Understand the genre to which your text belongs. If it is a fictional account of events in prose, it is a novel. If it is an essay, a manifesto, a true biography or a reportorial telling of true events, it is non-fiction. If it contains dialogue and stage direction, it is probably meant to be acted and counts as drama. If it is written in stanzas and if its line breaks are important to its meaning, it is likely poetry. Note that texts can be hybrid genres, encompassing two or more of the above.
Discuss the features of fiction and how well your text conforms to these, if you are working with a novel. A conventional novel has a stable first- or third-person narrator. It uses dialogue and description. It has a main character and setting. It usually proceeds it chronological order from beginning to end, with a plot climax somewhere near the finish. Analyze how your text furthers or subverts these conventions. A conventional novel such as "Huckleberry Finn" makes use of most of these conventions, while an experimental novel such as Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" subverts them.
Examine the features of non-fiction if you are working within this genre. This genre is quite broad and difficult to define. If it is an essay, it usually uses persuasive rhetorical devices to convince its readers of something. It uses the repetition of words, anaphora -- beginning successive sentences with the same word -- metaphor and comparisons to illustrate a specific point. Cover whether your text trying to convince the reader of something and how well it succeeds.
Discuss the features of poetry if your text is a poem. A conventional poem has some sort of end-rhyme, has a regular rhythm, is broken into stanzas and capitalizes the first letter of each new line. Conventional poetry often idealizes nature and uses lofty metaphors and images. Analyze how much your text makes use of these conventions. If it all of a sudden breaks its rhyme pattern, think about what point the poem is trying to make here, and how this relates to its content. If your poem is free verse and uses none of these conventions, you might find a more typical poem and compare the two.
Write about the conventions of drama if your text is a play. A typical dramatic text has a discernible plot, realistic characters, is told in chronological order and leaves the audience satisfied at the end, even if it ends in tragedy. Analyze how your play makes use of these conventions. It may contain a conventional plot but feature actors wandering offstage into the audience. Discuss how this affects the play's meaning. A good example of a non-traditional play is Beckett's "Waiting for Godot.”