Core Elements of a Successful Story

Essay Instructions:

Assignment 1: Diagnostic Essay
Your first essay contributes 5% toward your final grade. As noted in Module 1, its purpose is to alert you, through your Open Learning Faculty Member’s comments, to any weaknesses you might have with grammar, spelling, or essay organization.
Submit your completed Assignment 1 directly to your Open Learning Faculty Member as soon as you finish. Submit your assignment in the first week of the course or as soon as you have completed Module 1 so that your Open Learning Faculty Member can return it to you before you complete Assignment 2.
Diagnostic Essay Topic
Write a brief essay of no less than 490 words and no more than 500 words on the central characteristics that, in your view, contribute to a successful or satisfying story. Use any or all of the Module 1 stories as examples to illustrate your ideas. You may, if you wish, refer to other short stories you’re familiar with, but be sure to use at least one story from the required readings. You’re free to borrow or adapt any of the ideas introduced in Module 1, or you may introduce your own. You’re entirely free to select the story features you want to write about.
Instructions
Your essay should have three parts: an introductory paragraph, a body containing fully developed paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Following is a general guide for what to include in each section of your essay.
In your introductory paragraph:
Clearly identify a minimum of two, but not more than four, story features that you believe are essential to an enjoyable story.
Provide the main reasons why the features you’ve chosen are indispensable to a good story.
In the body of your essay:
Discuss the features you’ve chosen, one by one, in separate paragraphs.
Support your comments with evidence (either paraphrase or direct quotations) from one or more stories.
In your concluding paragraph:
Summarize the significance of the story features you’ve selected as essential to a story’s success.
required readings for module1: Alice Munro: “Royal Beatings”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman: “The Yellow Wallpaper”
James Baldwin: “Sonny’s Blues”

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Student Name
Professor Name
Course
Date
A Successful Story
What makes a story successful? Whether the story is long or small, it should give a historical overview of the main character’s life, needs to talk about multiple social, political or economic issues, and has to conclude the things in an impressive way (Green 201). The goal should always be to capture and maintain the interest of the target audience. Motion, tension, grounding, and resonance are four core elements of a successful story.
Motion
In one way or the other, movements are necessary for the success of a story. Without motion, it may not be able for the author to keep the attention of people intact. For example, in The Great Gatsby, the story has been told impressively and beautifully (Fitzgerald & Maurer 111). Young millionaire Jay Gatsby is obsessed with the beauty of former debutante Daisy Buchanan. The book explores themes of idealism, social upheaval, excess and decadence, and its story keeps going until the reader gets to know that excessiveness of anything is wrong.
Tension
Typically, tension is viewed as a specific kind of conflict that has to be included in every story in order to ensure its success. Tension or conflict is not necessarily an event or character-based. Without it, the writer or author may not be able to carry readers from one sentence of the story to another. For example, tension in The Great Gatsby is created when protagonist Jay Gatsby gets violent and creates a mess for others.
Grounding
It is a common phenomenon that readers...

Updated on January 26, 2024

Get the Whole Paper!

Not exactly what you need?

Do you need a custom essay? Order right now:

Order

Core Elements of a Successful Story

You Might Also Like Other Topics Related to great gatsby: