| A | B |
|---|
| alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of syllables as in Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers |
| assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end in different consonant sounds as in lime light |
| conflict | a struggle or problem in the plot of a poem, story or play |
| character | a person or animal who takes part in the action of a literary work |
| characterization | the act of creating or describing a character, by showing what they say, do and think, showing what other characters say about them, and by showing what physical features, dress and personality they display |
| climax | the point of highest interest and suspense in a literary work. It sometimes signals the turning point of the action in a story or play |
| dialogue | conversation involving two or more people or characters |
| epic | a long story, often told in verse, that tells of a culture's heroes and gods |
| external conflict | a struggle that takes place between a character and something outside that character such as another character, society or nature |
| first person | narrator (person telling the story) takes part in the action and refers to himself or herself using words such as I and we |
| foreshadowing | the act of hinting at events that will happen later in a literary work |
| imagery | language that creates concrete representations of an object or an experience - may appeal to your 5 senses |
| internal conflict | a struggle that takes place inside the mind of the character |
| irony | something happens that seems the opposite of what should happen |
| metaphor | a direct comparison of unlike things |
| mood | the feeling or emotion that the writer creates in a literary |
| motivation | a force that moves a character to think, feel, or behave in a certain way |
| myth | a story that explains the beginning of things or events in the natural world. These objects are explained as being caused by some supernatural force or being, often a god. |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words or phrases like meow or beep that sound like what they name |
| personification | a figure of speech in which something not human is described as if it were human |
| repetition | more than one use of a sound, word, or group of words |
| resolution | the point in a poem, story, or play at which the central conflict or struggle ends |
| rhythm | the pattern of beats in a line poetry or prose |
| setting | the time and place in which a literary work happens |
| simile | a comparison using like or as |
| symbol | a thing that stands for or represents both itself and something else |
| theme | a central idea in a literary work |
| third person point of view | in a story, when the narrator does not take part in the action and tells the story using words such as he and she and avoiding the use of I and we |
| flashback | going back in time - recalling memories |
| etymology | history of a word, changed, borrowed, adapted from another language |
| fiction | literary text - NOT true - created from the author's imagination |
| hyperbole | extreme exageration created for emphasis or humor (we had to hang a man to start the graveyard) |
| idiom | expression not meant to be taken literally (it was raining cats and dogs) |
| informational text | non-fiction (true, factual, or opinion) |
| perspective | how an author feels about a subject based on his past experiences |
| plot | what happens in a literary text |
| point of view | an author's opinion on an issue |
| pun | a play on words (you are two tents / you are too tense) |
| rhyming words | words that end with the same sound(s) |
| tone | the overall feeling that a literary selection presents to the reader |
| symbolism | something represents something else |
| allusion | a reference to a famous historical, religious, mythological, or literary person or event |
| argument | the way in which the author tries to persuade the reader using facts, examples, and reasons that are logical |
| autobiography | the story of someone's life written by that person |
| biography | the story of someone's life written by another person |
| caption | information found under or beside a picture, diagram, graph, etc to explain to the reader |
| flashback | going back in time |
| flashforward | going into the future |
| footnote | extra information given at the bottom of a page or text |
| genre | a certain kind of literature or writing (short story, poetry, frama, fable, autobiography, persuasive, expository, personal narrative |
| historical fiction | Literary text. A novel, story, or play set during a real historical time period that gives an idea of what life was really like at that time |
| inference | drawing a conclusion based on schema (background knowledge) and current information |
| introduction | the beginning or 1st paragraph (informational text) |
| literary text | "Fiction". Narrative text (tells a story) |
| main idea | what a passge is mostly about |
| meter | the "beat" (stressed and unstressed syllables) or rhythm pattern of lines of poetry |
