Literary Devices and Terminology Quiz

Literary Devices and Terminology

• Allusion: Reference to literature, history, religion, or mythology within a work.
• Analogy: Comparison between two distinct items, suggesting a similarity in their relationships.
• Anecdote: A brief, often personal, story or retelling of an event to illustrate a point.
• Antithesis: Presentation of contrasting ideas, balanced through phrasing, often highlighting conflict or contrast.
• Audience: The intended readers or viewers of a literary work.
• Character: Entities that execute the plot; categories include major, minor, static, and dynamic characters.
• Chronological Order: Organization of events in the sequence they occur over time.
• Climax: The peak or most significant moment in a narrative that influences the outcome.

Plot and Structure

• Conflict: The struggle between opposing forces, which could be internal (man vs. self) or external (man vs. man, man vs. nature, etc.).
• Dialogue: The spoken exchanges between characters in a narrative.
• Figurative Language: Language that uses figures of speech like metaphors and similes to convey meanings beyond the literal.
• Flashback: A narrative technique that interrupts the flow of the story to reference past events.
• Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements made for emphasis or humorous effect.
• Imagery: Vivid sensory descriptions that create mental images within a literary work.
• Irony: A contrast between expectation and reality; can occur in various forms including dramatic, verbal, and situational irony.

Literary Elements

• Metaphor: A comparison of unlike things that does not use "like" or "as."
• Motif: Recurring images or themes within a work that contribute to its overall meaning.
• Parallelism: The use of similar grammatical structures to emphasize related ideas or themes.
• Personification: Assigning human traits to non-human entities.
• Physiognomy: Judging a character's personality based on their facial features.
• Plot: The organized sequence of events that make up a narrative.
• Point-of-View: The perspective from which the story is told, influencing the reader's understanding.

Writing Techniques and Concepts

• Purpose: The reason an author has for writing, influencing theme and messaging.
• Regionalism: Specific language and expressions used in particular geographic locations.
• Resolution: The moment in a narrative when the main conflict is resolved.
• Rhetorical Question: A thought-provoking question posed not to elicit an answer but to emphasize a point.
• Satire: A style of writing that uses humor and ridicule to critique societal flaws.
• Simile: A comparison using "like" or "as" to highlight similarities.
• Stereotype: A simplistic and generalized belief about a group or individual.

Symbolism and Themes

• Symbol: An object or concept that represents broader ideas or themes in a work.
• Theme: The underlying messages or main ideas conveyed by the author through various literary elements.
• Tone: The author's attitude toward the subject or audience, reflected in their writing style.

Grammar and Citation

• Verisimilitude: The appearance of truthfulness or realism in narrative elements.
• Comma Splices: An improper use of a comma to join two independent clauses.
• Commas: Used for separating independent clauses, especially when combined with coordinating conjunctions.
• Fragments: Incomplete sentences lacking a main clause but resembling a sentence.
• Run-on/Fused Sentences: Incorrectly combining two main clauses with no punctuation.
• Works Cited: Book: Format for citing a book, including author, title, publication city, publisher, and year.
• Works Cited: Website: Format for online citations including author, title of the page, website name, institution, update date, and access date.
• Parenthetical References: In-text citations that refer to sources in the Works Cited list, typically including author and page number.