Masson ELA Unit 1: ALL Words

Vocabulary flashcards covering all Unit 1 Vocabulary Words

Context

The background, environment, or circumstances surrounding a text, including historical, cultural, and situational factors that influence its creation and meaning.

Background Information

Information provided to help the reader understand the characters, setting, prior events, or situation within a text.

Historical Context

The mood, conditions, and technical, social, or political events existing at the time a text was created or set.

Cultural Context

The beliefs, customs, values, and traditions of a specific group or era that shape a text's themes, characters, and settings.

Setting

The time and location (place) in which the events of a story or narrative occur.

Time Period

The specific era, year, or period in history during which a narrative takes place.

Author's Purpose

The primary reason an author creates a text (e.g., to persuade, inform, entertain, or express ideas and feelings).

Audience

The intended reader, listener, or viewer for whom a text or message is created.

Text Mode

The method or form of communication used to convey ideas and meaning (e.g., written, visual, audio, or multimodal).

Genre

A category or type of literature defined by specific structural, stylistic, and thematic characteristics (e.g., narrative, poetry, novel, myth).

Narrative

A text type that tells a story of connected events, experiences, or characters, either real or fictional.

Poetry

Literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style, rhythm, imagery, and meter.

Novel

A long fictional prose narrative that depicts character development and plot across connected chapters or sections.

Myth

A traditional story, usually concerning the history of a people or explaining natural or social phenomena, often featuring gods or supernatural events.

Perspective

The unique viewpoint, attitude, or frame of reference through which a character or narrator understands and interprets events.

Narrative Structure

The organizational framework that determines how a story is constructed and how its events are ordered.

Plot Structure

The sequence of connected events that make up a story, typically progressing through exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Exposition

The introductory part of a plot where background information, setting, and main characters are introduced.

Inciting Incident

The specific event that introduces the main conflict and sets the plot's action into motion.

Rising Action

A series of events, complications, and growing tension that leads up to the story's climax.

Climax (Turning Point)

The peak of emotional intensity, interest, or suspense; the critical turning point where the central conflict reaches its peak.

Falling Action

The events occurring after the climax that show the effects of the climax and lead toward the resolution.

Resolution

The final outcome of the narrative where the central conflict is resolved and loose ends are tied up.

Figurative Language

Words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation, used for emphasis, vivid clarity, or artistic effect.

Metaphor

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things by stating that one thing is another, without using "like" or "as".

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things using the words "like" or "as".

Personification

A figure of speech in which non-human objects, animals, or ideas are given human traits, qualities, or actions.

Hyperbole

An intentional, extreme exaggeration used for emphasis or dramatic effect, not meant to be taken literally.

Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the physical senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) to create vivid mental images.

Connotation

The emotional, cultural, or subjective associations and feelings connected to a word beyond its literal meaning.

Denotation

The direct, literal dictionary definition of a word, independent of implied emotions or associations.

Tone

The author's, speaker's, or narrator's attitude toward the subject, characters, or audience conveyed through word choice and style.

Mood

The overall feeling, atmosphere, or emotional response that a text creates in the reader.

Narrative Techniques

Specific craft devices and strategies a writer uses to develop stories, characters, settings, and plots.

Characters

People, animals, or personified beings who carry out the action and dialogue in a story.

Characterization

The process and techniques an author uses to reveal a character's personality, physical traits, motivations, and growth.

Conflict

The central struggle or opposition between forces (internal or external) that drives the action of a plot.

Pacing

The speed or tempo at which a story unfolds, managed through sentence length, narrative detail, and scene organization.

Theme

The central message, deeper underlying idea, or lesson about life or human nature conveyed throughout a text.

Dialogue

Spoken conversation between characters in a literary text, typically enclosed in quotation marks.

Foreshadowing

Literary hints or clues provided by the author that suggest future plot developments or outcomes.

Poetic Techniques

Specific artistic choices and devices (e.g., stanzas, rhyme, meter, sound devices) used to create structure and meaning in poetry.

Stanzas

A grouped set of lines within a poem, separated by blank lines, analogous to a paragraph in prose.

Rhyme

The repetition of identical or similar sounds at the end of words, frequently appearing at line endings in verse.

Rhyme Scheme

The distinct pattern of end rhymes in a stanza or poem, represented using matching letters of the alphabet (e.g., ABAB).

Sound Devices

Elements used in poetry to create auditory or musical effects, including alliteration, onomatopoeia, and repetition.

Text Evidence

Specific details, facts, quotations, or paraphrased examples directly from a text used to support claims or inferences.

Cohesion

The logical flow, unity, and connection between sentences and paragraphs in a written text.

Style

The distinctive manner in which an author writes, created through word choice (diction), sentence structure (syntax), tone, and figurative devices.

Transitions / Connecting Phrases

Words, phrases, or clauses that connect ideas, sentences, and paragraphs, signaling relationships like time, contrast, cause, or sequence.

Quotation Marks

Punctuation marks (" ") used to enclose exact spoken words, dialogue, or direct text quotations.

Comma

A punctuation mark (,) used to indicate a slight pause, separate items in a list, set off introductory clauses, or separate dialogue tags.