Literary Devices
Identify the figure of speech:
"Her smile was like a sunbeam, warming the entire room."
What is simile?
A group of words with a subject and predicate that expresses a complete thought.
What is an independent clause?
The author's attitude toward the subject or audience
What is tone?
What type of essay tries to convince the reader of a specific point of view?
What is a persuasive (or argumentative) essay?
A word meaning “unclear, open to more than one interpretation.”
What is ambiguous?
Excerpt from the poem Mirror by Sylvia Plath:
“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful,”
What is personification?
Identify the type of error: "Neither of the boys are going to the game."
What is subject-verb agreement?
A narrative work or writing style that mocks or mimics another genre or work.
What is parody?
the central argument or main idea that the writer will be exploring and supporting throughout the essay
What is thesis?
Identify the meaning of obfuscate based on this sentence: "The politician tried to obfuscate the issue with vague language."
What is to make something unclear or confusing intentionally?
When someone falls over for the tenth time while ice-skating and says, “I meant to do that,” is an example of.
What is Irony?
A sentence with one independent clause and one or more dependent clause.
What is a complex sentence?
Usually located at the beginning of a text, this is a detailed discussion introducing characters, setting, background information, etc. readers might need to know in order to understand the text that follows.
What is exposition?
The three primary appeals used in persuasion for rhetorical writing
What is pathos, ethos, and logos?
"Despite his best efforts to appear confident, his voice began to quaver as he addressed the audience."
Question: What does the word quaver most likely mean in this sentence?
What is to tremble or shake, especially in speech?
“That’s my Achilles’ heel” is an example of.
What is allusion?
The grammatical term for the use of similar grammatical structures in a sentence.
What is parallelism?
What the author creates when he evokes the senses.
What is imagery?
A comparison between two different things to highlight some similarity.
What is analogy?
"The witness gave a lucid account of the accident, making it easy for the jury to understand what had happened."
Question: What does the word lucid suggest about the witness’s explanation?
What is clear and easy to understand?
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" is an example of.
What is alliteration?
a noun or noun phrase placed next to another noun to further identify or clarify it "Neil Armstrong, the first American to walk on the moon, was born in..."
What is an appositive?
An object or element incorporated into a narrative to represent another concept or concern. e.g. "The Scarlet Letter"
What is symbolism?
Winston Churchill's speech "“we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,” is an example of.
What is repetition?
"Her altruistic nature led her to volunteer every weekend at the animal shelter."
Question: Based on the context, what does altruistic most likely mean?
Answer: What is selfless or concerned for the well-being of others?