Literary Devices
A comparison using “like” or “as.” A comparison without using “like” or “as.”
What is a simile? What is a metaphor?
What is read the entire passage?
When and where a story takes place.
What is setting?
The turning point or most intense moment in a story.
What is the climax?
A statement of the author’s ideas or beliefs that they are trying to convince their readers of.
What is claim?
Language that appeals to the senses; it helps the reader create pictures in their heads.
What is imagery?
A testing skill in which you cross out the incorrect answers before deciding on the correct one.
What is the process of elimination?
Hints or clues about future events in a story.
What is foreshadowing?
A contradiction between what the reader expects and what actually happens.
What is irony?
Facts, examples, details, and direct quotes that support an author’s claim.
What is evidence?
Giving human qualities to nonhuman things.
What is personification?
A word that means the same as another word. A word that means the opposite of another word.
What is a synonym? What is an antonym?
A struggle between opposing forces in a story; the driving force of every story.
What is conflict?
The main thing a text or passage is about.
What is main/central idea?
The thinking process used to explain how your evidence supports your claim.
What is reasoning?
A reference to a famous person, place, event, or work of literature.
What is an allusion?
The information that surrounds an unfamiliar word; they help you determine the meaning of words you don't know.
What are context clues?
When the reader knows something the characters in the text do not know.
What is dramatic irony?
The main message or lesson of a story.
What is theme?
This summarizes your thesis and each part of your claim; it connects your essay back to the real world.
What is a conclusion?
An exaggeration used to emphasize a point.
What is a hyperbole?
A conclusion based on your previous knowledge and reasoning or based on provided context clues.
A character who changes throughout the story and a character who stays the same throughout the story.
What is a dynamic character and a static character?
The narrator’s attitude toward the subject or audience; and the feeling or atmosphere created by a story.
What is tone? What is mood?
The sentence at the beginning of each paragraph that details what it's about.
What is a topic sentence?