| A | B |
|---|
| allusion | a reference to some event, person, place or artistic work, which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader's familiarity with what is mentioned |
| analogy | a partial similarity; example: the computer is like a brain |
| antagonist | the character that opposes the hero; villain |
| APA | a particular type of format for writing |
| autobiography | a story of one's life, narrated by himself/herself |
| bias | a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment |
| bibliography | the works or a list of the works referred to in a text or consulted by the author in its production |
| cause/effect | something or someone that brings about a particular result, and the result of that action or event; a text structure |
| character | a person or animal represented in or acting in a story, drama, etc. |
| cliche | a trite or overused expression |
| climax | the point of highest dramatic tenstion or a major turning point in the action (as of a novel) |
| compare/contrast | a literary technique of placing together like people, places, or ideas to show common or different features; a text structure |
| comprehension | accurately understanding what is written or said |
| conclusion | the last part of something; a result or outcome |
| conflict | the opposition of persons or forces that gives rise to the dramatic action in a drama or fiction |
| connotation | the emotional association suggested by the primary meaning of a word or phrase that affects its interpretation and meaning |
| context clue words | information from the immediate textual setting that assists in identifying a word or word group |
| context clues | information from the text that helps the reader identify a word or word group |
| crisis/turning moment | a point at which significant change occurs |
| denotation | a direct specific meaning of word |
| description | a composition in writing or speech that gives a picture of a character or event |
| dynamic character | a character marked by usually continuous and productive activity or change |
| example | one that serves as a pattern to be followed |
| expository text | a piece of writing that explains or informs |
| falling action | the events of a dramatic or narrative plot following the climax |
| flashback | the technique of disrupting the chronology of a narrative by shifting to an earlier time in order to introduce information |
| flat character | one that represents a single trait (or very few traits), such as a loyal sidekick |
| fluency | able to express oneself readily and effortlessly |
| foreshadowing | the techniique of giving clues to coming events in a body of writing |
| hyperbole | an intentionally exaggerated figure of speech, such as I have told you a million times |
| idiom | an expression that does not mean what it literally says, such as, "He put his foot in his mouth," meaning that he said something embarrassing |
| imagery | a set of mental pictures or images; the use of vivid and figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas |
| inference | the act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true |
| irony | the difference between appearance and reality; the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning; incongruence |
| irrelevancy | the quality or state of being unrelated to a matter being considered |
| jargon | speech or writing having unusual or pretentious vocabulary, convoluted phrasing, and vague meaning |
| main idea | the chief topic of a passage expressed or implied in a word or phrase |
| metaphor | a direct comparison which does not use the words like or as |
| MLA | a particular type of format for writing; Modern Language Association |
| mood | the emotional state of mind expressed by an author or artist in his or her work |
| narrative | a story that is told or written |
| onomatopoeia | using words that sound like their meaning, such as purr, buzz, or hiss |
| overstatement | to state in too strong terms; to exaggerate |
| paradox | an apparently contradictory statement that suggests a truth, such as life is but a dream; a self-contradictory, illogical statement |
| parallel episode | a single happening or group of happenings in a story that occur simultaneously with the main action of the story |
| paraphrase | a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form |
| personification | giving lifelife qualities to inanimate objects |
| persuasive text | writing that seeks to convince the reader to adopt a particular opinion or perform a certain action |
| plagiarism | the act of stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own; the use of another's production without crediting the source |
| point of view | the standpoint from which the actions of a poem or story are related |
| prefix | an affix attached in front of a word that changes its meaning, such as "re" in reprint |
| primary source | firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic, an event, a person's life, original works of literature, and historical facts |
| problem solution | a format for writing in which the author states a problem and a solution or solutions to solving the problem are offered; a text structure |
| propaganda | writing that directly advocates a certain doctrine as the solution to some social or political problem |
| protagonist | the leading character in a work of fiction |
| relevancy | relation to the matter at hand; staying within a task or topic |
| resolution | the outcome or solution of the plot |
| restatement | to state again in another way |
| retell | the process in which a reader, having read a story, describes what happened in it |
| rising action | the part of a literary work that begins with the expositon and sets the stage for the climax |
| root | the basic part of a word that usually carries the main component of meaning |
| round character | a complex character displaying inconsistencies and internal conflicts |
| satire | a kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform or of keeping others from falling into similary folly or vice |
| secondary source | published books or articles by an author who makes a pesonal interpretation about a topic based on primary sources |
| sequence | the order of events or particular occurrences |
| simile | an implied comparison using the words like or as |
| static character | one that does not undergo important change in the course of the story |
| stereotype | an author's method of treating a character so that the character is immediately identified with a group; a character may be associated with a group through accent, food choices, style of dress, or any readily identifiable group characteristic |
| structural analysis | an analysis of structure is an important aspect of explicating and understanding a work of fiction |
| subplots | a subordinate plot in a play |
| summarize | to cover the main points succinctly |
| suffix | an affix attached to a base or root word |
| symbolism | the use in literature, of objects, characters, and situations that represent something beyond themselves |
| supporting details | small pieces of information that one by one assist the reader in seeing the whole concept or picture; to use even the smallest or unimportant details to tell the full story |
| technical text | nonfiction writing that describes how to do a task |
| text features | graphic features of written material designed to assist the reader's understanding of the text (italics, sub-titles, etc) |
| theme | a central idea developed in a work of fiction; the unstated idea or topic in a discussion or writing; the main idea or proposition broad enough to cover the entire scope of literary or other works of art; underlying meaning of literary work |
| thesis/hypothesis | the statement that must be proven, supported, and/or defended in the body of the work |
| tone | the author's implicit attitude toward the reader or the people/places/events in a work |
| topic | a subject that people think, talk, and write about |
