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Read/Write Terms
Academic Vocabulary for PARCC
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Central idea or main idea | the most important idea about a topic |
| Theme | the lesson the author wishes to share with the reader |
| Draw a conclusion | using facts, details, or opinions in a story or essay to figure out what is happening by putting together all the information |
| Effect | the result of an event or an idea |
| Cause | an event or idea that makes something else happen |
| Compare | to examine ideas or items to see how they are alike |
| Scenario | Using a short scene to introduce an essay |
| Idiom | an expression or saying ; a figure of speech like “fade into the woodwork.” |
| Context Clues | details or facts in a paragraph that can be used to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word |
| Irony of Situation | a surprising, humorous, or interesting twist or contradiction in the plot of a story |
| Tone | the author’s attitude toward the subject. This can be humorous, serious, sympathetic, sarcastic , apathetic or indifferent or any other feeling. |
| character trait | a quality possesed by a person in a story |
| Statistics | Facts using numbers or percent |
| Policy | A set of rules followed by members of a group |
| Personal observation | Ideas developed as a result of your own experiences |
| Sarcasm | comments or criticism offered in a mocking or nasty tone |
| Proposal | a suggestion for change which has not yet become official policy |
| Chronological | a way of organizing an essay according to the sequence of events occurring from beginning to end |
| Expert opinion | the ideas of someone trained in a particular field |
| Attention- Grabber | Hooks the reader so he will want to keep reading the essay or story |
| Turning point | the part of the story before the climax in which the fate of the main character is determined. |
| Foreshadowing | clues provided by the author to help predict the story's ending |
| Reason | using logic or sensible ideas to help prove a point |
| Insensitive | describes a person who does not take the feelings of others into consideration |
| Similes | comparisons between two UNLIKE things using like or as |
| Metaphors | comparisons without like or as |
| Allusion | reference to paintings, musical compositions, mythology, literature, in another piece of art |
| Hyperbole | explaining something by making it seem larger than it really is |
| Understatement | minimizing the importance or scale of something--e.g. referring to a blizzard as snow flurries. |
| Symbols | using something to stand for something else |
| Climax | the high point of emotional intensity of the story |
| Conflict | the problem faced by the characters, either internal or external |
| Flashback | showing previoius events in a a story as a character looks back in time |
| Anecdote | a brief story related to the topic which will help illustrate it |
| Thesis Statement | a sentence which explains the author’s position and the issue presented in an essay |
| Problem -Solution | organizing an essay so that an issue is presented which needs to be fixed and then offering ways to fix it |
| Call to Action | a technique used in the conclusion to force the reader to think seriously about an issue and do something about it |
| Contrast | to show how two ideas are different |
| Personification | giving an inanimate object human characteristics |
| fact | a statement that can be proven true or false |
| opinion | a statement that describes a belief and can not be proven true or false |
| propaganda | a delberate attempt to influence others to believe something |
| denotation | a word's dictionary definition |
| connotation | the emotional assosciations people have with a word |
| media | a means of mass communication such as television, radio or newspapers |
| author's purpose | the author's reason for writing , such as to inform, persuade, to teach , to entertain |
| inference | an educated guess based on clues in the text and the reader's prior knowledge |
| analogy | an extended comparison that shows a relationship between two sets of things |
| bias | a preconceived and often unfair feeling that an author has for or against something |
| caption | text that provides additional information about a picture , illustration or chart |
| climax | the highest point of emotional intensity and tension of a work |
| rising action | the events in a story that lead up to the climax |
| falling action | the events that occur after the climax |
| resolution | the part of the story where the outcome of the conflict is made clear |
| reasoned judgment | a logical conclusion based on facts and accepted standards |
| objective | neutral, without expressing a point of view |
| exposition | the part of the story where the characters and conflicts are introduced and the setting is explained , often at the beginning |
| flashback | a scene from the past that gives background about the setting or characters |
| heading | a word or short phrase,often in boldface or italics that summarizes the material in the text that folows |
| idiom | a phrase or figurative expression commonly understood to have a meaning different from its literal meaning |
| Dramatic Irony | a situation in which the reader or audience knows a detail or plot point that the characters do not know |
| Verbal Irony | a situation where a character says the exact opposite of what he or she means |
| First Person Point of View | when the narrator is a character in the story and uses I |
| Third Person Point of View | when the narrator is outside of the story and knows the thoughts and feelings of one or more characters in the story |
| symbolism | the use of an object or idea to stand for something else |
| theme | the message, lesson or universal truth that the author wants to convey |
| sensory language | words or phrases that appeal to a reader's sense of sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste |
| summary | an overview of the most important ideas or events in a text |
| hyperbole | a literary device using exaggeration for effect |
| supporting details | facts, reasons, examples statistics, and quotations that help to convey the main idea of a text |
| Caim | a statement of the writer's position on an issue or topic |
| Description | a form of organization which includes details to help you picture or get to know a person , place thing or idea |
| Mood | the general atmosphere of a story or drama |
| Counterclaim | the opposing viewpoint of the one given in a text |
| Illustrates | |
| Repetition | using the same word or phrases over and over again to achieve a desired effect |
| Reveal | show, demonstrate, illustrate |
| Incident | an event in a story or article |
| Tension | a sense of nervousness , being uptight |
| Key Concept | An important idea being made in a piece of writing that the author wants the reader to remember |
| Make a Distinction | show a difference or emphasize- used either way |
| Turning Point | a pivotal moment in a story, often when the fate of the main character is clear, sometimes means the climax |
| Reflects | show or demonstrates |
| Impact the meaning | Have an effect on the meaning |
Created by:
Sharon Smolen
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