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A Reader Guide to Forms of Writing: Poems, Stories, Essays and More
A plain-language tour of the main forms of writing, from poems and stories to essays, history and journalism, and how your reading approach shifts between them.
Reading Craft and Language
Poems, Stories and Other Forms
How to approach different kinds of writing as a reader.
Biography and Memoir: Reading About Real Lives
How biography, autobiography and memoir differ, what each can and cannot tell you, and how to read life writing critically while still enjoying a good story.
Graphic Novels and Comics as Real Reading
Why graphic novels and comics count as real reading, how pictures and words work together on the page, and how to read panels, layout and sequence with care.
Long-Form Journalism: Reading Reported Stories
What sets long-form journalism apart from the daily news, how to read a reported story critically, and practical ways to stay with a long piece until the end.
Mystery and Crime Fiction: Why Puzzles Pull Us Along
Why mystery fiction is so hard to put down: how suspense, clues and red herrings work, what the pleasure of reading to solve is, and how to read these stories well.
Reading Essays: Following an Argument Across Pages
How to read personal essays and other essay forms: tracking a writer's thinking as it unfolds, spotting turns and doubts, and following an argument across pages.
Reading History for Pleasure
How general readers can enjoy narrative history without specialist training: choosing a subject, keeping track of names and dates, and reading with a sense of evidence.
Reading Poetry Slowly Without Feeling Lost
Practical ways into reading poetry: how sound, line breaks and rereading aloud help, and why it is fine not to understand everything the first time through.
Science Writing for General Readers
How to read popular science: what science writing for non-specialists tries to do, how to follow analogies and claims, and how to judge certainty and evidence.
Short Stories for Short Spans of Time
Why short stories suit busy readers, what makes the form different from the novel, and practical ways to read short fiction well in the gaps of a full day.
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