| A | B |
|---|
| author's purpose | Why the author wrote this particular work |
| personal narrative | a true story or account of a single incident in an author's life |
| essay | a short nonfiction composition on one topic |
| narrator | the character who tells the story |
| imagery | concrete words or details that appeal to the five senses or internal feelings |
| figurative language | various literary terms used to create pictures in the reader' mind-similes, metaphors, etc. |
| alliteration | the repetition of the same sounds in any sequence of neighboring words |
| onomatopoeia | the use of a word or words to imitate the sound of the thing being described |
| personification | figure of speech in which a lifeless thing is treated or described as if alive |
| article | a non-fiction literary composition that forms an independent part of a publication |
| myth | traditional tales abouts gods and goddesses often telling of the cretion of the universe |
| legend | story handed down through generations often thought to be at least partially historically true |
| climax | high point in the plot where the reader is most intrigued and does not yet know the outcome |
| conflict | the struggle between opposing forces in a piece of literature |
| resolution/denouement | solution or outcome of the conflict in a story; how the story is resolved |
| exposition | the beginning portion of the plot where characters and background information are presented |
| humor | words or actions that provoke smiles or laughter |
| inversion | a change in normal word order |
| irony | the contrast between what the speaker says and what is meant (verbal) or what the speaker expects and what actually happend (dramatic) |
| mood and tone | the mood, general character, atmosphere, and basic qualities conveyed by the writer or feeling within a selection |
| parody | a literary or artistic work that broadly mimics/imitates an author's style and holds it up for ridicule |
| protagonist | main character, hero or heroine in a written work |
| antagonist | person who competes with the protagonist and is often the villain |
| satire | literature that uses wit or humor to make fun of social conditions often for the purpose of bringing about change |
| style | the way an author charastically expresses himself |
