Mystery Vocabulary

making an educated guess based on details from the text to make a prediction or hypothesis

• Interpretation
• Extrapolation
• Conjecture
• Inference

a repeating pattern or prototype in literature

• motif
• archetype

• plot
• theme

tension and anxiety created to engage the audience

• suspense

• mood

• tone

• red-herring

when a story ends, and even though the original problem is changed, the characters' fate is unknown and a larger problem exists

• cliff-hanger

• happy ending
• clear ending
• resolved ending

when the audience knows more than the characters involved

• Tragic irony
• Dramatic irony
• Comedic irony
• Situational irony

the tempo or rate at which the plot unfolds

• rhythm
• pace
• speed
• volume

hints or clues the author plants to let the reader know what will happen

• Backwarding
• Aftertelling
• Prefiguring
• Foreshadowing

how the reader or audience feels

• mood

• tone

• irony

• happy

the author's specific word choice

• tone

• mood

• diction
• grammar

A deliberate piece of misleading information in a story; used to keep the reader (and characters guessing)

• blue herring
• yellow herring
• red herring
• green herring