Piedmont
A person who created a written work
Author
A factual account of someone's life
Biography
A long poem that tells a story; usually has strong rhythm and rhyme
Ballad
A list of names of all the characters in a play
Cast of Characters
Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid
Figurative Language
The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (as in "she sells sea shells")
Alliteration
A statement about a whole group that is made based on information about part of the group
Generalization
The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama.
Genre
An exaggeration. Example: I have a million things to do right now.
Hyperbole
This is developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.
Extended Metaphor
The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. Example: Home
Connotation
The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. Example: House
Denotation
Authors write for four main reasons: to entertain, to inform, to express opinions, and to persuade.
Author's Purpose
Sometimes an event or circumstance causes another event or circumstance to occur.
Cause and Effect
The manner in which an author creates the persona of a character, either with direct information in the form of description, or indirect information. This includes what the character does or says or thinks or what other characters think or say about the character.
Characterization
A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, understatement.
This occurs when an internal vowel sound is repeated in two or more words "He feeds the deer."
Assonance
A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. These can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical.
Allusion
A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.
Analogy
Related to style, this refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.
Diction
The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory, AKA sight, sound, touch, taste and smell
Imagery
A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. (Think of the beginning of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....")
Paradox
The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning, like the personification of an abstraction like hope or freedom. This term usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence. Example: Animal Farm
Allegory
From the Greek for "good speech," these are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept - POLITICALLY CORRECT
Euphemism
These are groups of contradictory terms to suggest a paradox. Simple examples include "jumbo shrimp" and "cruel kindness."
Oxymoron