EOG Literary Terms Definitions
1. Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words
2. Author’s purpose: the writer’s reason for writing (to inform, persuade, explain, etc)
3. Biography: story of a person’s life written by someone else
4. Autobiography: story of a person’s life written by that person
5. Cause and effect: when one event brings about another (event and the result)
6. Characterization: the way a writer creates and develops characters
7. Climax: the high or turning point of the story (point of highest tension)
8. Conflict: the problem or issue that is being solved in a story
9. Connotation: the interpretation of a dictionary definition
10. Context clues: using the words and phrases surrounding a word to determine its meaning
11. Denotation: a word’s dictionary definition
12. Dialect: a form of language that is spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people
13. Dialogue: written conversation between two or more characters
14. Drawing conclusions: to make a judgment or arrive at a belief based on evidence, experience, or reasoning
15. Hyperbole: exaggeration for effect, not meant to be taken literally (I had a ton of homework)
16. Fable: brief tale told to illustrate a moral or teach a lesson
17. Figurative language: words used in an imaginative way to express ideas that are not literally true (idiom, hyperbole, personification, simile, metaphor, etc)
18. Flashback: an interruption of the action to present events that took place at an earlier time
19. Folktale: a story that has been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth
20. Foreshadowing: when a writer provides hits that suggest future events in a story
21. Genre: a category in which a work of literature is classified (fiction, nonfiction, etc)
22. Imagery: words and phrases that appeal to a reader’s senses
23. Inference: a logical guess based on facts and one’s own knowledge
24. Irony: a contrast of what is expected to happen and what actually happens
25. Legend: a story handed down from the past about a specific person, usually someone of heroic accomplishments. Usually has some historical basis that is elaborated.
26. Metaphor: a comparison of two things not using like or as
27. Mood: the feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader
28. Moral: a lesson that a story teachers-usually tied to a fable
29. Myth: a traditional story that attempts to answer basic questions about human nature, origins of the world, etc.
30. Narrative: writing that tells a story
31. Onomatopoeia: words whose sound suggest their meaning
32. Personification: giving human qualities to an animal, object, or idea
33. Plot: the sequence of events that make up a story
34. First person POV: the person telling the story is part of the action (I, we, me, us)
35. Third person POV: the person telling the story was not part of the action (narrator-he, she, they, them)
36. Third person Omniscient POV: the person telling the story was not part of the action but knows the characters thoughts and feelings
37. Predicting: using what you know to guess what will happen next (must make sense)
38. Primary Source: information from someone who experienced the action
39. Secondary Source: information based on the primary source (didn’t experience it but is telling about it)
40. Prose: all forms of writing that are not in verse (poem) form
41. Repetition: using a word, phrase, etc for emphasis
42. Rhyme: words with the same sound at the end
43. Rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem
44. Simile: comparing two unlike things using like or as
45. Style: the manner of writing- how something is said rather than what is said (humorous, realistic, etc)
46. Symbol: a person, place, object, or activity that stands for something beyond itself (American flag-country/peace)
47. Theme: a message about life or human nature that the writer shares with the reader
48. Tone: how the author feels about a topic