What are the 2 most important elements for any short story?

This is copied from a teaching syllabus -- I can't remember the author because I copied it down quite awhile ago!

Characters and how we get to know them:

1. Through the author's physical description of them

2. Their actions

3. Their Words

4. Their inner thoughts

5. Through what other characters say and think about them

Plot - A pattern of events that develops from the interactions between characters.

A plot is a pattern of events in a cause and effect relationship.

1. Cause - Things that make something happen.

2. Effect - What happens because something was done.

Conflicts - The problems the characters encounter.Their conflicts can be:

1. External - conflict with others and with nature

2. Internal - conflict within themselves

Setting - Time and place of the story

Theme - The meaning behind the events and the characters' actions.

Narrative - The Point of View and Verbal tense of the narrator. How much the narrator intrudes into the story.

Style of Writing - Rhetorical devices, Word choice, and sentence structure.

Plot Outline:

1. Exposition: the background or introductory information that the reader must have in order to understand the story.

2. Rising Action - all of the events that take place leading up to the climax.

3. Climax - The turning point. Here the story is turned in a different direction, toward the conclusion, which is the wrapping up of the story.

4. Falling Action - The immediate reaction to the climax.

5. Denouement - The conclusion of the plot.Loose ends are tied up.