Literary Elements
This is the "big idea" or the lesson the author wants you to learn from a story.
What is the Theme?
This is the most important point the author is making in a text.
What is the Main Idea?
Use this punctuation mark to separate items in a list or before a conjunction in a compound sentence.
What is a Comma?
When writing an essay, this is the first paragraph where you state your main claim.
What is the Introduction?
This is the part of a word added to the beginning of a root word to change its meaning (like un- in unhappy).
What is a Prefix?
This term refers to the perspective from which a story is told, such as First-Person or Third-Person.
What is Point of View?
An author uses this text structure to explain how two things are alike and how they are different.
What is Compare and Contrast?
These are words that have the same, or nearly the same, meaning as another word.
What are Synonyms?
When you use the exact words from the text, you must put them inside these.
What are Quotation Marks?
This is the part of a word added to the end of a root word to change its meaning (like -ful in joyful).
What is a Suffix?
When you use clues from the story plus what you already know to "read between the lines."
What is making an Inference?
These are the facts, examples, or details an author uses to prove their point.
What is Supporting Evidence?
List all the coordinating conjunctions
What is FANBOYS? for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
These words (like however, therefore, or next) help your writing flow from one idea to another.
What are Transitions?
If the Greek root "bio" means "life" and the root "graph" means "to write," this is a book written about a person’s life.
What is a Biography?
To provide a summary of a story, you should include these main parts of the plot.
What is exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution?
When you tell the main points of a text in your own words, keeping it short.
What is Summarizing?
This is the part of the sentence that tells "who" or "what" the sentence is about.
What is the Subject? or Noun?
In an opinion piece, this is the sentence that clearly states your position.
What is a Thesis Statement (or Claim)?
This reference book is used to find synonyms and antonyms to make your writing more interesting.
What is a Thesaurus?
This specific type of figurative language gives human qualities to non-human things (e.g., "The wind whispered").
What is Personification?
This text feature, found at the top of a section, tells the reader what that specific section is about.
What is a Heading (or Subheading)?
You use these "clues" found in the sentences around an unknown word to figure out its meaning.
What are Context Clues?
To get a perfect score on an informational essay, you must cite evidence from this many different sources if the prompt provides multiple passages.
What is Both (or all provided sources)?
These are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings, such as their, there, and they're.
What are Homophones?