English 12 Review

Abstract

relies more on generalization than facts.

Allegory

a story that has a hidden meaning—often about politics, morality, or spirituality.

Allusion

a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, event, or work of literature, often without explaining it in detail.

Anecdote

a short and interesting story about a real event or person, often told to illustrate a point or make the listener laugh or think.

Audience

the readers

Bias words

words or phrases that show a preference or prejudice for or against something, often in an unfair or one-sided way.

Cliché

a phrase or idea that has been used so often that it has lost its originality or impact.

Climax

a point in the essay that reaches its intensity or greatest importance.

Colloquial

informal language that people use in casual conversations.

Conciseness

the art of expressing your ideas clearly using as few words as necessary—without leaving out important information.

Concrete

relying more on factual and specific examples than abstract ones. uses sense images to let audience experience the scenario.

Contraction

shortened words using an apostrophe.

Deduction

using a general truth to figure out something specific.

Dialogue

a quoted conversation of two or more people.

Economy

being efficient with your words to express ideas clearly without unnecessary statements.

Epigram

a short, clever, and often wise or funny saying.

Epigraph

a short quotation, phrase, or poem placed at the beginning of a essay or book that hints the main idea or sets the tone for what’s coming.

Essay

French term called essai, meaning to “try” or “attempt”

Euphemism

a polite expression that softens or hides the truth.

Fable

a tale that teaches a moral truth or lesson.

Fiction

a dramatic story with invented characters.

Figures of speech

descriptive and often poetic devices

Simile

“like” another

Metaphor

literally false but poetically true.

Hyperbole

exaggerated words or phrases.

Personification

Makes use of an item and give it human-like features or behaviours.

Formal

avoids colloquial expressions, slangs, and contractions.

Image

using descriptive words to create a picture.

Induction

looking at particular facts and using them to make a broader rule or idea.

Informal

uses contractions, slang, colloquial expressions.

Irony

when the opposite of what you expect happens, or when words are used to mean something different—often the opposite—of what they actually say.

Jargon

technical language used by a specific groups of professions.

Juxtaposition

putting two ideas next to each other to show how similar or different they are.

Neologism

a newly invented word.

Objective

an essay is objective when it relies more on facts and evidences.

Onomatopoeia

a poetic device where the word sounds like what it means.

Paradox

something that sounds impossible or confusing at first, but when you think more about it, it makes sense in a surprising way.

Prose

an ordinary form of spoken language without a structure or rhythm.

Pun

a joke that plays on words—especially when a word has more than one meaning or sounds like another word.

Quotation

the words of one person reproduced exactly in literary works.

Reduction to absurdity

showing that if someone’s argument were true, it would lead to something silly, impossible, or absurd.

Satire

humorous criticism. it used to make fun of people or ideas through humour or irony.

Sense Images

makes use of the five senses to convey a feeling or make audience experience a memory.

Slang

unusual language that is often limited to a certain group.

Stereotype

a fixed image of a person, sex, or race.

Style

an authors own unique way of conveying their message or structuring their literary work.

Subjective

a literary work that relies on personal experiences, ideas, or beliefs.

Symbol

an object that stands out or has a important meaning behind it.

Thesis statement

a sentence that states the main idea a writer wants to prove.

Tone

the manner of a writer towards the subject.

Transition

a word, phrase, or sentence that moves the reader to a new sentence.

Motif

something that keeps showing up throughout a story or poem to remind you of an important idea.

Oxymoron

pairing two words that contradict with each other, but somehow still makes sense.

Point of view

the perspective the story is told.

First Person (POV)

“I, we, me, my”

Second Person (POV)

“you.” speaking directly to the reader.

Third Person (POV)

“she, him, they, them”

Alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.