Term | Definition |
medium | artistic form of communication; examples include film |
plot | what happens in a story; the sequence of events |
act | An act is a part of a play defined by elements such as rising action |
audience | the intended readers to whom the author is writing |
climax | the point of highest action in a story; the turning point |
conflict | a clash or struggle between people |
connotation | a shade of meaning in a word or phrase that makes it different from other words or phrases with similar meanings |
contrive | create or bring about (an object or a situation) by deliberate use of skill |
critical | involving careful analysis and judgment |
denotation | the dictionary meaning of a word or phrase |
drama | another word for play |
emotional appeal | an argument that tries to persuade by affecting people’s feelings |
entreat | ask someone earnestly or anxiously to do something |
foreshadowing | a technique authors use to give clues about or to suggest what is going to happen |
impart | make (information) known; communicate |
inference | a guess or conclusion based on evidence and clues |
loaded language | biased words used to stir up positive or negative feelings |
logical fallacy | false logic caused by an error in reasoning |
media | a form of communication |
metaphor | a figure of speech that suggests or states a comparison between two unlike things |
meter | the arrangement of words in poetry based on rhythm |
mood | the emotions or feelings that are conveyed in a literary work |
oration | a formal public speech |
propaganda | the use of ideas |
purpose | the reason for writing |
resolution | the solution or working out of a literary conflict |
rhetoric | the art of using language skillfully and persuasively |
rhythm | a regular pattern of sound and beats within a poem |
scene | A scene is a part of an act defined with the changing of characters. |
script | the written text of a play |
subplot | a story line or plot that is secondary to the main plot |
synthesize | combine or blend to make something new |
theme | the main message that an author wants to communicate to a reader |
tone | the writer's attitude toward the topic or subject |