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- Abstract:
- Language that refers to intangible concepts and qualities Ex: Love,
freedom, peace.
- Accent:
- Poetic term that means stress. Ex: In the word "Ac-cent," the stress,
or accent, is on the first syllable.
- Action:
- The occurrences within a literary piece that make up the plot.
- Alliteration:
- A form of slant rhyme created by repeating the same sound at the
beginning of words. Ex: The silver sky screams at the shining beams
from the shimmering moon.
- Allusion:
- A figure-of-speech used to make a reference to something commonly
known outside of the work. Ex: "John was not his brother's keeper" is
an allusion to the biblical story of Cain and Abel.
- Ambiguity:
- A work, or passage within a work, which may be interpreted in several
different ways.
- Analogy:
- A way of describing one thing by comparing it to another. Ex: He
was like a tyrant and ordered us around without explanation.
- Antagonist:
- The character that causes conflict within a story, often the enemy
or rival of the main character. Ex: The Wicked Witch of the West is
the antagonist in The Wizard of Oz.
- Archaic:
- Language that is obsolete; generally no longer considered appropriate
for contemporary poetry. Ex: yore, thee, hence, 'tis, o'er.
- Atmosphere:
- The mood of the work. Ex: cheery, gloomy, nervous.
- Character:
- A personage of the imagination in a work.
- Characterization:
- Technique used to create a character including what that character
says and does, as well as what other characters think and feel toward
that character.
- Cliche:
- Also called a "dead metaphor," a cliche is a description that is
overused to the point that the metaphor is no longer even recognized
Ex: "Kill two birds with one stone," "to rise to the occasion," "passion
burned," "broken heart."
- Climax:
- The moment of a work in which the tension or conflict is at its highest;
often this is also the major turning point.
- Concrete:
- Language that uses material, tangible objects and descriptions of
their qualities and characteristics; opposite of abstract. Ex: The leather
binding on the book was rough to the touch, and it cracked and creaked
as I opened the book to the marked page.
- Conflict:
- Tension and actions caused by different forces within a plot.
- Connotation:
- A subjective meaning or association held by a particular word. Ex:
The word "sauntered" creates a different image than the word "walked"
in the sentence, "Karen sauntered down the street."
- Convention:
- An accepted means of expression within a certain literary form; the
"rules" of writing works of various structures. Ex: Starting a new paragraph
in a story each time the speaker changes is a convention of prose dialogue.
- Couplet:
- A two-line unit in poetry.
- Denotation:
- The dictionary definition of a word.
- Dialect:
- Regional or cultural differences within speech; sometimes called
an accent. Ex: Cajun dialect in Louisiana.
- Dialogue Tag:
- The statements that identify a speaker within written dialogue. Ex:
"he said," "she whispers," "they screamed."
- Diction:
- The word choice used in a work.
- Draft:
- A version of a work in progress.
- End Rhyme:
- Rhymes that occur at the ends of lines of poetry.
- End-Stopped lines:
- Lines of poetry that end in conjunction with a sense of grammatical
completeness. Ex: She ran into the street / Before she was hit by the
car.
- Enjambed lines:
- Lines of poetry that do not end in conjunction with a sense of grammatical
completeness; run-on lines. Ex: She flew past the / Rooftops and chimneys
- Epiphany:
- A sudden realization; commonly understood as "the light bulb over
the head" effect.
- Fiction:
- A narrative created by the imagination, generally written in prose.
- Fixed Form:
- A style of poetry that has set rules. Ex: sonnet, villanelle, limerick.
- Flashback:
- A scene that interrupts the present action to relate an occurrence
from the past
- Foot:
- A unit of stressed and unstressed syllables of set patterns in metric
poetry.
- Free Verse:
- Poetry that does not follow a fixed form.
- Genre:
- Types, forms, or kinds of literature that are recognized by their
conventions. Ex: novel, short story, poetry, drama (play).
- Image:
- Concrete language used to represent sensory reality.
- Imagery:
- The collected images of a work.
- Internal rhyme:
- Rhyme words that appear within lines, not at the beginning or end
of lines. Ex: Peter gave the sea his heart / And the wave washed away.
- Line break:
- The end of a line in poetry.
- Metaphor:
- A phrase used to make an analogy by using one object to describe
another. Ex: The moon is a silver mask.
- Narrate:
- The act of telling a story.
- Narrator:
- Person who tells a story.
- Overwriting:
- Writing with excessive use of adjectives and adverbs with an intent
to impress.
- Paradox:
- A contradiction that creates tension in a work.
- Persona:
- The speaker in poetry or prose fiction that is different from the
author.
- Personification:
- The technique of giving inhuman things human traits and qualities.
Ex: The crying sky dropped tears on our heads.
- Plot:
- The planned sequence of events in a work.
- Point of View:
- The perspective from which a story is presented.
- Proofread:
- The act of reading a work with the intent to identify and correct
grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors.
- Protagonist:
- The main character of a work.
- Resolution:
- The moment a work's conflicts are resolved.
- Revise:
- Literally, "to see again." The act of changing, rearranging, adding
and eliminating elements of a work with the goal of overall improvement
of the piece.
- Rhythm:
- A repetition of effort, movement, or sounds at regular intervals
within a work.
- SASE:
- Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. Used as an abbreviation in publication
submission notices.
- Simile:
- A comparison between two objects using the words "like" or "as" Ex:
She was as mad as a rabid dog.
- Stanza:
- A group of poetic lines.
- Syntax:
- The order in which words are placed in a sentence.
- Theme:
- The meaning or message of a work that can be paraphrased.
- Tone:
- The speaker's attitude toward the subject.
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