Lesson 4: Analyzing Short Stories
If you have a burning desire to know how short stories are written, then you need to know how to analyze them. This is what you will learn in this lesson. You will be reading and analyzing different short stories.
Introduction
You are about to investigate the process of going beyond reading for entertainment. Before you read the suggested reading assignments, you need to read the article that I wrote about understanding the elements of fiction and how to search for clues. This article is titled "Searching for Clues." I explain how different styles of writing can be difficult for readers to understand. I also explain how readers need to be detectives when they are reading. The article can be found at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/3056...
After reading the article, you will be prepared to read and analyze the other required assignments.
Suggested Reading Assignment
These books mentioned in this course are only suggested reading material. You will learn what you need to in the course by reading my stories that I have written and mentioned throughout the course.
(1) "A Late Night Visitor" by Janet Blaylock.
(2) In Detective Stories by Philip Pullman, you will find the following short stories.
(1) "Maddened By Mystery" by Stephen Leacock
(2) "Fingerprinting A Ghost" by Tony Fletcher
(3) "Cold Money" by Ellery Queen
I have selected this book because it has an excellent collection of short stories. These stories reveal different styles of detective fiction such as: comic detective fiction, a story told by the villain, story using crime-scene techniques, a true form of detective fiction, and stories using amateur detectives.
I have enjoyed reading these stories and am hoping you will as well. There are other stories I haven't assigned, but they are just as good.
Another book that I would recommend is titled Mystery Stories chosen by Helen Cresswell. This is another collection of excellent short stories by various authors that I'm sure you would enjoy reading.
Another Suggested Reading Assignment
(1) "Too Much to Bare" by Joan Hess - You can find a review I wrote on this story by going to the following link: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/dete...
This short story is found in the anthology titled The Best of Sisters in Crime edited by Marilyn Wallace.
Suggested Writing Assignments
(1) Write a summary of one of the short stories.
(2) Write a review of a short story. A review is more than a summary.
