| A | B |
|---|
| Explain | Make an idea clear. Logically show how a concept is developed. Give reasons for an event. |
| Illustrate | Give concrete examples. Explain clearly by using comparisons or examples. |
| Interpret | Comment on. Give examples and describe relationships. Explain the meaning. Describe the evaluate. |
| Outline | Describe main ideas, characteristics, or events. Can mean a rough list or can mean "to describe." |
| Prove | Support with facts, especially facts presented in the test or in class. |
| Relate | Show the connections between ideas or events. Provide a larger context. |
| State | Explain precisely. |
| Summarize | Give a brief condensed account. Include conclusions and avoid unnecessary details. |
| Analyze | Break into separate parts and discuss, examine, or interpret each part. |
| Compare | Examine two or more things. Identify similarities and differences. |
| Contrast | Show differences. Set in opposition. |
| Define | Give the meaning. Usually a meaning specific to the course or subject. |
| Describe | Give a detailed account. Make a picture with words. List characteristics, qualitites, and parts. |
| Discuss | Consider and debate or argue the pros and cons of an issue. Compare and contrast. |
| Evaluate | Give your opinion or cite the opinion of an expert. Include evidence to support. |
| Simile | uses the word like of as to compare two things. |
| Metaphor | Compares two things but does not use the word like or as. |
| Personification | Gives human traits to things that aren't living. |
| Sensory Details | Refer to the descriptions the author gives to appeal to the readers sense of smell, taste, sound, vision, or touch. |
| Irony | Shows a difference between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. |
| Repetition | Refers to sounds, words, lines, themes, and other literary elements that are mentioned more than once in a reading section/usually to emphasize an idea. |
| Rhyme | Refers to a close similarity in the sound of two or more words. It is used frequently in poetry. |
