Theme & Central Idea
This is the universal message or lesson in a text.
What is a theme?
The people, animals, or beings in a story.
What are characters?
These help readers determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.
What are context clues?
Looking for patterns, recurring ideas, and important details helps readers identify this.
What is a theme?
The main argument of an essay or speech.
What is a claim?
This is the specific idea the author develops throughout a text.
What is the central idea?
The time and place in which a story occurs.
What is setting?
The dictionary definition of a word.
What is denotation?
The author's reason for writing a text.
What is author's purpose?
Facts, examples, and quotations used to support a claim.
What is evidence?
Authors support themes using this from the text.
What is textual evidence?
The struggle between opposing forces in a text.
What is conflict?
The emotional association connected to a word.
What is connotation?
The attitude an author has toward a subject.
What is tone?
The speaker's or writer's attitude toward a subject.
What is tone?
Themes such as freedom, equality, and independence are common examples of this type of idea.
What is a universal theme?
The narrator's position from which a story is told.
What is point of view?
Prefixes, suffixes, and roots help readers determine this.
What is a word's meaning?
A conclusion based on clues from the text and prior knowledge.
What is an inference?
This sentence clearly states the writer's position and guides the entire essay.
What is a thesis statement?
Looking at how two texts develop the same theme requires this skill.
What is comparison?
This literary device allows an object to represent a larger idea.
What is symbolism?
The use of words in a nonliteral way to create meaning.
What is figurative language?
Determining whether evidence is strong, relevant, and sufficient is part of this skill.
What is evaluating an argument?
This part of a body paragraph explains how the evidence supports the writer's claim.
What is analysis (or commentary)?