Hey - Who's Telling This Story?!
But What About the Plot?
Now Do You Understand?
Writing 'Tricks'
Mish-Mash
100
The vantage point from which a writer tells a story. In broad terms there are three possible points of view: omniscient, 1st person, and 3rd person limited.
What is point of view?
100
A character struggles with an outside force. This outside force might be another character, society as a whole, or something in nature.
What is external conflict?
100
Understanding at this level involves surface meanings, information and ideas that are explicitly stated in the text. You can find the answer to this kind of a question 'right there', in the text.
What is literal comprehension?
100
A great exaggeration used to emphasize a point.
What is hyperbole?
100
An affix that follows the element to which it is added, as -ly in kindly.
What is a suffix?
200
The facts of a narrative are reported by a seemingly neutral, impersonal observer or recorder.
What is 3rd person objective?
200
The part of the story's plot line in which the problem of the story is worked out or resolved. This occurs after the falling action and is typically where the story ends.
What is resolution?
200
Ideas and information are evaluated; it occurs only after readers have understood the ideas and information that the writer has presented.
What is critical comprehension?
200
A direct comparison of two unlike things.
What is metaphor?
200
The form of a word after all affixes are removed.
What is the root word?
300
One of the characters is actually telling the story, using the pronoun 'I'.
What is 1st person narrative?
300
A related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.
What is rising action?
300
Readers need to be able to see relationships among ideas, how ideas go together and the implied meanings of these ideas.
What is inferential comprehension?
300
Distinctive words and/or speech patterns used by definable groups of people from a particular geographical region, economic group, or social class.
What is dialect?
300
Main character in fiction or drama; the character we focus our attention on; the person who sets the plot in motion, and who blocks the bad guy(s).
What is protagonist?
400
The narrator, who plays no part in the story, zooms in on the thoughts and feelings of just one character. We observe the action through the eyes and with the feelings of this one character.
What is 3rd person limited?
400
That part of a plot that gives information about the characters and their problems or conflicts.
What is exposition?
400
A writer's reason for writing. Some write to preserve history, to entertain, to educate, or to persuade.
What is the author's purpose?
400
The present action is temporarily interrupted so the reader can witness past events. Flashback techniques include memories, dreams, stories of the past told by characters, etc.
What is flashback?
400
An affix placed before a base or another of these, as un- in unkind, un- and re- in unrewarding.
What is a prefix?
500
The narrator, who plays no part in the story, knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in the story.
What is 3rd person omniscient?
500
The moment of greatest emotional intensity or suspense in a plot; it marks the point when the conflict is decided one way or another.
What is the climax?
500
The writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject, the audience, or the self.
What is tone?
500
A comparison that gives human qualities, feelings, and abilities to inanimate objects.
What is personification?
500
The adversary of the good guy of a drama or other literary work; the force that provides an obstacle for the good guy. This does not always have to be a single character, or even a character at all (i.e., a terrible storm, the Great Depression, etc.)
What is the antagonist?