Midterm Academic and Literary Vocabulary

Indirect characterization

a method of revealing a character's traits through their actions, thoughts, speech, and other details, rather than directly stating them

Theme

the author's message or central idea; not directly stated; a complete sentence

Sentence structure

the order of all the parts in a sentence: subject, predicate, objects, phrases, punctuation, etc. and the way they are ordered or presented

Mood

the feeling or atmosphere that an author creates for the reader to experience while reading a story; often relates to setting or word choice

Implies (imply)

what is suggested by a text (not stated directly)

Central idea

the main (big) idea of a text, sentence, or section of a reading

Sequence of events

the order that events are presented, often chronological (first to last). Can be presented however the author feels is best.

Excerpt

a piece or part of a text, often to look more closely at

Shift

the change in a poem (usually halfway or ⅔ of the way through) where the perspective or focus changes; usually shows the theme or message.

Stanza

a section of poetry (like a paragraph in prose)

Metaphor

a comparison of two unlike things (not using like or as) to show likeness between two ideas or objects

Rhyme scheme

the pattern of end line rhymes that occurs in a poem; often follows a structure and can be labeled A, B, C, etc.

Anaphora

repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of lines, thereby lending them emphasis/importance.

Paraphrase

restating the ideas in your own words, often as a summary of the main ideas

Perspectives

the way that a person, speaker, or character might view an event, idea, or narrative. This can be different between characters within a story or different between speaker and audience.