Skill/Term
MLA Format –
Research Paper
Heading
Thesis
English I Fall Semester Final Exam 2014
Exam Review
My definition or description
Name
Teacher’s name
Class
Date
Example
North Bulldog
Coach James
English 1-4th
17 December 2014
One sentence controlling statement of the
essay’s topic
Literary Skills
Setting
time and place of action
Suspense
feeling of uncertainty about the outcome of
events
Irony (dramatic,
situational, verbal)
Dramatic: contradiction in what character
thinks and what the reader knows
Dramatic: Cask of Amontillado- “It will
not kill me. I shall not die of a cough”
Situational: event that occurs that
contradicts the expectation of characters
Situational: Runner trained for race.
Expected to win. Overslept and missed
race
Verbal: words used to suggest opposite of
what is meant
Connotation
ideas associated with word
Verbal: After awful day, mom asks how
your day was. You say, “Great day.
Best ever.”
Smell-neutral connotation
Fragrance-positive connotationpleasant, sweet smell
Stench-negative connotation-foul,
unpleasant odor
Denotation
dictionary meaning
Main Idea
central message
Mood
feeling created in reader
Metaphor
comparison-saying one this is something
else
comparison using like or as
My brother is a pig.
attitude of a writer toward a subject or an
audience
short description or restatement of main
idea
Calm, arrogant, serious, gloomy
Simile
Tone
Summary
Page 1
My brother eats like a pig.
Character
Development
Direct-writer explains character
Indirect- writer hints at character through
actions, words, and thoughts
Author’s Purpose
His or her reason for writing
To inform, persuade, entertain, etc.
Alliteration
The repetition of consonants at the
beginning of two or more words immediately
succeeding each other, or at short intervals;
as in the following lines
Around the rock the ragged rascal ran
Personification
nonhuman subject is given human
characteristics
Opportunity knocked on my door.
Imagery
language used to convey a visual picture
Internal conflict
conflict with himself or herself
Inference
Symbolism
the act or process of reaching a conclusion
about something from known facts or
evidence
anything that stands for something else
Theme
The lake was left shivering by the touch
of morning wind.
“The Most Dangerous Game”- Zaroff’s
internal conflict about hunting (his
passion, but it has become boring)
Animal Farm- Old Major symbolized
Karl Marx
Without dreams, life has no purpose.
a broad idea, message, or moral of a story
Repetition
repeating words or phrases
Rhetorical Question
asked to make a point and without
expecting a reply
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped
Rockies… Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous slopes…Let freedom ring
from Lookout Mountain
Now, comrades, what is the nature of
this life of ours?)
Figurative Language
not meant to be taken literally
metaphor, simile, personification
First Person POV
Character tells the story
“I”
Third Person Limited
POV
Third Person
Omniscient
Summary
Sees through one character’s eyes
“He” “She”
Analogy
Epic Simile
All knowing, can tell thoughts and feelings
of ALL characters
shorts description or restatement of main
idea
drawing a comparison that shows a
similarity between two unlike things
an elaborate comparison of unlike subjects
Page 2
He had a velvet voice.
Think of a catch that fishermen haul in to a
half-moon bay in a fine-meshed net from
the whitecaps of the sea: how all are
poured out on the sand, in throes for the
salt sea, twitching their cold lives away in
Helios’ fiery air: so lay the suitors heaped
on one another. (Homer compares the
bodies of men killed by Odysseus to a
fisherman’s catch)
brief, descriptive phrase that helps
characterize a particular person or thing and
emphasizes the important traits of the
characters
A larger than life character in an epic
“Lord of the Clouds" would be Zeus
a type of character, detail, image, or
situation that appears in literature from
around the world and throughout history
A long narrative poem about the deeds of
gods or heroes
The hero, the villain, the quest, etc.
Before a coordinating conjunction to
separate 2 independent clauses
I went to the store, and I bought
Christmas cookies.
After an introductory phrase
For example, I study five hours a week.
Apostrophes
Shows possession
Student’s book
Homonym
Same pronunciation but different meaning
Peace, piece
Epithet
Epic Hero
Archetype
Epic
Odysseus
The Odyssey
Revising and Editing
Comma Usage
Common Usage
Errors
Its = possession
It’s = it is
Page 3