2014-15 Language Arts Terms

FICTION

Plot: The storyline of a fictional story. (Stages of the plot include the introduction/exposition—setting, characters, background; rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.)

· Climax: The turning point OR the most intense, exciting, or suspenseful part of a fictional story.

· Resolution: The part in the plot of a piece of fiction when the conflict or problem is solved.

Conflict: The struggle / problem between opposing forces that brings about the action within a story or drama. It can be internal (within the character) or external (between a character and an outside force).

Characters/characterization : The method that the author uses to create characters in fiction. Physical appearance, character’s personality, speech, thoughts, feelings, and actions. (Round/Flat; Static/Dynamic; Direct/Indirect)

Round – A character who is well described and who you know a lot about.

Flat – A character you don’t know well or who is not described very much.

Dynamic – A character who goes through a lot of change in the story.

Static – A character who doesn’t change much or at all in the story.

Direct Characterization – The narrator directly describes the character using adjective and adverbs, and, in a straight-forward way, explains to the reader what the character is like

Indirect Characterization – The personality of a character is revealed through the character’s speech, actions, appearance, behavior, and inner thoughts.

Setting: When and where the story takes place.

Mood: How the story makes the reader feel at the end

Tone: The words / style the author uses to create the mood; the attitude of the author

Voice: the “sound” of the writer’s words revealing his/her distinct style of writing.

Theme: the universal or timeless idea, unifying subject, or central lesson (Example: Friendship, Love, or Redemption)

Irony: An outcome that is opposite of what is expected

Narrator: The teller of the story and can be part of or outside the action of the story.

Point of View: The perspective from which a story is told.

First-person point of view: The narrator is a character and uses first-person pronouns, such as I, me, and we.

Third-person point of view: The narrator is outside the action and uses third–person pronouns, such as he, she, it and they.

· Third Person Omniscient point of view: The narrator is removed from the story and KNOWS EVERYTHING there is to know.

· Third Limited point of view: The narrator tells the story in 3rd person but only tells the story from one character’s perspective.

Figurative Language / Figures of Speech: expressions used in literature that are not literally true (similes, metaphors, etc.)

· Simile : Comparing two things using like or as and they have some quality in common.

· Metaphor: Comparing two thing NOT using like or as and they have some quality in common.

· Personification : Giving human qualities to an animal object, or idea.

· Hyperbole: Extreme exaggeration for emphasis/effect (Examples: I could sleep a year! (OR) This book weighs a ton!)

· Idiom: A figurative expression used by a particular group of people that doesn’t mean what it actually says (Example: kick the bucket)

· Alliteration – repetition of sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other (many merry men ran marathons)

· Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds (About the town the owl could not be found)

· Onomatopoeia – Words that imitate the sounds of their meaning (buzz, hiss, boom)

· Imagery: Descriptive language that appeals to the 5 senses.

Flashback: Interrupts the current action in a story to show events that took place at an earlier time.

Foreshadowing: Hints provided to suggest what might happen later in the story

Symbolism: Using an object/character to represent something in the story

Allusion – In a piece of literature, a reference to characters, events or elements of another literary work

FICTION GENRES

Fiction: made up stories from imagination

· Historical Fiction – setting is historical, characters are fictional

· Fantasy – has “other worldly” characters or settings

· Realistic Fiction – a story that can actually happen and is true to life

· Science Fiction – uses science that is real or imagined, sometimes set in future or on other planets

· Mystery – solves crimes or secrets

· Horror – shocking, terrifying, evokes a feeling of dread in the reader

· Fables, Fairy Tales, Folklore, Legend – have supernatural creatures, animals that speak

· Mythology – usually about the actions of gods and goddesses in various cultures

NON-FICTION

Central Idea: Main point in a piece of writing

Summary: A shortened version of the text that states key points

Paraphrase: Restating something in your own words to

make the meaning more clear

Organizational Structure or Text Structure:

Sequence : focuses on order of events or actions, not time (article with a recipe)

Chronological Order: focuses on time order of events (biography of a person)

Problem-Solution: describes a problem, some possible solutions, and possible results (editorial)

Compare-Contrast: examines similarities (compare) and differences (contrast) between two or more people, things, or ideas (informational text)

Cause-Effect: focuses on the connection between something that occurs and what makes it happen

Main Idea and Supporting Details: has one main idea, and then provides supporting details to support that idea

Argument/Persuasive: presents an opinion and tries to convince the reader to take their side

Author’s point of view: The author’s opinions, values, beliefs.

Author’s purpose: The reason an author has written a piece of writing - to inform, persuade, explain, or entertain.

Objective: The author states facts which are statements that can be proven

Subjective: The author gives opinions which are a person’s personal beliefs or feelings on a topic

Inference: When you infer you basically say “based on what I’ve read, it’s most likely true that…”

Explicit: The answer is right there in the text.

Textual Evidence: Word for word support. When you cite textual evidence you have to write word for word what the author says and provide information (like a page number) about where you found the evidence.

Citing Evidence from the Text

This must be done when you are asked to cite textual evidence.

1. Restate the question in the answer

2. Answer the question in your own words

3. Use a Quote - the evidence from the text needs to be a direct quote

4. Put page number of the quote (p. )

5. Make an inference or explain why the quote answers the question

ALWAYS EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER COMPLETELY!!

Non-fiction Genres: Deals with actual real-life subjects; authors express opinions and state facts

· Biography/Autobiography

· History/Science writing

· Essays

· Argument/Persuasion

WRITING TERMS

Prewriting: The thinking & planning that is done before a first draft is written. This includes considering the topic, gathering information, and / or brainstorming

Rough Draft: A written rough copy of an assignment

Edit/Revise: To check spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, and grammar. Add to and/or delete from your written ideas to improve

Final Draft: A neat, mistake free published work

Paragraph: A group of sentences that are about a main idea. It is either indented or separated by a line space.

Thesis Statement: Expresses the main topic of an entire essay or research paper and should make 3 clear points. It is in the introduction of the paper.

Introduction, Body, Conclusion: Structure of an essay. Introduction brings the reader into the topic and contains the thesis statement; Body makes two to four points about the topic; Conclusion brings it all together at the end.

Transitions: Transitions are connecting words or phrases. They make connections between parts of a text, and they help make the order of your ideas clear. They include words like: before, during, later, next, but, yet, however, above, and around.

TYPES OF WRITING:

Narrative Writing: Narrative writing tells a story and contains a plot, a setting, characters, and dialogue. It can be true (factual) or created from imagination (fictional).

Expository Writing: Expository writing explains an idea and gives information about a topic. An expository piece of writing has a thesis statement, and is organized with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion

Persuasive Writing: Persuasive writing tries to convince someone to support a point of view, make a decision, or take action. You have to state your point of view, include facts to support it, and present a logical argument as to why your point of view is correct.

Argument Writing: An author makes one or more claims and supports those claims with evidence.

· Argument: Taking a position with an arguable statement.

· Claim: 1/ Claims of fact – says something is true or false; 2/ Claims of value – says something is good or bad; 3/ Claims of action – says one action is better than another

I CAN VERBS

distinguish: show differences between people, things or ideas

compose: put things together to form a whole

analyze: to examine something in great detail in order to find out what something is made up of by identifying its various parts

demonstrate: show or prove something clearly and convincingly

determine: to find out something after investigation

integrate: to join two or more ideas to make them part of a larger whole

evaluate: examine and judge something to judge its value, quality, or importance

explain: to give an account of something with enough clarity and detail to be understood by somebody else

support: to uphold or defend as valid or right