Literary Terms

Point of View (POV) - The point of view refers to WHO is telling or narrating the story. Who tells a story or explains events has a HUGE impact on that story. Can you think of a time when someone had a very different version of an event you experienced?

There are three types of "Point of View" -

  • First Person Point of View - With first person point of view, the main character is telling the story. Readers will see the words "I," "me" or "we" in first person writing.

  • Second Person Point of View - When writing from a second person POV, the writer has the narrator speaking to the reader. The words "you," "your," and "yours" are used from this point of view. Often instructions and recipes are written in "Second Person."

  • Third Person Point of View - Third person point of view has an external narrator telling the story. The narrator may limit what the readers sees, hears, etc. to only one character or one set of characters (limited point of view). Or, the narrator may reveal all or many characters and /or plot events to the reader (omniscient).

Foreshadowing - A technique that the author uses to provide a hint or idea about an event or events that are likely to happen later in the story.

Flashback - When the author goes back in time to fill in details about how situations or events came to be.

Flashforward - When the author goes into the future.


Figurative Language


  • Personification -the giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

  • Onomatopoeia - the use of words that imitate sounds (e.g, Pow!)

  • Simile -A comparison of two unlike things using like or as (e.g., He's as fast as a cheetah; My heart is like a stone).

  • Metaphor - A direct comparison without using like or as (e.g., He is a cheetah; my heart is a stone)

  • Hyperbole - exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. (e.g., he would run away from his own shadow.)

  • Alliteration - Repetition of initial consonant sounds (e.g., peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers)

  • Assonance - Repetition of similar vowel sounds. (e.g. After a while, crocodile)

  • Allusion - A reference to another work of literature, person, or event. (Ponyboy reads "Nothing Gold Can Stay, a poem by Robert Frost, in the novel The Outsiders.)