A Writer's Vocabulary

A Writer's Vocabulary:

Act
-a major unit of action in a play
-each act may contain several scenes, and each scene may have a different setting

Alliteration
-the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words
-found in prose, peotry, drama, and everyday speech
Exampes: pen pal, silver spoon, shining sea, last laugh

Allusion
-a reference to another work of literature or to a familiar person, place, or event outside of literature

Anecdote
-a brief story told to entertain or to make a point

Antithesis
-the technique of presenting stirking contrasts to emphasize an idea

Aphorism
-a brief statement, often of a general truth
Example: The course of true love never did run smooth.
-Shakespeare

Autobiography
-the story of a person's life, written by that person
-may focus on the entire life or one part
-Autobiographies are nontiction, but they many contain many of the elements found in a fiction including setting, character, and conflict

Biography
-the story of a person's life, written by anotehr person
-can relate entire life or part of it
-may contain fictional elements including character, setting, and conflict

Character
-a person or animal who takes part in the action of a work of literature
-the plot of a short story generally focuses on one person, the main character
-they keep the action moving forward and help the reader learn more aobut the main character

Characterization
-the use of literary techniques to reveal the nature of a character
-an important way to develop a character is by physical description
-writers also develop a character by describing what they do and say
-another way of developing a character is through comments, actionas, and feelings of other characters
-the writer may also make comments about the character

Climax
-the high point of interest or suspense in a story or play
-the moment when the outcome of the story suddenly becomes clear
-comes near the end, with action and suspense building to an emotional peak
-after the climax the story ends quickly (generally)

Complication
-an event that heightens, or complicates, a conflict that has already been introduced

Conflict
-a struggle between opposing forces
-struggle creates tension and suspense and is an essential ingredient in ever play or story
-conflict may be internal or external
-external: takes place between a character and some outside person or force
     -sometimes involves a struggle between two characters
     -sometimes between one or more characters and the forces of nature

Description
-writing that creates a picture of a scene, event or character
-writers create vivid descriptions by using
-sensory images (words and phrases that appeal to the senses)
-fivgurative language (language that communicates ideas beyond the literal meanings of the words)

Dialect
-the variety of a language spoken by the people of a region or social group

Dialogue
-a conversation between two or more characters
-makes the characters seem more real and provides hints about their personalities
-no quotation marks are used for dialogue in plays
-in other writing dialogue is set apart by special punctuation

Diction
-the word choice of a character or narrator in a literary work

Drama
-writing that tells a story through dialogue and action
-meant to be performed by actors and actresses on a stage
-to help performers and directors, playwrights often provide stage directions along with the dialogue
-stage directions are used to indicate how lines should be spoken, how characters should move, special sound effects, music, lighting, and scenery
-plays are divided into several acts, which may have several scenes that represent changes in time or place.
-Each act builds toward and emotional peak.
-The final act contains a climax more intense than those in the previous acts.

Episode
-a self-contained section of a longer story

Essay
-a brief nonfiction work that deals with one subject, often in a personal way

Exposition
-the part of a plot that provides background information and introduces the setting and the important characters

Extended metaphor
-a series of comparisons between two unlike things that have several elements in common

Fable
-a brief story, usually with animal characters, that teaches a lesson about human nature
-most widely known fables by Greek slave Aesop

Fairy tale
-a type of childrens story in which magic plays a central role

Fiction
-writing about imaginary people, places, and events
-some stories are fictional from beginning to end. Everything comes from the writer's imagination.
-other writers get ideas from real events, places, or people
-can be as short as an anecdote or as long as a novel or play

Figurative language
-language that communicates ideas beyond the literal meanings of the words

Flashback
-a part of a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an earlier converstation, scene, or event
-generally a plot moves forward in time, but sometimes a writer interrupts this forward movement to tell the reader something that happened before the story began
-a writer may use a flashback when he or she wants to give the reader certain information from the past to explain the present actions of a character

Foil
-a character who provides a striking contrast to another character

Folk tale
-a story that is handed down, usually by word of mouth, among the people of a region

Foreshadowing
-the technique of hinting about something that has not yet happened
-creates suspense and makes the reader eager to find out what will happen in the story

Hero
-the main character in a story, who the plot focuses on
-in older literary works heroes tend to be far better than ordinary human beings who protect society from the forces of evil and fight to make the world a better place
-in modern literature the hero can be simply the most important character in a story, an ordinary person with ordinary problems

Hyperbole
-an exaggeration for emphasis
-often used for humorous effect

Inciting incident
-the event that introduces the conflict and sets in motion the plot of the story

Irony
-a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens
-when a person says one thing and means another
-another type of irony occurs when the reader understands something that a character in the story does not

Metaphor
-a direct comparison between two unlike things that have something in common

Mood
-the feeling created by a literary work
-a writer develops a mood in several ways
-descriptions of the setting
-what characters say
-the use of sensory images

Moral
-the lesson taught by a story
-meant to be a basic guideline for living
-all fables end with a moral, but other stories can have morals as well

Motif
-an element that appears over and over again in a literary work or in a group of lierary works
Example: the marriage of royalty in fairy tales

Myth
-a traditional story, usually about a superhuman being or unlikely event
-were created in an attempt to answer basic questions about the owrld

Narrative
-any writing that tells a story
-consists of a series of related events that tell a reader about something that happened, when it happened, and who was involved
-the events may be real or imaginary

Narrative poem
-a poem that tells a story

Narrator
-the teller of a story
-sometimes is a character in a story, sometimes an outside voice created by the writer

Nonfiction
-writing about real people, places, and events
-writers use the same techniques for nonfiction as they do for make-believe stories
-conflict, setting, mood, and sensory images can all be important to nonfiction

Onomatopoeia
-the use of words to imitate sounds
-writers use this to give their intended meaning double emphasis
-readers get meaning from what the printed word stands for and the sound of the word

Paradox
-a statement that seems to contradict itself

Parallelism
-the technique of repeating a grammatical pattern in a sentence or series of sentences

Personification
-the giving of human qualities to an object, animal, or idea

Plot
-the sequence of events in a sotry
-the writer's plan for what happens, when, and to whom
-begins with a basic situation into which the writer introduces a conflict
-the conflict builds to the climax
-at this point or shortly after it an event occurs to end or resolve the conlict
-long works such as novels, plays, and long short stories often have one main plot and several subplots

Poetry
-an expression of ideas and feelings in compact, imaginative, and musical language
-most are presented in lines organized into stanzas
-many depend heavily on sensory images, figurative language, and sound devices such as rhythm and rhyme]

Point of view
-the perspective from which a story is told
- a writer may choose to tell as story from first-person (narrator is a character in the story) or third person (narrator is not a character in the story, and uses pronouns such as he and she)

Prose
-writing organized into paragraphs
-may be fiction or nonfiction

Proverb
-a brief saying that expresses a truth or a bit of wisdom

Refrain
-a phrase or sentence, one or more lines in length, that is repeated at intervals in a poem
-usually come at the ends of stanzas
-create mood and emphasis by echoing certain ideas and feelings
-the repetitions may be identical or slightly varied

Repetitions
-the technique of using a sound, word, phrase, or sentence over again for emphasis

Resolution
-the point at which the conflict in a literary work ends

Rhyme
-the repetition of syllable sounds at the ends of words
-a rhyming couplet is made of of two lines of poetry that have rhyming end words

Rhyme scheme
-the pattern of whymes at the ends of lines

Rhythm
-the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem
-also helps to create mood and may suggest movement

Scene
-a unit of action that takes place in one setting
-most plays are divided into several scenes

Science fiction
-writing based on real or imagined scientific developments
-often presents an imaginary or fantastical view of the future or of the distant past

Sensory images
-words and phrases that appeal to the five senses
-most images are visual
-they appeal to the sense of sight, making the reader "see" something in his or her mind
-images can also appeal to the sense of hearing, taste, touch and smell

Sequence
-the order of events in a literary work
-most common is chronological order, the order in which events occur in time

Setting
-the time and place of the action of the story
-indicated to the reader by descriptions of customs, manners, clothing, scenery, weather, geography, buildings, rooms, furnishings, and methods of transportation
-sometiems fairly unimportant, sometiems a detailed description of the setting is needed to create mood
-a writer can provide a setting with a brief, factual statement
-can also be described with rich detail

Shape
-the way that words look on the page
-sometimes poets arrange words in such a way as to suggest tae shapes of their subjects

Short story
-a work of fiction that can be read in one sitting
-usually has one major action and one main character
-since it is fiction, the people, places, and events come from the writer's imagination
-a good title is important for a short story. An interesting title will make a reader want to read it. Sometimes the title gives a clue to the theme of the story. Often the full meaning of the title is not clear until the end of the story

Simile
-a comparison using like or as
-used to describe things in interesting ways

Speaker
-the voice that talks to the reader
-the speaker is not the same as the poet

Stage directions
-notes included in plays to help readers picture the action

Stanza
-a goup of lines that form a unit in a poem
-each one develops an idea that relates to the theme or main idea of the poem

Stereotype
-a character who conforms to a simplified common type

Structure
-the way in which a story, poem, or play is put together

Style
-the way in which a work of literature is written
-refers not to what is said but how it's said
-many elements go into creating a writer's style
-each writer's styel is appropriate to his or her material and purpose

Subplot
-a less important story that is woven into the fabric of the main story
-usually found n long literary works such as novels and full-length plays

Symbol
-a person, place or object that stands for something beyond itself

Tale
-a simple story told in prose or poetry

Theme
-the main idea of a work of literature
-some stories are written purely for entertainment

Tone
-the writer's attitude toward a subject