In this broad category I include everything from Grimm’s fairy tales and Aesop’s fables in the West, to the Arabian Nights and Jataka tales in Asia. Stories with unclear authorship that are collected and compiled by scholars rather than invented. The closest cousins of the classic American yarn I can think of are semi-mythological oral traditions that mix fact and fantasy freely in the form of folk tales, but are primarily about everyday events rather than epic cosmic-historical events. In making his exceptionalist claim for American storytelling, Twain was, I think, right about something. A form that appeared centuries after the rise of written and printed forms of storytelling, and within a modern, industrial context. For whatever reason, in the 19th century, America reinvented, in a unique new way, an old, primarily oral form of storytelling. I’m not sure if Twain’s claim is strictly true even within the narrow scope of his comparison to English and French storytelling traditions, but there’s something to what he was getting at in the essay. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling the comic story and the witty story upon the matter. The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind–the humorous. In class, it's a reference book that's also a discussion starter to understand the reasoning behind language and style changes.'Īdditionally, Greg Munno at Syracuse University recommended the 'Briefing on Media Law' version, too.This entry is part 2 of 10 in the series NarrativiumĪdam Gurri pointed me to this 1895 Mark Twain essay, How to Tell a Story, which makes the interesting claim that the humorous story, dependent for its effect on the manner of telling rather than the matter, is an American invention: 'If you don't have the luxury of an editor, it's at least a reliable resource. 'It provides order in a chaotic world,' said Aileen Gallagher, an associate professor at Syracuse University who teaches reporting and cross-media news writing.

You'll find best practices for everything from using affect versus effect (a struggle for many) to referencing sensitive topics like mental health and war outbreaks. As a journalism student, I can attest the 'AP Stylebook' is the writer's bible.

Telling true stories mark kramer