Abstract Language
Lauguage descirbing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people or places.
Active voice
The subject of the sentence performs the action.
Allusion
An indirect reference to something with which the reader is supposed to be familiar.
Ambiguity
An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way.
Analogy
A comparison to a directly parallel case.
Anecdote
A brief recounting of a relevant episode.
Annotation
Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, clarify, or prompt futher thought.
Antecedent
The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.
Apostrophe
A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity.
Attitude of the author/tone
A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.
Classicism
Art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people and the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures.
Concrete Language
Language that describes specific, observable things, peoples or places, rather than ideas or qualities.
Diction
Word choice, particularly as an element of style.
Colloquial
Ordinary or familiar type of conversation.
Connotation
Implied meaning rather than literal meaning.
Denotation
the literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations.
Jargon
The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity.
Vernacular
Language or dialect of a particular country, language or dialect of a regional clan or group, plain everyday speech.
Didactic
A term used to describe fiction, nonfiction or poety that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.
Adage
A folk saying with a lesson
Allegory
A story, fictional or non fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts.
Aphorism
A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle.
Homily
This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice.
Ellipsis
The deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author.
Epigram
A short poem with a clever twist at the end, or a concise and witty statement.
Epigraph
A quotation or aphorism at the beginnning of a literary work suggestive of theme.
Euphemism
A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.
Explication
The act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text.
Figurative Language
The opposite of "literal language"; writing that is not meant to be taken literally
Hyperbole
Exaggeration
Idiom
A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally.
Metaphor
Making an implied comparsion, not using "like," "as," or other such words.
Simile
Using words such as "like" or "as" to make a direct comparison between two very different things.
Genre
The major category into which a literary work fits.
Gothic
Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death.
Imagery
Word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind.
Invective
An emotionall violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language.
Irony
When the opposite of what you expect to happen does.
Verbal irony
When you say something and mean the opposite/something different.
Dramatic irony
When the audience of a drama, play, movie, etc. knows something that the character doesn't and would be surprised to find out.
Situational irony
Found in the plot of a book, story, or movie.
Juxtaposition
Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison.
Mood
The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice.
Objectivity
An author's stance that distances himself from personal involvement.
Oxymoron
When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox.
Paradox
A seemingly contradictory statement which is actually true.
Parallelism/parallel structure
Sentence construction which places equal grammatical construction near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns.
Anaphora
Repetition or a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row.
Antithesis
Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure.
Parenthetical idea
An idea that is set off from the rest of the sentence.
Parody
An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes.
Passive voice
The subject of the sentence receives the action.
Pedantic
Observing strict adherence to formal rules or literal meaning at the expense of a wider view.
Persona
The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story.
Rhetoric
The art of effective communication.
Rhetorical question
A question not asked for information but for effect.
Romanticism
Art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people and the world, and an emphasis on nature.
Sarcasm
A generally bitter comment that is ironically worded.
Satire
A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect.
Sentence
A group of words (including subject and verb) that expresses a complete thought.
Appositive
A word or group or words placed beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its meaning.
Clause
A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.
Simple sentence
Contains one independent clause.
Compound sentence
Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses.
Complex sentence
Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
Compound-complex sentence
contains two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.
Balanced sentence
One in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale.
Loose sentence
A complex sentence in which the main clause comes first and the subordinate clause follows.
Periodic sentence
When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence.
Declarative sentence
States an idea
Imperative sentence
Issues a command.
Interrogative sentence
Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns.
Style
The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes.
Symbol
Anything that represents or stands for somthing else.
Syntax/sentence variety
Grammatical arrangement of words.
Theme
The central idea or message of a work.
Thesis
The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition.
Transition
Smooth movement from one paragraph (or idea) to another.
Understatement
the ironice minimizing of fact, presents something as less significant than it is.
Litotes
A particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used.