Language Arts Terms and Definitions

Main Idea - (or topic sentence) tells the reader what the paragraph will be about. What the reader is trying to tell you.

Supporting details - give more information about the topic. They are not as general as the main idea. Instead, they help the reader understand more about the main idea.

Plot - a chain of events that is a result of some prior events, and the cause of some subsequent events.

Theme - A broad idea in a story. This message is usually about life, society, or human nature. Themes are usually implied rather than explicitly stated.

Thesis statement – It tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. It is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader.

Concluding (or Summary) Sentence - Pulls together or summarizes the main idea of the paragraph.

Sensory Detail - Appeals to one or more of the five senses.

Scrap booking - the hobby of creating compilations in scrapbook albums, such as keepsakes, pictures, periodical articles, etc.

Biography - an account of a person’s life, usually published in the form of a book or essay.

Autobiography - is information about one’s own life written by that one person.

Simile – A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things using phrase as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, appears, or seems.

Metaphor - A figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things usually unlike. A metaphor doesn’t use connective words such as like or as.

Personification – A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept. Ex: The stars are dancing in the sky.

Hyperbole - figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated and used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression. Example: “I could eat a horse.”

Onomatopoeia – the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. (Ex: bang, toot)

Alliteration - is the repetition of a leading vowel or consonant sound in a phrase. A common example in English is “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers”.

Accent - A mark used as a superscript to distinguish among variables represented by the same symbol. Rhythmically significant stress in a line of verse.

Repetition - Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry

Symbolism - In writing, symbolism is the use of a word, a phrase, or a description, which represents a deeper meaning than the words themselves.

Flashback - an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative.

Foreshadow-the act of providing vague advance indications; representing beforehand.

Slant – A viewpoint or an opinion given that could be used to unfairly to influence.

Exposition - To convey information or to explain.
Rhyme Scheme - The pattern of rhymes used in a poem.

Internal Rhyme - a rhyme between words in the same line of a verse. Example: The grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother”

Stanza - A group of lines of verse, usually set off from other groups by a space. The stanzas of a poem often have the same internal pattern of rhymes.

Short story - A short piece of prose fiction, having few characters and aiming at unity of effect.

Poetry (diff. poetry & prose) Poetry has a different form than prose; Prose has sentences arranged in paragraphs; Prose has paragraphs, poetry has stanzas; Prose has sentences in a paragraph coming one after another, poetry divides into shorter lines, with a group of words that join together on each line.

Fable short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters;

Analogy - the process by which words or phrases are created or re-formed according to existing patterns in the language, similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison

Idiom - A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements Example: It is raining cats and dogs.

Slogans - A phrase expressing the aims or nature of an enterprise, organization, or candidate; a motto.

Cause/effect - the writer tells the reasons “why” something happens (causes), or the writer tells the results (effects) of something.

Gerund – a word that is mostly used as a verb is used as a noun in a sentence.

Appositive – additional information for a sentence that is separated by commas.

Propaganda - Techniques to influence opinions and to avoid the truth, omit significant information, or distorting it. They are used to manipulate the readers’ or viewers’ reason and emotions

Testimonial - attempt to connect a famous or respectable person with a product or item.

Name-calling - Attaching a negative label to a person or a thing. People try to tear their opponent down when they are trying to avoid supporting their own opinion.

Bandwagon - An appeal to the subject to follow the crowd, that one side is the winning side, and to join in because others are doing so as well

Narrative - illustrates an idea though storytelling. The events being narrated are normally presented in chronological (time) order.

Descriptive – An attempt to create an impression of a person, place, or thing. It relates to sensory details to allow the reader to visualize the subject.

Expository – An attempt to explain the subject to the audience. Explaining a process, comparing and contrasting two items, or identifying a cause-effect relationship may accomplish this.

Persuasive – An attempt to change the reader’s attitude or to motivate the reader to engage in a specific action by appealing to reason and/or appealing to emotion. Supporting details are normally presented in the order of importance.

Point of View – The point from which the story is told (1st, 2nd, or 3rd)

First Person - A point of view in which an “I” or “we” serves as the narrator of a piece of fiction. The narrator may be a minor character, observing the action.

Second Person - In second person point of view, the narrator tells the story to another character using “you,” so that the story is being told through the addressee’s point of view.

Third Person - A method of storytelling in which a narrator relates all action in third person, using third person pronouns such as “he” or “she.”

Omniscient – A method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story,

Limited - The narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character, while other characters are presented externally.

Foreign phrases (bon voyage – French ‘have a nice trip), (mi casa es su casa – Spanish ‘my house is your house) (bon jour – French ‘good day’ or ‘good morning’;, (hasta la vista – Spanish ‘bye’ ‘see you later’, ‘until tomorrow’)

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