Acts: large divisions or sections within a play; similar to a chapter in a book

Aside: A technique in drama (a play, movie, TV show) where a character speaks directly to the audience. The other characters on stage do not hear this character's aside words.

Atmosphere: The general feeling of a piece of writing. This can also be referred to as the tone or mood. Often emotion words are used to describe atmosphere.

Ballad: a song or a poem that is a narrative or tells a story

Blank Verse: A form of poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter: every line of the poem has 10 syllables and those syllables have a sing-songy up and down sound to them. Most of Shakespeare's plays are written in blank verse.

Body Copy: the printed material of a news story or article

Character: The fictional people an author creates in a story or poem; a character can be complex (round), or simple (flat); a character can change over the course of a story (dynamic), or remain unchanged (static); a good writer makes characters interesting and believable.

Climax: The high point of tension or suspense in a story; the decisive moment or turning point in a story; an author writes a story that builds towards a climax; the climax often determines the outcome of the conflict.

Colloquial: a way of expression, written or spoken, that is usually found in informal situations or in language confined to a particular region

Conclusion: the ending or resolution of the story

Conflict: Conflict occurs when the protagonist (main character) is opposed by some person or force in a story. The conflict might be external, character vs. character, or character vs. nature, or internal, character vs. self; the conflict can be internal, or external or both.

Context clues: hints that the author gives to help define a difficult or unusual word

Contrast: When you are asked to contrast, you are essentially being asked to consider the differences between two or more stories, poems, essays, or things. You might contrast life in the city versus life in the country.

Drama: a piece of writing, especially with a serious topic, that is intended to be acted out for presentation to an audience

Dynamic Character: a character who learns something or whose personality changes through the course of a story

Epiphany: a moment of sudden understanding or revelation

Expository: the first section of the plot, in which characters, setting, and any necessary information are introduced

Extended metaphor: a metaphor that extends through a number of lines or through an entire poem

Fact: a statement that can be proved

Fate: the idea that what happens to a person or character is outside of their control (synonyms of fate include chance, fortune, destiny, and luck)

Flashbacks: This is where a writer presents information that happened before the story begins; a flashback might be a character's dream, memory of the past, or story of a past event.

Free verse: poetry that does not rely on traditional rhyme schemes and metrical structures

Fiction: stories that are based on imaginative characters and events

Foreshadow: The method an author uses to build suspense by providing clues as to what might happen in a story. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo's expression of fear at the beginning of the play foreshadows the catastrophe and tragedy to come at the end of the play.

Headlines: the title of a story or copy, usually printed in large type

Imagery: a word or group of words in a story or poem that appeals to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell

Inverted pyramid: a way of writing newspaper articles so that the most important information is at the beginning of the story and less important information is provided nearer the end

Layout: the design process whereby stories, photos, and other elements are laid out on a page

Lyric Poetry: poetry that focuses on evoking mood and emotion

Media: the means of mass communication, especially television, radio, internet and newspaper collectively

Memoir: a written record of a real person's own life experiences

Metaphor: A type of figurative language where the writer compares two essentially unlike things; a metaphor is a direct comparison.

Mind map: A diagram that represents words or ideas visually, by linking and arranging related items around a key word or idea.

Monologue: a piece of writing that is meant to be read aloud by a single narrator

Moral: a lesson about life learned from a story

Myth: Myths, or traditional stories, began as an oral tradition. Myths focused on a single hero whose adventures taught a valuable lesson about life.

Narrative: A style of writing that tells a story; a narrative style can be used in a novel, short story, poem, or essay where the writer is telling a story or recounting events.

Narrator: A character in the story who tells the story. In all works other than autobiographies, the narrator is not the author.

Narrative Poetry: poetry that tells a story

Non-Fiction: writing that is factual or informative rather than imaginative or fictional

Opinion: a statement based on personal belief

Paragraph: a group of sentences on a specific linked together as a text grouping

Plot: The structure of a story; the sequence of events that happens in a story. Plot elements include the initial incident, rising action, the climax, falling action, and resolution.

Poetry: imaginative writing composed of lines that have a unique pattern or metrical form

Point of View: The voice of speaker in a story; a story can be told in the first person (where a character tells the story from his or her perspective - this is indicated by "I"), or a story can be told in the third person, telling things from the perspective of an onlooker; the third-person point of view can be omniscient (where the author reveals everything), or limited omniscient (where an author will select what to reveal, often only the point of view of one character).

Prose: ordinary language, written or spoken, that does not have a poetic structure

Puns: a play on the confusion between two similar words

Resolution: the point in the story where the conflict is resolved

Rhyme: the repetition of similar sounds at the end of two or more lines of poetry

Rhyming couplets: two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

Rhythm: Think of rhythm as the music or beat of a poem. Often poems have a rhythm or beat that is consistent throughout the poem.

Root Word: A word that has nothing added at the beginning or the end. It stands on its own as a word, it has a meaning. New words can be made from root words by adding beginnings (prefixes) and endings (suffixes). For example, clear is a root word. By adding prefixes and suffixes you can make these new words: unclear, clearly, cleared. All of these words have grown from their root word. They share parts of the same spelling and they are linked in terms of meaning.

Scenes: divisions or sections within an act of a play

Setting: The time and place or the when and where of a story.

Soliloquy: A theatrical device whereby a character, alone on stage, reveals his/her inner thoughts to the audience. A soliloquy is typically longer than an aside.

Sonnet: A lyric poem that focuses on a specific theme. The sonnet is usually 14 lines and written in iambic pentameter. The two most traditional sonnet structures are the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet and the Shakespearean (English) sonnet. The Petrarchan is divided into the eight-line octave and the six-line sestet. The rhyme scheme of the octave is usually abba abba; the rhyme scheme of the sestet is either cde cde or cd cd cd. The octave often asks a question or states a problem while the sestet provides the answer or solution. The Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three four-line quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The usual rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Each quatrain usually develops a variation of the main theme. The rhyming couplet usually provides a summary or conclusion.

Speaker: An imaginary voice taken on by a poet to tell you a poem. Do not assume that the speaker of a poem is the author - it is rarely the case.

SQ3R: A reading strategy that involves surveying, questioning, reading, reciting, and reviewing text.

Stanza: A "paragraph" of poetry or a group of lines sectioned off in a poem. If a poem you are reading has three stanzas, each "section" will be distinct and separated from the other by a blank line; you will easily be able to see and count each stanza.

Static Character: a character whose personality does not change throughout the story

Stereotypes: A character that is immediately identified with a group. A stereotypical character is one we are immediately familiar with because we have seen the type before.

Subhead: a smaller headline inserted between paragraphs of copy

Summary: To take a larger passage or text and condense or make it smaller using your own words; a summary contains the main ideas and details of a reading passage; a summary does not express the writer's opinion.

Symbolism: an object that represents or stands in for a more abstract idea - for example, a dove is a symbol for peace

Theme: The main idea that an author develops in a story or poem. A theme can usually be summarized in one sentence and is universal.

Thesis: the central idea that an essay illustrates or proves

Thesis Statement: the main idea or opinion developed in the multi-paragraph composition; the position the writer takes regarding the topic

Tone: expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject; the tone of a story might be angry, or the tone of a poem might be bitter; the words a writer carefully uses will help you identify tone

Topic Sentences: A sentence that introduces the topic and direction of the paragraph. Typically the first sentence of the paragraph.

Tragedy: a serious play with a sad ending; focuses on the downfall of the protagonist(s)

Writing Process: the process of pre-writing, writing, revising, editing, and publishing a communications piece

Voice: the attitude of the narrator to the topic, character, or events in the piece of writing.