Reading Literature & Writing- Techniques/Literary Devices
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Explicit: clear and specifically expressed.
Implicit: understood though not directly expressed.
Inference: an assumption based on evidence and reasoning (The Norton Introduction to Literature, 2010).
Synthesize: to form by bringing together separate parts (The Norton Introduction to Literature, 2010).
Textual evidence: evidence or support for a position derived from the text itself. Examples of textual evidence are
quotations, paraphrase, and summary (The Norton Introduction to Literature, 2010).
Motif: a dominant idea, central theme, recurring image, and/or recurring concept.
Theme: the statement(s), expressed or implied, that a text seems to be making abut its subject (The Bedford
Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, 2009).
Central idea (center): an idea, event, or image that, once identified or posited, gives apparent structure to a text –
be it a relatively short utterance, a literary work, or an entire social discourse – thereby limiting its possible
meaning or meanings (The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, 2009).
Text Structure: The way authors organize information in text (e.g., cause/effect, problem/solution, persuasive,
etc.).
Cause and Effect: An essay structure in which an action or event produces a certain response to the action in the
form of another event.
Problem/Solution: An essay structure that starts by identifying a problem (or problems) and then proposes one or
more solutions.
Persuasive: An essay structure in which the writer uses rhetorical strategies to persuade the audience of his/her
point of view.
Argument: a reasoned, logical way of demonstrating that the writer's position, belief, or conclusion is valid.
Audience: the readers, listeners, and/or spectators to whom a piece of writing is addressed.
Informational/Explanatory: writing that conveys information accurately and serves one or more closely related
purposes: to increase readers' knowledge of a subject, to help readers better understand a procedure or process,
or to provide readers with an enhanced comprehension of a concept.
Mode: a manner, way, form, type, domain, or method of writing.
Narrative: writing that conveys experience, either real or imaginary and uses time as its deep structure. It can be
used for many purposes, such as to inform, instruct, persuade, or entertain.
Purpose: the reason a piece is written.
Task: the specific mode (e.g., argument, informational, explanatory, narrative) of writing required based on the
purpose for writing and the audience.
Note Card Set up
Synonyms/Antonyms
Definition
Synonym- complex
difficult to understand
Antonym- clear
SAT Vocabulary Word
Write a sentence using the SAT vocabulary word
correctly.
Abstruse
Sentence: Some concepts of Einstein were so abstruse
that many physicists could not understand them.
*If you can’t find any synonyms, then just write the antonyms. If you can’t find any antonyms, then just write the
synonyms. If you can’t find either, then write NA.
Grammar Vocabulary
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Clause: a unit of grammatical organization next below the sentence in rank and in traditional grammar said to
consist of a subject and predicate (e.g., independent, dependent, noun, relative, adverbial).
Parallel Structure: a balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses.
Phrase: a small group of words standing together as a conceptual unit (e.g., noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial,
participial, prepositional, absolute).
Absolute phrase: a group of words that modifies an independent clause; it consists of a noun and modifiers.
Adjectival phrase: a word group with an adjective as its head. Adjectival phrases modify nouns.
Adverbial phrase: a word group with an adverb as its head.
Adverbial clause: a dependent clause that functions as an adverb.
Dependent clause: a group of words that has a subject and a verb but cannot stand alone as a sentence.
Independent clause: a main clause that can stand by itself as a sentence.
Noun clause: a dependent clause that functions as a noun.
Noun phrase: a group of words containing a noun or pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun.
Participial phrase: a group of words consisting of a participle and the modifier/ pronoun/ noun phrase that
functions as the direct object/ indirect object / complement of the action expressed in the participle (OWL.com).
Prepositional phrase: short phrases that identify the spatial (in space), directional (the direction in which
something is moving), or temporal (in time) relationship of one or more people or things to other people or things
(OWL.com).
Relative clause: a dependent clause that modifies a word, phrase, or idea in the main clause.
Verb phrase: a word group that contains a verb and its auxiliaries.
Conjunctive adverb: an adverb that connects two clauses.
Independent clause: a main clause that can stand by itself as a sentence.
Semicolon: internal punctuation that functions as a secondary boundary mark (;).
Colon: internal punctuation that informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, lists related elements, or
explains the information that preceded the mark (:).
Note Card Set up
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Synonyms/Antonyms
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Definition
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Synonym- complex
difficult to understand
Antonym- clear
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SAT Vocabulary Word
Abstruse
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Write a sentence using the SAT vocabulary word
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correctly.
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Sentence: Some concepts of Einstein were so abstruse
that many physicists could not understand them.
*If you can’t find any synonyms, then just write the antonyms. If you can’t find any antonyms, then just write the
synonyms. If you can’t find either, then write NA.