Graphing the shape of a story reveals patterns and speaks to cultures:

[Cheryl, first facilitator]

At least Vonnegut says so, and many primary teachers do, too. But here's a video and an article summarizing Vonnegut's thesis:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wo...

One of the graphs reveals a story with no arc. Vonnegut says, ""But there’s a reason we recognize Hamlet as a masterpiece: it’s that Shakespeare told us the truth, and people so rarely tell us the truth in this rise and fall here [indicates blackboard]. The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is."