| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Antagonist | a person who causes a problem for the main character; can be a single person, group, or society |
| Author's Purpose | the author's goal in writing, e.g., to entertain, to inform, to expose political situation, to educate, etc. |
| Cause and Effect | something that leads to the happening of something else; notice clue words such as because, since, so, so that, as a result of, and for this reason. |
| Characterization | the way the author informs the readers about the characters |
| Direct Characterization | when the author comes right out and says what the character is like |
| Indirect Characterization | when the author lets the reader find out about the character through the character's own speech, thoughts, or actions |
| Climax | the highest point of action in a story, also known as the turning point |
| Compare | to show how two or more people or things are alike |
| Conflict | a problem, struggle, or fight a character faces that help make a story more interesting. |
| Conflict Against Another Person or Group (external) | e.g., a disagreement with a friend, a fight, having a protest |
| Conflict Against Nature (external) | e.g., getting caught in the rain, or the current of a river or waterfall |
| Inner (internal) Conflict | stuggling with one's own feelings, e.g., finding money and decided whether to keep it or not |
| Context Clues | using words you know to help you figure out the meanings of words you don't know |
| Contrast | to say how two or more things or people are different |
| Critical Reading | making judgements about what you read, possibly trying to understand the author's purpose, style, or theme |
| Fact | something that can be proven or observed |
| Fiction | made-up stories |
| Figurative Language | a generic term for words used in a fresh new way to appeal to the imagination |
| Flashback | when the author stops the present action and goes back to something that happened in the past |
| Foreshadowing | clues in the story that give hints as to what will happen later |
| Imagery | words that appeal to the senses |
| Inference | a conclusion or guess based on information that has been given |
| Ironic Turn of Events | when something happens that is different from what was expected |
| Main Idea | the most important idea in a paragraph; it tells what the paragraph is about. It is most commonly found at the beginning of a paragraph, can often be found at the end, and can sometimes be found in the middle. |
| Metaphor | the comparison of two things that are not usually thought of as alike; do not use the words "like" or "as". |
| Mood | the feeling that the author is trying to create in his work |
| Moral | a message or lesson about right and wrong |
| Mystery | a story or play that contains a puzzle that the characters and readers need to solve |
| Myth | a story told by people in ancient times to explain life and nature |
| Narrator | the person who tells the story |
| Nonfiction | a true story; writing about real events, real people |
| Personification | writing about a nonhuman thing as if it were human |
| Persuasive Writing | writing that tries to convince people to share the author's beliefs |
| Play | something written to be performed before an audience |
| Plot | the action of a story |
| Rising/Ascending Action | the first part of the plot where the situation develops and the action builds up |
| Falling/Descending Action | the last part of the plot; the central conflict is resolved |
| Point of View | the position from which the story is told |
| 1st Person POV | the person telling the story is also a character in the story; look for pronouns like I, me, my, we, our |
| 3rd Person POV | the person telling the story isn't a character in the story; look for prounouns like he, she, him, her, they |
| Protagonist | the main character |
| Rhythm | the arrangement of syllables in a line of poetry so they make a particular pattern or beat |
| Sequence of Events | the order in which events take place in a story |
| Setting | when and where a story takes place |
| Simile | a comparison of two unrelated things using the words "like" or "as" |
| Stanza | what groupings in poems are called |
| Style | the way an author writes; his choice of vocabulary, length of sentences, types of endings, etc. |
| Theme | the message that the author is trying to get across to the reader; often implied and not stated |
| Hyperbole | an extreme exaggeration |
| Alliteration | when the author starts words with the same letter or letter sound |
| Onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds |
| Prose | the ordinary form of written language |
Combine with other sets
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