English-11 Flashcards
Final Test
Definition- Active Voice
the person or thing represented by the grammatical subject performs the action represented by the verb.
Allegory
a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Alliteration
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
“the alliteration of “sweet birds sang””
allusion
a reference to a well-known person, character, place, or event that a writer makes to deepen the reader’s understanding of their work.
Analogy
a literary device that creates a relationship based on parallels or connections between two ideas.
Antithetic
a literary device that positions opposite ideas parallel to each other.
Apostrophe
a literary device writers use to address someone or something that is not physically present.
argumentative essay
a genre of writing that requires the student to investigate a topic, collect, generate, and evaluate evidence, and establish a position on the topic in a concise manner.
Archaic Language
the use of writing that is today considered outdated or old fashioned.
Biography
The story of a real person’s life.
Cacophony
A blend of unharmonious sounds.
‘She sells seashells down by the seashore.’
Case Study
a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon.
Cause and Effect
A logical system that organizes evidence to show how something happened.
Chronological Order
an arrangement of events in the order of their happening or based on the time they have occurred.
Chronological order
arranging events based on the time of their happening.
Colloquialism
informal, everyday language that is used by a specific geographical region.
“soccer” is a colloquial term in America for “football.”
Colloquial Language
Proverbs and aphorisms (“You only live once.”)
Comic Relief
An amusing scene, incident, or speech introduced into serious or tragic elements, as in a play, in order to provide temporary relief from tension, or to intensify the dramatic action.
Compare
To explore similarities between subjects.
Contrast
To look at their differences.
Consonance
A literary device that occurs when two words have the same consonant sound following different vowel sounds.
Couplet
Two lines of poetry that usually rhyme.
Denotation
A literal framing of a term or sign.
Denouement
the final outcome of the story, generally occurring after the climax of the plot. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet comes just after Romeo and Juliet take their own lives.
Descriptive Essay
A genre of essay that asks the student to describe something—object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc.
Dialect
A form of a language spoken by a smaller group.
Diction
The careful selection of words to communicate a message or establish a particular voice or writing style.
Didactic
The type of literature that is meant to instruct or teach something.
Dissonance
A disruption in the harmonic sounds or rhythm of a verse.
Editorial
An article in a newspaper or other periodical or on a website presenting the opinion of the publisher, writer, or editor.
Emotional Appeal
A logical fallacy, whereby a debater attempts to win an argument by trying to get an. emotional reaction from the opponent and audience.
Epitaph
An inscription on a gravestone.
Euphemism
A word or phrase that softens an uncomfortable topic.
Euphony
The combining of words that sound pleasant together or are easy to pronounce.
Expert Testimony
A doctor serving as an expert witness might testify about their reading of an x-ray.
Falling Action
What comes after the main climax and leads to the conclusion.
Foil
Opposite of a person.
Form
The style in which a a piece of text is written in.
Frame Story
A story inside a story,
Life of pie.
Hyperbole
Figurative language or a literary device that uses deliberate and extreme exaggeration to create a strong emotional response from the reader, emphasize a statement, or add a sense of drama.
Idiom
“Under the weather” is an idiom universally understood to mean sick or ill.
Internal Rhyme
“I went to town to buy a gown. I took the car, and it wasn’t far. I had a cat who wore a hat.”
Jargon
the specific type of language used by a particular group or profession.
juxtaposition
placing two unrelated things next to each other to highlight their differences.
legend
a story from the past that is believed by many people but cannot be proved to be true.
limited omniscient
a narrator who knows everything there is to know about one or some of the characters, but not all of them.
point of view
1st, 2nd, 3rd person, Limited omniscient, omniscient, objective
literal language
exactly what is written. For example: “It was raining a lot, so I rode the bus.”
mood
the main feeling or atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader.
mystery
a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story.
myth
the use of supernatural beings is common and the time period usually dates back to a period of early history of the beginning of various civilizations.
narrative
a story.
narration
the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience.
objective (language tone)
unbiased.
objective (point of view)
the narrator is not involved in the action of the story.
Omniscient (point of view)
An ‘all-knowing’ kind of narrator very commonly found in works of fiction written as third-person narratives.
oxymoron
a figure of speech that combines contradictory words with opposing meanings, like “old news,” “love hate” “organized chaos”.
paradox
It is a statement or idea that seems illogical, but upon further analysis, does make sense.
pathos
to persuade an audience by purposely evoking certain emotions to make them feel the way the author wants them to feel.
persuasive essay
uses logic and reason to show that one idea is more legitimate than another.
plot
the sequence of events in which each event affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect.
point of view
the writer’s way of deciding who is telling the story to whom.
prologue
a separate introductory section of a literary work that comes before the main narrative.
propaganda
any sort of art, media, or literature that promotes a political viewpoint, especially through deception or cheap appeals to emotion.
purpose
the author’s intention in writing.
rhetorical question
is a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point, rather than to get an answer.
rhythm
the sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables within a line of poetry.
satire
making fun
stanza
1 verse
stream of consciousness
rambling thoughts
statistical evidence
a type of evidence that uses numerical data and statistical analysis to support an argument or claim.
stylistic technique
any of a variety of techniques to give an additional and/or supplemental meaning, idea, or feeling.
subjective (language tone)
personal, biased, and full of the personal opinions and feelings of the author. It’s often used in opinion pieces or personal essays. Example: “I’ve always found the taste of coffee absolutely heavenly.”
symbolism
a figure of speech that is used when an author wants to create a certain mood or emotion in a work of literature.
thesis
the sentence that introduces the main argument or point of view of a composition (formal essay, nonfiction piece, or narrative).
3rd person POV
the narrator exists outside the events of the story, and relates the actions of the characters by referring to their names or by the third-person pronouns he, she, or they.
tone
the attitude that a character or narrator or author takes towards a given subject.
understatement
a particular quality of a person, object, emotion, or situation is downplayed or presented as being less than what is true to the situation.
voice
the opinion or attitude authors express in their writing.
