Theme/Central Idea
This is the central message, concern, or purpose in a literary work. It is usually expressed as a generalization, or a general statement, about human beings or about life. Although it may be stated directly in the text, it is more often presented indirectly. When it is stated indirectly, or implied, the reader must figure out what it is by looking carefully at what the work reveals about people or about life.
What is Theme?
The perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. The storyteller is either a narrator outside the story or a character in the story.
What is Point of View?
This is an author's main reason for writing. They use this to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to describe, and/or to express their point of view. In many cases, an author has more than one of these for writing.
What is Author's Purpose?
This is writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally. The many types are known as figures of speech. Common figures of speech include metaphor, personification, and simile. Writers use this to state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways.
What is Figurative Language?
Michaela De Prince #5
In “Michaela DePrince: The War Orphan Who Became a Ballerina,” how has DePrince realized her dream? Choose two options.
What is A and C?
Sometimes a writer will state this directly, but other times it is implied. When it is implied, a reader can identify it by making an inference. It is what the story is mainly or mostly about.
What is Central Idea?
This point of view describes a story told by a character who uses the pronoun “I.”
What is First-Person?
This is used in writing or speech and attempts to convince the reader or listener to adopt a particular opinion or course of action. Newspaper editorials, letters to the editor, political campaign speeches, and advertisements use this.
What is Persuasion?
This is a type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics.
What is Personification?
Brown Girl Dreaming #10
Part A In the excerpt from Brown Girl Dreaming, what is Woodson always doing?
Part B Which quotation from Brown Girl Dreaming most clearly supports the answer to Part A?
What is...
Part A: C
Part B: C
This refers to what a text is mainly about. It is NOT the topic of the text. It can most often be stated in one sentence. It is also referred to as "Central Idea."
What is Main Idea?
In stories told from this point of view, the narrator relates the inner thoughts and feelings of only one character, and everything is viewed from this character’s perspective.
What is Third-Person Limited?
This is when an author's reason for writing a text is to give a reader facts or information.
What is Inform?
This is the use of words that imitate sounds. It can help put the reader in the activity of a poem. The following lines includes two examples of this common figure of speech.
Crunching through snow by the water's edge,
We hear the sad hissing of wind in the sedge.
What is Onomatopoeia?
Brown Girl Dreaming #11
Part A Which sentence best describes Woodson in Brown Girl Dreaming?
Part B Which quotation from Brown Girl Dreaming most clearly supports the answer to Part A?
What is...
Part A:C
Part B:D
This is how the theme of a text should always be written.
What is Sentence/Statement?
In stories told from this point of view, the narrator knows and tells about what each character feels and thinks.
What is Third-Person Omniscient?
This is when an author's reason for writing a text is to provide a reader with amusement or enjoyment.
What is Entertain?
This is a figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas. Everyday speech often contains these, such as “pale as a ghost,” “good as gold,” “spread like wildfire,” and “clever as a fox.”
What is Simile?
Skinny Tomboy #3
What conclusions can be drawn about the speaker of “I Was a Skinny Tomboy Kid” when she was a child? Choose three options.
What is A, D, G ?
This is a logical assumption made about information in a text that is not directly stated. Prior knowledge and key details are used to make these about implied ideas. To figure out the theme of a story, a reader can do this by making an educated guess about implied information in the text.
What is Inference/Infer?
In this point of view, the narrator uses pronouns such as “he” and “she” to refer to the characters. There is no “I” telling the story.
What is Third-Person?
This is the acronym we use when asked to determine an author's purpose, or reason, for writing a text.
What is PIE?
This is a figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else. Like a simile, it works by pointing out a similarity between two unlike things.
What is Metaphor?
Skinny Tomboy #8
Part A What does the speaker of “I Was a Skinny Tomboy Kid” eventually realize about her mother?
Part B Which set of lines from the poem best supports the answer to Part A?
What is...
Part A: D
Part B: B