| Term | Definition |
|---|
| plot | a series of events in a narrative that is carefully constructed by the author |
| simple narrative account | a chronological description of real events (to tel what happened) |
| plotless short story | a very modern creation, that is pleasurable to read as it describes chracters in a situation, but does not employ the development or resolution of a conflict |
| in media ras | this structure is when the story starts in the middle of the action, andthen information about the beginning of the action is supplied to the reader through flashbacks along with other expository devices |
| frame story | a story within a story |
| typical plot structure is... (steps?) | exposition, compilation, technical climax, resolution, conclusion |
| exposition | conflict is introduced & background information on the characters, setting, and other events necessary for understanding the story are given in this step |
| compilation | the conflict is developed, suspense is created, and forshadowing may be used here |
| suspense | anticipation, as to the outcome of events |
| forshadowing | hints at later events |
| conflict | the interplay between opposing elements |
| protagonist vs. self | conflict involving... internal struggle |
| protagonist vs. others | conflict involving... external struggle with people & society |
| protgonist vs. environment | conflict involving... external struggle with nature |
| technical climax | the turning point in the plot at which the outcome of the action is determined; the conflict starts to end |
| dramatic climax | the point greatest interest or intensity in a story (subjective) |
| resolution | events following the technical climax, in which the outcome is actually worked out |
| conclusion | the final event of a story's plot |
| setting | the represented time and place of events in a literary work |
| 4 functions of setting | to help in understanding the characters & their actions, to help create mood and atmosphere, to facilitate plot development by being involved in the conflict |
| pathetic fallacy | technique authors use, using the setting, or nature, to parallel/mirror the mood of a character or of the story |
| character | a fictional personality created by an author |
| characterization | technique an author uses to create and reveal characters in a work of fiction |
| credibility & consistency | two things that are essential for a good character |
| expository character revelation | i.e. Mary is a nice girl. |
| dramatic character revelation | i.e. Mary likes to help little children with their homework. |
| motivation | the reasons that cause characters to act the way they do |
| protagonist | the central character in a work of fiction; they sat the action of the plot |
| antagonist | the principle opponent of the main character, the person or thing working against |
| round | character who is well described and whose thoughts and actionsare revealed to the reader |
| flat | a non-developed character in a story |
| dynamic | character who grows, learns, an changes in some significant way throughout |
| static | character who resists change or refuses to change in a story |
| foil | character who constraints in some important way with a more important character (with their contrasts, they underscore the distinctive characteristics of another) |
| consistent | character whose speech, thoughts, and actions are what the reader has been led to ecpect from that particular character |
| stock | type of character who is always found "in stock" in a particular type of story |
| stereotyped | character created according to widely held, often narrow-minded ideas (no individuality; not developed) |
| point of view | the physical and phychological relationship between the narrator and the story's characters/events |
| narrator | the teller of the story |
| first person | the narrator is a character in the story |
| third person objective | the narrator is not a character in the story, and reports only what can be seen and heard |
| third person limited omniscient | the narrator is not a character in the story and reports not only what can be seen and heard, but also the thoughts and feelings of one of the chararacters |
| third person omniscient | the narrator is not a character in the story and reports not only what can be seen and heard, but also the thoughts and feelings of all of the important characters |
| theme | a controlling idea of a literary work that is a general truth or commentary about life, people, and the world that is brought out in a story (moral/lesson of the story) |
| 3 guidelines for stating theme | complete declarative sentence, general truth about life, clearly brought out throughout the entire story |
| 2 step process for determining theme | "This story is overall about _____." and "What is it about _____ that the author is trying to tell me?" **the words in these blanks are the theme |
| mood | described the reader's state of mind after she finishes the story (emotions left with the reader) |
| atmosphere | describes the general feeling of the story itself, established by the story's description |
| style | the distinctive handling of language by a writer through the purposeful selection of words and sentence structure; this helps to indicate tone |
| diction | the purposeful selection of words |
| syntax | sentence structure |
| tone | the author or speaker's attitude toward the characters, events, or audience which is created by details & descriptive words used by the author |
| symbolism | the use of something concrete to represent something abstract; using a thing to represent an idea, concept, quality, or condition |
| irony | contrast between the way things truly are & the way they appear to be |
| verbal irony | a discrepancy between the menaing (literal) of a word & the meaning actually conveyed; sarcasm could be an example (say something bu mean another) |
| dramatic irony | a discrepancy between knowledge held by a reader & the characters ignorance of that knowledge (readers know somehting the character doesn't) |
| situational irony | a discrepancy between the expected outcome of a situation & the actual outcome (twist in the plot) |
| narrative | a long poem told in verse form; an epic is an example |
| lyric | a brief personal poem that uses many sound devices, as well as rhythm, adn meter, and is full of emotion; sonnets, odes, elegies are examples |
| ballad | a type of poem that is actually meant to be sung and is both lyric and narrative |
| figures of speech | words or phrases that describe one thing in terms of another & is not meant to be taken on a literal level |
| simile | two dissimilar things that are compared using words such as "like" "than" "as" or "resembles" |
| metaphor | this makes a comparison between two unlike things |
| direct metaphor | the literal term and the figurative term are both named |
| implied metaphor | the literal term is named while the figurative term is implied |
| extended metaphor | a metaphor, direct or implied, that is developed over more then one line of poetry |
| personification | giving human or animate qualities to an animal, object, or concept |
| apostrophe | addressing someone, absent or dead, or something non-human as if it were alive and present and could reply |
| literary allusion | a reference to a person, place, or thing from previous literature |
| common literary allusions | Bible, Greek/Roman mythology, Shakespeare |
| hyperbole | using exaggeration for emphasis; overstatement |
| litotes | a special form of understatement; it affirms something by negating the opposite |
| irony | states one thing when, in fact, the opposite meaning is intended |
| antithesis | a strong contrast of words, clauses, sentences, or ideas that shows opposing grammatical structures |
| synecdoche | using a part of something to represent the whole thing |
| metonymy | the substitution of one word for another closely related word (not synonym though) |
| paradox | a statement that although seemingly contradictory or absurd may actually be well-founded or true |
| symbol | something that means more than what it truly is |
| sound device | figures of speech that pertain to the words sound in a line of poetry |
| alliteration | the repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of certain words |
| consonance | the repetition at close intervals of middle or end consonant sounds of certain words |
| assonance | the similarity and repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds of certain words |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that mimic their meaning in their sound |
| repetition | repeating a word or phrase within a poem in order to... make rembering it easier, emphasize it, unite the poem's structure |
| parallelism | the repetition of the structure of two or more lines in a poem |
| cataloging | the listing of words, images, or attributes |
| refrain | the repetition of a word or phrase or line(s) at definite intervals of a poem |
| stanza | a group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit; often referred to as a "paragraph" of poetry |
| couplet | a 2 line stanza |
| triplet | a 3 line stanza |
| quatrain | a 4 line stanza |
| quintet | a 5 line stanza |
| sestet | a 6 line stanza |
| septet | a 7 line stanza |
| octave | an 8 line stanza |
| rhyme | th similarity or llikeness of sound in two or more words |
| perfect rhyme | the repetition of accented vowel sounds and all succeding sounds in important words |
| imperfect rhyme | this occurs when there are changes within the vowel sounds intended to rhyme, but only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical (soul/oil) |
| eye rhyme | rhyme that appears correct from spelling but does not rhyme because of pronounciation |
| internal rhyme | rhyme between words that occurs within a single line of poetry |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of end rhyme throughout a poem |
| rhythm | the pattern of stressed/unstressed syllabes in words in a line of poetry |
| meter | a regularized pattern of stressed/unstressed syllables in a line of poetry; the intentional arrangement of language in which the accented syllables occur at equal intervals of time |
| scansion | the process of marking lines of poetry to determine the meter; stressed= "/" and unstressed= "u" |
| foot | the basic unit of meter used in the scansion or measurement of verse, either consisting of two or three syllabes |
| u/ | iambic |
| /u | trochaic |
| // | spondaic |
| uu | pyrrhic |
| uu/ | anapestic |
| /uu | dactylic |
| monometer | one foot per line |
| dimeter | two feet per line |
| trimeter | three feet per line |
| tetrameter | four feet per line |
| pentameter | five feet per line |
| hexameter | six feet per line |
| heptameter | seven feet per line |
| octameter | eight feet per line |
| rhymed verse | has a regular meter & rhyme scheme |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter (Shakespeare wrote mostly this) |
| free verse | no regular metrical rhythm or end rhyme |
| metrical verse | has regular meter & no rhyme scheme |
| enjambment | the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction of a line onto the next line or stanza (no end punctuation) |
| end-stopped lines | lines in which both the grammatical structure and the sense reach completion at the end |
| causura | a pause within a line of verse |
| present | verbs should be in this tense |
| start a sentence | "there," "here," and "it" cannot ____. |
| superlatives | "every," "perfect," "never," and "always" are _____. |
| no | can superlatives be used in formal writing |
| very | avoid this modifier |
| active voice | write in ____ rather than in passive voice. |
| false | True or False: First and second person pronouns can be used in formal writing. |
| false | True or False: The word "thing" and its forms are perfectly acceptible in the terms of formal writing. |
| true | True or False: Abbreviations such as "w/" or "b/c" or others are not okay to use in formal writing. |
| false | True or False: Slang words or phrases can be used freely in formal writing. |
| true | True or False: Contractions such as can't, don't, i'm, etc. need to be separated (without an ') in formal writing |
| 1 inch | margin size of an MLA style paper |
| double | spacing allowable for MLA papers |
| Times New Roman; size 12 | the font should be ____; size ___ when writing a formal paper (two answers with a ";" between them |
| name, teacher's name, course, date (day month year= due) | MLA format includes... |
Combine with other sets
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