| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Flashback | When a story re-lives a previous moment, like a memory, a dream, or by simply revisiting . |
| Flash Forward | When a story jumps forward in time |
| Sequential Time | When the events in a story occur in the same order they happened in. |
| Time and Sequence | The way time works in a story |
| Literal Meaning | When the words mean exactly what they say |
| Figurative Meaning | When the words mean something other than what they say. |
| Denotation | Dictionary definition of any word |
| Connotation | Emotion of the word |
| Narration | A storytelling |
| Dialogue | When two people are talking. |
| Dramatic Monologue | Dramatic speech in a play |
| Protagonist | Main Character in a story |
| Antagonist | The Villain (sometimes not a person). |
| Soliliquy | Words spoken to God or to oneself in a story. |
| Credibility | Believability. |
| Rising Action | events that make the story more exciting. |
| Falling Action | events that solve leftover issues after the climax. |
| Climax | the most exciting part of the story, usually solves the big problems in the story. |
| Internal Conflict | When a Character is fighting against his/her hopes, fears, or ideas. |
| External Conflict | When a Character is fighting against something other than his feelings or thoughts |
| Active Voice | When the subject of a sentence is the actor, and not being acted upon. |
| Passive Voice | When the subject of a sentence is being acted upon. |
| Main Clause | The main part of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb. |
| Clause | Any group of words that contains a Subject and Verb. |
| Phrase | Any group of words that is missing either a Subject or a Verb. |
| Plain Diction | Using common, ordinary words. |
| Rich diction | Using unique words |
| Colon | : |
| Main Use of the Colon | To start a list |
| Main use of Semi-Colon | To separate long items in a list |
| Ellipsis | ... |
| Use of Ellipsis | Used when words go on and on. "They argued the whole night ..." |
| Generalization | A conclusion about a group of things or people. For example, all people have legs. |
| PUN | a play on words |
| Nonfiction means | any story that is true |
| paradox | a statement that seems true and un-true at the same time |
| personification | when a nonhuman thing is talked about like it is human |
| hyperbole | extreme exaggeration |
| foil | a character who is so different than another that he shows off that other character's uniqueness |
| Iambic Pentameter | Anything written with ten syllables per line |
| GENRE | MEANS A TYPE OF WRITING |
| nonfiction genre | true stories |
| fiction genre | un-true stories, often short |
| poetry genre | poems |
| Drama genre | plays |
| Myth Genre | Traditional stories |
| idiom | any expression like, "It's raining cats and dogs." |
| free verse | poetry that does not have rhythm or rhyme |
| exposition | explanation |
| blank verse | unrhyming poetry that has ten syllables per line |
| epic poem | long story-poem about a hero |
| aside | when characters whisper onstage |
| Anecdote | short personal story |
| biography | story of someone's life, written by someone else |
| autobiography | story of someone's life written by that person in the story |
| Allusion | reference to something outside the story |
| internal conflict | conflict within a character (like cancer or regret or anger) |
| couplet | Two lines that rhyme with each other (usually a two-line paragraph in a poem, or a two-line stanza) |
| Haiku | Japanese poem with three lines and seventeen total syllables |
| Another way to say Imagery | language that appeals to the senses |
| DRAMATIC Irony | when the audience of a play knows something that the character will soon find out (and it becomes a surprise to the character) |
| SITUATIONAL Irony | a when an ironic situation happens in a story |
| VERBAL IRONY | when a character says one thing and really means something totally different |
| lyric poetry | poetry that does not tell a story but is only intended to express the speaker's (the writer's)emotions |
| Meter | a way of saying the rhythm of the syllables in any sentence |
| novel | a story written in everyday language that has more than 50,000 words |
| rhythm | like meter--the musical feel of syllables in a poem |
| 1st Person Point of View | when the main character tells the story |
| Unreliable Narrator | when the narrator seems like he isn't telling the reader everything--often because he or she is an evil character himself (in the story) |
| Omniscient Narrator | when the story is told by someone who seems to know everyone's thoughts and problems |
| refrain | a repeated word or phrase or line (or group of lines) in a poem or song |
| sonnet | fourteen-line poem in Iambic Pentameter |
| Arthur Brooke | the writer of the story of Romeus and Julius--which inspired Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet |
| Julius Caesar | A play by Shakespere |
| Shakespeare | a 16th century British writer of many plays and sonnets--perhaps the most important writer the world has ever known |
| dialect | regional language |
| denouement | after the climax, when all the loose ends of the story are solved |
| chronological order | when things happen from the past to the present--in regular order |
| claim | an idea that someone tries to prove |
| coherent | when something makes sense |
| context clues | anything near the word or on the page that gives a clue to the word's meaning |
| argument | sentences that try to prove a claim |
| consumer documents | customer papers |
| evidence | things that help prove something |
| fallacious reasoning | bad thinking that does not make sense |
| paraphrasing | saying again in new words |
| MLA | Modern Language Association format--a way to make bibliographies |
| synthesizing | putting two or more things together |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace