IBHL English 12

Conventions of Genre

Conventions of Fiction:

  • point of view

first-person

third-person omniscient

third-person limited

objective

  • voice

engaged

detached

tone of voice

trustworthy

naïve

inexperienced

direct

confident

biased

judgmental

mechanical

disembodied

matter-of-fact

  • characterisation

direct characterisation

indirect characterisation

dynamic characters

static characters

  • setting

geographical background

historical background

social background

weather

spaces

interior

exterior

  • time

chronological

non-chronological

flashback

  • theme

lesson about human nature

explicit

implicit

  • structure

shifts in pov

chaptering strategies

paragraphing

time sequencing in chaptering/paragraphing

  • tone

writer’s attitude toward her/his subject matter

writer’s emotional and intellectual perspective on characters

emotions - passion, anger, boredom, indifference, etc.

  • plot

narrative of events with an emphasis on the relationship between cause and effect (causality)

subplot

unified/simple

interwoven/complex

IBHL English 12

Conventions of Genre

Conventions of Drama:

  • staging and stage direction

positioning of actors & their movement on stage

facial expressions and gestures

tone of voice, voice moderation, accenting, pacing

construction of set, including the placement and physical attributes of props

lighting

costume

sound devices

fourth wall

freeze frame

  • dramatic structure

exposition

rising action

climax/crisis (a turning point)

falling action/reversal

denouement (conclusion)

  • the ‘well-made play’

a protagonist’s secret

mistaken identity

misplaced documents

well-timed entrances and exits

a battle of wits

a climactic scene reveals the secret

logical denouement

  • time

closing curtain

blacking out stage

lighting a lamp

winding a clock

background lighting/visuals

words/actions

costume change

  • dialogue
  • monologue and/or soliloquy
  • aside
  • theme
  • characterisation
  • stock characters
  • dramatic irony
  • momentum & tension
  • momentum & silence
  • logical denouement
  • double entendre
  • flashbacks/flash forwards
  • prologue/epilogue
  • comic relief
  • dues ex machina

IBHL English 12

Conventions of Genre

Conventions of Poetry:

  • types

lyric

narrative

dramatic

  • sounds

pauses (caesurae)

rhythm

rhyme scheme (letter mapping)

metre: 1. patterns of stressed/unstressed syllables – iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee; 2. metrical feet – monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octameter

onomatopoeia

assonance

consonance

alliteration

  • speaker

problematic/dangerous to assume “I” voice in poem is that of poet

only extensive biographical information could confirm that “I” voice is that of poet speaking directly of her/his own experience

  • time & place

where

when

alone

with other(s)

why

allusion (literary/historical/mythi-cal/religious)

  • diction

denotation

connotation

flowery

ornate

simple

straightforward

colloquial

archaic

  • syntax

order of words effects sound and meaning

inversion creates emphasis, stress on particular word(s)

enjambment

capitalisation

spacing

  • figurative language

metaphor

simile

personification

symbol

imagery

  • structure

narrative

discursive (moving from subject to subject/formal mode of communication)

descriptive

reflective/meditative

  • stanza forms

terza rima

villanelle

sonnet

free verse

concrete poems

  • appreciation

use your imagination, senses, intelligence, emotion

NOTHING in a poem is arbitrary

IBHL English 12

Conventions of Genre

Conventions of Prose Other Than Fiction:

  • types

essays – personal, philosophical, didactic, satirical, critical

voice

persona

subject

purpose

letters

memoirs

diaries

treatises, maxims, aphorisms

manifestos

chronicles

annals

speeches

autobiographies

biographies

travel narratives

  • audience & context

date of publication or delivery – background information, historical events at time, who is being addressed

type of register used – archaic, technical, formal, informal, colloquial, slang

tone – sarcastic, accusatory, inflammatory, satiric, authoritative, intimate

  • persuasive techniques

logically constructed arguments (logos)

appealing to emotion (pathos)

establishing credibility as writer/speaker by making ethically sound statements (ethos)

  • rhetorical strategies

repetition

rhetorical questions

allusion

refutation of anticipated argument

anecdote

analogy

figurative language