Literary Techniques
This technique directly compares two unlike things without using "like" or "as," implying one thing is another.
What is a metaphor?
This persuasive technique involves repeating a word or phrase for emphasis and impact.
What is repetition?
In film or print media, this term describes how a shot or image is arranged, including the placement of subjects and objects within the frame.
What is composition?
This term describes who is telling the story and through whose eyes events are experienced.
What is (narrative) perspective or point of view?
This technique repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words for effect.
What is alliteration?
This technique uses an object, image, or event to represent a broader idea or theme that recurs throughout a text.
What is a symbol (symbolism)?
This technique appeals to the audience's emotions in order to persuade or influence their response.
What is emotive language (or an appeal to emotion/pathos)?
This camera technique, positioning the viewer to look down on a subject, often makes that subject appear small, weak, or powerless.
What is a high-angle shot?
This narrative technique interrupts the chronological flow of a story to show an earlier event.
What is a flashback?
This device uses words that imitate the sound they describe, such as "buzz" or "crash."
What is onomatopoeia?
This device gives human qualities, emotions, or actions to non-human things, objects, or ideas.
What is personification?
This technique uses statistics, expert opinion, or verifiable facts to strengthen an argument's credibility.
What is an appeal to logic (logos) / use of evidence?
This term describes the use of colour, lighting, and shading in a visual text to create mood or symbolism.
What is colour/lighting (visual composition)?
This narrative technique gives the audience knowledge that a character in the story does not have, creating tension or humour.
What is dramatic irony?
This technique repeats the same vowel sound within nearby words, often used to create rhythm or mood.
What is assonance?
This technique involves the recurring use of an image, phrase, or idea throughout a text to reinforce a theme.
What is a motif?
This term describes the author's attitude toward their subject or audience, conveyed through word choice and style.
What is tone?
This technique combines written text, image, and sometimes audio or layout to convey meaning across multiple modes at once.
What is a multimodal text?
This term refers to how a text is organised or sequenced, including its beginning, development, and resolution.
What is structure?
This poetic device gives a text a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables or beats.
What is rhythm (meter)?
This device hints at events or outcomes that will occur later in a text, building tension or anticipation.
What is foreshadowing?
This technique poses a question not to seek an answer but to provoke thought or emphasise a point.
What is a rhetorical question?
In advertising or media, this term describes the specific group a text is designed to appeal to or influence.
What is the target audience?
This term describes a narrator who is involved in the story's events, often using "I," compared to one who is not.
What is a first-person narrator?
This technique deliberately exaggerates for effect and is not meant to be taken literally.
What is hyperbole?
This literary technique places two contrasting ideas, characters, or images side by side to highlight their differences.
What is juxtaposition?
This term describes the level of formality in language use, which shifts depending on audience, purpose, and context.
What is register?
This term describes where the eye is drawn first in a visual text, often achieved through size, colour contrast, or placement.
What is a focal point?
This technique involves telling a story out of chronological order, often to build suspense or reveal information strategically.
What is non-linear narrative (structure)?
This device involves saying the opposite of what is meant, often to create a humorous or critical effect.
What is irony?