| A | B |
|---|
| Exposition | The background of a story usually presented at the beginning in order to understand the story properly. |
| Foreshadowing | Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story |
| Suspense | Nervous uncertainty; tension. |
| Rising Action | The events in a conflict that lead to a climax. |
| Climax | The point where forces in conflict meet; turning point. |
| Falling Action | The conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist; events that occur after the climax has been reached. |
| Resolution | When the falling action unwinds to conclusion—all ends are tied. |
| Conflict | A struggle between two or more forces. |
| Dénouement | When the falling action unwinds to conclusion—all ends are tied; another word for the resolution |
| Characterization | The way in which an author presents and defines characters. |
| Direct Characterization | When the writer makes direct statements about a character's personality and tells what the character is like. |
| Narrator | The voice that relates, or tells, the events; the speaker. |
| Conflict | A struggle between two or more forces. |
| Man v. Man Conflict | An external conflict where a character has an argument, disagreement, struggle, or other type of problem with another character. |
| Man v. Nature Conflict | An external conflict where a character has a problem with outside forces in nature such as weather, animals, and land. |
| Man v. Society Conflict | An external conflict where a character encounters a struggle with the laws or beliefs of a group |
| Implied Setting | The time and place of the story suggested by clues within the text. |
| Protagonist | The main character of story. |
| Antagonist | The person or force that opposes the main character. |
| Point of View | The perspective of a narrator. |
| First Person | The point of view where the narrator uses the pronoun "I." |
| Third Person | The point of view where the narrator uses the pronouns "he," "she," "it" or "they." |
| Theme | The meaning behind the story. |
| Tone | The attitude of the writer conveyed through writing. |
| Dialect | A particular form of a language or accent that is peculiar to a specific region or social group. |
| Plot | The sequence of events in a story. |
