Literature and Composition II: Final Exam Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of vocabulary terms covering poetic devices, literary elements, and grammatical concepts from the Literature and Composition II study outline.

Alliteration

A series of words that start with the same consonant sound.

Allusion

A quick or brief reference to an outside person, place, or thing in a piece.

Analogy

An example or scenario used to build understanding and create meaning.

Anaphora

A repeated phrase used at the beginning of several sentences or phrases.

Anecdote

A short personal story or narrative.

Assonance

The rhyming of vowel sounds within words.

Authorial purpose

The writer's motivation or reason for creating a piece or a text.

Cacaphony

A mixture of a large variety of sounds.

Connotation

The feeling or feelings evoked by a particular term or word.

Consonance

Like assonance, the repetition of certain consonants.

Denotation

The literal meaning of a word, as opposed to its connotation.

Dissonance

Lack of harmony, two or more things that do not blend.

End Rhyme

When the last syllables within a verse rhyme.

End-Stopped Lines

When a line in poetry stops with punctuation.

Enjambment

When a line in poetry continues without punctuation.

Euphony

Being pleasing to the ear, harmonious.

Figurative language

Language used to be used figuratively or metaphorically.

Hyperbole

A large exaggeration.

Imagery

Descriptive use of adjectives to create a picture.

Internal Rhyme

A poetic rhyme that occurs in the middle of a line.

Irony

A contrast between expectations and reality.

Juxtaposition

Strong contrast

Line Break

A break between lines in poetry.

Metaphor

A comparison without using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

Meter

The rhythm of a poem.

Mood

The feeling a piece creates in the reader overall.

Motif

A repeated symbol.

Narrator

The person writing or the person whose point of view the story is read.

Ode

Ceremonial lyric poem.

Onomatopoeia

Sound written out.

Personification

An object given human-like qualities.

Paradox

Something that seems absurd but is actually real.

Repetition

Repitition.

Rhyme

When the endings rhyme

Rhythm

The beat

Sensory Detail

Deep imagery

Sibilance

‘S’, ‘ch’, ‘z’, sounds

Sonnet

Traditional 14-line poem

Simile

A comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

Stanza

A group of lines

Structure

The makeup of a poem or the way it was built.

Symbol

An object that represents a theme or feeling.

Syntax

Rules about word order and grammar.

Tone

The feeling the author intents to create in the reader through a piece or text.

Vowel Sound

A, E, I, O, U, (Y).

Commonly Mistaken Words

Words like “affect” vs. “effect”.

Quotation Punctuation

How to correctly punctuate a quotation for both dialogue and MLA citation.

Sentence Types

Different sentence forms and how to tell them apart.

Punctuating Sentence Types (Commas)

How to place a comma within different sentence types and how to avoid comma splices.

Sentence Subjects and Verb Agreement

How to identify a sentence subject and check to see whether it is in agreement with the verb.

Parallel Structure

A grammatical balance within one or more sentences that can contain errors requiring correction.