AP Lit Q1-3 Notes

Diction

• The author’s choice of words

  ● Diction can either be the effect of the word or the overall style of the words chosen

Connotation

The emotional sense or a cultural meaning

Denotation

The standard definition of a word

Style

• Style is the writer’s voice

• Style can be similar to tone as well

• Style can impact many other elements (attitude of speaker, etc)

Examples of Style Descriptors

• Authoritative

• Emotive

• Didactic

• Objective

• Ornate

• Plain

• Scholarly

• Scientific

Imagery

Language that has a reader utilizing their senses and feeling emotions

Types of imagery

• Auditory

• Visual

• Tactile

• Olfactory

• Gustatory

• Kinesthetic

• Organic

Tone

The attitude of the speaker or narrator towards a specific item, person, or event

Syntax

Refers to sentence pattern, structure, and choices of the author

Point of View

Who is explaining or narrating the situation within the literary work

Common points of view

• First person

• Second person

• Third person limited

• Third person omniscient

• Objective

First person POV

Words such as I, me, or my

Second Person POV

Words such as you or your

Third person limited

• Words such as he or she

• Narrator NOT in story

Third person omniscent

• Words such as he or she

• Narrator in story

Objective

Explains story, lacks emotions or feelings of characters

Figurative language

Words that do not mean exactly what they say, not literal!

Examples of Figurative Language

• Allegory

• Irony

• Apostrophe

• Simile

• Symbol

Examples of Tone Words

• Candid

• Nostalgic

• Informal

• Formal

• Satiric

• Tense

Examples of Style Words

• Gloomy

• Bitter

• Optimistic

• Reflective

• Sincere

• Candid (notice how this is for style AND tone)

Apostrophe

Talking to something that is not alive

Epigraph

Provides context or background information for a poem

Metaphor

Comparing two things to provide new insight on ideas

Meter

Rhythm of a poem

Personification

When nonliving/living things receive human qualities

Speaker

Who is telling the story or poem

Stanza

How poems are split up and divided

Structure

Outline of the poem

Meter

• Meter refers to how the poem flows, or its rhythm

• Meter has stressed and unstressed syllables and the most common is iambic meter which is unstressed and then stressed

Exact Rhyme

• Words with “perfect” rhyme (what normally comes to mind for poetry)

  • Example: hit, sit, lit

Slant Rhyme

• Not exact rhyme but close

  • Example: heart, star

Internal Rhyme

IN a line

External Rhyme

END of line

Alliteration

Repeated beginning sounds/letters

Assonance

Repeated vowel sounds

Consonance

Repeated consonant sounds

Paragraph structure

1. Claim

2. Evidence

3. Commentary

4. Transition