Literary Vocabulary Terms
The underlying message or lesson of a story.
What is theme?
Headings, captions, maps, and diagrams that help the reader.
What are text features?
An educated guess based on text evidence and background knowledge.
What is an inference?
To break down and examine the text closely.
What is analyze?
Explains why something happened and what happened.
What is cause and effect?
The main problem in the story.
What is conflict or problem?
The primary point of a section or text.
What is the main idea?
The figurative language that compares two things using "like/as."
What is a simile?
Facts or quotes from the text that prove an answer.
What is supporting details or evidence?
Explains how two or more elements are similar and different.
What is compare and contrast?
How the conflict is solved.
What is resolution or solution?
Supporting facts and evidence.
What are key details?
This compares two things directly, not using "like/as."
What is a metaphor?
To briefly retell the main points.
What is summarization?
Focuses on the order of events or steps in a process (e.g., first, next, finally).
What is sequential or chronological order?
First-person (I, me) or third-person (he, she, they).
What is point of view?
Why the text was written (persuade, inform, entertain).
What is the author's purpose?
Giving human qualities to animals or objects.
What is personification.
To explain the meaning of something.
What is interpret?
This text structure starts with a general statement or main idea and then it breaks it down into specific details or examples.
What is General-to-Specific?
Techniques to show past events or hint at future ones.
What is flashback/foreshadowing?
How information is organized (e.g., cause/effect, chronological, compare/contrast).
What is text structure?
Repetition of beginning consonant sounds.
What is alliteration?
A writing task that requires using evidence from the text to answer a prompt.
What is a TDA (Text-Dependent Analysis)?
This text structure explains a topic by describing its parts, which eventually form a complete picture.
What is Part-to-Whole?