WRITING Flashcards
Distinguishing one voice from another
The narrator’s voice
Narrative
Dialogue
D-whole, partial, illusory
NV-peripheral narrator - someone who is directly involved in the action or on its periphery. E.g. Somerset Maughan I’n The Razor’s Edge’ AKA ‘witness narrator’ and autobiographical life writer
N-A spoken or written account of connected events, a story
D-when two or more characters are speaking
Back story
Creative writing
Sub-genre
BS-a history or background created for a fictional character in a motion picture or tv programme
CR-poetry, drama, fiction, life writing
SG-screenplay, stage play, radio play, crime, horror, romance, scifi
Subtext
Vocative
Nominative
Oblique
S-Is what the conversation between the words is communicating, both between the characters and to the reader/audience
V-A noun that identifies a person, animal, or object being addressed e.g. I don’t know John = John
N-of, relating to, or being the case or subject of a finite verb. E.g. She was seen = she
O- denoting any case other than nominative or vocative
Riposte
Life writer
Prose
Oral History
R-A quick, clever reply to an insult or criticism
LR-autobiographers, biographers
P-written or spoken language in its ordinary form whiteout metrical structure, e.g. A short story in prose
OH- The recording of voices by social historians
Verbatim writer
Conflates
VB-Tries to be faithful to the source material
Combine two or more texts into one-conflates
Poetic Voices
End rhyme
Full rhyme
Half rhyme
Iambic pentameter
ER-occurs at the end of a line
FR-bend/send. Wind/pinned
HR-End words are approximately the same main/mean AKA ‘slant rhyme’ - filling/falling
Iambic - the type of ‘foot’ that is used in English - x/ an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable - a line of poetry has five of these feet
Example of a conversation in play dialogue form
An hour later, over the breakfast table.
GEORGE (already dressed in neat shirt and jeans) : So, what d’you want to do today? Weather looks good. How about a trip to the forest? A walk or something. Could even take a picnic.
CHRISTINE (hair uncombed & wearing a shabby dressing-gown): I’m too tired. I never slept after you went downstairs, and…
GEORGE (calmly) : …you sent me there. Said I was snoring. Said you’d got no sleep – again. ‘Same every night,’ you said, ‘snort, snurf, snort,’ you said. ‘Driving me mad,’ you said. So I went. And that sofa’s not meant for sleeping on. I just read the papers until five.
CHRISTINE (weeping quietly) : I…I… didn’t mean you to go. That’s why I asked you to come back. I was cold. I was… (sobbing) lonely.
Ellipses
An ellipsis [ … ] proves to be a handy device when you’re quoting material and you want to omit some words. The ellipsis consists of three evenly spaced dots (periods) with spaces between the ellipsis and surrounding letters or other marks. Let’s take the sentence, “The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes from the Caribbean who were visiting the U.S.” and leave out “from the Caribbean who were”:
An ellipsis may also imply an unstated alternative indicated by context. For example, when Count Dracula says “I never drink . . . wine”; the implication is that he does drink something else.
The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes … visiting the U.S.
Exam Strategy
Differences of meaning - the differences in what is meant by a word, text, concept, or action.
Subtext - Is what the conversation between the words is communicating, both between the characters and to the reader/audience
