1st Quarter Composition Exam

study literary device flashcards too!

connoisseur (n)

• expert in fine art or in matters of taste

• authority

conspiracy (n)

• secret plot by 2 or more people, especially for a harmful or illegal purpose

• plot

contrite (adj)

• truly sorry for having done wrong

• repentant

• sorry

distraught (adj)

• very troubled

• distressed

• upset

germane (adj)

• having to do with the issue at hand

• relevant

• related

lucid (adj)

• clearly expressed

• easily understood

• easy to understand

plight (n)

• situation marked by difficulty, hardship, or misfortune

• unfortunate situation

superficially (adv)

• on-the-surface manner

• not thoroughly

• slightly

symmetrical (adj)

• well proportioned

• balanced

• same on both sides

• balanced

verbose (adj)

• using or containing too many words

• wordy

adept (adj)

• highly skilled

• expert

• skillful

encompass (v)

• to include

• contain

entrepreneur (n)

• person who organizes, manages, & takes the risk of a business undertaking

• business investor

eradicate (v)

• get rid of altogether

• wipe out

• to erase

homogenous (adj)

• made up of similar or identical parts

• unvarying throughout

• same throughout

presumptuous (adj)

• too bold

• overly confident

• too forward

sordid (adj)

• indecent

• morally low

• corrupt

• ugly

standardize (v)

• make consistent

• cause to conform to a model

• make the same

stint (n)

• specific period of work or service

• amount of time spent

• length of time

stringent (adj)

• strictly controlled or enforced

• strict

• severe

• demanding

plot narrative techniques

1. backstory

2. Chekov’s Gun

3. cliffhanger

4. flashback

5. flashforward

6. foreshadowing

7. frame story

8. in media res

9. plot twist

10. poetic justice

11. predestination paradox

12. red herring

13. ticking time bomb scenario

14. unreliable narrator

15. love triangle

16. deus ex machina (D.E.M.)

backstory

story that precedes events in the story being told—past events or background that add meaning to current circumstances

e.g.

• “Euphoria:” gives backstories to each of the main stories

• Matilda (1996): opens with a backstory of Matilda’s family’s dynamic before & after her birth

Chekov’s Gun

• dramatic principle that requires every element in a narrative to be irreplaceable, with anything else removed

• type of concrete foreshadowing

e.g.

• Chekov said that every detail mentioned must have use in the story

  • “gun mentioned hanging on the wall must be fired”

cliffhanger

narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future episode for the resolution

e.g.

ending of Breaking Dawn - Part 1 where Bella, as a newly formed vampire, opens her eyes just before the movie ends

flashback

• general term for altering time sequences, taking characters back to the beginning of the tale

• type of evocative foreshadowing

e.g.

victims in crime tv shows that recount their experience with law enforcement & the scene cuts to sequences of what they’re describing

flashforward

• refers to a scene that temporarily jumps the narrative forward in time

• often represents expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future

• may also reveal significant parts of the story that have not yet occurred, but soon will in greater detail

• helps move plot & character development

e.g.

Raven Baxter’s visions in That’s So Raven

foreshadowing

• implicit yet intentional efforts of an author to suggest events that have yet to take place in the process of narration

• helps intrigue audience by creating dramatic tension or suspense

e.g.

Edna Mode from The Incredibles (2004) who says that she never incudes capes in her designs because they have caused historical mishaps . . . then at the end of the movie, Syndrome dies because of a cape mishap

frame story

main story that hatches a linking series of shorter stories

e.g.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

in media res

• beginning the story in the middle of a sequence of events, launches audiences into the story’s events & forms intermediate urgency

• specific form of a narrative hook

e.g.

Pretty Little Liars opens with Allison’s disappearance

plot twist

unexpected change (“twist”) in the direction or expected outcome of the plot

e.g.

The Village (2004): the people who we assume live in the 19th century with their way of life are actually living in the modern world

The Visit (2015): the kids’ grandparents aren’t actually their grandparents

poetic justice

virtue ultimately rewarded, or vice punished, by an ironic twist of fate related to the character’s own conduct

e.g.

• Beauty and the Beast: Beast being turned into a beast

• Dante’s Inferno: each sin’s punishment

predesitnation paradox

time travel paradox where a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that “predestines” them to travel back in time

e.g.

Doctor Who: main character has to keep traveling back in time because of his future self

red herring

• diverting attention away from an item of significance

• type of fallacy foreshadowing

e.g. Who Game (tbh idk what this game is about)

ticking time bomb scenario

threat of impending disaster—often used in thrillers where salvation & escape are essential elements

e.g. “Cinderella:” when the clock strikes midnight Cinderella has to go!

unreliable narrator

narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in their narration & possibly misleads the reader, hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations

e.g.

• Gone Girl (2014): husband narrates, then the dead wife narrates

• Mr. Blaszczak: we don’t know whether he’s telling the truth or not

love triangle

scenario/circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which 2 people are pursuing/involved in a romantic relationship with 1 person, or in which 1 person in a romantic relationship with someone is simultaneously pursuing/involved in a romantic relationship with someone else

e.g. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Daisy + Gatsby + Thomas

deus ex machina (D.E.M.)

narrative ending in which an improbable event is used to resolve all problematic situations & bring the story to a (generally happy) conclusion

e.g. Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (2002):

• Faux the Phoenix

  • helped Harry defeat the monster & win Gryffindor more house points

    • giving Harry a weapon

    • healing his wound

    • blinding the Basilisk

noun

word that names a person, place, thing, or idea

types:

1. proper

   • names

2. abstract & concrete

   • abstract: ideas

   • concrete: physical things

pronoun

word used in place of a noun or another noun or _______

• needs an antecedent

verb

word used to express an action, a condition, or a state of being

adjective

• modifies nouns or pronouns

• qualifies or specifies the meaning of the nouns or pronouns they modify

adverb

modify verbs, adjectives, or other _______

• mostly “-ly,” but not always

preposition

shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun & some other word in the sentence

e.g. We were under the desk during the firedrill.”

conjunction

word used to join words or group of words

e.g. and, for, but

interjection

• word/short phrase used to express emotion

• no grammatical connection to other words in a sentence

  • shouldn’t affect the sentence if removed

period (.)

• a.k.a. full stop

• indicates the end of a sentence or follows an abbreviation

question mark (?)

used at the end of questions

exclamation mark (!)

• shows emphasis & emotion

• used in interjections

comma (,)

• often used to separate different ideas in a sentence

• 3 or more items

semicolon (;)

• creates a longer pause than a comma

• an join 2 independent clauses that are related

• separates clauses [verb + noun( )]

e.g.

• “Today is Gray Schedule; Gray is 2, 4, 6.”

colon (:)

• can introduce:

  • example

  • list

  • explanation,

  • quotation

• can emphasize a point

apostrophe (‘)

used in place of omitted letters & to show possession

• contractions

• plural

hyphen (-)

commonly used to create compound words

dash (—)

used to set off material for emphasis or show a connection between things

ellipsis (. . .)

• used to show that some letters or even words are omitted

• creates an intriguing & mysterious atmosphere

• each word is a dot

• (spaces between dots)

parentheses [()]

used to deemphasize information or add additional information

quotation marks (““)

indicates direct quotation, irony, or titles

brackets ([])

• mostly used for academic writing

• can add extra information or fix mistakes in original quotations

• needs an antecedent

  • e.g. “[Mr. Valencia] He teaches USGOPO” (idk if this is correct)

slash (/)

used for fractions, measurements, or to suggest alternatives in text

braces ({})

mostly used for mathematics, computer programming, & musical notations

subject

noun or pronoun that performs the verb

e.g. “Did you try out for basketball?”

predicate

contains a verb & states something about the subject

e.g. “Next month, Veronica & her fiancé will get married.

who

• subjective pronoun

  • should be used to refer to the subject of a sentence

    • he, she, or they

e.g.

• “Who wrote the note?”

• “Who run the world?”

• “My co-worker, who I think is a genius, got a promotion.”

• “Who do you think you are?”

whom

• objective pronoun

  • should be used to refer to the subject of a sentence

    • him, her, them

e.g.

• “To whom this may concern.”

• “Bob started dating this girl whom he met online.”

• “Whom should I vote for as May Queen?”

• “We wondered whim the subtweet was about.”