| A | B |
|---|
| accented | A part of a word, phrase, or sentence spoken with greater force or a stronger tone |
| act | Part or section of a play, similar to a book chapter. Acts are usually made up of groups of scenes. |
| allegory | links the objects, characters, and events of a story with meanings beyond the literal meaning of the story. |
| alliteration | Occurs when two or more words have the same beginning sound. Example: Mike mixed some malt in his milk. |
| anadiplosis | The use of the ending word of a phrase or clause as the beginning or base word for the next one. Example: Pleasure might cause her to read, reading might cause her to know, knowledge might win piety, and piety might grace obtain. |
| analysis | Occurs when we look at and try to understand the parts of something so that we can better understnd the whole thing. |
| antithesis | Contrasting words or ideas by asserting something and then denying by parallel or balanced phrases. Example: This soup should be eaten cold, not hot. |
| assonance | Occurs when an internal vowel sound is repeated in two or more words. Example: He feeds the deer. |
| author's purpose | Authors write for four main purposes: to entertain, to inform, to express their opinions, and to persuade. |
| ballad | A long poem that tells a story. Ballads usually have strong rhythm and thyme. |
| biography | Gives a factural account of someone's life. |
| autobiography | When the writer tells of his or her own life in a factual account. |
| cast of characters | List of names of all the characters in a play. |
| cause and effect | Sometimes an event or circumstance makes another event or circumstance happen. |
| characters | People or animals in a story or other writing. |
| chiasmsus | Change or word order to get the reader's attention and to highlight some thing. Example: Down he fell |
| chronological order | The telling of a group of events in the time order in which they happened. |
| cliche' | An overused phrase. |
| comparison | Points out the ways in which two or more things are alike or similar. |
| conclusions | A decision made after considering several pieces of information. The information may include facts from the reading and ideas that the reader already had. |
| conflict | The problem the characters face in the plot. This can be a problem between two characters or betweeen a character and something in nature or society. Sometimes this makes the character choose between two important ideas. |
| contrast | Points out the ways in which two or more things are different. |
| description | A group of details the writer gives that help the reader imagine a person, place, ofbect, or event. The details help create a picture in the reader's mind. |
| dialogue | A conversation between characters in a story or play. |
| drama | A story written to be acted out in front of an audience. Another word for drama is play. |
| epic | A long narrative poem about the deeds of a hero. |
| fact | A statement that can be proven. |
| fairy tale | An imaginary story about fairies, elves, magical deeds, giants, etc. |
| fantasy | A story that has imagined characters, setting or other elements that could never really exist. |
| fiction | A form of literature that tells stories about characters, settings, and events that the writer invents. The story may be based on some real places, people, or events but it is not a true, factual story about them. |
| figure of speech | Words or phrases that have meaning different from the literal meaning, such as idioms, metaphors, and similes. |
| folk tale | A story about people or animals that has been handed down from one generation to the next. These stories often explain something that exists in nature or they tell about a hero. |
| form | The structure or arrangement of elements of literature. |
| generalization | A statement about a whole group that is made based on information about part of a group. |
| genre | A category or type of writing, such as fiction and nonfiction, biography, adventrue, and science fiction. |
| historical fiction | Uses details about real places, events, and times frm history as the setting for an imagined story. |
| hyperbole | An exaggeration. Example: He must have been nine feet tall. |
| idiom | An expression that cannot be understood fromt he literal meaning of its words. Example: Tom is barking up the wrong tree. |
| imagery | The author's use of description and words to create vivid pictures or images in the reader's mink. Example: A blanket of soft snow covered the sleeping tractors. |
| inference | A guess or conclusion based on known facts and hints or evidence. Sometimes readers use information from experience to help make inferences about what they are reading. |
| irony | The use of tone, exaggeration, or understatement to suggest the opposite of the literal meaning of the words used. Example: I didn't mind waiting two hours, it was restful. |
| kenning | A short metaphor for a thing that is not actually named. |
| litote | An understatement or assertion made by denying or negating its opposite. Example: He wasn't unhappy about winning the bet. |
| main idea | The one idea that all the sentences in a paragraph tell about. Sometimes this is stated in a topic sentence; sometimes it is not stated but is implied. |
| metaphor | The comparison of two things without using the words "like" or "as." Example: Habits are first cobwevs, then cables. |
| sense metaphor | Relates one of the five senses to an object or situaion. Example: a cool reception |
| frozen metaphor | A metaphor so frequently used that it has become an idiom or an expression with understood but not literal meaning. Example: head of the class |
| humanistic metaphor | Gives inanimate abjects human qualities or humans inanimate qualities. Example: a user-friendly computer; her porcelain skin |
| inanimate metaphor | Pairs the quality of an inanimate ovject with another inanimate object. |
| abstract metophor | Links an abstract concept with an object. Example Death is the pits. |
| animal metaphor | Associates the characteristics of an animal with a human or object. Example What a teddy bear he is! |
| incarnation metaphor | Links the attributes of a deceased person to another person or entity. Example He is a modern George Washington. |
| metonymy | The use of a related word in place of what is really being talked about. Example: "pen" instead of "writing" |
| moral | The lesson that a story or fable teaches. Sometimes in fables this is stated at the end of the story. |
| motive | a reason a charcter does something |
| narrative poetry | Poetry that tells a story. |
| narrator | The teller of a story. |
| novel | A long work of fiction. |
| ode | A poem written in praise of someone or something. |
| onomatopoeia | Words in which the sounds suggest the meaning of the words. Example: ouch |
| opinion | A statements of someone's idea or feelings. This idea or feeling cannot be proven. This idea or feeling may be based on facts. |
| oxymoron | The use of words with contradictory or clashing ideas next ot one another. Example: free slaves |
| personification | The linking of a human quality or ability to an animal, object, or idea. Example: The wind whispered throught the night. |
| plot | Or storyline. The group of events that happen in order to solve the problem or conflict in the story. |
| poetry | An expression of ideas or feeling in words. Poetry usually has form, rhythm, and rhyme. |
| point of view | Refers to how the story is narrated. First person narration--the narrator is a character in the story and uses the first-person pronouns I, me, mine, we and our. If the story is narrated from the third-person, the narrator is not part of the story and uses the third-person pronouns he, him, she, her, and them. |
| predictions | The use of facts in the story and other information you know about the world to guess what will happen. |
| rhyme | Two or more words that have the same ending sound. |
| rhythm | A pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. |
| science fiction | A type of story that is based on science-related ideas. Some of the scientific "facts" and developments in science fiction are not real and may never be possible. |
| sequence | The order in which events occur or ideas are presented |
| setting | The time and place in which the story happens. |
| simile | A comparison of two things using the words "like" or "as." Example: She felt as limp as a rag doll. |
| solution | The turning point in a storyline or plot. It is the part in which a decision or important discovery is made or an important event happens that will solve the story's problem oe end the conflict. The solution is called the resolution or the climax of the plot. |
| stage directions | What tells actors how to perform their parts of a play. They describe movements, tone, use of props, lighting, and other details. |
| stanza | A group of related lines in a poem. |
| theme | The message about life or nature that the author wants the reader to get grom the story, play, or poem. |
| topic sentence | A sentence, often at the beginning of a paragraph, that presents the main idea, theme, mood, or summary. |
