Describing Worlds Knowledge Organiser

Vocabulary flashcards covering key literary terms, word classes, ambitious vocabulary, punctuation, and structural rules from the Describing Worlds Knowledge Organiser.

Fiction

Writing that tells made-up stories created from the writer's imagination, including fantasy worlds, magical creatures, heroes, and impossible events.

Non-fiction

Writing that explores real places, people, and experiences using facts and observations, often sharing journeys, real life adventures, or visits to real locations.

Descriptive writing

Writing that uses detailed language and sensory imagery to help the reader clearly imagine a person, place, object, event, or atmosphere.

Setting

The place and time where a piece of writing happens.

Imagery

Language that creates pictures, sounds, smells, tastes, or feelings in the reader's mind.

Perspective

A character's or writer's way of seeing, understanding, or thinking about something.

Simile

A figure of speech which involves the comparison of one thing to something different, usually formed using 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor

A figure of speech where something is said to be something else in order to emphasise their similarities.

Personification

When a human quality or characteristic is given to something non-human.

Onomatopoeia

When the sound of a word imitates the sound it is describing.

Alliteration

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

Rhetorical Question

A question that is asked to make the reader think.

Sensory imagery

Description that uses words related to the five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing.

Verbs

Doing or action words, such as 'jump', 'run', and 'talk'.

Adverbs

Words that sometimes end in -ly and add extra detail to verbs, such as 'jump high', 'run quickly', and 'talk quietly'.

Nouns

Words naming people, places, or things, such as 'cake', 'building', and 'flower'.

Adjectives

Words that add extra detail to a noun, such as 'delicious cake', 'sparkly building', and 'red flower'.

Picturesque

Very beautiful and attractive to look at.

Thriving

Growing successfully and doing very well.

Inhabitants

People or animals who live in a place.

Claustrophobic

Feeling uncomfortable in a small enclosed space.

Mesmerised

Completely fascinated and unable to look away.

Dilapidated

Old and in very poor condition.

Whimsical

Unusual, playful, and full of imagination.

Trepidation

A feeling of worry about what might happen.

Serenity

A state of calm, peace, and quiet.

Subterranean

Existing or happening underneath the ground.

TiP ToP

A mnemonic indicating when to start a new paragraph: when you move to a new Time, Place, Topic, or Person.

Colon

A punctuation mark used to introduce a list.

Comma

A punctuation mark used to separate items in a series.