Literary Terms and Concepts

persuasive

• used to convince the reader of the author's point of view

• used to entertain the reader with a story

• used to inform the reader about facts

• used to confuse the reader with complex ideas

playwright

• a person who directs a play

• a person who writes a play

• a person who acts in a play

• a person who produces a play

author's purpose

• the reason the author has for writing

• to entertain the reader

• to provide information

• to persuade the audience

drawing conclusions

• combining several pieces of information to make an inference

• analyzing data to find patterns

• making a guess based on intuition

• summarizing information from a single source

drama

• a story written to be performed by actors

• a type of poetry

• a narrative told in prose

• a form of visual art

theme

• the main character in a story

• the lesson or message of a text

• the setting of the story

• the conflict in the narrative

idiom

• a type of poem

• an expression with a figurative meaning

• a grammatical rule

• a synonym for a word

sequence

• the following of one event after another

• a random arrangement of events

• a single event occurring in isolation

• a series of unrelated events

climax

• the turning point in the story

• the introduction of the characters

• the resolution of the conflict

• the setting of the story

stage directions

• instructions for actors and stage crew

• a type of lighting used in theater

• a script for the play

• a method of directing actors