- Acronym: Technique for remembering names, phrases, or steps by using the first letter of each word to form a new, memorableword
- Alliteration: the repitition of sounds, most often consonat sounds, at the begining of words. Alliteration gives emphasis to words.
- Allusion: a referance in a work of literatre to a character, place, or situation from history or from another work of literature, music, or art.
- Anecdote: short account of an incident (especially a biographical one)
- Annotated Bibliography: An annotated bibliography gives an account of the research that has been done on a given topic. Like any bibliography, an annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of research sources. In addition to bibliographic data, an annotated bibliography provides a concise summary of each source and some assessment of its value or relevance.
- Anthology: A collection of extracts from the writings of various authors.
- Antithesis: exact opposite
- Antonym: two words that express opposing concepts
- Aphorism: A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life.
- Archetype: an original model on which something is patterned
- Assonance: the repitition of some or similar vowel sounds in stressed syables that end with different consonant sounds
- Assumption: the act of assuming or taking for granted
- Atlas: a bound collection of maps often including illustrations, informative tables, or textual matter
- Autobiography: a biography of yourself, n. The story of one's life written by himself.
- Bias: an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment, influence in an unfair way
- Bibliography: a list of writings with time and place of publication (such as the writings of a single author or the works referred to in preparing a document etc.)
- Biography: an account of the series of events making up a person's life, an account of the series of events making up a person's life
- Caption: brief description accompanying an illustration
- Characterization: a graphic or vivid verbal description
- Chronological: Order of events over time
- Compound Word: A compound word is made when two words are joined to form a new word.
- Consonance: the repitition of consonant sounds before and after different vowels
- Context: the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event
- Contraction: a word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds
- Document: writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature)
- Exaggeration: making to seem more important than it really is
- Excerpt: a passage selected from a larger work
- Exposition: a systematic interpretation or explanation (usually written) of a specific topic
- Extended Metaphor: The comparison between two things is continued beyond the first point of comparison. This extends and deepens a description.
- Fable: A legendary story of supernatural happenings, a narration intended to enforce a useful truth; especially : one in which animals speak and act like human beings
- Fairy Tale: an interesting but highly implausible story
- Falling Action: the falling action (or resolution) is characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plot's conflicts and complications
- Field Guide: a guidebook describing natural objects of some type that might be encountered in the field
- Flash Back: a scene that interrupts a action of a work to show a previous event
- Footnote: a printed note placed below the text on a printed page, a printed note placed below the text on a printed page
- Foreshadowing: the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot
- Homonym: two words are homonyms if they are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings
- Homophone: two words are homophones if they are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning or spelling or both (e.g. bare and bear)
- Iambic Pentameter: A metrical pattern in poetry which consists of five iambic feet per line. (an iamb, or iambic foot, consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.)
- Irony: incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs
- Legend: a story coming down from the past; especially : one popularly regarded as historical although not verifiable
- Literary Device: efers to specific aspects of literature, in the sense of its universal function as an art form which expresses ideas through language, which we can recognize, identify, interpret and/or analyze. Literary devices collectively comprise the art form’s components; the means by which authors create meaning through language, and by which readers gain understanding of and appreciation for their works. They also provide a conceptual framework for comparing individual literary works to others, both within and across genres. Both literary elements and literary techniques can rightly be called literary devices.
- Literary Element: includes all the elements in a story: plot, rising action, falling action, problem, solution, setting, ect.
- Main Idea: what a piece of writing is mainly about
- Memoir: an account of the author's personal experiences
- Memorandum: a written proposal or reminder
- Metaphor: a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles
- Metonymy: substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in 'they counted heads')
- Multisyllabic: Multi-syllabic words in English consisting of one or more syllable with a lax vowel and ending with a syllable containing a tense vowel are highly predictable.
- Narrate: To tell a story.
- Omniscient: all-knowing
- Oxymoron: A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.
- Parable: a short moral story (often with animal characters)
- Paradox: a situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradicting, but is nevertheless true, either literally or figuratively
- Pathetic Fallacy: The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example angry clouds; a cruel wind.
- Persuade: cause somebody to adopt a certain position, belief, or course of action
- Persuasive: tending or intended or having the power to induce action or belief
- Plot: a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal)
- Poet: a writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry)
- Point of view: "eyes" through which the story is told
- Prefix: an affix that added in front of the word
- Primary Source Historical: Original documentation
- Problem: a source of difficulty
- Pun: a "play on words" based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things
- Purpose: what something is used for
- Quote: a passage or expression that is quoted or cited
- Reference: the act of referring or consulting
- Rhythm: Pattern of sound and silence in music.
- Rising Action: Action that leads to turning point
- Root Word: the base component of a term which gives it a meaning that may be modified by other components
- Root Word: (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed, the base component of a term which gives it a meaning that may be modified by other components
- Satire: A type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attemmpt to bring about a change.
- Scansion: The analysis of a poem's meter. This is usually done by marking the stressed and unstressed syllables in each line and then based on the pattern of the stresses dividing the line into feet.
- Scene: a situation treated as an observable object
- Science Fiction: a genre, elements of fiction and fantasy with scientific fact. science-fiction stories are set in the future
- Secondary Source: review summarizes or discusses research conducted by others. Not first hand data. Scholarly books
- Setting: arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted
- Solution: the successful action of solving a problem
- Sonnet: a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
- Stanza: A group of rimed lines, usually forming one of a series of similar divisions in a poem.
- Stereotype: a distorted, exaggerated, or oversimplified image applied to a category of people
- Suffix: an affix that is added at the end of the word
- Summary: a briefstatement that presents the main points in a concise form
- Syllable: a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme, a vowel or a group of letters containing one vowel sound
- Syllogism: logical formula consisting of a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion; deceptive or specious argument
- Symbolism: the practice of investing things with symbolic meaning, The use of words, places, people, or objects to mean something beyond their literal meaning.
- Symbolize: represent or identify by using a symbol
- Synecdoche: substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa
- Synonym: one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses
- Tall Tale: highly exaggerated story with humor
- Third Person: narrator is outside the action and refers to characters as he or she
- Venn Diagram: a diagram that uses circles to represent set theory
- Word Play: playing on words or speech sounds
gold la