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Subject Matter and Theme in Short Stories

  In this article , it is explained that every short story is unique in the sense that the elements contained by every work vary from one to another. However, since a short story is a narrative fiction that involves a limited number of characters engaged in a single event taking place in a limited setting, all short stories share similar types of elements. To get a comprehensive understanding of a short story, we need to analyze its elements, including subject matter, theme, characters, actions, setting, and the language employed as the medium. This article focuses on subject matter and theme. Before discussing the concepts related to subject matter and theme, read the following flash fiction. It will be used as a reference to clarify the concepts.   The Boulder on the Road In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid himself and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and

The Nature of Short Stories as a Fiction

  The previous article discusses that a short story is a type of fiction. Therefore it shares the features of fictional works with novelette and novel. A short story is different from a novelette and novel in terms of length. Short stories are commonly 500 to 7,500 words. A novelette is between 7,500 to 17,000 words and novels are more than 17,000 words. But what makes short stories fiction? This article discusses the six special features of fiction suggested by Alternbend and Lewis (1966) and shows how they are contained in short stories. The six features of fiction include: fiction is dramatic, concrete and specific, generally representative, instructs and entertains, is related to life, and creative and imaginative. To illustrate how these features pertain to short stories, three flash (very brief) stories are used as samples. Short stories are dramatic. Read the following very short story. The Blind Girl There was a blind girl who hated herself purely for the fact she wa

What is a short story?

  This article aims to introduce the nature of the short story by taking and discussing some of the related ideas available in the literature. To make the discussion clearer, these conceptions are applied to Bocaro’s A Long Walk Home (1977), a short story about the major character’s recall of a lesson he learned when he was a teenager. Since the short story is employed as an example of some concepts, it is suggested to read it before continuing to read this article. Short story is a type of fiction. Fiction is a kind of prose, and prose is one of the main genres of literature (See Figure 1). Therefore, to define short story we need first understand what literature, prose, and fiction mean. Literature is hard to define in a single definition because the body of literature is very wide as it has many forms. Its definitions also tend to change over time because literature never stops developing. Derived from the Latin word Latin litaritura/litteratura which means “writing formed with le

Reader Response

  Reader-response is a kind of essay used to express and defend a thoughtful reaction to what (poem, short story, novel essay, or other forms of text) someone has read. As a reaction to a text, in which a reader examines, explains, and defends his personal reaction to a text, reader response is also called a “reaction paper”. A reader-response is therefore more than just a summary. It explores why a reader likes or dislikes the reading, explains whether she/he agrees or disagrees with the author, identifies the reading's purpose, and criticizes the text. Reader-response is based on the theory which emphasizes  the reader's  significant role in the reading process and in the creation of meaning. Reader-response diverts the emphasis away from the text as the sole determiner of meaning to the significance of the reader in analyzing and studying the meaning or the interpretation of texts (Bressler, 1999). While reading, a reader c reates her or his own meaning through a “transact

Mengevaluasi Kelas "Blended Learning"

Pendahuluan  Dalam modul-modul dan aktivitas sebelumnya, Anda sudah mempelajari dan berlatih tentang merancang dan mendisain kelas Blended Learning (BL) serta memadukan konten, interaksi, penugasan, dan asesmen dalam BL. Jika Anda sudah menyelesaikan seluruh topik dan keterampilan itu, sesuai dengan tahapan dalam proses membangun BL (Gambar 1), berarti Anda telah siap mengimplementasikan kelas BL Anda. Namun setelah implementasi, Anda perlu melakukan evaluasi (review) terhadap kelas BL yang sudah dijalankan untuk memperoleh umpan balik dalam rangka membuat perbaikan sehingga kelas BL itu dapat diimplementasikan secara lebih efektif pada periode atau semester selanjutnya. Modul  ini merupakan bagian terakhir dari seluruh modul yang digunakan dalam Pelatihan Membangun Blended Learning yang diselenggarakan oleh FKIP UKI pada tanggal 20 Juli-4 Agustus 2020. Modul ini  ini fokus pada aspek-aspek mendasar yang perlu dipertimbangkan dalam merencanakan dan melaksanakan evaluasi kelas BL. Seca

90% of teachers disapproved of Minister Nadiem’s plan to implement "hybrid learning" permanently. Why?

Image Credit:  https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-teachers-china-have-learned-past-month On 2-3 July 2020, various online dailies, such as Kompas, Tribun News , Kontan , and Idonews , reported the plan of the Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim to implement hybrid learning permanently after the Covid-19 pandemic. Minister Nadiem proposed the plan at a meeting with Commission X of the House of Representatives on Thursday, July 2, 2020. It was proposed based on the idea that technology use in learning provides many benefits, including the opportunities for schools to implement various learning models and to operate with various efficiency. The plan is also supported by the fact that the online learning implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic had eventually driven teachers, students, and parents to adapt and utilize technology to support learning. The result was admittedly not yet satisfactory, but it was mainly due to the lack of preparation since the plague emer