Writing that is used to explain or to give information about something. Also, the rising action of a story in which characters and the problems they face are introduced.
What is exposition
100
Figurative language that communicates sensory experience. This method can help a reader imagine how people, places, and things look, sound, taste, smell, and feel.
What is imagery
100
Also known as complication.
What is rising action
100
The pattern of events and situations in a story or play.
What is plot
100
A group of lines that forms a section of a poem and has the same pattern (including line lengths, meter, and usually rhyme scheme) as the other sections of the same poem.
What is stanza
200
A form of language commonly spoken in a certain place or by a certain group of people—especially a form that differs from the most widely accepted.
What is dialect
200
A major form of poetry made up of 14 rhyming lines of equal length.
What is sonnet
200
A short, fictional narrative shared orally rather than in writing, and thus partly changed through its retellings before being written down.
What is folk tale
200
Figurative language that describes animals, things, or ideas as having human traits.
What is personification
200
In myths and legends, a man or woman of great courage and strength who is celebrated for his or her daring feats; also, any protagonist, or main character.
What is hero/heroine
300
A play or fictional narrative about the disastrous downfall of the protagonist, usually because of a flaw in her or her moral character
What is tragedy
300
The pattern of rhymed line endings in a work of verse or a stanza.
What is rhyme scheme
300
A type or class of literary works grouped according to form, style, and/or topic.
What is genre
300
A piece of writing meant to amuse by imitating the style or features of another (usually serious) piece.
What is parody
300
Fiction based on events that actually happened or on people who actually lived.
What is historical fiction
400
A writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward his or her topic or audience or toward him- or herself.
What is tone
400
The time and place in which the events of a story occur.
What is setting
400
A hint a writer gives about an event that will happen later in a story.
What is foreshadowing.
400
The position from which the events of a story seem to be observed and told.
What is point of view
400
A phrase or expression that means something different from the word or words’ dictionary meanings. It cannot be translated into another language because the meaning is not the same as the words that make it up. Ex: Are you pulling my leg?
What is idiom
500
A word or phrase that serves as an image of some person, place, thing, or action but that also calls to mind some other, usually broader, idea or range of ideas.
What is symbol
500
An interruption in the action of a narrative to tell about something that happened earlier.
What is flashback
500
Writing that gives an account of a set of real or imaginary events (the story), which the writer selects and arranges in a particular order (the plot).
What is narrative
500
Writing that attempts to get someone to do or agree to something by appealing to logic or emotion.
What is persuasion
500
The way a writer creates and develops a character.