Literary Terms and Analysis Quiz

Reading Comprehension Strategies

• Determine text structure: Identify how information is organized (e.g., cause and effect, problem-solution, chronological order).
• Analyze interesting language: Note unusual words or phrases and consider their meaning.
• Examine big ideas: Identify central concepts or themes.
• Explore author's purpose: Determine why the author wrote the text.
• Identify author's craft: Examine how the author uses elements like tone, style, and vocabulary.
• Understand author's message/theme: Analyze the main ideas within the work.
• Analyze text features: This includes footnotes, captions, graphs, images, etc.
• Determine organizational structures: Understanding common structures like cause and effect, problem-solution, or chronological order.
• Identify main idea and supporting details: Determine the overarching concept and supporting evidence presented.

Fiction Techniques

• Characters: Understand characters' sayings, actions, appearances, thoughts, and reactions.
• Setting: Determine the time and place of the story.
• Plot/Events: This includes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
• Internal conflict: Character's struggles with inner emotions and thoughts.
• External conflict: Challenges the character faces from external forces.
• Rising action: Events lead up to the climax.
• Climax: The highest tension point.
• Falling action: Events following the climax.
• Resolution: The outcome of a story.
• Themes: The life lessons or messages within a story.
• Archetypes: Common characters representing human nature (hero, villain, etc.).
• Point of view: Perspective from which the story is told.
• Flashback: A scene from the past.
• Tone: Author's attitude toward the subject.
• Mood: Reader's emotional response to the writing.
• Protagonist: The main character.
• Antagonist: The character opposing the protagonist.

Poetry Techniques

• Title: Initial thoughts about the poem.
• Paraphrase: Express the poem in your own words.
• Connotation: Understanding the implied meaning of words/phrases.
• Attitude: Author's emotion toward the subject.
• Shift: Changes in tone, attitude, or structure within the poem.
• Tone: Author or speaker's emotional state regarding the subject.
• Title: Explore the meaning of the title further.
• Figurative language: Metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole, etc.
• Sensory language/imagery: Words appealing to senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch).
• Rhyme: Similarities in sounds at the end of lines.
• Meter: Patterns of syllables that create rhythm.
• Rhythm: Repeated patterns of sound in a poem.
• Structure: How the poem is organized.

Drama Techniques

• Playwright: Author of a play.
• Dialogue: Words spoken by characters.
• Stage directions: Instructions for actions, expressions, and movements (often italicized).
• Acts/Scenes: Divisions within a play.
• Characters: Individuals involved in the drama.
• Context: Information surrounding the play.
• Multiple Choice Strategies (for informational texts): Preview, Process of Elimination, Question/Answer Relationship, Synonyms, and Multi-Part Strategies.

Revision and Editing Strategies

• Adding, removing, moving, or substituting: Ways to improve writing.
• Combined sentences (no comma splices or run-ons): Writing technique
• Transitional words and phrases: Transition between ideas.
• DROP-DOWN questions understanding: Replace options and reread and understand the meaning of sentences again.

Short Constructed Response

• Understand the prompt: Transform the prompt into a direct question.
• Answer the prompt using textual evidence: Cite specific lines or paragraphs to support the answer.
• Write a meaningful response: Show an understanding of the text without relying on restating the text.
• Support with textual evidence: Include quotations and citations, and provide commentary.

Extended Constructed Response (Essay)

• Introduction with thesis statement: Clear introduction with your position presented in a thesis statement.
• Body paragraphs: Each paragraph should support the thesis with evidence and commentary.
• Topic sentences: Each body paragraph should have a clear statement that connects to the main thesis.
• Evidence: Direct quotations and references from the original text.
• Commentary: Explanations connecting the evidence to the topic.
• Concluding sentence: Summarize the main points of the paragraph and connect it to the overall thesis.
• Conclusion: Restate and reinforce the thesis by presenting your overall understanding and takeaways.