Set 1
A work of art that uses the characters and tells the story originally presented in another work of art.
Adaptation
A story or tale with two or more levels of meaning—a literal level and one or more symbolic levels.
Allegory
The repetition of initial consonant sounds.
Alliteration
A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.
Allusion
A short speech delivered by a character in a play in order to express his or her true thoughts and feelings.
Aside
The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables.
Assonance
A form of nonfiction in which a writer tells the life story of another person.
Biography
A person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work.
Character
A relationship that shows how one event or situation leads to another.
Cause-and-Effect Relationship
Words or phrases that evoke strong positive or negative reactions.
Charged Language
A technique that is used to interrupt a serious part of a literary work by introducing a humorous character or situation.
Comic Relief
A character or force in conflict with a main character, or protagonist.
Antagonist
An unusual and surprising comparison between two very different things.
Conceit
A type of character, detail, image, or situation that appears in literature throughout history.
Archetype
A brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event told to entertain or to make a point.
Anecdote
The key message that the writer wants to communicate about a topic.
Claim
The act of creating and developing a character.
Characterization
Makes a comparison between two or more things that are similar in some ways but otherwise unalike.
Analogy
The main idea the author wants the audience to understand and remember.
Central Idea
His or her reason for writing.
Author's Purpose
A rhetorical device used in argumentative writing to persuade an audience.
Appeal
A form of nonfiction in which a writer tells his or her own life story.
Autobiography
Poetry written in unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.
Blank Verse
A form of parallelism that emphasizes strong contrasts.
Antithesis
A writing or speech that attempts to convince the reader to adopt a particular opinion or course of action.
Argument