A short story:
http://www.thewritesource.com/studentmodels/ws2k-lesson.htm
Labov’s framework allows us to see how this story (and story) is structured.
Simply put, it’s this: Every story has something like this structure:
1. Abstract – How does it begin? or What’s the story about? What kind of story is it?
2. Orientation – Who/what does it involve, and when/where?
3. Complicating Action – Then what happened?
4. Resolution – What finally happened?
5. Evaluation – So what? What does it all mean?
6. Coda – The end of the story. That’s it. So, it was a [funny/interesting/strange] situation.
It comes from an academic paper by Labov, published in 1967.
http://filosofia.dipafilo.unimi.it/bonomi/Labov%20I.pdf
If you are interested, here is a more detailed description of Labov’s later work, published in 1997. (It’s quite difficult reading, though):
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/sfs.html
The Hero cycle
http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/education/literature/heroic-journey
What’s the similarity between presentations and stories?
http://blog.ted.com/how-to-give-more-persuasive-presentations-a-qa-with-nancy-duarte/