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Frequently Asked Questions: This page contains answers to common
questions of students and parents.
- How to read a short story - guidelines
- How to read a poem - guidelines
- Literary Terms - Definitions
- General Terms Across Genres
- Talking about the plot
- Terms for Narrative Texts (Novels and Short Stories)
- Terms for Poetry
- Terms for Drama
- Important Vocabulary for HOTS
How to read a short story - guidelines 1. SETTING - time & place. Where and when does the story take
place? Does the setting make a difference, or could this
story take place anytime, anywhere? How might a
different setting affect the story?
2. CHARACTERS - who are the major and minor characters? What
characters are multidimensional/round? What characters
are flat/static? Why? How is their character revealed
(dialogue, thoughts, dress, setting, action, etc.)? What
is their motivation? What emotions do they create in you?
3. PLOT - What exactly happens in the story? (sequence of
events) What are the significant events in the story? Is
there a conflict in the story? What is the climax of the
story? How does the story end (resolution)?
4. POINT OF VIEW - Who tells the story? What about the
narrator makes a difference in the story?
First-person : story told through a character directly
involved in the story itself
Third-person limited : story told through a person
observing the story
Third-person omniscient : story told through the eyes of
an all- knowing being who can get into the characters'
minds and hearts.
5. THEME - What is the theme of the story? (the main topic)
What is the significance of the title? What does the
story say about life?
6. MORAL LESSON - What is the moral lesson/ message the
author is trying to convey?
How to read a poem - guidelines 1. SPEAKER. Who is the speaker? What person (first, second,
third) is the poet speaking in? To whom is the poem addressed?
2. SETTING or SITUATION. What is the setting? Real? Abstract?
What about the situation?
3. REPETITIONS. What elements are repeated? Why? What instances
of repetition does the poet use? What is the effect of the
repetition?
4. POETIC DEVICES. What figures of speech does the poem contain?
(Metaphor, simile, symbols, personification)
5. IMAGERY. What kinds of images does the poet use? Visual?
Auditory? Patterns of light/dark, mind/body, life/death.
6. TONE. What is the tone of the poem? Solemn? Humorous?
Objective?
7. MESSAGE. What message is the poet trying to convey?
Literary Terms - Definitions Setting: Time and Place in fiction or poetry.
Rhyme: is a pattern of similar sounds at the end of words
Example: go/show/glow/know/though
Rhythm: The dictionary tells us it is "a movement with
uniform recurrence of a beat or accent."
Metaphor: is comparison of two unlike things using the verb
"to be" and not using like or as in a simile. (it is a figure of
speech)
Example: He is a pig. Life is a journey.
Simile: is the comparison of two unlike things using like or as.
Example: He eats like a pig. My love is like a red, red rose.
Symbol: A concrete object which stands for an abstract notion.
Example: the bird of night (owl is a symbol of death)
Image: is language that evokes one or all of the five senses:
seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.
Personification: is giving human qualities to animals or objects.
Example: a smiling moon, a jovial sun
Tone: is the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or
character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical,
tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective.
Verse: is a line of poetry.
Stanza: is a unified group of lines in poetry.
Alliteration: is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in
neighboring words.
Example: In clich�s: sweet smell of success, a dime a dozen,
bigger and better, jump for joy.
Wordsworth: And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind.
Irony: is an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is
meant.
Three kinds of irony:
1. Verbal irony is when an author says one thing and means
something else.
2. Dramatic irony is when an audience perceives something that a
character in the literature does not know.
3. Irony of situation is a discrepancy between the expected
result and actual results.
Theme: is the general idea or insight about life that a writer
wishes to express
General Terms Across Genres 1. Hero/heroine - The central male or female character of a
literary text. Usually, the hero or heroine has a high moral
character and is courageous.
2. Protagonist - The main character of the story or drama, the
hero, who is faced with an opposing force he/she must overcome in
order to achieve his/her goal.
3. Antagonist - A person or a natural force that opposes the
protagonist in the main conflict of the story or drama.
4. Character - A person, or a thing presented as a person, in a
literary text.
5. Characterization - What we know about a character. There are
three fundamental methods of characterization: 1) direct
presentation of the physical and moral aspects of the character
by the narrator, either when the character is first introduced in
the story, or bit-by-bit throughout the story. 2) The actions and
speech of the character, from which the reader infers the traits.
3) The inner thoughts of the character, which are a window to
his/her soul.
6. Stereotype - Presenting a person as if they represent the
social group to which they belong, by using physical appearances,
accent, clothing, foods etc. The emphasis on belonging to the
group makes the stereotyped person less individualized.
7. Dialogue - The conversations that take place between
characters in a literary work of narrative or drama and more
rarely, in poetry.
Talking about the plot 1. Plot - The structure and pattern of events of the story in a
narrative or in a drama.
2. Climax - This is the point of highest interest, the
crisis, and is therefore also at the turning point of the action.
3. Conflict - The struggle between opposing forces. At least
one of the opposing forces is a character. We designate different
kinds of conflict: 1) a struggle against Nature. 2) a struggle
against another person. 3) a struggle against society. 4) a
struggle within the person themselves. The two sides of the
conflict are the protagonist and the antagonist.
4. Resolution - The conclusion of the story or drama, when all
the problems are solved in one way or another. It’s the logical
outcome of everything that happened before. It comes after the
climax.
5. Foreshadowing - Events narrated at an earlier point in
the story that hint at, and prepare the reader, for something
that will happen later in the story.
6. Symbolism/symbol - Something which is both itself and also
represents an idea, for example a rose may symbolize beauty.
7. Connotation - The associations which are attached to a word,
as opposed to its literal meaning, for example the color green
may have the connotation of youth, spring, and growth.
8. Paradox - A situation or statement that seems to contradict
itself, but really doesn’t.
9. Theme - Usually we can find the theme of a literary work
by answering the question: “What is this work about?” Theme
looks at the message or general idea of the work.
10. Genre - There are different types of literature
categorized by subject matter, form and technique; the following
are examples of genres: tragedy and comedy, novel and short
story, poetry and prose.
11. Tone - The attitude with which a story is told, or the
attitude with which something or someone is described, for
example, ironic, cynical, humorous.
Terms for Narrative Texts (Novels and Short Stories) 1. Short story - A short narrative work. The length of a short
story varies from one or two pages up to forty pages.
2. Setting - The background against which the story unfolds.
This includes
1) the geographic location, scenery, and the inside of homes or
other places;
2) the social community in which the story unfolds (upper class,
working class etc);
3) the season, or period (the period of the French Revolution in
A Tale of Two Cities)
3. Flashback - Providing information about events that happened
before the story begins, usually through the memory of one of the
characters, or by narrating the events to someone. A flashback
interrupts the sequence of events that is happening now in the
story or play.
4. Novel - A narrative work that tells a story that is quite
long, usually at least 100 pages.
5. Narrative - How the story is told: the style, the characters,
descriptions, and events, that make up the telling of the story.
6. Point of View - The focus from which the story or drama
is told. The story can be told 1) by one of the characters who
experienced the events, 2) by an all-knowing narrator who knows
the ‘whole’ story, or 3) by a character telling someone else’s
story.
Terms for Poetry 1. Imagery - Words used in images in poetry that use our five
senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touching.
2. Metaphor - Describing one thing in terms of something else
e.g. the bronze sun.
3. Simile - The resemblance of two things, usually introduced
by ‘like’ or ‘as’.
4. Oxymoron - An image made up of two opposing qualities, or
that may seem a contradiction in terms: Bittersweet,
5. Rhyme - used in poetry most often at the end of lines
when the last syllables of the words at the ends of the lines
share the same sound, homophony. For example:
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near (Robert Frost)
6. Rhyme scheme - The pattern of rhymed words at the end of lines
in a stanza or throughout a poem.
7. Stanza - A group of lines, which form a unit in a poem.
This unit usually repeats itself in the poem.
8. Verse - A single line of a poem usually using rhythmed
language. Poetic form as distinguished from prose.
9. Alliteration - A sound pattern repeated at the beginning of
words or repeated within words, usually consonants. For
example: “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet”
(Robert Frost).
Terms for Drama 1. Comedy - A literary text that is funny and ends well, even
though there is usual some tension along the way.
2. Tragedy - Tragedy is a type of drama that ends badly for
the hero or protagonist. It is usually a story that focuses on
one person, the protagonist, whose life changes from a happy one
to suffering and disaster.
3. Scene - A sub-division of an act in a play, but also the
place where the action takes place. Usually, each act has several
scenes. Many scenes may take place in the same place (scene).
4. Act - One of the major divisions of a play. There are usually
5 acts to a play, but sometimes only 3. In any case there are
always an uneven number of acts in a play.
5. Drama - A literary work that is written in dialogue to be
performed by actors acting the story on the stage
Important Vocabulary for HOTS INFERRING - Infer, deduce, conclude, read between the lines,
assume, what are the consequences of this statement?
COMPARING & CONTRASTING - like, similar, also, similarly,
in the same way, likewise, again, unlike, compared to,
in contrast with, different than, (comparative adjectives)
on the contrary, however, although, yet, even though, still,
nevertheless, regardless, despite, while, on the one hand…
on the other hand
EXPLAINING PATTERNS - repeat, repetition, significance, similar,
recur arrangement, rule
EXPLAINING CAUSE & EFFECT - cause, effect, result, consequence,
end, outcome, if....then, and in order to, implication, due to,
because, thanks to, as a result (of), provoke, spark, incite,
induce, encourage, persuade, development, explanation
DISTINGUISHING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES - perspective, point of view,
attitude, differences, outside, inside, looking from above,
looking from the side, however, on the one hand, on the other hand,
opinion, reader, narrator outlook, standpoint, perception, side,
angle
PROBLEM SOLVING - find out, solve, answer, explain, difficulty,
resolve, decipher, predicament, trouble, crisis
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