List of Elements for 9th Grade English Classes

1. Allegory - a narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface meaning. A story, fiction or
nonfiction, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts.

2. Alliteration – sound device; repetition of initial (beginning) consonant or vowel sounds

3. Allusion – brief reference to a historical or literary figure, event, or object

4. Ambiguity – an event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way.

5. Anachronism – something out of its place in time or history (i.e. mention of a clock in Julius Caesar)

6. Analogy – the comparison of two things which are alike in several respects for the purpose of explaining or
clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object

7. Anaphora – repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row.

8. Anecdote – short narrative (story) used in a longer work or speech – to make a point, often humorous

9. Antagonist – the character who is in conflict with the main character; doesn’t have to be a person; can also be the
main character in conflict with him/herself

10. Antecedent – the noun to which a pronoun refers in a sentence or closely related sentences.

11. Apostrophe – addressing someone or something not present as if it were present

12. Archetype – a character or plot element known throughout all cultures and time periods (quest, wise old
man/mentor, tyrannical king, temptress, . . .)

13. Arguments – assertions made based on facts, statistics, logical reasoning, hard evidence, etc.

14. Aside – statement delivered by an actor in such a way that the other characters on stage are presumed to not have
heard

15. Assonance – repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words with different consonant sounds surrounding the
vowel

16. Autobiography – first-person account of an author’s own life story

17. Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter (Shakespeare uses it extensively)

18. Cacophony – jarring, discordant sound; the use of such sound in literary composition for effect.

19. Catharsis – The process by which an unhealthy emotional state produced by an imbalance of feelings is corrected
and emotional health is restored.

20. Characterization – the method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work.
Personality may be revealed by 1. What the character says about him/herself, 2. What others reveal about the
characters, and 3. By the character’s own actions

21. Chronological order – arrangement of ideas in the order in which things occur.
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22. Climax – moment of great or culminating intensity in a narrative or drams; turning point in the plot or action

23. Comedy – a work that strives to provoke smiles and laughter

24. Comic relief – something of humor interrupts an otherwise serious, often tragic, literary work

25. Conceit – an extended metaphor that carries through an entire piece of literature.

26. Conflict – a struggle between opposing forces: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. himself (external and
internal)

27. Connective or transition – word or phrase that links ideas, sentences, or paragraphs together to create logical
organization in writing

28. Connotation – the emotional implications that word may carry; implied or associated meaning for a word

29. Consonance – the repetition of consonant sounds within words with differing vowel sounds

30. Denotation – the dictionary definition of a word

31. Denouement – the resolution of a plot after the climax

32. Dialect – speech particular to a region; exhibits distinctions between two groups or even two persons (examples
in this country: northeastern, southern)

33. Dialogue – conversation between/among two or more characters, usually set off with quotation marks

34. Diction – author’s choice of words (simple, sophisticated, colloquial, formal, informal)

35. Digression – a temporary departure from the main subject in speaking or writing

36. Drama – story performed by actors on a stage

37. Elegy – formal sustained poem lamenting the death of someone

38. Ellipsis – in grammar, the omission of a word or words necessary to complete construction but understood in
contest ( . . . )

39. Epic – long narrative, usually written in elevated language, which relates the adventures of a hero upon whom
rests the fate of a nation

40. Epigraph – quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of a theme

41. Epiphany – an awakening; a sudden understanding or burst of insight; key moment in Greek plays

42. Epithet – nickname or appellation that describes the person it replaces

43. Ethos/Ethical appeal – writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him/her based on a
presentation of image of self through the text in order to gain the audience’s confidence

44. Euphemism – use of a word or phrase less direct and less offensive: “He is at rest” for “he is dead” or
“Technicolor yawn” for “vomiting.”
45. Euphony – quality of style marked by pleasing, harmonious sounds (opp. of cacophony)

46. Explication – an analysis of the piece of writing, looking at all facets of its creation

47. Exposition – the introductory material which sets the tone, gives the setting, introduces the characters, and
supplies the necessary facts

48. Falling action – everything that happens in plot between the climax or crisis and the denouement

49. Farce – comedy in which one-dimensional characters are put into ridiculous situations; ordinary standards of
probability and motivation are freely violated in order to evoke laughter

50. Fiction – writing that is the product of an author’s imagination

51. Figurative language – writing or speech not meant to be taken literally; figure of speech; states something that is
not literally true in order to create an effect. Similes, metaphors, personification, . . . are figures of speech.

52. Flashback – device by which an author can present action or scenes that occurred before the opening scene in a
work

53. Flat character – character not fully developed by the author

54. Foil – character who provides a contrast to another character, thus emphasizing the other’s traits

55. Foreshadowing – the arrangement and presentation of events and information in such a way that prepares for
later events in a work

56. Form – the structure, shape, pattern, organization, or style of a piece of literature

57. Free verse – unrhymed poetry with lines of varying lengths, containing no specific metrical pattern

58. Freytag’s Pyramid – Gustav Freytag was a 19th century German novelist who saw common patterns in the plots
of stories and novels and developed a diagram to analyze them. (See diagram and explanation on last page.)

59. Genre – a specific kind or category of literature (mystery, poetry, short story, novel, . . .)

60. Hero/Heroine – main character who has strength or moral character, noble cause

61. Hyperbole – exaggeration for effect and emphasis, overstatement

62. Iambic pentameter – most common meter in English verse. Consists of a line 10 syllables long that is accented
on every 2nd beat

63. Idioms – expressions that do not translate exactly into what a speaker means; idioms are culturally relevant; when
a person uses an idiomatic expression, he/she truly “thinks” in the language

64. Imagery – devices which appeal to the senses: visual, tactile, auditory, . . . group of words that create a mental
“picture”

65. Irony – surprising, amusing, or interesting contrast between reality and expectation - there are three types:
verbal – words are used to suggest the opposite of their actual meaning; dramatic – when the audience knows
something that some/all of the characters in the work don’t know; situational – when the opposite of what is
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 expected to happen happens

66. Legend – a widely told tale about the past, one that may have a foundation in fact

67. Logos/Logical appeal – relies on the audience’s logical faculties, moves from evidence to conclusion

68. Lyrical – emotional writing showing author’s ardent expression

69. Metaphor – a figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of
the words “like” or “as.”

70. Monologue – long, uninterrupted speech (in a narrative or drama) that is spoken in the presence of other
characters. Unlike a soliloquy and most asides, it’s meant to be heard by at least one other character

71. Mood – atmosphere created by a writer’s word choice (diction) and the details selected.

72. Moral – lesson drawn from a fiction or nonfiction story

73. Motif – frequently recurrent character, indcient, or concept in literature

74. Narrative – a story.

75. Narrator – speaker or persona, the one who tells a story

76. Novel – an extended prose narrative

77. Onomatopoeia – the use of a word to represent or imitate natural sounds (buzz, pop)

78. Oxymoron – rhetorical antithesis; juxtaposing two contradictory terms like “wise fool,” “deafening silence,” or
“pretty ugly”

79. Parable – short story from which a lesson may be learned

80. Paradox – statement which contains seemingly contradictory elements or appears contrary to common sense, yet
can be seen as perhaps trued when viewed from another angle

81. Parallel structure/Parallelism – the repetition of syntactical similarities in passages closely connected for
rhetorical effect

82. Paraphrase – a restatement of an idea in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form

83. Parody – ludicrous imitation, usually for comic effect but sometimes for ridicule of the style and content of
another work. The humor depends upon the reader’s familiarity with the original work

84. Pathos/ Emotional appeal – writer appeals to an audience’s emotions (often through pathos) to excite and
involve them in an argument

85. Persona – voice adopted by a writer to tell a story or express a feeling

86. Personification – figure of speech in which inanimate objects are given qualities of speech and/or movement
(human qualities)

87. Playwright – person who writes a play

88. Plot – the structure of a story or the sequence in which the author arranges events

89. Point of view – the narrator or speaker perspective from which a story is told. Two main points of view are first-
person (I, we – narrator is part of the story) and third-person (he, she – narrator is outside the story). Second-
person uses the indefinite “you.” Omniscient narrators share the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters.
Limited or objective narrators share thoughts and feelings only through dialogue and actions.

90. Prose – all forms of written expression not having a regular rhythmical pattern (not poetic)

91. Protagonist – the main character in a story

92. Pun – a play on words wherein a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time.

93. Repetition – word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity

94. Resolution – the part of the story or drama which occurs after the climax and which establishes a new norm, a
new state of affairs – the way things are going to be from then on

95. Rhetoric – the art of speaking or writing effectively; skill in the eloquent use of language

96. Rhetorical device – used to produce effective speaking or writing (ethos, pathos, logos)

97. Rhetorical question – a question solely for effect with no answer expected. By the implication that the answer is
obvious, it is a means of achieving an emphasis stronger than a direct statement

98. Rhythm – the metrical or rhythmical pattern in a poem, the beat

99. Rising action – the development of conflict leading to a crisis; the second section of the typical plot in which the
main character begins to grapple with the story’s main conflict; contains several events which usually are
arranged in an order of increasing importance

100.Romance – works having extravagant characters, remote or exotic settings, adventure, magic, chivalry, and love

101.Round character – a fully developed character; a character who is complex, multidimensional, and convincing

102.Sarcasm – the caustic and heavy use of apparent praise

103. Satire – literary technique or writing which exposes the follies of its subject to ridicule, often as an intended
means of provoking or preventing change – designed to ridicule the subject matter of another work or issue

104. Setting – the time(s) and place(s) of the story – including the historical period, social milieu of the characters,
geographical location, descriptions of indoor and outdoor locales

105. Short story – has many of the same characteristics of the novel but details are arranged to achieve a single effect,
with action moving rapidly and with minimal complication or detail of setting

106. Simile – a figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis
for comparison can be found, and which uses the words “like” or “as” in the comparison

107. Style – a writer’s typical way of expressing him/herself

108. Syntax – the arrangement of words in a sentence; the grammar of a sentence

109. Soliloquy – a long speech made by a character who is alone on the stage in which he reveals his innermost
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 thoughts and feelings

110. Sonnet – 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter. Rhyme scheme and format vary with type. Shakespearean
(English) – ababcdcdefefgg; 3 quatrains followed by a couplet; Spenserian sonnet has the same format as the
Shakespearean, but the rhyme scheme is different ababbcbccdcdee; Petrarchan (Italian) – 8 lines abbaabba and 6
lines cdecde or cdcdcd

111. Stanza – a related group of lines in a poem, equivalent to a paragraph in prose

112. Static character – stays the same sort of person throughout the story

113. Stereotype – characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that one aspect (gender, age,
ethnicity, race, religion, . . .) determines what humans are like and is accompanied by certain traits, actions, and
value

114. Stress – pronouncing certain syllables or words in a line with more emphasis or volume

115. Symbol – anything that stands for or represents anything else

116. Symbolism – using an image to represent an idea (red rose = love)

117. Theme – an ingredient of a literary work that gives the work unity. It answers the question, “What is the
message in the work?”

118. Thesis – the statement of the main position in an essay or speech; defines scope or answers prompt

119. Tone – expresses the author’s attitude toward his/her subject

120. Tragedy – depicts the downfall or destruction of a character

121. Tragic flaw – imperfection in character or judgment that brings about the downfall of a character

122. Vernacular – word choice of a group or class (colloquial expression/slang)

123. Voice – the “speaker” or narrator; the person – and style – of the one who tells the story

Freytag’s Pyramid
1. Exposition – setting the scene: introducing characters and setting and giving background

2. Inciting incident – something happens to begin the action, usually a single event that signals the beginning of the
main conflict. Sometimes called the complication

3. Rising action – story builds and gets more exciting

4. Climax – moment of greatest tension in the story

5. Falling action – events happen as a result of the climax leading to the end of the story

6. Resolution – main problem/conflict is solved

7. Denouement – (French term pronounced day-noo-moh) the ending. At this point, any remaining secrets,
questions, or mysteries which remain after the resolution are solved by the characters or explained by the author.
Sometimes the author leaves the reader to think about the theme or future possibilities for the characters.