Literary Devices
A figure of speech which endows inanimate objects with human traits or abilities.
What is personification?
A figure in which similarity between two objects is directly expressed; the objects are joined by some overt indicator of resemblance such as "like" or "as."
What is simile?
The story of a person's life as written by that person.
What is autobiography?
The quality or set of emotions that a speaker or writer enacts in order to affect an audience.
What is ethos?
The author's attitude toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work as expressed through diction.
What is tone?
An exaggeration or overstatement.
What is hyperbole?
An analogy identifying one object with another and ascribing to the first object one or more qualities of the second.
What is metaphor?
The informational text structure in the following example:
"The type of government created after the American Revolution included the ideals of protecting individual liberties while at the same time preserving the collective order of society. To that end, a government based on combining popular consent, separation of powers, and federalism were created."
What is problem/solution?
The author tells the story in the third person and yet presents it as it is seen and understood by a single character, restricting information to what the character sees, hears, feels, and thinks.
What is limited point of view?
The use of words on oral or written discourse.
What is diction?
The use of one object to represent or suggest another.
What is symbolism?
Words that by their sound suggest their meaning.
What is onomatopoeia?
The informational text structure in the following example:
"Some customers like the conveniences offered by big banks including, computerized banking, multiple branches, and a large network of ATM machines. Other customers prefer small banks that often times offer more personalized service and are better connected to their communities."
What is compare/contrast?
The art of persuasion, dealing with the presentation of ideas in clear, persuasive language.
What is rhetoric?
The rule-governed arrangement of words in sentences.
What is syntax?
The patterning of vowel sounds without regards to consonants.
Example: "lake" and "fate"
What is assonance?
A self-contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units.
What is oxymoron?
A short narrative detailing particulars on an interesting episode or event; lays claim on an element of truth.
What is anecdote?
The vantage point from which an author presents a work of fiction where the narrator is capable of knowing, seeing, and telling all.
What is omniscient point of view?
A broad term referring to the recognition of a reality different from appearance; in its verbal form, it is a figure of speech in which the actual intent is expressed in words that carry the opposite meaning.
What is irony?
The identity of terminal sound between accented syllables, usually occupying corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse.
What is rhyme?
A use of words peculiar to a given language; an expression that cannot be translated literally.
What is idiom?
A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic, divided into the basic subcategories "informal" and "formal."
What is essay?
A type of evidence based on the drawing of rules of practice not from theory but from experience; equivalent to "experimental" evidence or scientific knowledge.
What is empirical?
A device in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences.
Hint: It is not "repetition" itself, but a type of repetition. This one's intentionally difficult just to keep you on your toes. You can thank my studying for literary criticism. :-)
What is anaphora?