English 12 Terms
Terms
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- Narrative
- A story
- Fable
- A short story that teaches a lesson.
- Fantasy
- Imaginary piece of work with exaggerated characteristics.
- Myth
- Literary work that is untrue and explains something.
- Mystery
- Literary work that includes solving mysteries.
- Legend
- Literary work that could be untrue. Nevertheless, it is passed on.
- Melodrama
- Highly exaggerated drama
- Interior monologue
- A speech addressed to a character or a group of characters within the play (including the speaker himself).
- Dramatic monologue
- A speech with a speaker who is not the poet, and who delivers the poem in a clearly defined communication situation.
- Autobiography
- A piece of literary work telling a person's history that is written by oneself.
- Biography
- A piece of literary work telling a person's history written by someone else.
- Diary
- A book that is used to record personal thoughts.
- Informal essay
- An essay that is not suited for academic papers. Informal essays often uses the first and second person point of view.
- Formal essay
- An essay that is suited for academic papers. Formal essays often uses the third person point of view.
- Argumentative essay
- An essay that debates a subject.
- Descriptive essay
- An essay that describes a subject using senses.
- Personal essay
- A personal and often informal essay.
- Persuasive essay
- An essay that intends to persuade someone on a given topic.
- Expository essay
- An essay that explains a subject.
- Graphic text
- Graphic novel, a novel with pictures.
- Case study
- A scientific research paper that includes observation and analyzation.
- Propaganda
- Misleading or biased information promoting a point, a view or political cause.
- Comedy
- Entertainment consisting of jokes intending to make people laugh.
- Editorial
- Material for publication such as newspapers.
- Parody
- An imitation with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
- Tragedy
- A play or story with a destructive plot. Tragedy often involve great suffering and distress.
- Comic relief
- Comics consisting of a more dramatic or serious nature.
- Cause and effect
- A literary organization order that is concerned with why things happen (causes) and what happens as a result (effects). Cause and effect usually (but not always) happen in time order.
- Chronological order
- An orderly way of literary organization, one idea flows to the next.
- Didactic
- Intending to teach a moral lesson.
- Thesis statement
- A thesis statement declares what you believe and what you intend to prove. The thesis statement is typically located at the end of your opening paragraph.
- Active voice
- The subject performs the action.
- Passive voice
- Form of to be. The subject receives the action. The passive voice is often causing for readers; therefore, it is avoided. However, the passive voice is suited for scientific papers.
- Parallelism
- A balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses.
- Rhetorical question
- A question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply .
- Colloquial language
- Slang and informal words.
- Bias
- Prejudice against a thing or a person.
- Farce
- A comic dramatic work using buffoonery and includes crude characteristics of situations.
- Satire
- A form of humour mocking and ridiculing people's vices.
- Wit
- Keen intelligence.
- Understatement
- The presentation of something being smaller or worse than it is actually.
- Pathos
- A quality that evokes pity or sadness.
- Dialect
- A form of language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
- Dialogue
- Conversation
- Metaphor
- Subtle comparison between two unlike things.
- Extended metaphor
- The comparison is sustained through a passage or a literary piece.
- Simile
- An obvious comparison between two unlike things, usually uses like, as, and than.
- Personification
- Giving human characteristics to something non-human.
- Symbolism
- A symbol that stands for another, usually a concrete idea for an abstraction.
- Allusion
- Reference to literature or something well-known.
- Allegory
- A literary piece with a point for point parallel version of an event, story, etc.
- Analogy
- A technical comparison, e.g. "The heart is like a pump."
- Oxymoron
- Apparently contradictory terms combined for effect. E.g. "You have to be cruel to be kind."
- Antithesis
- A bringing together of contrasting ideas, e.g. Peter is a spendthrift. Paul is a miser.
- Paradox
- Two contradictory statements which still convey a true valid idea.
- Juxtaposition
- Dramatic contrast for effect.
- Dissonance
- Discord, inconsistency between: * words and actions * words and beliefs * beliefs and actions * beliefs and beliefs
- Irony
- The meaning literally expressed is the opposite of the meaning intended. The opposite of what is expected. Incongruity between appearance and reality.
- Antagonist
- The main character with negative qualities.
- Protagonist
- The main character with positive qualities.
- Dynamic character
- An action character with events surrounding them, a character that changes.
- Foil
- Opposite
- Epiphany
- A sudden insight and understanding.
- Foreshadowing
- Hints as to what will happen later.
- Suspense
- Point of conflict/tension.
- Pun
- Play on words (often double meaning).
- Soliloquy
- Thinking out loud
- Dramatic irony
- The character's behaviour is out of keeping with the situation (usually because of ignorance). The audience understands the situation; however, the characters do not.
- Situational irony
- A situation that means something different from expectation.
- Verbal irony
- A situation that means something different from expectation.
- Assonance
- Similarity of sound between vowels, controlled repetition of vowels but not of the consonants. E.g. wedding, mellow, bells
- Cacophony
- Harsh on clashing combination of words.
- Consonance
- The repetition of similar or identical consonants, e.g. gripe, grape, grope.
- Onomatopoeia
- Word formation by imitation of sound represented. E.g. moo, clang, splash
- Alliteration
- Repetition of the same first sound made by consonants, e.g. slowly silently now the moon, walks the night in her silver shone.
- Euphony
- Pleasant concordance of sound.
- Cliché
- Stale or tedious phrase.
- Idiom
- A phrase or a figure of speech that is very common. Idioms are generally not literal.
- Jargon
- Vocabulary used by a certain group of people specific to context.
- Slang
- Informal words and phrases.
- Sarcasm
- Saying the opposite of what you mean. Sarcasm is often condescending and often misinterpreted.
- Figurative language
- The opposite of literal, figurative language conveys idea through comparison and symbolism.
- Imagery
- Use of vivid language to convey senses (touch, sight, scent).
- Connotation
- The feelings and emotions that are attached to a word.
- Denotation
- The literal meaning of a word.
- Euphemism
- A term or phrase that makes something more acceptable or appealing that it is, e.g. passing on instead of dying.
- Hyperbole
- An enormous exaggeration or overstatement (usually for effect).
- Repetition
- A word or phrase that is used again and again for effect aka anaphora.
- Apostrophe
- When the speaker of a poem addresses an inanimate object.
- Ballad
- A song-like poem that tells a story. It has very regular rhythm and rhyme, in addition to a refrain.
- Dramatic form
- A poem that is meant be dramatized. Sometimes, it can be contained within a play i.e. Shakespeare.
- Refrain
- A set of lines that are repeated throughout the poem; like a song's chorus.
- Sestet
- A six-line stanza.
- Couplet
- Two lines of poetry that rhyme.
- Stanza
- A group of lines in a poem, much like a paragraph in an essay.
- Octave
- Eight-line stanza.
- Quatrain
- Four-line stanza.
- Rhyme
- When two words end with the same sound, e.g. cat, hat, mat.
- Rhyme scheme
- A pattern of rhyme that is usually repeated in each stanza.
- Free verse
- No rhyme, no metre.
- Blank verse
- No rhyme, has a regular metre (beats per line).
- Rhythm
- Where the stress falls in a word, if there is a pattern, there is rhyme.
- Iambic pentameter
- Ten syllables per line where the stress is light/heavy. E.g. Shakespeare's sonnets
- Internal rhyme
- Words rhyming within a line.
- Metre
- The number of syllables per line. If it's regular, it has metre.
- Summarize
- To outline and identify the key points of a text, no opinion and analysis.
- Analysis
- Look at a piece of text and take it apart to evaluate its components. I.e. content, method of development, figurative devices, writing style, bias, interpretation, judgement, and subjective writing.
- Synthesis
- Being able to analyze a text with reference to other texts or experiences. I.e. big ideas, making connects, and drawing conclusions.