| Term | Definition |
|---|
| nonfiction | prose about real people, places, and events. |
| narrator | person who relates the events of a story, poem, etc. |
| point of view | the narrative method used to present a prose selection. |
| tone | the attitude that a writer takes toward a subject. |
| description | writing that appeals to the senses. |
| setting | the time and place in a narrative. |
| theme | the main idea or message in a work of literature. |
| style | the way in which a piece of literature is written. |
| lyric | any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings. |
| meter | the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry. |
| rhyme | similarity of sound between two words. |
| couplet | two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. |
| heroic couplet | two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme and are written in iambic pentameter. |
| structure | the way in which a work of literature is put together; the arrangement of larger units or parts of a selection. |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of end rhyme in a poem. |
| extended metaphor | two unlike things are compared at some length and in several ways. |
| figurative language | language that communicates ideas beyond the ordinary, everyday meaning of the words. |
| simile | a stated comparison between two things that are actually unlike, but that have something in common. |
| metaphor | a figure of speech that implies a comparison between two unlike things that have something in common. |
| rhetorical question | a question that is intended to produce an effect, usually emotional, and not an answer. |
| autobiography | the story of a person's life written by that person. |
| persuasion | a technique used by speakers and writers to convince an audience to adopt a particular opinion, perform an action, or both. |
| essay | a brief, nonfiction composition that offers an opinion on a subject. usually meant to persuade or inform. |
| symbol | a person, place, or object that represents something beyond itself. |
| character motivation | the moving force (or forces) behind a character's actions. |
| irony | a contrast between appearance and reality. |
| situational irony | when something happens that is entirely different from what is expected. |
| verbal irony | when a writer says one thing but means something entirely different. |
| dramatic irony | when the reader knows information that the characters do not. |
| epistle/literary letter | a formal composition generally addressed to one person but intended for a wide audience. |
| aphorism | a brief statement that expresses a truth about life. |
| anaphora | the repetition of words, phrases, or sentences, often at the beginnings of successive sentences, clauses, or paragraphs. |
| analogy | a point by point comparison between two dissimilar things for the purpose of clarifying the less familiar of the two things. |
| parallelism | when a speaker, poet, or other writer expresses ideas of equal worth with the same grammatical form. |
| personification | a figure of speech in which human qualities are attributed to an object, an animal, or an idea. |
| fiction | imaginative works of prose, including the novel and the short story. |
| folk tale | a short story that exhibits an atmosphere of fairy-tale unreality. |
| mood | the feeling, or atmosphere, that a writer creates for the reader. |
| foreshadowing | a writer's use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur later in the narrative. |
| gothic literature | fiction in which strange, gloomy settings and mysterious, violent, often supernatural events create suspense and terror. |
| short story | a work of fiction that can be read at one sitting. usually develops one primary conflict and produces a single effect. |
| suspense | the tension or excitement felt by the reader as he or she becomes involved in a narrative and eager to know either the outcome of a conflict or how the outcome occurred. |
| imagery | words and phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for the reader. |
| ballad | a narrative poem that was originally meant to be sung; generally about ordinary people who have unusual adventures, with a single tragic incident as the central focus. |
| alliteration | the repetition of initial consonant sounds. |
| refrain | part of a stanza consisting of one or more lines that are repeated regularly, often at the ends of succeeding stanzas. |
| sonnet | a lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines of rhymed iambic pentameter. |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or for a humorous effect. |
| paradox | a statement that seems to be contradictory or ridiculous but is actually quite true. |
| epic | a long narrative on a serious subject, presented in an elevated style, and conerned with a heroic character or characters whose actions speak for a particular group of people, such as a nation or a race. |
| mock epic | a form of satire that mocks low characters and insignificant events by using the literary traditions of the epic. |
| 1st person subjective | point of view from a major or minor character that narrates as if the events are just happening. |
| 1st person detached | point of view from a major character who looks upon past events from a matured perspective. |
| 1st person observer | point of view from a minor character who is a confidant of the protagonist and knows what is seen and spoken. |
| 3rd person omniscient | point of view from a narrator who knows thoughts, actions, and emotions of the characters. |
| 3rd person objective | point of view from a narrator who only reports on what is said and done. |
Combine with other sets
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