Developed by Deborah Granger, Ed.D., and Jim Thomas, Orange County Department of Education

The Well Told Story

Exposition (CONTEXT, BACKGROUND): Reveals what happened before the audience

appeared; Introduces characters; Sets the context .

Crisis (TRIGGER, CATALYST, CAUSE OF THE CHANGE IN COURSE): The terrible/big

event –you can’t go around it – must deal with it. It changes everything. It especially changes the circumstances of the main character/protagonist/hero(ine).

Conflict (CHALLENGES, OBSTACLES – AND HOW THEY WERE OVERCOME): Typically,

the well told story includes three conflicts – three challenges/issues/problems that must be surmounted somehow.

Climax (TURNING POINT): Turning point in the story (the discovery, the “whisper in the ear,” the

missing letter that appears, etc.). More important things will follow the climax.

Resolution (OUTCOME): Return to “normal.” The hero is wiser – knows what s/he didn’t know

before.

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Narrative Example: The Wizard of Oz

Exposition: Farm in Kansas, characters, Dorothy’s unhappiness.

Crisis: Tornado! Dorothy kills the witch with her house and is stuck in another land.

Conflict: Mean trees, poppy field, flying monkeys.

Climax: Dorothy melts the wicked witch.

Resolution: Dorothy’s discovery that “there’s no place like home,” and that she has the power to get there.

Expository Example: The Bubonic Plague in San Francisco

Exposition: Outbreak of plague in SF in early 1900s; Ghettoization and discrimination of Chinese residents.

Crisis: Scientists discover cause of plague and don’t reveal it. (Use crisis as point of development of thesis statement.)

Conflict (Evidence supporting thesis): Surgeon General receives presidential permission to pass anti-plague regulations; Continued and growing anti-Chinese sentiment and Chinatown “clean ups;” San Francisco wished to be known as the “Paris of the West” and hoped to host the world’s fair.

Climax: Cause of plague is revealed.

Resolution (and follow up questions): Campaigns to eradicate rats; Impact on Chinese discrimination?

What’s YOUR Well Told Story?