PSSA Vocabulary

What is a reference to a person, place, or piece of literature?

• allusion

• bulleted list

• cast of characters

• simile

What is a text organization in which the author presents the events in the order in which they happened; also called sequence of events.

• figurative language

• stanza

• act

• chronological structure

What is a comparison that does NOT use like or as?

• simile

• poem

• metaphor

• text structure

What is a nonfictional text, such as biography, essay, textbook, in which the author presents information or facts about the real world?

• text structure

• informational text

• formal language

• idiom

What is a problem that the characters in a fictional text solve?

• conflict

• rising action

• falling action

• conclusion

What is a word or phrase that connects two sentences, paragraphs, or ideas to help the writing flow?

• graphic feature

• introduction

• transition

• paragraph

What is a text organization in which the author points out how two or more things or ideas are alike and different?

• author's purpose

• claim

• graphic feature

• compare and contrast structure

What is the reason an author writes a text?

• conjunction

• text structure

• author's purpose

• drama

What is the use of words that sound like their meaning or mimic sounds called?

• haiku

• onomatopoeia

• paraphrase

• metaphor

What is it called when you retell an author's ideas in your own words?

• paraphrase

• talking

• graphic feature

• introduction