English Test Short Stories

Dramatic situations

a conflict or event that engages the audience's emotions and encourages them to identify with the characters or the situation.

Conflict

the struggle or clash between opposing forces within a story, character, or even a character's internal psyche.

Complication

The moment that introduces a new conflict.

Suspense

the pleasurable anxiety we feel that heightens our attention to the story, resides in our wondering how it will all turn out.

Antagonist

a character, force, or concept that opposes the protagonist and creates conflict in the story.

Conclusion;Resolution;Denouement

the final part of a story where loose ends are tied up, questions are answered (or left unanswered), and the story's impact on the reader is solidified.

In medias res

(Latin for in the middle of things) a story that begins at a point after the plot has already begun, rather than at its very start.

Flashback; Retrospect

A scene relived in a character's memory; a change in the perspective of the character, it is now in the past rather than the present.

Foreshadowing

a literary device where an author hints at or implies future events or plot developments without explicitly revealing them.

Summary

a condensed, often one-paragraph, version of a longer work, capturing the main points and themes without unnecessary details.

Point of View

the perspective from which a story is told, essentially dictating who is narrating and how the story is presented to the reader.

Narrator

the voice that tells the story, distinct from the author.

Participant Narrator

a character who participates in the world within which the action of the story takes place.

Nonparticipant Narrator

a narrative voice that is not a character within the story, but rather an observer or creator of the narrative.

All knowing (omniscient)

a type of narrator in literature who has complete knowledge of the story and its characters.

Editorial Omniscient

a narrator who not only knows everything about the characters and events, but also actively comments on and interprets them for the reader, injecting their own opinions and evaluations.

Imparcial Omniscient

a point of view where the narrator, who knows everything about all characters and events, does not express personal opinions, judgements, or emotional reactions.

Limited Omniscient

restricts the narrator's knowledge to the thoughts and feelings of a single character, rather than having access to the minds of all characters as an omniscient narrator does.

Objective point of view

a narrative approach where the narrator presents events from a detached, impartial perspective, like a camera recording actions without revealing characters' internal thoughts or feelings.

Unreliable Narrator

a character whose perspective or account of events in a story cannot be fully trusted.

Naive Narrator

a character who tells the story but lacks the experience, maturity, or knowledge to fully understand the events or characters they are describing.

Stream of Consciousness

a narrative technique that aims to represent a character's unfiltered, continuous flow of thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

Total Omniscient

a narrative point of view where the narrator has complete knowledge of all characters, events, and thoughts within the story.

Direct Characterization

The author explicitly tells the reader about a character's personality, traits, or backstory.

Character Description

An aspect of characterization through which the author overtly relates either physical or mental traits of a character.

Character Motivation

The process by which a character's introduced, advanced, and possibly transformed in a story.

Motivation

What a character in a narrative wants; the reasons an author provides for a character's actions. Motivation can be either explicit (the reasons are specifically stated in a story) or implicit (the reasons are only hinted at or partially revealed).

Flat or static character

A term coined by English novelist E.M Forster to describe a character with only one outstanding trait. Flat characters are rarely the central characters in a narrative and stay the same throughout the story.

Round or dynamic character

A term also coined by Forster to describe a complex character who is represented in depth in a narrative. Round characters are those who change significantly during the course of the narrative or whose full personalities are revealed gradually throughout the story.

Stock character

A common or stereotypical character. Examples of stock characters are the mad scientist, the battle scarred veteran, and the strong but silent cowboy.

Hero

The central character in a narrative. The term hero often implies positive moral attributes.

Locale

The location where a story takes place.

Atmosphere

The dominant mood or feeling that pervades all or part of a literary work. Atmosphere is a total effect conveyed by the author's use of language, images, and physical setting.

Historical fiction

A type of fiction in which the narrative is set in an earlier time or place, sometimes including well-known figures from the past.

Regionalism

The literary representation of a specific locale that consciously uses the particulars of geography, custom, history, folklore, or speech.

Naturalism

A type of fiction in which the characters are presented as products or victims of environment and heredity. Naturalism is considered an extreme form of realism. Man vs Nature

Realism

The attempt to reproduce faithfully the surface appearance of life, especially that of ordinary people in everyday situations.

Tone

The attitude toward a subject conveyed in a literary work. No single stylistic device creates tone; it is the net result of the various elements an author brings to creating the work's feeling and manner.

Style

All the distinctive ways in which an author uses language to create a literary work. An author's style depends on his or her characteristics use of diction, imagery, tone, syntax, and figurative language.

Diction

Word choice or vocabulary. Diction refers to the class of words that an author decides is appropriate to use in a particular work.

Irony

A literary device in which a discrepancy of meaning is masked beneath the surface of the language. Irony is present when a writer says one thing but means something quite the opposite.

Verbal Irony

A statement in which the speaker or writer says the opposite of what is really meant.

Dramatic Irony

Where the reader understands the implication and meaning of a situation and may foresee the oncoming disaster or triumph while the character does not.

Cosmic irony or irony of fate

A type of situational irony that emphasizes the discrepancy between what characters deserve and what they get, between the characters' aspirations and the treatment he or she receives at the hands of fate.

Summary

A brief condensation of the main idea or plot of a literary work. A summary is similar to a paraphrase, but less detailed.

Allegory

A story in which persons, places, and things form a system of clearly labeled equivalents, typically a moral or political one.

Theme

The main idea or larger meaning of a work of literature. A theme may be a message or a moral, but it is more likely to be a central, unifying insight or viewpoint.

Symbol:

Allusion: A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event- real or fictional

A person, place or thing that suggests more than its literal meaning

Indirect Characterization

Shows a character's traits through their actions, dialogue, thoughts, appearance, or interactions with others