Topic: What do people look for in reading a story?

10-Second Review: A list of characteristics that people look for when reading a story.

Title: “What Do Readers Love in a Story? Let Us Count the Ways.” Laura Yeager. The Writer (September 2008), 13. The Writer is a publication that encourages writers to keep writing.

Summary: The characteristics that people love to find in a story are escape, positive social change, laughs, intellectual challenge, predictability, happy endings, surprise, suspense, philosophy, ‘visible’ characters and settings, an opportunity to learn something new, a connection with characters, story resolution, complete absorption or a meditative effect [You can’t put it down without thinking about it].

Comment: These traits leave out some pretty significant “literary” short stories and novels. Or do they? RayS.

The purpose of this blog is to share interesting ideas I have found in recent American professional publications dealing with the teaching of English at all levels, elementary, secondary and college.