1.
Author's Perspective: The set of beliefs, feelings and attitudes that he or she brings to a piece of writing. This is often more important in non-fiction, but understanding it can really help make sense of a piece of writing.
2.
Character development: Characters often change as a result of the conflict or events that happen in the story. This change, or lack of change, is important to the message of the story.
3.
Characterization: The techniques writers use develop characters and express their thoughts, feelings and motivations. Description, Character's own speech, actions, thoughts and feelings, the speech, actions, thoughts or feelings of other characters, Narrator comments
4.
Close reading: Close reading means stopping and reviewing to clarify your understanding as you read. It also means taking the time to go back and check the evidence for the answer you believe is correct. FAILURE TO READ CLOSELY IS THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE ON THE MCAS AND MOST READING COMPREHENSION TESTS!!!!
5.
Dramatic Irony: When the audience knows something one or more characters do not know. Look for it on TV and you will see this everywhere.
6.
Figurative Language: A broad term for descriptive language that means something other than the literal meaning of the words. "You smell like roses," for example. Metaphors do not use like or as, and similes do. On the MCAS, any meaning you can gather from figurative language will help you select the correct answer. DON'T QUIT! FIND SOMETHING YOU CAN MAKE SENSE OF!
7.
Foreshadowing: A writer's use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur later in the story. Foreshadowing creates suspense.
8.
Hyperbole: is when the truth is exaggerated for emphasis. Like, "I am so hungry I could eat a horse"
9.
Mood: The feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader. For example, by starting "Feed" on a shuttle to the mood where everyone was acting both wild and extremely bored, M.T. Anderson helped us understand the mood of the story.
10.
Paradox: A paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that may suggest an important truth.
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valient never tastes death but once."
11.
Satire: A literary technique that makes fun of ideas, events, behaviors and organizations. The goal is usually to improve society, or at least to show the problem with the situation.
12.
Situational Irony: what actually happens is the opposite of what is expected. Opposite in a way that is somehow appropriate or meaningful.
13.
Stanza: A group of lines in a poem that form a unit, sort of like a paragraph, but in a poem.
14.
Symbol: A person place or object that that represents something beyond itself. The object usually represents an idea.
15.
Theme: The central idea or message in a work of literature. It is an idea about life, or human nature, or human experience. Themes apply not just to the story, but to life and other stories as well.
16.
Tone: The attitude a writer takes toward a subject, expressed through language and details which help create the tone.
17.
Tragedy: A play in which the actions and events turn out disastrously for the main character or characters. Sometimes they are killed, but other times they are devastated but left alive to suffer.
18.
Tragic Heroes: The central character in a drama. This character is dignified and noble, they have good qualities, but they also have a flaw. A Tragic Flaw. This flaw causes the downfall of the character.
19.
Verbal Irony: A contrast between what was expected and what actually exists or happens. -Verbal Irony means the opposite of what is said. Victoria George from Mean Girls says "I love that skirt, where did you get it?"
