| A | B |
|---|
| aim | the writers purpose or goal (e.g. to inform, to tell a story, to reflect, to share, to perusade) |
| alliteration | the repitition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of syllables |
| character | person or animal that takes part in a literary work (main character called protagonist; character that struggles against the main character called an antagonist) |
| characterization | act of creating or describing a character. Major ways an author creates characters: 1. what the characters say; 2. what the characters do; 3. what the characters think; 4. what other characters say about them; 5. what physical features, dress, and personality the characters display.) |
| climax | the point of highest interest and suspense in a literary work |
| conflict | a struggle between two people or things in a literary work |
| foreshadowing | hinting at events that will happen later in a literary work |
| imagery | a vivid mental picture created in the reader’s mind by language that creates a concrete representation of an object or experience (painting a picture with words) |
| metaphor | a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken or written about as if it were another (It invites the reader to make a comparison between two things.) |
| mood | the feeling or emotion a writer creates in a literary work |
| narrator | a person or character who tells a story |
| personal essay | a short nonfiction work related to the writer’s life |
| personification | a figure of speech in which something not human is described as if it were human |
| plot | a series of events related to a central conflict or struggle |
| point of view | vantage point from which a story is told If a story is told from the first- person point of view, the narrator uses the pronouns I and we and is a part of or witness to the action. When a story is told from the third- person point of view, the narrator is outside the action and uses words such as he, she, it, they. |
| repetition | more than one use of a sound, a word, or group of words. |
| resolution | point in a play, poem, or story in which the central conflict, or struggle, ends |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem. The rhyme scheme is usually represented with letters (e.g. every other line rhyming is abab). |
| setting | the time and place in which a literary work happens |
| suspense | a feeling of anxiousness or curiosity |
| simile | a comparison using like, as, or than |
| theme | a central idea in a literary work |
| tone | a writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject or the reader |
