Glossary of Terms
Allegory: story that includes a symbolic interpretation
Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds
Allusion: reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing known from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science or the arts
Anachronism: detail inappropriate for the time period of a story
Analogy: comparison of two things to emphasize how they are alike
Analyze: study an item (selection of literature) by breaking it into its components (plot, setting, characterization, theme, etc.)
Anecdote: brief personal story often used to illustrate a point
Antagonist: character in direct opposition to the protagonist (main character) in a story
Aside: short secret that an actor on stage shares with the audience
Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close together
Atmosphere: mood established in a story often through description of setting
Autobiography: story a person writes about his life
Ballad: song or poem that tells a story
Biography: story of a person’s life written by someone else
Blank Verse: poetry in unrhymed iambic pentameter
Brainstorm: a prewriting technique that involves random sharing of ideas without judgment
Character: individual in a story developed directly (author tells reader about him) or indirectly (author shows reader through description, dialog, inner thoughts, actions, comments from others)
Static Character: does not change during the course of the story
Dynamic Character: changes as a result of the story’s plot
Flat Character: limited development with only one or two traits
Round Character: fully developed with a complex combination of traits
Stock Character: stereotyped to fit a preconceived “type”
Chronological: organization of details in the order in which they occurred
Comic Relief: the insertion of a funny comment or character behavior to ease the tension in a serious dramatic plot
Conflict: struggle between opposing forces, characters, emotions expressed as internal (within a character’s mind or heart) or external (person versus person, person versus nature, person versus society, person versus machine, person versus supernatural)
Couplet: two consecutive lines of poetry that share rhyme or rhythm as a unit
Dialect: manner of speaking characteristic of a particular region or group
Diamante Poem: poem on two opposite topics (sea and land) with specific form in seven lines: line one—one noun (the topic), line two—two adjectives, line three—three participles, line four—four nouns with the last two switching to the opposite topic, line five—three participles, line six—two adjectives, line seven—one noun (the opposite topic)
Dialog: quoted conversation between characters
Double Determination: an incident, typically found in mythology, which is the result of both god and human effort
Dramatic License: permission allowed by an author to alter a selection for dramatic purposes
End-Stop Lines: poetic lines that end with an item of punctuation necessitating a pause
Epic: long narrative poem that relates the deeds of heroes who represent the values of a society
Essay: nonfiction that examines a single subject from a limited point of view
Exposition: writing that explains, provides information, or clarifies an idea
Fable: brief story that teaches a moral or a life lesson
Fiction: imaginative writing not based entirely on factual information
Figurative Language: descriptive language that includes figures of speech (metaphor, simile, personification)
Final Copy Format: the last stage in the writing process that entails a neatly written or word processed piece of writing
Flashback: scene that interrupts present action in a story to revert to a related incident from the past
Foil: character developed to enhance a contrast with another character
Figure of Speech: description that compares two unlike things to create an image (metaphor, personification, simile)
Folk Tale: anonymous story passed down from one generation to another
Foot: metric unit consisting of one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables in poetry
Foreshadowing: clues given early in a story to suggest what will happen later
Free Verse: poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme
Graphic Organizer: reading technique that uses a visual format (like Venn Diagram) to encourage student analysis and response to a selection
GUM: acronym reference to activities which focus on grammar, usage and mechanics
Haiku: Japanese poetry consisting of three lines and usually 17 syllables (five in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third)
Hyperbole: exaggeration to prove a point
Iambic Pentameter: line of poetry comprised of five iambs (metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable)
Idiom: expression peculiar to a particular language but not meant to be taken literally
Imagery: details that appeal to the senses
Inference: educated guess based on given details/facts
Irony: contrast between expectation and reality
Verbal Irony: speaker says one thing but means another, sarcasm
Situational Irony: what happens is the opposite of what is expected or appropriate
Dramatic Irony: reader knows something that a character does not know
Jargon: vocabulary peculiar to a particular group or profession
Journal: more personal composition in which the writer explores a single limited topic
KWL: a reading strategy in which a reader lists what is known about a topic before reading, identifies what he wants to learn in the reading, and then lists what is actually learned after reading. Example of a KWL graphic organizer: students divide a paper into thirds and label the sections 1)what they already know about the topic, 2) what they want to know (questions they have), and 3) what they learned - completed at the end of the unit).
Lyric Poetry: expresses a speaker’s emotions or thoughts, does not tell a story
Main Idea: message, opinion or idea that a writer wants to communicate
Metaphor: figure of speech that compares two unlike items without using “like” or “as”
Meter: repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
iamb—unstressed followed by stressed syllable
trochee—stressed followed by unstressed syllable
anapest—two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed
dactyl—one stressed syllable followed by two stressed syllables
spondee—two stressed syllables
Mood: atmosphere of a story often established through setting
Motivation: reason why a character behaves or speaks as he does
Myth: traditional cultural story used to explain a belief, ritual or mysterious natural phenomenon
Narration: writing that tells a story, often in chronological order
Narrator: person who tells a story
Nonfiction: prose writing that focuses on real people and events
Novel: long fictional prose narrative
Onomatopoeia: using a word whose sound suggests its meaning
Optimistic: positive, hopeful tone
Oxymoron: two words opposite in meaning brought together to create a new concept (bittersweet)
Parable: brief story that teaches a life lesson
Paradox: statement or situation that seems contradictory but reveals a truth
Paraphrase: restate a written passage in the reader’s own words
Parody: humorous or satirical imitation of literature, art or music
Peer Editing (Evaluation): a step in the writing process in which student writers critique each other’s work for clarity and attention to directions and proofread for errors in sentence structure, spelling, format
Personification: figure of speech in which human characteristics are applied to nonhuman things or qualities
Pessimistic: negative, less hopeful tone
Plagiarism: copying someone else’s work and passing it off as the writer’s without credit to the original source
Plot: series of related events that make up a story as identified in the following:
Basic Situation: opening paragraphs that reveal necessary background information, introduce characters, establish setting, suggest a problem
Conflict: sets up opposing forces
Complication: longest part of the plot in which the conflict is made more intense or complex
Crisis Point: moment of highest tension at which point the conflict is about to be resolved
Resolution: closing paragraphs of a story in which the conflict is resolved
Point of View: position from which a writer tells a story
First Person Point of View: the narrator is a character in the plot of the story
Third Person Limited: the narrator knows and reveals the thoughts and feelings of one main character
Third Person Omniscient: the narrator knows and reveals the thoughts and feelings of several key characters
Prewriting: first step in the writing process which involves brainstorming and organizing topics and details
Protagonist: main character directly involved in and impacted by the plot of a story
Proofreading: part of the writing process after revision wherein someone other than the writer reads the material for errors in clarity, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure
Pun: comical play on the multiple meanings of words
Quatrain: unit of four lines in a poem
Realistic Conclusion: this would have the characters resolving the conflict in a manner conducive to real life and appropriate expectations
Refrain: repeated word, phrase, line or group of lines in a poem
Revision: the step in the writing process which follows the rough draft and involves the writer improving the content and structure of the piece
Rhyme: repetition of accented sounds close together in a poem
Rhyme Scheme: pattern of rhymed lines in a poem signified by matching letters (a, b, a, b)
Rhythm: musical quality of language produced by deliberate repetition
Romantic Conclusion: this would have the characters resolving the conflict in their favor, resulting in a “happily ever after” ending
Rough Draft: the step in the writing process that follows prewriting and involves developing the results of the prewriting in sentence and paragraph format
Rubric: scale that identifies and explains the point values for the components of a writing assignment
Run-on Lines: poetic lines that do not end with punctuation, requiring that the reader continue without pause to the next line
Satire: writing that ridicules human behavior with the intention of bringing about change
Scanning: analyzing a poem to show its meter
Setting: time, place, atmosphere of a story
Simile: figure of speech in which two unlike objects are compared using the words “like” or “as”
Soliloquy: speech given by an actor on stage to reveal private thoughts or feelings
Sonnet: 14-line lyric poem usually written in iambic pentameter
Stanza: group of consecutive lines that form a unit in a poem
Subplot: a smaller story going on within a larger plot
Summary: a more concise restatement of main events or ideas
Suspense: uncertainty or anxiety produced in the reader about what will happen next in a story
Symbol: an object which represents an abstract idea
Tanka: Japanese poetic form that has five unrhymed lines and a total of 31 syllables that evoke strong feeling with a single image
Theme: comment about life or about people that is revealed through a literary selection
Thesis: single sentence that sums up the main idea in a piece of writing
Think-Pair-Share: a reading/writing strategy wherein the student thinks about a topic, then discusses those thoughts with a partner, and then shares those thoughts with a larger group
Tone: attitude of the author toward a subject, character or the reader
Venn Diagram: a reading/prewriting strategy comprised of two intersecting circles used to visually compare and contrast concepts
Verisimilitude: truth or believability of a story often encouraged through details of setting
Visual Aid: graphic presentation utilized to enhance or reinforce a point in a speech or in a written selection
Glossary of Terms