arrives home, he notices that Della’s hair has been cut very short. Della thinks James is upset about what she has done, but then she understands why he is shocked. Then, James gives Della her present, a set of beautiful combs for the long, lovely hair she has given up for him. James opens the gift to find the watch chain. Della then asks for James to get his watch, so she can see the chain on it. Instead, James smiles and says: “Let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’em a while . . . I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.”

Short stories are studied, at least in part, in the following courses:

English 115, Introduction to Literature
This course introduces students to the careful reading, discussion, and written analysis of literature. Students read and discuss poetry, fiction, and drama.

English 124, Introduction to Fiction
This course introduces students to the careful reading, discussion, and written analysis of novels and short stories. Students learn the use of various critical methods in examining the elements, aims, and effects of fiction.

For more information, contact Robert Grindy at rgrindy@richland.edu.

Poetry is literature that evokes a response from a reader’s imagination and from the heart. Emotional and imaginative responses are affected through language chosen and arranged for its sound, structure, and rhythm as well as its meaning. Surveying poetry will help students understand the difficulty, perhaps even the impossibility, of defining poetry. An interesting example of poetry, a sonnet, follows:

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet XLIII)
by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1923)

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

A sonnet is one of the most complex and richest of poetical forms, but the sonnet also has a wonderfully interesting structure and has some of the qualities of puzzles, often “musical” puzzles. Poems are sometimes thought to be outdated: they are not. Actually, the very best are, indeed, timeless and, often, profound. Poetry is studied, at least in part, in the following courses:

English 115 – Introduction to Literature.
This course introduces students to the careful reading, discussion, and written analysis of literature. Students read and discuss poetry, fiction, and drama.

English 126 – Introduction to Poetry.
This course introduces students to the careful reading, discussion and written analysis of poetry through the study of techniques, themes, and of some major poets of the British and American traditions.

For more information, contact Rick Tomlinson at rtomlin@richland.edu.

A novel is a long, fictional, prose (other than poetry) narrative, often a new story that is organized chronologically. Furthermore, a novelist aims to create a fictional world – apart – a “place” of the probable or possible – even the fantastic – rather that what is normally considered the real, even if the setting seems actual, even mundane. Like short stories, novels typically include six key elements: character, setting, conflict, point of view, plot and theme. Put very simply, character involves the “who” that is involved in the long narrative, the individuals who exist within the plot. Plot concerns the action and its arrangement by the novelist. Point of view involves a perspective through which a novel is recounted. Setting includes the where and when, including internal settings, a narrative takes place. Conflict, again, involves a struggle against a set of forces, human or otherwise, that reveals the content of a story’s characters. Finally, theme is the point of a novel. There are many, perhaps innumerable, lists of great novels: none are included here because students can study novels and learn the criteria by which to judge such stories for themselves.

Novels are studied, at least in part, in the following courses:

English 124, Introduction to Fiction
This course introduces students to the careful reading, discussion, and written analysis of novels and short stories. Students learn the use of various critical methods in examining the elements, aims, and effects of fiction.

English 160, Literature and Gender
This course introduces students to literary works written by major women writers or about women through reading, discussion and written analysis. Students are also exposed to historic, educational, and social trends that relate to women and the impact of women on these same trends.

For more information, contact Rosemarie King at rking@richland.edu or Robert Grindy at rgrindy@richland.edu.

The information below is based upon websites operated at Harvard University (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Overvu.html and The Owl at Indiana University (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/1/1):

Essays are, typically, shorter forms of writing that often require students to hone a number of skills, including close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition.

The purpose of an academic essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own thoughts (it may be helpful to view many essays as the reverse of research papers, though the latter are in argumentative form). Therefore, many essays are concise and require clarity. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from his/her purpose; student writers must be deliberate and interesting. The four genres of essays (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes.

The heart of the academic essay is persuasion, and the structure of students’ arguments plays a vital role in persuasion. To convince readers, it is necessary to set the stage, provide a context, and decide how to reveal evidence. But clarity is always a virtue. The essay's objective should be described swiftly in a thesis statement. There is, conventionally, the concluding sentence of an introduction. In the body of an essay, merely listing evidence without any discernible logistical presentation is a common mistake. What might be acceptable in conversation is too informal for an essay.

The most common argumentative structure in English prose is deductive: starting off with a generalization or assertion, and then providing support for it. This pattern can be used to order a paragraph as well as an entire essay. While there is no blueprint for some forms of successful essays, the best illustrate a focused mind making sense of some manageable issue of the world by joining insight, reason, and clarity.

Essays are studied, at least in part, in the following courses:

English 101, Composition 1
This is the basic course in college writing in which students learn to write and revise essays using a variety of rhetorical strategies to prepare them for more widespread assignments in academic persuasion.

English 102, Composition 2
This course continues the study of composition began in English 101 and has as its focus source-based arguments, particularly research papers.

For more information, contact Rick Tomlinson at rtomlin@richland.edu.

Love to write? Or maybe you’ve never written anything creative but you’d like to expand your writing experiences and exercise another part of your brain? Or are you considering work in journalism, public relations, publishing, or teaching? Creative writing courses at Richland Community College can help you meet these goals.

English 220, Introduction to Creative Writing, is an introductory course that assumes students have had little formal instruction in creative writing but are willing and eager to try. Students write and read short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, working through exercises and models, specific-topic assignments, and more open assignments.

English 222, Advanced Creative Writing, is intended for students who have had previous college-level instruction in creative writing (such as Introduction to Creative Writing) or significant experience writing on their own (check with the instructor). Most of the semester students will devote to writing a significant project of their own design: a collection of stories or poems, part of a novel, a play, a memoir, a screenplay, or a portfolio of different kinds of writings.

Both courses use the workshop approach, with much class discussion of student work in progress, offering reactions and suggestions for revision. Both classes count for elective credit toward AA/AS degrees and are transferable to most colleges.

In addition to these courses, Richland regularly sponsors readings and talks by distinguished visiting writers, as well as contests and publishing opportunities. Look for announcements on the Richland homepage.

For more information, contact Robert Grindy at rgrindy@richland.edu.