Tools, Terms and Jargon

A  repeated pattern of movement or sound

A type of measuring unit in poetry. Measured by stressed/unstressed syllables

Poem with no set rhyme or pattern

The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing

An all-knowing narrator who is privy to the thoughts and actions of any or all characters

Narrator is an outsider who can report only what he or she sees and hears but can't tell the thoughts of the characters

Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader

Hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot

A judgement based on the information obtained

Change position or place or idea

A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear together

The act of searching for something

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people & events

A recurring theme, subject or idea

A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter

A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning

The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's flaws

Main character in a story

The unifying or central idea of a work of literature

A contrast between expectation and reality

Repetition of sounds at the end of words

The distinctive features of a literary work or author

An expression of literary effect rather than conveying a literal meaning

A group of lines in a poem

A realization of a problem's solution

A four line stanza

The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character

A quality that allows something to be interpreted in several different conflicting ways

The relation of something to the matter at hand

A word or phrase that links different ideas

A writer's distinctive use of language

To join (text to text, to self, to other media)

A character or force in conflict with the main character

A stressed and unstressed syllable pattern in a verse, word or within the lines of a poem

Something that happened at an earlier time presented out of order

Arrangement of events in time

Extreme exaggeration

The narrator is a character in the story

Insight into the reality or essential meaning of something

The act of sharing thoughts and feeling with others

14 line poem with a set rhyme pattern

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem

The implied meaning of a word

A result or consequence

A choice between two unpleasant or difficult options

The  telling of a story or a series of events

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract

The time and place of a story

The  person who tells the story

A struggle between opposing forces

The author, speaker, or the person whose perspective (real or imagined) is being advanced

The giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

Visually descriptive or figurative language

The series of conflicts that build a story toward a climax

To examine and judge based on criteria

Did this help you?

Smoothness of speech and readability

Refers to something famous: a piece of literature, historical event, a person

Bringing together two or more elements to produce something more complex

The primary position taken by a writer or speaker

The available facts or information that support an idea or proposition

A direct comparison without using like or as

The turning point of the story

Repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words

feeling, emotions, or general mood

End of the story where loose ends are tied up

A comparison of two unlike things using like or as

The use of words that imitate sounds

The sequence of events in a literary work

The background information presented in a literary work

Repetition of consonant sounds

Repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis

The movement of a literary piece from one point or one section to another

To make clear or easier to understand