Literary Terms

The ways an author reveals and develops a character's personality. Often includes what a character thinks, says, does, feels, or acts.

• Claim

• Characterization

• Narrative Point of View

• Setting

Explains how evidence ties back to claims and the thesis

• Explaining

• Setting

• Reasoning

• Foreshadowing

The final paragraph in an essay that restates the thesis and summarizes the essay's key ideas.

• Supporting Paragraph

• Introduction Paragraph

• Stating Evidence

• Concluding Paragraph

Details authors provide that hint at an event that will happen later in the story

• Foreshadowing

• Thesis

• Dramatic Irony

• Tone

The time and place where a story takes place

• Tone

• Conflict

• Setting

• Area

The struggle between two opposing forces in a story

• Struggle

• Argument

• Resolution

• Conflict

An opinion or idea supported by evidence throughout the body of an essay or paragraph; sometimes called the thesis.

• Claim

• Statement

• Resolution

• Thesis

The first paragraph in an essay that introduces the essay topic and states the thesis

• Beginning

• Introduction Paragraph

• Support Paragraph

• Relevant Evidence

When the audience knows something that one or more characters in a story do not.

• Tone

• Sarcasm

• Situational Irony

• Dramatic Irony

The speaker's attitude toward a topic; in a nonfiction text, this may be the author's attitude.

• Tone

• Mood

• Vibe

• Feeling