Term
| Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds or letters. |
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Definition
| Little Lucy licked the lolly pop. |
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Term
| Antagonist: The character or force that opposes the protagonist (main character) in a story. |
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Definition
| One antagonist in Star Wars is Darth Vader. |
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Term
| Audience: The person or group of people that a writer or author is writing for. |
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Definition
| The audience laughed at the sitcom. |
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Term
| Bias: An unfair preference or dislike of something/someone; a personal belief or stance on a subject. |
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Definition
| The grumpy old Asian man was very bias towards other races. |
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Term
| Character: The fictional people an author creates in a story or poem; a character can be complex (round),simple (flat), change a lot (dynamic), or remain unchanged (static). |
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Definition
| Homer Simpson is a fictional character in a story. |
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Term
| Climax: The high point of tension or suspense in a story; the decisive moment or turning point in a story; an author writes a story that builds towards a climax; the climax often determines the outcome of the conflict. |
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Definition
| The climax in Pineapple Express is when they get captured and have to escape. |
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Term
| Conflict: Conflict occurs when the protagonist is opposed by some person or force in a story; conflict might be character vs. character, character vs. nature, character vs. self; conflict might be internal, external, or both. |
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Definition
| The conflict in Power Rangers are the monsters that appear. |
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Term
| Dialogue: Speech that occurs between two or more characters in a story; dialogue is typically indicated by using quotation marks. |
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Definition
| "Put that down" said the father. |
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Term
| Emphasis: What a writer wishes to stress in his or her writing; emphasis might be simply words in bold italics or underlined, or ideas that are repeated; emphasis indicates something is important. |
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Definition
| Peter Griffin is the worlds worst father. (Emphasis on worst) |
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Term
| Exaggeration: To make something larger or greater than it actually is; we tend to exaggerate things that we think are important. |
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Definition
| Dave had a slight exaggeration on the story he told about getting drunk on Friday. |
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Term
| Expository/Exposition: Non-fiction writing that contains a main idea and one or more paragraphs (often an essay). Another word for expository is explain; the writer of an expository story tries to explain something. |
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Definition
| I wrote a great expository essay on how to build a pipe bomb. |
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Term
| Fantasy: A kind of writing that does not closely resemble reality or portray realistic situations or settings. |
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Definition
| The movie we went to go see was pure fantasy. |
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Term
| Figurative language: A way of saying one thing and meaning something else; poet's use figurative language when writing poetry; some common examples of figurative language are simile, metaphor, and personification. |
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Definition
| The bard spoke in a figurative language we couldn't understand. |
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Term
| Flashback: This is where the writer presents information that happened before the story; a flashback might be a character's dream, memory of the past, or story of a past event. |
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Definition
| Timothy awoke to a terrifying flashback of crashing his quad while trying a jump. |
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Term
| Foreshadowing: The method an author uses to build suspense by providing clues as to what might happen in a story. |
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Definition
| Many horror movies foreshadow to leave the ending suspenseful. |
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Term
| Formal language: Language that follows the conventions of formal spelling, puncuation, and grammar; formal writing is typically used in education and business. |
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Definition
| Any business letter you write must be in formal language. |
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Term
| Free verse: A kind of poem that does not have many of the standard poetic features, like stanzas of equal length, rhyme, or regular rhythm; free verse poetry is meant to more closely reflect spoken English. |
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Definition
| Verse composed of variable, usually un-rhymed lines having no fixed metrical pattern. |
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Term
| Hyperbole: A type of figurative language where the writer deliberately exaggerates for emphasis. |
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Definition
| I'm so hungry my stomach feels like its eating itself. |
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Term
| Image/Imagery: A word or group of words in a story or poem which appeals to one or more senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell. |
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Definition
| Describing anything within detail, in a way that appeals to one or more senses. |
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Term
| Informal language: Relaxed, conversational English, the kind you would use when talking to a friend, or when sending a text message; you would not want to use informal language in a business letter, but you would with your friends. |
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Definition
| Easier shortened versions of words or sentences. |
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Term
| Irony: The difference between what is said and what is meant, or what we expect to happen and what actually happens; sarcasm is a kind of irony, where the words said are not really what is meant. |
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Definition
| Sarcasm is a kind of irony, where the words said are not really what is meant. |
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Term
| Literal language: Language (or words) a writer uses that does not have "hidden" meanings. |
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Definition
| The weather today is cloudy and windy. |
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Term
| Main idea: The subject of a piece of writing; main idea is similar to theme; works of non-fiction (like a newspaper article) have a main idea, but works of literature (like a novel or poem) have a theme. |
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Definition
| The subject of a piece of writing. |
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Term
| Metaphor: A type of figurative language where the writer compares two essentially unlike things; a metaphor is a direct comparison. |
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Definition
| She is the sunshine of my life. |
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Term
| Mood: The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work. |
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Definition
| How a story or movie makes you feel. |
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Term
| Myth: A kind of story that cannot be verified or proven to be true; a myth is a very old story that has often been passed on through the ages. |
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Definition
| Greek mythology bases itself around heroes and supernatural events. |
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Term
| Narrative: A narrative might be a novel or a short story, or even a narrative essay where the writer might be telling a true story; some poems can also be narrative. |
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Definition
| The kind of writing that tells a story. |
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Term
| onomatopoeia: A type of figurative language where the writer uses words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes. |
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Definition
| The word buzz is used to describe the sound of an bee. |
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Term
| Parallelism/Parallel structure: A writer's repetition of words, phrases, or sentences using the same structure. |
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Definition
| The cat licked her paws, chased a mouse, and went to sleep. |
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Term
| Personification:A type of figurative language where the writer gives an inanimate or non-living thing human characteristics. |
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Definition
| The tree branches waved and the leaves danced in the wind. |
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Term
| Plot: The structure of a story; or the sequence of events that happen in a story. |
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Definition
| The events that occur in a story. |
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Term
| Point of view: The voice or speaker in a story; a story can be told in the first person (where a character tells the story from his or her perspective-this is indicated by "I"), or a story can be told in third person, telling things from the perspective of an onlooker; the third person point of view can be omniscient (where the author reveals everything), or limited omniscient (where an author will select what to reveal, often only the point of view of one character). |
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Definition
| The point of view in which the story is being told. (First or third person). |
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Term
| Protagonist: The central, or main character in a story; all that happens in a story revolves around the protagonist. |
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Definition
| In Romeo and Juliet everything that happens in the story revolves around them. |
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Term
| Purpose: Why a writer writes; a writer's purpose may be to express an opinion (like in a letter to the editor in a newspaper); a writer's purpose may be to entertain, or inform, or teach; theme can often be an important part of purpose. |
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Definition
| The writer's inspiration/drive to write. |
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Term
| Repetition: Where a writer reuses or repeats something in his or her writing; repetition could include the refrain in a poem (or the chorus in a song), an important idea, or an important word or phrase; repetition, when done well by a writer, is obvious, but not distracting to the reader. |
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Definition
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Term
| Rhyme: The repetition of similar sounds at the end of two or more lines of poetry. |
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Definition
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Term
| Run-on sentence: A sentence made up of two independent clauses (or two separate sentences) joined together but not punctuated properly. |
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Definition
| I went to the store and then I went to the theater. |
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Term
| Scientific language: A kind of writing that uses precise scientific words and terms; scientific language would be used when writing a lab report in biology, or by a doctor if he were talking to a patient. |
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Definition
| Photosynthesis, and osmosis is scientific language. |
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Term
| Scientific fragment: An incomplete sentence. |
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Definition
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Term
| Setting: The time and place (or when and where) of story or other narrative prose. |
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Definition
| The setting of the office is in Scranton Pennsylvania. |
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Term
| Simile: A type of figurative language where the writer compares two essentially using like, than, or as; a simile is an indirect comparison. |
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Definition
| Your teeth are as green as the grass. |
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Term
| Standard English: Regular, common English, as opposed to slang or other kinds of informal language; standard English is what we use when we communicate in writing, like an essay. |
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Definition
| The assignments you do in English class are in standard English. |
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Term
| Stanza: A "paragraph" of poetry; a stanza in a poem is typically indicated by a blank line. |
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Definition
| Each paragraph in a poem is a stanza. |
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Term
| Stereotype: An author's method of treating a character so that the character is immediately identified with a group. |
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Definition
| Jocks, geeks, preps, etc. |
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Term
| Suspense: The tension an author creates in a story or narrative poem. |
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Definition
| Action movies tend to have a lot of suspense to keep your interested. |
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Term
| Symbol/Symbolism: Something that on the surface is its literal self but which also has another meaning or even several meanings. |
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Definition
| The color white might symbolize surrender. |
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Term
| Technical language: Language that is different from everyday spoken or written English. |
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Definition
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Term
| Theme: The main idea that an author develops in a story or poem; the theme of a story or poem becomes more obvious as the text progresses. |
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Definition
| The main idea/reason an author will write something. |
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Term
| Tone: Tone expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject; the tone of a story might be angry, or bitter; the words a writer uses will help you identify tone better. |
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Definition
| The author's attitude towards whatever they may be writing. |
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Term
| Understatement: A statement which lessens or minimizes the importance of what is meant. |
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Definition
| The Pacific ocean is a big pond. |
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