Simile: the comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as” Example: The wind was howling like a wolf. Personification: Where animals, ideas, things,

• Simile: the comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”

Example: The wind was howling like a wolf.• Personification: Where animals, ideas, things, etc are represented as having human qualities

Example: The dog smirked after he knocked the trash can over.

• Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement that is used to emphasize a point

Example: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!

• Alliteration: The repetition of initial sounds in neighboring or stressed syllables

Example: She sees sheep sleeping

• 3rd Person Limited Narrator: A story told through the point of view of a single character.

Example: Winston in 1984

• 3rd Person Omniscient Narrator: A story told through multiple points of view of different characters.

Example: Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Tone: a literary technique which encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work

• Voice: The way a story is told so the reader can connect to it

• Mood: The feeling that a piece of literature evokes

• Anecdote: A short story about a real person or an interesting event that is told to make a point

Example: Young George Washington cutting down the cherry tree– always tell the truth!

• Allusion: An implicit reference to an historical, literary, or biblical character, event, or element

Example: The laptop incident in Pennsylvania was something out of 1984!

• Irony: A contradiction between appearance or expectation and reality; a figure of speech in which the literal meaning of the words is the opposite of their intended meaning

Example: It’s like rain on your wedding day (“Ironic” by Alanis Morissette)

• Parable: A brief story that is told to illustrate a moral or religious lesson

Example: Anansi the Spider

• Compare: To see if two or more ideas are similar to one another

• Contrast: To see if two or more ideas are different from one another

Example: To compare/contrast, you can use a T-Chart or Venn diagram or some kind of organizer to see the comparisons and differences

• Genre: A category of a piece of literatureExample: Romance, Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction

• Theme: The broad idea, moral, or message behind a story

Example: Anansi and the sticky gum person

• Imagery: A literary technique an author uses to create a mental image in the reader’s mind (i.e. 5 senses)

Example: The smell of turkey reminds me of Thanksgiving.

• Folk Tale: A traditional prose narrativeExample: Bre’r Rabbit

• Fable: A usually short narrative making a cautionary point and often employing as characters animals that speak and act like humans.

Example: Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood• Blank Verse: A type of poetry that has a regular

meter, but no rhyme Example: “The Ball Poem” by John

Berryman

What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,What, what is he to do? I saw it go

Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then

Merrily over-there it is in the water!

• Iambic Pentameter: A poem or sonnet defined by its rhythm of pairing ten syllables for each line into five pairs.

Example: John Donne’s sonnet-

Batter my heart three-personed God, for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend. That I may rise and stand o'erthrow me and bend Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.

Rhythm-

DUM da | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM

da DUM | da DUM | DUM DUM | da DUM | da DUM

da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | DUM DUM |dada DUM

da DUM | da DUM | DUM DUM | da DUM | da DUM

• Iambic Tetrameter: A meter of poetry with lines that consist of four iambic feet

Example: Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”-

Come live with me and be my love

Rhythm-

da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM |

• Free Verse: A form of poetry that does not use meter, rhyme, or any other pattern

Example: “After the Sea-Ship” by Walt Whitman 

After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks, Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship: Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,Waves, undulating waves—liquid, uneven, emulous waves,Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves, Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface;

• Motif: A recurring element that has symbolic significance to the story

Example: Urban decay in 1984 (i.e. Winston’s run down home, the city of London)

• Mystery: One that is not fully understood or eludes meaning that can be a challenge for the reader

Example: Julia and O’Brien in 1984

• Realism: A genre of literature that avoids any magical or fantastic elements in favor of realistic settings Example: Their Eyes Were

Watching God (to a point)

• Fantasy: A genre of literature that uses elements of magic and supernatural to tell a story

Example: Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter

• Satire: A form of genre that uses irony, wit, sarcasm, and parodies to reveal the troubles of the world and the faults in people

Example: 1984 and Animal Farm

• Science Fiction: A type of genre that combines the elements of realism and fantasy with a set of rules that could make it appear the story could happen.

Example: 1984 and I, Robot

• Historical Fiction: A type of genre that tells a story in an actual historical period with fictional characters

Example: Their Eyes Were Watching God