Analyzing Literacy Text: Structure and plot

Question 1

What is structure?

Answer 1

A story’s narrative structure is the way the author organizes the sequence of events.

Question 2

What is chronological order?

Answer 2

when events in a plot are told in sequence or in the order they happened in time

Question 3

What does a complicated plot look like?

Answer 3

In complicated plots, however, the author may choose to transition to and from the different plots in order to incorporate all of the important events and key details. As you read

Question 4

What are parallel plots?

Answer 4

parallel plots (a story structure in which multiple plot lines take place at the same time), or two or more storylines, usually a main plot and one or more subplots. Some events in these plots may overlap because they take place at the same time.

Question 5

Words and phrases such as meanwhile, in the meantime, at the same time, and so on, help readers understand what?

Answer 5

that the story is cutting away from one plot event to focus on another that is happening simultaneously.

Question 6

The author’s choices in structuring a story with parallel plots may have several effects on the overall narrative:

Answer 6

• to introduce tension and build suspense by pulling the reader’s focus away from a plot line that interests them to tell about something else
• to draw readers more deeply into the story as they track the details of the different plots
• to enrich or complicate the author’s message or theme

Question 7

What effects do the parallel plots have on the story, according to the student in the video?

Answer 7

One effect is to make the story more interesting. Another effect is to build tension and deepen the story’s themes or lessons.

Question 8

An author who wishes to move the story forward quickly and avoid irrelevant or redundant details may do what?

Answer 8

may skip ahead in time, often using a transitional phrase such as “Many years later.”

Question 9

Authors who want to build suspense will do what?

Answer 9

will speed up the pacing by using dialogue and short sentences or pivot away from the main plot to a parallel plot. When an author wants to provide readers with missing information, they may pause the forward progression of the action to include a flashback.

Question 10

If an author wants to introduce a sense of tension or mystery, they may do what?

Answer 10

hey may slow down the pacing with long descriptive or reflective passages. The effect is to slow readers down.