STUDY GUIDE – English I Final Examination
Ninth Grade Academy, Warren Hills Regional High School, Washington, NJ
Part I – Sentence Structure
Know how to recognize errors in sentences.
Directions: Turn the following incomplete sentences into complete sentences:
Because she liked ice cream. __________ANSWERS WILL VARY___________________________
Stood up because they wanted to leave. _________ ANSWERS WILL VARY __________________
Although he loved to eat pickles with his pizza. _____ ANSWERS WILL VARY ________________
Directions: Fix the following sentences:
Essays are written in his bedroom by Jimmy.
__Sentence is passive voice; it should be active voice: Jimmy writes essays in his bedroom.______
My favorite sports are: lacrosse, archery, soccer, baseball, football, and distance running.
__Delete the colon.__________________________________________________________________
Some people find bird watching gatherings weird, bird watching is still my favorite activity.
__While some people find bird watching gatherings weird, bird watching is still my favorite activity.__
She handed me a hotdog and quickly but in a careful way sat on the auditorium seat beside me.
__ She handed me a hotdog and, quickly but in a careful way, sat on the auditorium seat beside me.___
He handed me the razor, shaving cream, bucket, and another white towel.
__ He handed me the razor, shaving cream, bucket, and white towel.________________________
I will be notifying – my classmates, friends, and teammates about the upcoming concert.
__Delete the dash.___________________________________________________________________
My damaged car is giving me stress, costing me money, and it took away my means of transportation.
My damaged car is giving me stress, costing me money, and taking away my means of transportation.
I was asked to sit down by the teacher. (Rewrite this sentence so that it is in active, not passive, voice.)
___The teacher asked me to sit down.__________________________________________________
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By the time I arrived at school, all of my friends are playing chess in math class. I quickly sat down
and joined them.
__Change “are” to “were” so that the verb tense (past tense) is consistent.____________________
Rowena bought candy at the grocery store and gives some to her brother.
__ Change “gives” to “gave” so that the verb tense (past tense) is consistent.__________________
Jack and I push and clawed our way to the front of the lunch line.
___ Jack and I pushed and clawed our way to the front of the lunch line._____________________
Part II – Literary Terms
Be able to define, and recognize the proper usage of, the following literary terms. You have come
across most of these terms during the past school year, so this Study Guide can help you refresh your
memory. Some of the terms may be new to you; be sure you understand them before taking the Final
Exam. If any material is unclear, do not hesitate to ask your teacher about it!
allegory: A literary work in which all or most of the characters, settings, and events stand for ideas,
qualities, or figures beyond themselves. In other words, the work contains both a “surface story” and a
story hidden underneath.
alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds, generally at the beginning of words. Note the
alliteration with “s” sounds here: He saw the slithering snake behind the celery.
allusion: A figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, recognizable people,
places, events, literary works, myths, or works of art. Example: The story reminded her of Greek
legend Prometheus having his liver pecked by birds.
antagonist: A person or force in society or nature that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in
a story or drama. The reader is generally meant not to sympathize with the antagonist.
antithesis: The technique of putting opposite ideas side by side in order to point out their differences.
archetype: A common pattern of image, theme, character, or plot that occurs in literature from a broad
range of cultures. Many stories from many cultures share archetypes. Example: The wise leader and
the damsel in distress are both examples of character archetypes.
assonance: The repetition of same or similar vowel sounds within non-rhyming words. The following
short passage, from poet Rita Dove, repeats the long “i” sound in “I’ve” and “trying,” and the short “i”
sound is repeated in “it” and “exist:” I’ve been trying / … but it doesn’t exist.
autobiography: A person’s written, nonfiction account of his or her entire life. An autobiography uses
first-person point of view.
biography: A nonfiction account of a person’s life written by another person.
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character: Any individual in a literary work. The first major character you came across when entering
high school should have been Guy Montag, from your summer reading of Fahrenheit 451. Types of
characters:
 dynamic character: An individual who changes during the story.
 flat character: An often shallow character who exhibits only one personality trait.
 round character: An individual who exhibits many personality traits.
characterization: The methods that a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character. Two types:
 direct characterization: The writer makes obvious statements about a character: Example:
Thomas sported blond, wavy hair and bulging muscles that nearly broke through his T-shirt.
 indirect characterization: The writer reveals a character in roundabout ways, such as through
the individual’s words, thoughts, and actions, as well as what other characters say about
him/her.
chronological order: The arrangement of details in the order of their occurrence.
climax: The high point of a story. It is the point to which the plot builds and is the moment of highest
tension, or the most important moment.
conflict: The struggle between opposing forces in a story. Two types:
 external conflict: A character struggles against an outside force, such as another person, nature,
or society.
 internal conflict: A struggle that takes place within the mind of a character who is torn between
opposing feelings or goals.
consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds, typically within or at the end of words that do not
rhyme and preceded by different vowel sounds. Example: cool, hall, soul.
dialogue: Conversation between characters in a literary work. Dialogue can help create mood, advance
a plot, and develop theme.
diction: A writer’s choice of words; an important element in the writer’s voice or style.
editorial: A short, persuasive article that appears in a newspaper, web site, magazine, etc.
end rhyme: A rhyme that occurs at the end of a line of poetry. Example:
I heard him say, “I am a bear!”
I tried to act bravely, like I didn’t care.
enjambment: In poetry, the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of a poem to the next,
without a pause between the lines. Example from William Wordsworth:
The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee…
epic: A long narrative poem that recounts, in formal language, the exploits of a heroic figure. The
beginning of an epic usually is written in formal language that sets the stage for a long and grand story.
The epic hero typically struggles against natural and supernatural forces.
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essay: A short work of nonfiction covering a single subject. Types:
 Descriptive essay describes a person, place, or thing.
 Narrative essay relates a true story.
 Persuasive essay argues in favor of a certain opinion; its purpose is to convince the reader to
think or act a certain way.
 Formal essay: A serious and impersonal work designed to instruct or persuade.
 Informal essay: A work that entertains while it informs, usually in light, conversational style.
fable: A short, usually simple tale that teaches a moral and often uses animal characters.
fiction: This is a type of writing about imagined events or characters.
flashback: An interruption of a story’s chronology to describe an earlier event.
figurative language: Writing or speech meant to be understood imaginatively, instead of literally.
Examples are similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification.
foil: A character in a story or drama who has the opposite personality traits from one of the main
characters.
folktale: An anonymous, traditional story passed down orally long before being written down.
Folktales include animal stories, trickster stories, fairy tales, myths, and tall tales.
free verse: Poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, or line length.
hero: The main character in a literary work, typically a character whose admirable qualities of noble
deeds attract admiration.
humor: The quality of a literary work that makes the characters and their situations seem funny.
hyperbole: An exaggeration for rhetorical effect. Example: “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
imagery: The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas in an effort to
put images in a reader’s mind. The five senses are important here.
irony: Know the main types of irony!
 dramatic irony: A situation in a drama that is understood by the audience but not known by the
characters in the play, TV show, movie, etc. Example: You’re watching the beginning of the
movie Titanic; you know that the ship is going to sink, but the characters don’t know yet.
 situational irony: An action has an effect that is opposite of what was intended, so that the
outcome is contrary to what was expected. Example: A man steps aside to avoid getting
sprinkled by a wet dog; as he steps aside, he falls into a swimming pool.
 verbal irony: Someone says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to give a
meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning. Example: You panic because you forgot to
study for a math test that will take place in five minutes; you tell a friend about it, and your
friend responds sarcastically, “Lucky you!”
lyric poetry: Verse that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings. Lyric poems are usually
short and musical.
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memoir: Nonfiction writing in which an author presents his/her personal experiences of an event or a
period in his/her life. A memoir covers a piece of the writer’s life; in comparison, an autobiography
covers the person’s entire life.
metaphor: This form of figurative language compares two things as if they were the same. Example:
“He is an elephant.”
mood: The emotional quality of a literary work, such as tense, comical, eerie, happy, etc.
moral: A story that offers a practical lesson about right and wrong conduct. In fables, the moral is
stated directly.
motif: A significant word, phrase, image, description, idea, or other element that is repeated
throughout a literary work and is related to the theme. In Fahrenheit 451, nature is a motif, because it
is presented as a force of innocence and truth, beginning with Clarisse’s love for nature (shown when
she convinces Guy Montag to taste the rain).
motivation: The stated or implied reason a character acts, thinks, or feels a certain way. When
analyzing motivation, a reader should look for an internal conflict, moral, or emotional impulse. To
understand a character’s motivation, a reader should evaluate supporting details.
mystery: A genre of fiction that follows a standard plot pattern: a crime is committed, and a detective
searches for clues that will lead him/her to the criminal.
myth: A traditional story, such as “The Fenris Wolf,” that deals with goddesses, gods, heroes, and
supernatural forces. Myth characteristics include (1) the placement of a hero or heroine in grave danger
at some point of the story and (2) a hero or heroine exhibiting superhuman abilities.
narrative: A story that describes events usually in chronological order (the order of time in which they
happened).
narrator: The person who tells the story in a literary work. The narrator may be a character in the
story or a person outside the story.
nonfiction: This is a type of writing about real events. Examples are biographies and newspaper news
stories.
novel: This is a long work of fiction that is usually more than 100 pages long. Fahrenheit 451 is a
novel.
paradox: A situation or statement that appears to be contradictory but is actually true, either in fact or
in a figurative sense. The greatest series of paradoxes to open any novel appeared in Charles Dickens’
A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it
was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…
parallelism: The use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences possessing similar grammatical form;
parallelism can show the relationship between ideas and can help emphasize thoughts. Example from
President John F. Kennedy: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you
– ask what you can do for your country.”
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parody: A humorous imitation of a literary work that aims to point out the work’s shortcomings.
personification: Figurative language that gives human characteristics to non-human things. Example:
“The moon gazed enviously down upon the two lovers.”
plot: The sequence of events in a story. Conflict is introduced in the exposition (beginning). Next,
rising action builds suspense that leads to the climax (turning point/the point of greatest emotional
intensity or suspense), which is followed by the falling action and resolution (ending).
point of view: The viewpoint from which a story is told by the narrator. We can break it down even
further:
 first-person point of view: When a literary work is told from this viewpoint, the narrator, who is
a character in the story, uses words like “I,” “me,” and “we.”
 Second-person point of view: A rare technique in which an author addresses a character or the
reader as “you” throughout a literary work.
 third-person limited point of view: The narrator reveals the thoughts, feelings, and observations
of only one character, referring to that character as “he” or “she.” Fahrenheit 451 was written
from this point of view. The viewpoint of the story is limited to only one character.
 third-person omniscient point of view: This is an all-knowing viewpoint in which the narrator is
not a character in the story but rather someone who stands outside the story and comments on
the action. The narrator knows what numerous characters in a story are doing and thinking.
protagonist: The central character in a literary work, around whom the main conflict revolves. The
protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, for example, is Guy Montag.
rhyme scheme: The pattern that end rhymes form in a poem. The rhyme scheme is designated by the
assignment of a different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyme. For example, the following six lines
from William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” contain the rhyme scheme ababcc:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
science fiction: A genre of fiction that deals with the impact of science and technology on society and
individuals. Fahrenheit 451, your summer reading assignment, was science fiction.
sequence: The order in which actions take place in time. Writers use verb tenses, or transitions such as
“before,” “earlier,” “that morning,” and “afterward,” to show a sequence of events.
short story: A brief, fictional narrative usually focusing on a single event and featuring only a few
characters.
simile: A type of figurative language that compares two things by using the word “like” or “as.”
Example: “He is as big as an elephant.”
soliloquy: In drama, this is a device in which a character, alone on stage or while under the impression
of being alone, reveals his/her private thoughts and feelings as if thinking aloud.
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style: The way an author expresses himself/herself. This includes the author’s word choice, sentence
structure, and figure of speech.
summarizing: The act of relating the main ideas of a text without including a lot of details or
information.
suspense: A reader’s feeling of curiosity, uncertainty, or even dread about what is going to happen
next in a story. A writer builds suspense by making readers ask, “What will happen next?”
theme: The central idea or message in any literary work.
thesis: The main idea or message in an essay or another work of nonfiction.
tone: An author’s attitude toward his/her subject; it is shown through elements such as word choice,
sentence structure, and figures of speech. Tone may include a wide variety of possibilities, such as
sympathy, seriousness, irony, bitterness, and humor.
trickster: A character who uses clever tricks to get his/her way in a story.
understatement: A statement in which something of importance is emphasized by being described as
if it is not important. Example: “You won the Nobel Prize for Literature? I guess that’s not too bad an
honor.”
SOURCES FOR ABOVE INFORMATION:
Abrams, M.H., ed. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 8th ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth/The Thomson
Corp., 2005. Print.
Baldick, Chris, ed. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: Oxford University Press
Inc., 2004. Print.
EMC Masterpiece Series. Literature and the Language Arts: Experiencing Literature. Birch Level.
2nd. St. Paul: EMC Paradigm Publishing, 2007. Print.
Glencoe, McGraw-Hill. Glencoe Literature, Course 4, Student Edition. Columbus: Glencoe/McGrawHill, 2009. Print.