What are the stages of plot and the kinds of conflict, and why does it matter how a writer ordered the events of a story?
Analyzing plot, conflict, and structure in literary texts: the stages of plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), internal and external conflict, and how a writer's structural choices (order of events, flashback, foreshadowing, pacing) shape meaning on an Ohio English II literary passage.
How to analyze plot, conflict, and structure on the Ohio English II test: the five stages of plot, internal versus external conflict, and why a writer's ordering choices (flashback, foreshadowing, pacing) matter. Structure items reward explaining the effect of a choice, not just naming the stage.
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What this skill is asking
Plot is the sequence of events in a story, conflict is the struggle that drives it, and structure is the order and shape the writer gives those events. On Ohio's State Test for English Language Arts II, you will meet questions that ask you to identify the stage of a plot, to name the kind of conflict, and, most importantly, to explain the effect of a structural choice: why the writer began where they did, why they used a flashback, what a moment of foreshadowing sets up. Ohio's Learning Standards place this under Craft and Structure, and the higher-value items always ask about effect, not labels. Naming "the climax" earns little; explaining what the climax turns on, or what a flashback lets the reader understand, earns the marks. This page covers the five stages of plot, internal and external conflict, and the structural choices the test asks you to interpret.
The five stages of plot
The most common plot error is calling the most dramatic scene "the climax" when the real turning point is quieter. Ask which moment decides the main conflict, because that is the climax even if a louder scene comes later. The standard also rewards seeing that the resolution often carries the theme: how the conflict settles usually states, in action, the idea the writer wants you to take away, which ties this skill back to analyzing theme in literary texts.
Internal and external conflict
When a question asks for the conflict, scan for the outer struggle first (it is usually visible in the action) and then ask what the character is wrestling with inside. If both are present, the fullest answer says so. The conflict also points to character: how a person meets a struggle reveals who they are, which connects to character and point of view.
Structure: why the order matters
A writer chooses the order of events, and that choice creates meaning. The test asks you to read those choices.
Try this
Q1. What is the climax of a plot, and how is it different from the most exciting scene? [Recall]
- Cue. The climax is the turning point of the main conflict, after which the outcome is no longer in doubt. The most exciting scene may come elsewhere; the climax is defined by the conflict turning, not by drama.
Q2. A writer opens a story at its ending, then tells the rest in flashback. Explain one effect of this choice. [Short explanation]
- Cue. It creates suspense (the reader wants to know how the ending was reached) and weights the build-up with consequence, because the reader reads it already knowing where it leads. State the effect on the reader, not just the label.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of ODEW exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Ohio English II EOC (style)1 marksA story opens with a soldier already home from war, then flashes back to the battle that changed him before returning to the present. Which best explains the effect of this structure? (1) It confuses the reader for no reason. (2) It lets the reader judge the present-day soldier in light of what the war did to him. (3) It proves the story is true. (4) It removes the conflict.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). Opening in the present, then supplying the past, makes the reader read the homecoming already knowing its cause, so every present-day detail carries the weight of the battle. That is a meaning effect, which is what the standard rewards.
Why not the others: (1) dismisses a deliberate choice as a mistake; (3) structure is not evidence of truth; (4) the flashback supplies the conflict, it does not remove it. The right answer names what the ordering does to the reader's understanding.
Ohio English II EOC (style)1 marksA character struggles both with her fear of failing and with a coach who keeps benching her. What kind of conflict is present?Show worked answer →
Both internal and external. The fear of failing is an internal conflict (character versus self); the clash with the coach is an external conflict (character versus character). Strong passages often run both at once, and the best answer names both rather than only one.
On a multiple-choice item the trap is an option that names only the external clash. Read for the inner struggle too, because the standard expects you to see both layers when a passage develops them.
Related dot points
- Analyzing theme and central idea in literary texts: stating a theme as a complete sentence about life or human nature rather than a topic word, distinguishing theme from subject and from moral, and tracing how a writer develops a theme through plot, character, and detail across an unseen Ohio English II literary passage.
How to analyze theme on an Ohio English II literary passage: stating theme as a full sentence about life rather than a one-word topic, telling theme apart from subject and moral, and tracing how plot, character, and detail develop it. Theme appears in multiple-choice, multi-select, and evidence-based two-part items.
- Analyzing character and point of view in literary texts: inferring traits and motivation from a character's words, actions, and thoughts (indirect characterization), tracking how a character changes, and explaining how the narrator's point of view (first person, third limited, third omniscient) controls what the reader knows on an Ohio English II literary passage.
How to analyze character and point of view on the Ohio English II test: inferring traits from actions (indirect characterization), tracking change, and explaining how first-person and third-person narration shape what the reader knows. The test rewards inference backed by a line, not labels.
- Analyzing figurative language and literary devices in literary texts: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism, hyperbole, and tone, and explaining the effect each creates (the feeling, picture, or meaning it builds) on an Ohio English II literary passage, rather than only labelling the device.
How to analyze figurative language and literary devices on the Ohio English II test: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism, and tone, and explaining their effect, not just naming them. The high-value move is what the device does, the feeling or meaning it builds.
- Reading poetry on the Ohio English II test: paraphrasing a poem for meaning (speaker, situation, feeling) before analyzing form, reading structure (stanzas, line breaks, refrain) and sound (rhyme, rhythm, repetition) as carriers of meaning, and explaining how a poem's figurative language builds its central idea on an unseen poem.
How to read poetry on the Ohio English II test: paraphrase for meaning first (speaker, situation, feeling), then read structure and sound as carriers of meaning. Poetry items reward connecting form to meaning, not naming meter or rhyme scheme for its own sake.
- Analyzing text structure and organization in informational texts on the Ohio English II test: recognizing common structures (cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological or sequential, claim and support) and explaining how an author's structural choice, including the order of paragraphs and the placement of a key idea, advances the central idea or argument.
How to analyze text structure on the Ohio English II test: recognizing cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological, and claim and support structures, and explaining how the organization helps the text make its point. The test rewards effect, not just naming the structure.
Sources & how we know this
- ELA II course resources — ODEW (2025)
- Ohio's Learning Standards for English Language Arts — ODEW (2025)