Literary Devices
Authors use this device to magnify emotion or create a comedic effect through an overstatement.
What is a hyperbole?
The apex/turning point in the plot of any story.
What is the climax?
This is a type of essay that seeks to explain, inform, or describe a specific topic to a reader.
What is an expository essay?
This punctuation mark can be used in place of a comma when separating items in a list.
What is a semicolon?
In Of Mice and Men, what do George and Lennie dream of being able to do one day?
What is owning their own farm (and tending to rabbits)?
This device is often used in plays and occurs when the audience knows more than the characters on stage.
What is dramatic irony?
This element is established through the narrator and the use of pronouns in the description parts of the story.
What is point of view?
This specific part of a rhetorical appeal relies on logic, facts, and structured reasoning to make an argument.
What is logos?
This grammatical error occurs when two independent clauses are joined only with a comma and no coordinating conjunction.
What is a comma splice?
This object in Lord of the Flies symbolizes order and civilization.
What is the conch shell?
This device involves a play on words that can have two or more meanings, often includes words that sound similar or have multiple definitions.
Example: I'm on a seafood diet. I see food, and I eat it.
What is a pun?
This element functions as the primary driving part of the novel that moves character development forward through the addition of obstacles, internal or external.
What is conflict?
In persuasive writing, writers use this to anticipate an opponent's argument and then explain it's flaws/why it is incorrect.
What is a rebuttal (or counterclaim)?
This type of clause contains a subject and verb, but cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.
What is a dependent clause?
The protagonist and antagonist of Lord of the Flies
Who are Ralph and Jack?
This narrative device is used in stories where characters and events symbolize a deeper moral, religious, or political meaning.
Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell
What is an allegory?
The words used to describe the setting of a story help to establish this element that is important in reader's understanding the atmosphere of a story.
What is mood?
A rhetorical device used when the writer establishes their credibility, authority, or moral character to win over the audience.
What is ethos?
This type of word always ends in an -ing, but it functions as a noun within a sentence.
Example: Swimming is great exercise.
What is a gerund?
Shakespeare wrote many of these types of poems to be read on their own and also included them in his plays
What are sonnets?
When an author hints at another work or well-known text without directly naming it.
Example: She had to get home before midnight or else she would turn into a pumpkin.
What is an allusion?
The final narrative movement in a plot that closes the book and leads the readers satisfied.
(Hint: This is NOT where the conflict is resolved)
What is the denouement?
A rhetorical device that employs the use of language to make the audience feel a specific emotion.
What is pathos?
This writing device helps to maintain grammatical standard by ensuring a matching structure across phrases.
Example: She likes swimming, hiking, and running.
Non-Example: She likes swimming, hiking, and to run.
What is parallelism (parallel structure)?
The climax of Of Mice and Men
When Lennie kills Curly's wife?