| A | B |
|---|
| allegory | any writing that has a double meaning in which persons, abstract ideas or events represent not only themselves on the literal level. |
| anecdote | a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person; sometimes used as an introduction to a speech. |
| cliche | an idea or expression that has become tired and trite from overuse |
| connotation | meaning of a word that goes beyond the dictionary definition |
| crisis | an event or problem in a story that creates a dramatic change in the plot. |
| denotation | the dictionary definition of a word. |
| exaggeration | to make something larger, greater, worse or better than it really is. |
| fallacy | a mistaken belief |
| farce | a comic dramatic work using horseplay and typically including ludicrously improbable situations (i.e. Saturday Night Live) |
| flashback | a method in which action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events -- usually in the form of a character's memories or dreams. |
| foreshadowing | hinting or showing what will occur later in a narrative |
| generalization | broad in meaning, sometimes without support, as opposed to a focused, validated meaning |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement |
| idiom | expression in one language that cannot be matched word-for-word in another |
| irony | saying one thing and meaning another or when what you think will happen in a story is the opposite of what actually happens |
| oxymoron | using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level (ie. jumbo shrimp) |
| paradox | using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense |
| parody | imitates serious characteristics in order to make fun of those same features |
| pun | play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning (i.e. knight and night) |
| sarcasm | saying one thing but meaning another |
| satire | attack or criticism of any stupidity; can be scathing humor many times showing what the author sees as dangerous in religion, politics or social standards |
| suspense | tension that the author uses to create a feeling of discomfort about the unknown |
| syntax | orderly arrangement of words into sentences to express ideas |
| tragedy | serious play in which the chief character passes through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe |
| understatement | uses a statement in the negative to create the effect (i.e. "I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain." (Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger); opposite of a hyperbole |
