Building Mystery, Tension and Suspense


Resource ID#: 119087 Primary Type: Original Student Tutorial
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Learn how to identify some of the key ways through which authors create mystery, suspense, and tension within a story.  Specifically, you’ll be able to define and explain how authors use the devices of exposition, foreshadowing, pacing, and the manipulation of time to create mystery, suspense, and tension within a story.

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Accessible Version: Accessible version of the tutorial content in pdfformat

General Information

Subject(s): English Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 9, 10
Intended Audience: Students
Keywords: mystery, tension, suspense, short story, foreshadowing, exposition, pacing, manipulation of time, The Most Dangerous Game, English Language Arts, grades 9-10
Instructional Component Type(s): Original Student Tutorial
Resource Collection: Original Student Tutorials for Language Arts - Grades 6-12

Aligned Standards

This vetted resource aligns to concepts or skills in these benchmarks.

Suggested Tutorials


Analyzing the Effects of Text Structures in Ylla from the Martian Chronicles:

Examine the organizational patterns authors use in fictional works. These patterns are also known as text structures. You will also analyze excerpts from the story "Ylla", from The Martian Chronicles, to see how author Ray Bradbury uses these structures and other literary techniques to create certain effects, such as mystery, tension, and suspense.

First you will review common text structures. Next, you will learn how to recognize how an author's use of text structures creates certain effects in writing. Then, you will determine the choices author Ray Bradbury made in structuring portions of the text "Ylla" from The Martian Chronicles. Finally, you will analyze how these structural choices create dramatic effects in "Ylla" such as mystery, tension, or suspense.

Learn how to identify and examine common text structures and analyze how Bradbury successfully uses these structures in several excerpts from "Ylla" from The Martian Chronicles.

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