Unit 1 Flashcards
drama
A genre of literature in which the story is performed or acted out.
fiction
Any short or long prose story that originates from the creative imagination of the author rather than from historical fact.
genre
A category of writing; a writing style or a distinctive type of literature.
literature
Written ideas and stories, often imaginary or creatively based. The three main genres, or kinds, of literature are poetry, prose fiction, and drama.
poetry
Writing that is different from prose, or ordinary language, mainly because it makes two special, and characteristic, appeals: by sound and by rhythm.
prose
A literary medium that includes fiction as well as nonfiction and can vary widely in length, topic, and tone. Unlike poetry, it doesn’t have a regular rhythmic pattern; it does, however, display certain patterns of form, structure, and syntax.
argumentative writing
When you write about a literary work, your goal is to support each point you make with appropriate references to the work. This type of writing is known as persuasive, or argumentative, writing.
brainstorming
The process of writing as many thoughts down as you can about a particular idea in order to better understand what you’re thinking. The three kinds of brainstorming are free writing, branching, and bubble brainstorming.
branching
A prewriting exercise that allows you to organize the ideas from your notes as if they were branches on a tree. To start branching, write a central topic in the middle of a page; think of this as the trunk of the tree. Then, think of everything you associate with that topic. Start drawing lines out from the center and write your ideas on the lines. Your associated ideas are the branches of the tree. You can draw smaller and smaller lines from the branches for other related ideas.
bubble brainstorming
A prewriting exercise in which you put any idea you think might be interesting in a circle and then draw lines out from it to other circles. You put associated ideas in those circles.
close reading
A technique that helps you interpret and write about literature. The idea behind it is that any small section of a text, when analyzed closely, will also reveal a richer, more accurate interpretation of the whole text.
critical reading
The process of actively engaging a text. When you read, you’re involved in a relationship with the writer. Thinking about how this relationship works is the primary element of critical reading. A critical reader is one who actively engages with the writer by asking questions, taking notes, challenging and evaluating the ideas the writer presents, and thinking carefully about the ways in which they were presented. So, part of reading critically involves constantly asking yourself, “What does this mean?” and “How do I know what this means?”
free writing
A process that begins with an idea, phrase, question, or observation about the text you’ve read and then involves writing down anything that comes to mind without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or organization.
global revision
Targets the “big-picture” issues in your essay, including your thesis statement, organization, paragraph development, and focus. When you’re revising globally, compare what you say in each paragraph to the thesis statement in your introduction to make sure that your ideas are interrelated.
local revision
Done at the end of the writing process, it tackles grammar, punctuation, diction, tone, and other mechanical sentence-level issues.