Engram's "Short Story Elements"

While Learner.org's "What Makes a Good Short Story?" identifies setting, point of view, plot, character, and theme as the essential elements of the short story, Judith A. Engram adds one more: conflict. Her notes on the elements of the short story may be accessed at http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/engramja/elements.html

What Makes a Good Short Story?

Several pages on Learner.org explain—in very easy-to-understand terms—the elements of a short story. Hop on to What Makes a Good Short Story? to read the full text.

The pages discuss the following topics:

• The Elements of Plot Development
  • What Goes into a Plot?
• Point of View
  • Types of Point of View
• Characters
  • Learning About Characters
• Setting
  • What Setting Tells Us
• Theme
  • Finding the Theme

Guidelines for Blogging

The blogging requirement for our class is very easy to comply with. It's not even as scary or as daunting as you think.

Post at least five (5) blog entries each week. If you write one entry everyday before you go to bed, this requirement should be easy to comply with.

Four (4) out of the five required entries will be on topics of your own choice. One entry will be on a topic assigned by your instructor; the topic will be announced through your instructor's blog at http://elmermontejo.blogspot.com.

From time to time I may require that you write on more than one specific topic. In such cases, the required topics will be deducted from the total required; that is, if this week you are to write on two topics, you will be left with three more topics of your own choice.

If you have limited access to Internet facilities, you might consider writing your drafts on paper first. Then, on Fridays or Saturdays, go to an Internet cafe and upload your entries in one go.

Each blog entry should be at least 500 words. It's very easy to go beyond this minimum, but I won't mind if you go beyond 500 words.

Feel free to comment on my or your classmates' blog. Your comments should be substantive, though, and not just pranks or useless stuff like "hehehe" or "LOL".

If you notice any error—mechanical, grammatical, stylistic, factual, or whatever—on my blog, please alert me right away. You will receive extra points for knowing much better than I do. I'm not kidding. *GRIN*

If you have great ideas for our blogging project, please let me know. We'd like this project not just to be a worthwhile learning experience but also to be a fun, and enjoyable activity that you can continue doing even after you leave school.

I will post here the rubrics for grading your blogs soon.

Start Blogging in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1: Create a Blog

1. Go to the Blogger site at http://www.blogger.com and sign up for a Blogger account. If you already have a Blogger account, skip to the next step.
2. Log-in to your Blogger account and create a new blog. Your blog should have the following information:
   1. Blog Title: your full name without the middle initial (e.g., Elmer Montejo)
   2. Blog Address or URL: your full name in lowercase, without middle initial or spaces (e.g., http://elmermontejo.blogspot.com)
3. Navigate to the Dashboard and click the Change Settings icon for your new blog. You will be brought to Settings page.
   1. On the Basic tab, provide a short description for your blog; include your full name, year level, and section in the description so that I can identify your blog easily.
   2. On the Comments tab, make sure that your blog allows only registered users to comment. This setting is very important. We don't want strangers or anonymous folks, especially flamers and spammers, to post comments on our blogs.
   3. On the Archiving tab, change the Archive Frequency to "Weekly."
   4. On the Site-Feed tab, turn Publish Site Feed to "Yes" and Descriptions to "Full."
4. Take note that every time you change your blog settings, you will need to republish your blog to implement the changes.

Step 2: Announce Your Blog

Your blog is now ready. But, before you start posting your blog entries, e-mail the following information to your instructor: full name, year level and section, and blog address or URL. The links to your blog will be posted on your instructor's very own blog at http://elmermontejo.blogspot.com

You may also want to announce your new blog to your classmates. E-mail them your blog URL, too.

Step 3: Start Posting Your Blog Entries

Need I say more? Read the guidelines first, though.