IDENTIFYING LITERARY GENRES

 

 A literary genre is a category that authors use to describe the primary content and tone of their writing. The genre an author chooses can help them determine what type of plot, characters and setting to create. Literary genres typically describe writing styles such as poetry, essays, novels, short stories and plays.

 Prose was primarily written in paragraph form, poetry was structured in stanzas, and drama included character names before each line of dialogue. However, in today's post-modern literary world, writers often borrow qualities from many different forms to create their own unique style of literature.

 Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even (as in the case of fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young adult, or children's. They also must not be confused with format, such as graphic novel or picture book.

 Literary, or written, works are classified as being part of a particular genre based on a number of things:

1.    The tone of the writing.

2.    The writing style.

3.    Narrative technique.

4.    Length.

       Content – what the written work is about – for example; war, history, or romance.

Thus, Genres  provide the writer with general organizational patterns that can help them arrange what they say and when they say it. For readers, genres help organize information so that they can more easily make sense of what they are about to read.