LA 8 Units 1-3 Glossary

Adjective: descriptive word which usually comes before a noun or pronoun



Example:

  • The bumbling clown opened the red door.

Adverb: a word that modifies a verb

Example:

  • The brown-eyed teen read the mystery book quietly.
Alliteration: repetition for effect of consonant sounds at the beginning of words
The effect of alliteration diminishes as the repeated sounds are spread.

Repeating K and hard C sounds are found in the examples below.


Examples:

  • Kenny Kane
  • You're right; he's a ringer for old Killer Kane. (p.68, Freak the Mighty, Philbrick)
  • Finally, I give up on the first three and work on the cricket problem, but the little critter is pretty clever; it stops cricketing whenever I get too close. (p.57, Freak the Mighty, Philbrick)
Allusion: an indirect or brief reference to a well-known person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature

Example:

  • Alright, that's enough, Dad said, looking like he was going to huff and puff and blow my head through the roof (p.65, The Tuesday Café, Trembath).

Analogy: complex statement which explains a similarity between two unlike things
Anecdote: a short account of a particular incident or event
Antonyms: words which have opposite meanings


  • short is an antonym of long
  • sad is an antonym of happy

Autobiography: a historical account of a person's life written by that person; it usually includes dates, and research such as facts and figures.
Bias: experiences, beliefs, and prejudices for or against something

Biography: an account of someone's life written by someone else
Caption: a title or brief explanation of an article, image, cartoon, or poster
Cause and effect: a relationship between actions and events

Chronological: in order of time of occurrence
Most stories are told in chronological order from the first to the last event. However, exceptions occur. Authors also use foreshadowing and flashback to tell their stories.
Cliché: an overused expression

Note the italicized clichéd phrases in the following examples:


  • If you want to know the truth, she likes pizza more than liver.
  • Once upon a time begins a fairy tale and they lived happily ever after ends it.
  • It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that students enjoy holidays.
Color: represents an idea or suggest an emotion, a mood, or an atmosphere

Cool colours are greens, blues, and purples.  Gray, tan, and beige are serious colours.

Cheerful or warm colours are reds, yellows, oranges, and pinks.
Colloquial: informal phrases or expressions that might not be understood everywhere the language is spoken
Examples of colloquial language include slang, jargon, and dialect.

Compare: identify attributes or traits that are the same
Concrete words: specific words which create an image you can see, touch, hear, smell, or taste
Connotation: emotional effect of words
Contrast: juxtaposition or a striking difference in colour, texture, light, or shape show visual, theme-related, or symbolic differences among elements in an image
Copy in advertising: written material
Cut-scenes: visual non-interactive part of a game, conveying the game's backstory
Denotation: dictionary definition of a word
Descriptive words: key words and phrases that suggest mental pictures
Dialect: a variation of a language used by people from a particular geographic area

Example:

  • Most Americans pronounce "z" as Zee . I've grown up saying Zed as do most Canadians.
Emanata or symbolia in graphic stories: lines that are used to represent emotional shifts such as surprise
Expository: intended to explain or describe something
Focus: draws the viewer’s eye to the key part of the image so the viewer knows whether the subject is a person, place, thing, event, or idea.
Formal language: language which uses (precise words, no slang, no contractions, and complete sentences)

Framing and compositional elements draw the viewer’s attention to the details that the artist has chosen to include inside the ‘frame’


An image has three parts:

  1. foreground: the part of the view that is nearest to the observer
  2. mid-ground: middle distance
  3. background: the scenery behind the main object

Genre: a category of literature


  • Examples include adventure, historical fiction, science fiction, realistic fiction, romance, fantasy, and mystery.
Gutter: in graphic stories, the space between panels
Hyperbole: exaggeration or overstatement used deliberately for effect
Note the highlighted exaggeration in the following quotations.

  • In the first, the speaker was not actually dying from anticipation.
  • In the second, the lady referred to was merely a kind and generous woman.

Examples:

  • Will you open the stupid thing? The suspense is killing me . (p.175, Who Is Francis Rain?, Buffie)
  • As far as he's concerned, she's a saint . (p.36, Peacekeepers, Linden)
Idiom: an expression whose meaning is different from the literal meaning

  • In the first example, the dad ended looking innocent; he did not actually smell like a rose.
  • In the second example, Mikey started to become quiet; his desire to fight had lessened.

Examples:

  • Dad came out of the whole thing smelling like a rose , of course. (p.14, The Tuesday Café, Trembath)
  • Mikey is quiet for a minute, like he's run out of steam . (p.33, Peacekeepers, Linden)
Imagery: vivid descriptions, figures of speech, or objects used to create mental pictures or to appeal to the senses and emotions

Example:

  • The soft, even light of the early morning was transformed into an almost painful brilliance. I turned my face to the sun, felt its warm hands on my cheeks, breathed in the crisp evergreen air.
Infographic: visual representation to present complex information quickly and clearly
Informal language: language which uses mainly incomplete sentences, some contractions, and slang 
Jargon: specialized wording used by a particular group of people in a particular environment
Often, people outside the particular group do not understand the meaning of these colloquial (not Standard English) words. Examples include medical jargon, computer jargon, legal jargon, sports jargon, or military jargon.

The following quotations contain examples of legal and military jargon.


Examples:

  • That's what everybody keeps saying, that this time they've got Killer Kane where they want him, in violation of parole, in violation of a restraining order, abduction of a minor, and two counts of attempted murder, me and the Heroic Biker Babe, which is what the papers took to calling Loretta Lee. (p.136, Freak the Mighty, Philbrick)
  • I don't have any complaints about the food in the mess where we eat. They always have omelets available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and if I don't like the look of what they're serving, I have one of those. The bread is excellent! Every day a truck loaded with it arrives from a bakery in V.K. at about 05:00 that's five o'clock a.m. in civilian time. (p.39, Peacekeepers, Linden)
Lighting: the arrangement or effect of lights in an image to create an effect

High lighting may be used to show energy, high activity, tension, or worry.

Low lighting may be used to create a feeling of calm relaxation, or it may be used to create mystery or suspense.
Layout: in graphic stories shows the order in which panels are read
Limerick: a humorous verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba
Lines: draw the viewer’s eyes to or through key parts of the image or they produce a feeling and mood


  • vertical lines give the impression of strength or power.
  • horizontal lines give the impression of calm, stability or restfulness.  
  • diagonal lines suggest movement and add a sense of energy or interest. 
  • jagged lines often indicate disorder or upset.

Mass media: newspapers, motion pictures, radio, television, and magazines which have the technical capacity to deliver information to millions of people
Memoir: (memory) a personal story describing a past experience or how one remembers one's own life

Metaphor: figure of speech that speaks of one thing as if it were another thing to show a comparison or a connection between the two


Note the comparison of the speaker to a disease, and the sky to a blanket, in the examples below.
  • Now I was a cancer . (p.13, The Tuesday Café, Trembath)
  • The sky was a wide dark cloth covered with silver dots. (p.134, Who is Francis Rain?, Buffie)
Mood: emotion depicted in a piece of literature
Narration: storytelling or the recounting of a series of events arranged in a particular order and delivered by a narrator to an audience or reader
It describes what the characters do and how they behave and tells a great deal about their personalities. An author may also use narration to describe a character's physical appearance (see also point of view)
Narrative: a fiction or nonfiction story that has a beginning, middle, and an end
Noun: (from Latin nomen, name) names a person, place, or thing 


Example:

  • Maria prepared for the party that weekend.

Open space: when the viewer knows the picture extends beyond the frame edges. This gives the impression of distance.
Oxymoron: a combination of contradictory terms with distinct meaning

Examples:

  • unbiased opinion 
  • only choice
  • definite maybe

Onomatopoeia: figure of speech in which a word sounds like what it means
Note the use of sound words hissed, womp, and oooh in the examples below.


Examples:

  • The sea hissed about the bow as the Seahawk rushed ahead. (p. 202, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi)
  •  Potassium chlorate! as the shells go womp-womp-womp and everybody goes oooooooh. (p. 32, Freak the Mighty, Philbrick)

Pacing: how the eye moves from panel to panel in graphic storytelling
Panels: images within borders
Personification: figure of speech in which human qualities are given to animals or objects
Note the description of the burn as angry and sleep as performing a grabbing action in the examples below.


Examples:

  • She pulled the sleeves on her sweatshirt down, but not before I saw an angry red burn on her arm. (p.61, What They Don't Know, Horrocks)
  • I staggered down the hall, and as soon as my comforter fell over me, sleep grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me down into its furry cave. (p. 157-158, Who is Francis Rain?, Buffie)
Persuasive: convincing someone to do or believe something through reason
Phrase: a group of related words, not having a subject or predicate, used as though it were a single word. It is not a complete thought or a statement.

Primary source: observations, diaries, speeches, letters, interviews, news films, sound clips, or artifacts offer inside views of events or are produced first-hand.

Pun: play on words that uses the similarity in sound between two words with different meanings. (The words are homonyms or near-homonyms).
Quotations: statements taken word-for-word from their source -- and acknowledged as such

Quoting from a source is one method of supporting your ideas and offering examples of your points. Direct quotes from a novel, for example, can be statements made by the narrator or they can be dialogue (statements made by characters).
Repetition: A word or phrase is repeated more than once
Rhyme: occurs when two or more words have endings that sound similar
Rhythm: created by a steady beat
Rule of thirds: an imaginary grid drawn across a photo that breaks the image into nine equal squares. Important elements are placed along the lines or intersection of lines.

Secondary source: Textbooks and magazines analyze and interpret primary sources. Secondary sources are produced after an event; sometimes a long time after the news happened.

Sentence errors: errors to be avoided in your formal writing
However, often authors use sentence errors in their writing to add effect to emphasize an idea or to develop a character.
Sentence fragments: incomplete sentences missing a subject, a predicate, or a complete thought


Example:

Run-on sentences: two or more sentences incorrectly or inappropriately joined as one


Example:
  • Man, they were death-ray eyes, and I think, hey, that's him, the robot boy, and it was like whoa! because Id forgotten all about him, daycare was a blank place in my head, and nobody had called me Kicker for a long time. (p.3, Freak the Mighty, Philbrick)
Sentence comma splice errors - similar to a run-on; two complete sentences have been joined incorrectly by a comma


Example:

  • Work gives a man dignity, stealing takes it away. (p.6, A Single Shard,Park)

Sentence types: basic sentence structure types include simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.

Short, simple sentences can create a feeling of tension or drama, or they can speed the action of the story to create a sense of danger or excitement.


Examples:

  • Dad woke up four days later. He opened his eyes. He knew who we were. (p.236, What They Don't Know, Horrocks)
  • The bow plunged. The deck bucked. He fired all the same. The shot went wide and in a rage he flung the pistol at me. (p.204, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi)

Long, compound or complex descriptive sentences are used to slow the action of a story, to relieve the feeling of suspense, or to allow detailed description of the scene.


Examples:

  • The pillow of fluid that had formed on his palm during the long hours of wielding the axe had burst. Blood ran from the wound, mixing with dirt and small bits of bark. Tree-ear stared at it, and he could not stop the tears that pressed hot behind his eyes. (p.21, A Single Shard, Park)

Setting in video games: the fictional world (place, time) where a game or story may occur
Sequential order: follows logical steps or procedures (1, 2, 3, 4)
Simile: figure of speech in which seemingly unlike things are compared using the word like, or, as
Note the comparisons below.


Examples:

  • The suspicion became rather like an invisible rope that restrained me. (p.195, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi)
  • But at the same time, I saw him as a big sliver under my nail.(p.19, Who is Francis Rain?, Buffie)

Slang: informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not used in formal written or spoken English

Examples:

  • I say he's been curled up in a ball in the Wellness Room all day because he's so wigged out about it. (p. 29, Peacekeepers, Linden)
  • All I keep thinking is, what a gyp it is to have to go into the hospital on your birthday. (p.147, Freak the Mighty, Philbrick)
Slogan: a short memorable phrase used in advertising
Sonnet: a formal 14 line poem with a definite rhyme scheme, often with a turning point or climax in line 9
Spatial order: involves organizing information according to space or location
Stanza: a series of lines arranged often in a recurring rhythmical pattern (verse). A stanza is usually set apart by a space.

The subject of an image can be a

  • person
  • place
  • thing
  • animal
  • event
  • idea

Symmetry: (balanced pattern); gives a sense of order and peace
Symbolism: the use of a simple object or picture to represent a more complicated or abstract idea or feeling


Examples:

  • Doves represent peace.
  • Flags represent patriotism. A storm could represent turmoil.
Synonyms: words which have similar meanings

Example:  Sample synonyms are:

  • long, extensive, lengthy, extended, endless, lingering, interminable, long-lasting etc.

Theme: the point of a piece of writing; the author's message
Although a short story generally has only one theme, a novel may have several.

  • Be careful not to confuse theme with topic. Love is not a theme; it is a topic.
  • The theme is what the author has to say about a topic(s). For example, the author might mean that love helps people to do great things.


In the following example, the family is the topic, but the quoted statement reveals the theme.
  •  I think that's what a real family does, somehow becomes stronger and better when things are worse. (p.236, What They Don't Know, Horrocks)

Thesis: sentence which provides direction or focus for the rest of the piece. It often provides an overview of the main points in your body paragraphs and the order in which they will occur.
Tone: the author's attitude toward the subject that he or she is writing about
The following quotation offers an example of a negative and discouraged tone.


Example:

  • So now I'm an explorer all of a sudden. What does she want me to do, seek new frontiers? Boldly go where no kid my age has ever gone before? It's a stupid story I wrote in a stupid writing class. (p. 75, The Tuesday Café, Trembath)
Topic sentence: The most important idea is usually presented in the first sentence of the paragraph.

Transition words and phrases: words and phrases that writers use to assist the clear communication of their ideas

Transition words and phrases are an integral component of coherent (smooth flowing) writing.


Examples:

  • however, firstly, secondly, thirdly, as a result

Vanishing point the point to which parallel lines appear to converge on the horizon
Verb: an action word



Example:
  • The boy skateboarded down the steps.  He landed perfectly balanced.



  Please contact your teacher if you have questions.