Essential Literary Terms

The essential background at the beginning of a story.

• Climax

• Exposition

• Rising Action

• Falling Action

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.3

CCSS.RL.5.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.6.9

The word choice a writer uses to achieve a certain effect.

• An Aside

• Diction

• Syntax

• Imagery

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.6

CCSS.L.8.6

CCSS.L.9-10.6

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

CCSS.W.9-10.2D

When the reader knows something that the character in the story does not know.

• Situational irony

• Dramatic Irony

• Verbal irony

• Sarcasm

Tags

CCSS.L.8.5A

A hint as to what is to come in literature.

• An Allusion

• Hyperbole

• Foreshadowing

• A harbinger

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.5

A recurring feature of a literary work that is related to the theme.

• Motif

• Imagery

• Symbolism

• Personification

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.6

CCSS.L.8.6

CCSS.L.9-10.6

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

CCSS.W.9-10.2D

Type or category to which literature belongs

• Style

• Theme

• Genre

• Tone

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.6

CCSS.L.9-10.6

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

CCSS.W.8.2D

CCSS.W.9-10.2D

A reference to something well-known that exists outside of the literature.

• Personification

• Simile

• Foreshadowing

• Allusion

Tags

CCSS.L.7.5A

CCSS.RI.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

The manner in which the author develops the personality and qualities of the people that populate the narrative.

• Dialogue

• Characterization

• Conflict

• Metaphor

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.6

CCSS.L.9-10.6

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

CCSS.W.8.2D

CCSS.W.9-10.2D

The narrator is the central perspective of the story

• 1st Person point of view

• 2nd Person point of view

• 3rd person point of view

• 4th person point of view

Tags

CCSS.RL.1.6

CCSS.RL.5.6

CCSS.RL.6.6

CCSS.RL.7.6

CCSS.RL.8.6

Perspective in which the story is told from outside of the plot; characterized by the pronouns he, she , it, they.

• 1st person perspective

• 2nd person perspective

• 3rd person perspective

• 4th person perspective

Tags

CCSS.RL.1.6

CCSS.RL.5.6

CCSS.RL.6.6

CCSS.RL.7.6

CCSS.RL.8.6