FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Language that cannot be taken literally. (ex - "you're pulling my leg, right?).
Figurative Language
The sequence in which the author arranges events in a story. The structure often includes the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.
Plot
The way an author describes characters to show what they are like.
Characterization
Writing that aims to present ideas and evoke an emotional experience in the reader through the use of meter, imagery, and sometimes rhyme.
Poetry
When the narrator of t he story uses "I" to describe events. (ex - "I went down my back steps and there, in front of me, was the thing that terrified me.")
First Person
a play for theater, radio, or television.
Drama
A comparison of two unlike things in which a word of comparison (like or as) is used (e.g. She eats like a bird.)
Simile
The author introduces the characters & setting (time and place).
EXPOSITION
The 'emotions' of a work or of the author in his or her creation of the work.
Mood
to speak in words or phrases with the same ending sound or to create a written piece out of such phrases. An example of rhyme is to say the words "bike" and "like."
rhyme
A perspective that presents the events of the story from outside of any single character's perception.
Third Person
Name three types of folk tales.
Tall tale, myth, legend
Writing that compares or describes without using 'like' or 'as'. (ex. -the man is a bulldozer;nothing can move him.)
Metaphor
A struggle between opposing characters or forces in a story; the plot is usually about getting a resolution to it.
Conflict/Problem
The attitude of the author toward the audience and characters (e.g. serious or humorous).
Tone
The pattern of rhyme in a poem
Rhyme Scheme
A form of writing where the author is "all-knowing" and can share each character's thoughts or past.
Omniscient
highly imaginative fiction that uses strange or unusual characters, setting and plot: dragons, magic, elves, etc...
Fantasy
The use of words whose sounds express or suggest their meaning. (ex. - "hiss" or "meow")
Onomatopoeia
The author hints at future events without actually telling them.
Foreshadowing
A way of writing that looks back on an event that happened before the time of writing; often written as if from the memory of a character.
Flashback
A row of words in a poem; marked by numbers
line
A word or group of words in writing which speaks to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell.
Imagery/Sensory Language
Writing which tells a story or relates events or dialogue
Narrative
Something non-human which is given human qualities or human form (ex. Flowers danced about the lawn.)
Personification
The part of a story where the plot becomes increasingly complicated, the conflict is known, and is leading up to the climax.
Rising Action
Conversation between people in a story.
Dialogue
The beat of a poem
Rhythm
A judgment based on reasoning rather than on direct or actual statement. A conclusion based on facts or circumstances.
Inference
A story intended to teach a moral lesson. Animals with human characteristics often serve as characters.
Fable
An expression that cannot be understood if taken literally (ex- "Get your head out of the clouds")
Idiom
The events of a story following the climax that leads to the resolution.
Falling Action
How an author writes; an author's use of language.
Style
When a word or phrase is used more than once for emphasis
Repetition
The overall message, statement, observation or life lesson of a piece of literature including poetry.
Theme
a literary genre where the story takes place in the past
Historical Fiction
An exaggeration or overstatement (ex-I was so embarrassed I could have died.)
Hyperbole
The end, we learn what happens to the characters after the conflict is resolved. It is the happily ever after or not.
Resolution
An implied reference in writing to a familiar person, place or event without actually mentioning them. (usually from another work of literature.)
Allusion
Words that repeat beginning consonant sounds (Ted tiptoed toward two tiny trees.)
Alliteration
The use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or usual meaning, often sarcastically.
Irony
Short stories featuring mythical beings such as fairies, elves, and spirits.
Fairy Tale