- e.g., *"You should all be grateful! When I was a young lad, there was this girl that I liked, so what did I do about it? I went straight-up told to her face that I loved her! Of course, she smacked me away as if I were a stray dog, but if I was able to stand up to someone like her, you young'uns should be able to send a simple text message!"*
- Assonance: A number of words with the same vowel sound, not at the beginning, that appear close together.
- e.g., *The cat in the hat knows a lot about that!*
- Cacophony: The use of words and phrases that are harsh to the ear by using consonants that require pressure to to say (e.g., p, b, d, g, k, ch-, sh-).
- e.g., *How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?*
- Consonance: A number of words with the same consonant sound, not at the beginning, that appear close together.
- Dialect: A regional variety of language with spelling, grammar, and pronunciation that differentiates a population from others around them.
- e.g., *"There's five of them dirty ducks flappin' out and about, sir!"*
- Euphony: The use of words and phrases that are pleasing to the ear by using long vowel sounds, harmonious constants (l, m, n, r, f, v), and soft consonants or semi-vowels (w, s, y, th, wh).
- e.g., *"The velvet…it's so lovely, and so very soft…"*
- Onomatopoeia: A word which imitates a sound effect.
- e.g., *The cat meowed as he looked on with adoring eyes that tore through my squealing heart.*
- Pun: A play on words that involve words with similar sounds but different meanings.
- e.g., *"Lettuce finish our salads."*
- Repetition: Using a phrase for emphasis multiple times within close proximity.
- e.g., *"I was too late. I was far too late. My dog…she tried her best."*
- Rhyme: A repetition of words whose end syllables sound similar.
- e.g., *Roses are red / Violets are blue / Your family is dead / And you will be too*
- Rhyme scheme: The rhyming pattern or structure at the end of each line of poetry.
- e.g., the above poem uses ABAB as its rhyme scheme.
- Rhythm: The usage of stressed and unstressed syllables to demonstrate patterns, especially in verses.
- Blank verse: An non-rhyming verse with a regular rhythmic structure, most commonly iambic pentameter (10 syllables/line, unstressed-to-stressed pattern)
- Point of view: The perspective that a literary work is written from. First person usually focuses more on characters while third person perspectives focus more on plot.
- Stanza: A collection of four or more lines of poetry with with a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, similar to a paragraph in prose. However, it is not paragraph.
- Ambiguity: A statement or phrase whose meaning is unclear or can have multiple different meanings. This can usually be resolved via context. Strongly recommended to be used in poetry analysis.
- Irony: An unexpected event or statement revealing what was believed to be true was false.
- e.g., *Thunder boomed as rain poured down all around the classroom. "Nice weather we're having today."* (Verbal)
- e.g., *The fire station burned down.* (Situational)
- e.g., *The cat fell over, its head completely severed. Meanwhile, Johnny whistled in his car, thinking of all the treats and belly rubs he would give his precious kitty.* (Dramatic)
- Jargon: Specialised terms that use actual words, which are usually unfamiliar to the layman.
- e.g., *p53 is responsible for holding the cell cycle at the G1/S checkpoint and will induce apoptosis if damage to the cell's deoxyribonucleic acid is too great.*
- e.g., In *To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee, The usage of life in Maycomb to show goodness and recurring images of gloomy areas supports the central idea of co-existence of good and evil.
- Pathetic fallacy: A form of personification in which inanimate objects in nature are given emotions.
- e.g., *The wind roared as the earth shook in fury at our insolence.*
- Symbol: The use of objects to represent an abstract idea.
- e.g., *I smiled at the group of people assembled before me. They smiled back. "With the power of friendship and determination, we can overcome anything!"*
- Tone: The attitude of a writer or character toward a subject or audience, typically through word choice.
- e.g., *"I don't want to! That candy is MINE, and no one is going to take it from ME! Mine, mine, MINE!"*
- Theme: The "main idea" or underlying meaning of a literary work, which can be given directly or indirectly.
- e.g., *"Never forget that* you are royalty, *and that hundreds of thousands of souls have suffered and perished so you could become what you are. By their sacrifices, you have been given the comforts you take for granted. Always remember them, so that their sacrifices shall never be without meaning."* (*Eon Fable*, ScytheRider)
**Compare and contrast** essays look for similarities and differences between two concepts, objects, or ideas. Arguments are either structured **subject by subject** or **point by point**.
**Cause and effect** essays attempt to establish a causal connection between ideas or events, in essence explaining why something happens/ed.
**Definitional** essays focus on defining a term, idea, or concept.
**Narrative** essays make a point by telling a non-fictional event in the structure of a short story in first person.
- They are usually told chronologically.
- They usually have a purpose/thesis that is stated in the opening sentence.
- Dialogue is permitted in narrative essays.
- They are written with vivid imagery and descriptions to involve the reader with the goal of relating in some way to the thesis.
- Much like fictional stories, they should have conflicts and events.
- An **initial** thesis appears within the first paragraph or so.
- A **delayed** thesis appears anywhere else, but often appears at the end of the essay.
- An **inferred** thesis is one that does not appear in the essay at all. It is instead up to the reader to glean an inferred thesis via inference.
### Purpose
Essays may be classified under two general categories — persuasive/argumentative or expository/informative. Persuasive essays argue to convince a reader to take their position, while expository essays aim to explain a topic without bias.
### Audience
The target audience of an essay and those that it would appeal to are useful in determining the point of an essay. Some factors that may indicate the audience include,
- the topic of the essay
- bias of the author
- diction/language used in the essay
- the use of jargon or slang
- the formality of the essay — formal essays are typically more organised and appeal to logic more than informal essays
- literary techniques
- the tone/attitude of the author of the essay via the use of emotionally charged words
