Setting - soap operas are frequently set in middle, lower-middle and working class settings and largely based around leisure activities rather than typical work settings. For example the main soap operas have a pub such as Eastenders "Queen Vic" where alot of the characters interact and alot of the storylines converse. Hollyoaks is home of "The Dog" and Coronation Street have "The Rovers".
The plot and narrative setting - Soaps are usually episodice and reflective of life itself. Individual episodes tend to be written to achieve variety of moods and atmospheres. A cliff hanger ending is important, but there is an absence of 'closure' and the resolutions of problems or relationships.
For example an episode will often close with the most dramatic sequence like in Eastenders when 'Phil Mitchell' was shot.
Characterisation - Note the emphasis on the realism of a soap and on the domestic, social and sexual aspects of life. The treatment of the 'private' lives of individuals as well as the'public' community. is important. There is a varity of types of character(e.g. Jack the lad, Victim, Gossip,
Bully), and the sterotyping this includes(e.g. all single parents live deeply miserable and unhappy lives; the majority of husbands are unfaithful)
Themes and Issues - Some themes and issues dealt with in soaps are gender relationships; desire and transgression (what you'd like to do, what you try to get away with, and what you get punished for)the self in relation to the community and the 'education' of the individual into the values and life of the community. 'Soaps' may consciously foreground issues such as AIDS, homelessness, adoption, bereavement, domestic violence and more.
References http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1087193
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