- A clause that does not present a complete thought and
cannot stand alone as a sentence - Subordinate (dependent) clause
- Imitates or mocks another work or type of literature.
- Parody
- One or more words repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza, such
as the last line of each stanza in a ballad - *Refrain
- The knowledge and beliefs of cultures that are transmitted by word of
mouth - Traditional narrative
- The main character or hero of a story
- Protagonist
- Writing or speaking in the usual or ordinary form.
- prose
- A brief fictional work that usually contains one major conflict and at least one main
character.
- Short story
- A central idea or abstract concept that is made concrete through representation in person,
action, and image - Theme
- A comparison of two unlike things in which a word of comparison (often like or as) is
used.
- Simile
- A distinctively American type of humorous story characterized by exaggeration.
- Tall tale
- A form of metaphor in which language relating to human action, motivation,
and emotion is used to refer to non-human agents or objects or abstract concepts:
- *Personification
- A group of related words that lacks either a subject or a predicate or both
- phrase
- A group of words expressing one or more complete thoughts.
- Sentence
- A joke that comes from a play on words.
- pun
- A literary technique in which ideas, customs, behaviors, or institutions are ridiculed for
the purpose of improving society - Satire
- A person, place, or object that represents something beyond itself.
- Symbol
- A poem consisting of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter.
- Sonnet
- A poem presenting shepherds in rural settings, usually in an idealized manner
- *Pastoral
- A position from which something is considered or evaluated
- Perspective
- A recurring grouping of two or more verse lines in terms of length, metrical form, and,
often, rhyme scheme.
- Stanza
- A speech in a dramatic work in which a character speaks his or her thoughts aloud.
Usually the character is on the stage alone, not speaking to other characters and perhaps not even
consciously addressing the audience.
- Soliloquy
- A technique of creating emphasis by saying less than is actually or literally
true. - Understatement
- A unit of poetry such as a stanza or line
- Verse
- A verb form ending in –ing or –ed.
- Participle
- A word or word element to which prefixes and suffixes may be added to
make other words.
- Root (Root word)
- A word part that is added to the beginning of a base word that changes the sense or
meaning of the root or base word - prefix
- A word part that is added to the ending of a root word and establishes the part of speech
of that word - Suffix
- A word that has a meaning identical with, or very similar to, another word in the
same language - Synonym
- A word that is derived from a verb and has the power of a verb, but acts like another
part of speech.
- Verbal
- A word, or set of words, that expresses action or state of being.
- Verb
- Also called denouement, the portion of a play or story where the problem is solved
- Resolution
- An attitude or position taken by a writer or speaker with the purpose of proving or supporting
it.
- Thesis
- An authentic (close to real world) assessment tool for making scoring decisions;
a printed set of guidelines that distinguishes performances or products of different quality.
- Rubric
- An expression of a writer’s attitude toward a subject.
- Tone
- An imaginative response to experience reflecting a keen awareness of language
- Poetry
- Awareness that spoken language consists of
a sequence of phonemes.
- *Phonemic awareness/Phonological awareness
- In literature, the serious and extensive use of symbols.
- Symbolism
- In poetry, the pattern in which rhyme sounds occur in a stanza.
- Rhyme scheme
- Indicates whether the subject is acting or being acted upon
- Voice
- List of criteria for evaluating student work.
- Scoring guide
- Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each denoting a
single sound.
- Phonetic
- Story relating the adventures of a mischievous supernatural being much given
to capricious acts of sly deception, who often functions as a cultural hero or symbolizes the ideal of
a people.
- Trickster tale
- The action or sequence of events in a story
- plot
- The art of effective expression and the persuasive use of language
- Rhetoric
- The change of a character in appearance or form
by magic - Transformation
- The events in a story that move the plot forward.
- Rising action
- The meaning a literary work refers to, stated in a phrase or word.
- Topic
- The number three (3) recurs especially in folk literature
and fairy tales - Rule of three
- The particular way a piece of literature is written
- Style
- The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
- Rhythm
- The same grammatical structure of parts within a sentence or of sentences
within a paragraph.
- *Parallel structure
- The smallest unit of speech sound that makes a difference in communication.
- Phoneme
- The study of sounds.
- Phonics
- The text of a play, motion picture, radio broadcast, or prepared speech that includes
dialogue and stage directions - Script
- The time and place of the action in a story, play, or poem.
- Setting
- The vantage point from which a story is told.
- Point of view
- The variety of English used in public communication, particularly
in writing. It is the form taught in schools and used by educated speakers. It is not limited to a
particular region and can be spoken with any accent.
- Standard written English
- The vowel and any consonants that follow it.
- Rime
- The way in which words are put together to form constructions, such as phrases or
sentences.
- Syntax
- The widely accepted practices in English punctuation,
grammar, usage, and spelling that are taught in schools and employed by educated speakers and
writers.
- Standard English conventions
- To change a piece of writing in order to improve it in style or content.
- Revise
- Writing intended to convince the reader that a position is
valid or that the reader should take a specific action - Persuasion/Persuasive writing
