English 8 Comprehensive Study Guide Flashcards

Main Ideas, Supporting Ideas, and Evidence

• Main Idea: The central concept or idea the author aims to convey through the story’s narrative, characters, and settings.

  • Can be explicit (obvious) or implied (not directly stated).

  • Strategies to find the main idea:

    1. Identify the topic.

    2. Summarize the passage.

    3. Check the first and last sentences.

    4. Look for repetition of ideas.

  • Example: In Romeo and Juliet, the story revolves around two young individuals falling in love amidst their families' intense animosity. The main idea underscores the profound influence of love.

• Supporting Ideas/Evidence: Focused arguments that reinforce the main idea.

  • They have a clear and direct connection to the main idea.

  • Supported by evidence or illustrated by examples.

  • Supporting ideas that bolster the same main idea are typically grouped into one paragraph.

  • Example: In Romeo and Juliet, their love blossoms despite their families' hatred (support and evidence for the main idea). Likewise, their eventual suicides highlight their inability to envision life without each other (supporting evidence for the main idea).

• Significant Details: Elements that assist the author in emphasizing a point related to the main idea.

  • Examples: In Romeo and Juliet:

    1. The lovers' initial encounter.

    2. Romeo's willingness to risk his life to reunite with Juliet.

    3. The protagonists' secret marriage.

Inference

• Reaching conclusions based on evidence and reasoning.

• Inference involves applying one's knowledge and experience to the situation at hand.

• It is also known as reading between the lines or making educated guesses.

• Inferences can be drawn from implied or stated evidence within a text.

• Example: The window is open, allowing a breeze to enter.

  • Inference: The weather is pleasant.

Context Clues

• Context clues are hints found within a sentence, paragraph, or passage that readers can utilize to grasp the meanings of unfamiliar words.

Denotation, Connotation, Synonym, and Antonym

• Connotation: The feelings or ideas a word evokes, beyond its dictionary definition.

  • Example: "Home" means where you live but suggests comfort, safety, and warmth.

• Denotation: The basic, literal meaning of a word, as found in a dictionary.

  • Example: The denotation of "rose" is a type of flower.

• Connotation vs. Denotation: Words carry specific meanings (denotation) and additional emotional or cultural implications (connotation).

  • Example: "Home" (denotation: a place where one lives) vs. its connotation of warmth and security.

Character Analyzation

Steps to properly analyze characters in a text:

1. Identify whether you have a dynamic or static character.

   • Static do not change much throughout the story

   • Dynamic change (dramatically typically) throughout the story

2. Determine the role of the character.

   • Are they the protagonist? Antagonist? Supporting-character? Etc…

3. Understand the characters' mentionable actions or be able to recognize what they do and think.

   • Why do you think your character is the protagonist or antagonist?

   • What is the first significant action the character takes in the story?

   • Why do you think your character behaves the way they do?

   • How do the character’s actions influence the way the story unfolds?

4. Explore the main characters' relationships.

   • Identify and analyze how the supporting characters interact with the main characters of stories

   • Look into the antagonist, allies, family, any characters the protagonist must protect from others

5. Identify and discern main personality traits.

   • Introvert or extrovert? Peaceful or Aggressive? Giving or selfish?

   • Anything that helps the reader to truly understand who a character is.

6. Explore the character's evolution.

   • How do the characters change as the plot unfolds?

   • Connect key actions to personality traits.

   • Use these connections to see how the character changes with the story.

Poetry Concepts

1. Line: A subdivision of a poem, a group of words arranged into a row that ends for a reason other than the right-hand margin.

   • Lines may be arranged to have a certain number of syllables, stresses, or metrical feet or to rhyme, whether they be of equal length or not.

2. Meter: The basic rhythmic structure of a line within a poem or poetic work.

   • Meter functions as a means of imposing a specific number of syllables and emphasis when it comes to a line of poetry that adds to its musicality.

   • It consists of the number of syllables and the pattern of emphasis on those syllables.

3. Stressed and Unstressed Syllables: A stressed syllable is the part of a word that you say with greater emphasis than the other syllables. Alternatively, an unstressed syllable is a part of a word that you say with less emphasis than the stressed syllable(s).

   • If the word is a two-syllable noun or adjective, the stress usually falls on the first syllable. For example: PIzza, LAzy, BOttle, QUIet.

   • If a word ends in -al, -cy, -ty, -phy, or -gy, the stress falls on the third from the last syllable. For example: geneOLogy, LOgical, phoTOGraphy.

   • If a word ends in -ic, -sion, or -tion, the stress usually falls on the next to last syllable. For example: atTRACtion, FUsion, BASic.

   • If a word is a two-syllable verb or preposition, the stress usually falls on the second syllable. For example: beSIDE, aDAPT, reCEIVE.

4. Iambic Pentameter: A line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. Typically each line is also ten syllables long or two pentameters back to back.

   • daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM = style of the structure (unstressed first, stressed second)

5. Stanza: A division of a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged together in a usually recurring pattern of meter and rhyme.

   • Organization of stanza- Just like paragraphs are used in prose to organize different topics within a larger essay or body of work, stanzas are used for organization in poetry. For example, the first stanza in a poem may explore one topic and as the poem transitions into another topic or idea, a new stanza is introduced.

   • Shape- Some poets use stanzas to create the visible shape of a poem. Lines within a stanza can utilize empty, negative space or words to create positive space. This creates a composition that influences the overall shape of a poem.

   • Types of Stanzas: A group of two lines is called a couplet. A three line stanza is called a tercet. A four line stanza is a quatrain, and a five line stanza is a quintet. Two other common lengths are a sestet, six lines; and an octave, eight lines.

6. Rhyme: Stanzas contribute to the rhythm and meter of a poem. Lines within the same block are often read together creating the author’s intended rhythm as the reader reads it. A break in between stanzas will often create a pause or hesitation in the reading of a poem, further contributing to a poem’s rhythm.

   • End Rhyme- End rhyme is when the last syllables within a verse rhyme. This type of rhyme is the most commonly used in English poetry. It is also often used in song lyrics, as we will see below. Many poets use end rhyme because it creates a rhythm.

   • Slant Rhyme- slant rhyme refers to a type of rhyme in which two words located at the end of a line of poetry themselves end in similar—but not identical—consonant sounds. For instance, the words "pact" and “slicked" could be a slant rhyme. The term has expanded over time to include additional types of similar sounds. More precisely, slant rhyme today now includes words whose last syllables contain assonance ("unpack" and "detach") as well as words whose last syllables contain final consonants that have consonance ("country" and "contra").

   • Sometimes referred to as imperfect rhyme or half-rhyme

   • Internal Rhyme-Internal rhyme is a poetic device that can be defined as metrical lines in which its middle words and its end words rhyme with one another. It is also called “middle rhyme,” since it comes in the middle of lines.

7. Rhyme Scheme: The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.

   • Rhyme schemes can change line by line, stanza by stanza, or can continue throughout a poem.

   • Poems with rhyme schemes are generally written in formal verse, which has a strict meter: a repeating pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

8. Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet: It contains fourteen lines of poetry.

   • The lines are divided into an eight-line subsection (called an octave) followed by a six-line subsection (called a sestet).

   • The octave follows a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA. This means the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth lines all rhyme with one another. The second, third, sixth, and seventh lines similarly rhyme with one another.

   • The sestet follows one of two rhyme schemes. The common TYPES ARE a CDE CDE scheme or CDC DCD.

9. Shakespearean/Elizabethan Sonnet: Shakespeare's sonnets are composed of 14 lines, and most are divided into three quatrains (a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes) and a final, concluding couplet (stanza with two lines), rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.

   • Shakespearean sonnets use the alternate rhymes of each quatrain to create powerful oppositions between different lines and different sections, or to develop a sense of progression across the poem.

   • The final couplet can either provide a decisive conclusion to the narrative or argument of the rest of the sonnet.

10. Blank Verse: Blank verse is a literary device defined as an un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter.

11. Free Verse: Free verse is a type of poetry that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter.

    • Free verse is considered an open form of poetry, as opposed to poetry written in structure or form, and tends to follow natural speech patterns and rhythms.

Author's Purpose

• An author's purpose is his reason for or intent in writing.

• An author's purpose may be to amuse the reader, to persuade the reader, to inform the reader, or to satirize a condition.

  1. To relate a story or to recount events, an author uses narrative writing.

  2. To tell what something looks like, sounds like, or feels like, the author uses descriptive writing

  3. To convince a reader to believe an idea or to take a course of action, the author uses persuasive writing.

  4. To inform or teach the reader, the author uses expository writing.

Logos, Ethos, Pathos, and Kairos

• Logos (Greek for "word")

  • Focuses attention on the message.

  • Often called a "logical appeal," or an "appeal to reason."

  • Points out internal consistency and clarity within its argument.

  • Frequently uses data to support its claim.

• Ethos (Greek for "character")

  • Focuses attention on the writer's or speaker's trustworthiness.

  • Takes one of two forms: "appeal to character" or "appeal to credibility."

  • A writer may show "ethos" through her tone, such as taking care to show more than one side of an issue before arguing for her side. When you use a counterargument to show an opposing side to an issue before explaining why your thesis is still correct, you use ethos.

  • Other times, the author may rely on his reputation for honesty or his experience in a particular field. Advertising that relies on doctors' statements or political records often use an appeal to ethos.

• Pathos (Greek for "suffering" or "experience")

  • Focuses attention on the values and beliefs of the intended audience.

  • Appeals to the audience's capacity for empathy, often by using an imaginable story to exemplify logical appeals.

  • Whereas logos and ethos appeal to our mental capacities for logic, pathos appeals to our imaginations and feelings, helping the audience grasp an argument's significance in terms of how it would help or harm the tangible world around them.

• Kairos (Greek for "right time," "season" or "opportunity")

  • Refers to the "timeliness" of an argument.

  • Often, for an ad or an argument to be successful, it needs appropriate tone and structure and come at the right time. For example, an ad featuring Avril Lavigne would be more effective for a teen magazine in 2002 than in 2012. A Sears ad featuring Kim Kardashian would be more appropriate in TeenVogue than it would be in AARP magazine.

  • Kairos is also the reason you might send a different kind of complaint email to your boss than you would to your mom or to a close friend. You may want similar results from all three of these recipients, but depending on who will read it, you may adjust the timing, tone and level of formality within the email itself.

Reasoning and Logical Fallacies

• Inductive reasoning takes a specific representative case or facts and then draws generalizations or conclusions from them.

  • Example: Fair trade agreements have raised the quality of life for coffee producers, so fair trade agreements could be used to help other farmers as well.

• Deductive reasoning begins with a generalization and then applies it to a specific case.

  • Example: Genetically modified seeds have caused poverty, hunger, and a decline in biodiversity everywhere they have been introduced, so there is no reason the same thing will not occur when genetically modified corn seeds are introduced in Mexico.

• Affirming the Consequent: Mistakenly assumes that if the outcome (consequent) of a statement is true, then the condition (antecedent) that led to it must also be true. In simpler terms, it's assuming a cause is the only reason for an effect when there may be other options.

  • Example: The argument form is: "If P, then Q. Q. Therefore, P."

• Slippery slope: This is a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens, then eventually through a series of small steps, through B, C,…, X, Y, Z will happen, too, basically equating A and Z. So, if we don't want Z to occur A must not be allowed to occur either.

  • Example: If we ban Hummers because they are bad for the environment, eventually the government will ban all cars, so we should not ban Hummers.

• Hasty Generalization: This is a conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence. In other words, you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts.

  • Example: Even though it's only the first day, I can tell this is going to be a boring course.

• Post hoc ergo propter hoc: This is a conclusion that assumes that if 'A' occurred after 'B' then 'B' must have caused 'A.'

  • Example: I drank bottled water and now I am sick, so the water must have made me sick.

• Genetic Fallacy: A conclusion is based on an argument that the origins of a person, idea, institute, or theory determine its character, nature, or worth.

  • Example: The Volkswagen Beetle is an evil car because it was originally designed by Hitler's army.

• Either/or: This is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices.

  • Example: We can either stop using cars or destroy the earth.

• Ad hominem: This is an attack on the character of a person rather than their opinions or arguments.

  • Example: Green Peace's strategies aren't effective because they are all dirty, lazy hippies.

• Ad populum: This is an emotional appeal that speaks to positive (such as patriotism, religion, democracy) or negative (such as terrorism or fascism) concepts rather than the real issue at hand.

  • Example: If you were a true American you would support the rights of people to choose whatever vehicle they want.

• Red Herring: This is a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them.

  • Example: The level of mercury in seafood may be unsafe, but what will fishers do to support their families?

Rhetorical Devices

• A rhetorical device is a linguistic tool that employs a particular type of sentence structure, sound, or pattern of meaning in order to evoke a particular reaction from an audience.

1. Parallel Structure: Using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level.

2. Repetition: Literary device in which a writer intentionally repeats the same word or phrase for effect.

   • Anaphora: Repetition of single word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

   • Epistrophe: Repetition of single word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.

3. Antithesis: The rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences.

4. Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions between listed words or parts of sentences Used to speed up the rhythm of a phrase, make it more memorable or urgent, or offer other stylistic effects.

   • Example: I came, I saw, I conquered.

5. Polysyndeton: Use of multiple conjunctions between words or phrases.

   • Used to slow down the rhythm of a phrase, make it more memorable, or emphasize each individual item in a list. It can also be used to make the items in a list seem to pile up, one atop another, giving the reader a sense of being overwhelmed.

   • Example: For chores I have to walk the dog and do the laundry and wash the dishes and mow the lawn and wash the car!

6. Chiasmus: Rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect.

7. Rhetorical question: A question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer

   • Erotesis: (type of rhetorical question) figure of speech whereby a question is asked in confident expectation of a negative answer.Example: "You may think that you are not superstitious. But would you walk under a burning building?"

Figurative Language

• Figurative language is words or phrases used by writers and speakers to express things in a non-literal way to add excitement, emotions, or more depth to a subject.

  1. Simile: A direct comparison; however, in this case, the two things being compared are linked together by “like” or “as.”

  2. Metaphor: A metaphor makes a direct comparison between two things to point out how they are similar.

  3. Personification: Attributing human qualities to a non-human subject.

  4. Hyperbole: An intentional over exaggeration, where the exaggeration serves to deepen the meaning of what you’re saying.

  5. Apostrophe: Figure of speech that is used to address someone who is absent or already dead. It can also be used to address an abstract quality or idea, and even a non-living object.

  6. Imagery: Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

     • Visual-mental imagery that involves the sense of having “pictures” in the mind

     • Auditory- mental images or representations that are created in a person's mind when they hear sounds or words

     • Olfactory- being able to experience the sensation of smell when an appropriate stimulus is absent

     • Gustatory-appeals to the reader's sense of taste by describing something the speaker or narrator of the text tastes i) It may include sweetness, sourness, saltiness, savoriness, or spiciness

     • Tactile- used to describe something by focusing on aspects that can be felt or touched

  7. Idiom: An idiom is a term or phrase that is unique to a language, culture, or region. In these types of phrases, the literal meaning and figurative meaning are different.

  8. Euphemism: A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

  9. Symbol: An image, object, idea or symbol is used to represent something other than its literal meaning

  10. Tone: The way a writer’s attitude is conveyed through their work. It may be how the writer’s personal opinion is expressed, or it may be used to convey the feelings or the attitude of a character or the narrator of the story.

  11. Mood: The overall feeling, or atmosphere, of a text often created by the author's use of imagery and word choice.

• mood of a piece might be funny, sad, creepy, cheerful, nostalgic, curious, and so on

  12. Diction: The careful selection of words to communicate a message or establish a particular voice or writing style.

      • Colloquial- specific words or phrases used in particular geographical locations Think of it like you talking with your friends. The terms and phrases you use are colloquial.

      • Elevated- the use of tone, style, and lexicon as formal, sophisticated, and academic: As such, elevated diction doesn't contain colloquialisms, a conversational tone, or idiomatic phrases

      • Archaic- describes words, phrases, or pronunciations that are obsolete or outdated in current usage

  13. Paradox: Statement that sounds logical but that contradicts itself; in literature, may be possible while still being contradictory

  14. Pun: Exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings

  15. Irony: Whenever a person says something or does something that departs from what they (or we) expect them to say or do

      • Verbal- typically it is sarcasm.

      • Situational- outcome of a situation is not what is expected

      • Dramatic- the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

  16. Syntax: A set of principles and rules that govern sentence structure and word order in a particular language in English, the general rule of syntax follows the subject-verb-object rule.

Clause Combinations

• Just like subject and length, overusing a sentence type can hinder a reader’s engagement with a text. There are four types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Each sentence is defined by the use of independent and dependent clauses, conjunctions, and subordinators.

  1. Simple sentences: A simple sentence is an independent clause with no conjunction or dependent clause.

  2. Compound sentences: A compound sentence is two independent clauses joined by a conjunction (FANBOYS: and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so).

  3. Complex sentences: A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. The clauses in a complex sentence are combined with conjunctions and subordinators, terms that help the dependent clauses relate to the independent clause.

  4. Compound-complex sentences: A compound-complex sentence contains multiple independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. These sentences will contain both conjunctions and subordinators.

Common Errors

• Exercise finding run-ons and fragments:

• Misplaced Modifiers: A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is improperly separated from the word it modifies or describes. Because of the separation, sentences with this error often sound awkward, ridiculous, or confusing.

  • Kinds of misplaced modifiers:

1. Misplaced adjectives are incorrectly separated from the nouns they modify and almost always distort the intended meaning.

2. Adverbs that are commonly misplaced in everyday speech, and may not cause listeners difficulty. However, such sentences are quite imprecise and, therefore, should have NO place in your writing.

3. Misplaced phrases

4. Misplaced clauses

• Dangling Modifiers: A dangling modifier is a phrase or clause that is not clearly and logically related to the word or words it modifies (i.e. is placed next to).

  • Unlike a misplaced modifier, a dangling modifier cannot be corrected by simply moving it to a different place in a sentence.

  • In most cases, the dangling modifier appears at the beginning of the sentence, although it can also come at the end.

Subject-Verb and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Commas

1. The Oxford (or serial) comma is the final comma in a list of things.

2. Non-essential clauses and commas- Use commas before and after nonessential words, phrases, and clauses, that is, elements embedded in the sentence that interrupt it without changing the essential meaning.

Semicolons

-Semicolons are used to separate two independent clauses that are closely related.

-Semicolons can also be used in a list with closely related terms.