1) An essay is a “short literary composition on a single subject usually presenting the personal view of the author” (heritage dictionary)
2) The five paragraph essay format utilizes one paragraph to provide an introduction, three paragraphs to form the body, and one paragraph to create the conclusion.
3) The thesis statement is a sentence clearly expressing your opinion about a topic.
4) After writing your thesis statement, the next step is to develop a plan to support it in the body of your essay.
5) You need a list of at least three strong examples/reasons. These examples/reasons will form the topic sentence of your supporting paragraph.
6) The introductory paragraph will be written with the thesis statement as the last sentence of the paragraph.
7) Begin your introduction by using one of the following techniques:
- Ask a question
- Tell a brief story
- Use a quote
- State and interesting fact
- Tell a joke
- Write a description
8) The conclusion of your essay begins with the restatement of your thesis statement.
9) The conclusion is completed by summarizing the main points or drawing a final conclusion about the topic. It leaves your reader with a memorable statement or a quote asking your reader to take action.
10) The six traits of writing are ideas, content, organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions.
11) Strong sentence fluency requires sentences showing a high degree of craftsmanship with consistently strong and varied structure making expressive oral reading easy and enjoyable.
12) Effective word choice coveys the intended message in an exceptionally interesting, precise and natural way appropriate to audience and purpose.
13) The writing process has five major steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
14) Prewriting, the beginning of the writing process, is accomplished by using a variety of strategies to generate, plan and organize writing ideas for specific purposes.
15) Prewriting activities such as free writing, clustering, and reading materials relevant to your general assignment will help students choose a stimulating topic.
16) Drafting, which is the second step in the writing process, uses the ideas generated in prewriting to create a first draft containing the necessary elements to achieve the project’s purpose. (To inform, persuade, to entertain etc…)
17) Revising the draft, step three in the writing process, is the evaluation and refinement of the peace to improve clarity and effectiveness.
18) Editing, the fourth step in the writing process, is proofreading and correcting the conventions of the draft. (Punctuation, grammar, and spelling.)
19) Publishing, the final step in the writing process, is formatting and presenting the final product in a style appropriate for the intended audience.
20) Expressive writing includes, personal narratives, stories, poetry, songs, and dramatic pieces and may be fiction or non-fiction.
21) Expository writing includes non-fiction writing that describes, explains or summarizes ideas and content in the support of a thesis. (Hypothesis)
22) Functional writing provides specific directions or information related to real world tasks. (Letters, memos, schedules, directories, signs, manuals, forms, recipes, and technical pieces.)
23) Persuasive writing is intended to influence the reader.
24) Literary responses are the writer’s reaction to a literary selection.
25) Novels are full-length, fictional works of literature having many characters and often a complex plot.
26) Novella’s are shorter, less complex novels, longer than a short story.
27) Research writing presents information from primary and secondary sources to provide information on a specific topic. (A career, for example.)
28) APA format includes a cover page, abstract of writing and a bibliography.
29) APA formatted papers are typed in 10-12 pt font.
30) Primary sources provide firsthand knowledge about your topic; these include personal interviews, surveys, original letters, speeches, and essays.
31) Secondary sources provide secondhand knowledge about your topic in the form or reports and articles written by people who have studied and researched the topic.
32) Tertiary sources provide compiled facts from first and secondhand sources in the form of textbooks.
33) Intentional Plagiarism includes direct copying or words from a source without giving credit to the author.
34) Unintentional plagiarism includes paraphrasing of text closely resembling the original text without citation.
35) A character is revealed through the appearance, actions, environment, speech inner thoughts, and feelings, and the speech and reactions of the other characters.
36) The rising action of a story is a series of events which increase the reader’s emotional investment in the characters and their problems.
37) The climax of the story is the event showing the reader the resolution of the major conflict.
38) Realistic dialogue represents the way people really speak to one another.
39) Dialogue must be written with appropriate punctuation and paragraphing to be easily understood.
40) The writer may expose the reader to a moral, lesson, message, or view on life through the story’s theme.
41) The literary elements include theme, point of view, characterization, setting, and plot.
42) Point of view is the use of first or third person and limited, or omniscient.
43) Characterization is the author’s development of the qualities, motives, actions, thoughts, dialogue, growth, and interactions of the story’s characters.
44) Setting is the time of day or year, historical period, place and situation.
45) Plot is the exposition, major and minor conflicts, rising action, climax, falling actions, and resolution.
46) Denouement is French for unknowing; the part of a novel, play, or poem in which the conflicts are resolved and the fortunes of the protagonist are revealed.
47) A flashback is a scene in a story, novel, play, or poem that interprets the action to show an event that happened earlier; it gives information.
48) Foreshadowing is the use of hints or clues in a story, play, or novel to suggest to suggest what is to come.
49) Imagery is the use of words to provide sensory experience, as sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell.
50) Figurative language includes simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, hyperbole, understatements, and synesthesia.
51) Simile uses the words like or as to compare two unlike things.
52) Metaphors comparing two unlike things without using like or as.
53) Personification attributes human qualities to animals or inanimate objects.
54) Symbolism occurs when a word is used to indicate something very different from its usual meaning.
55) Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration to capture the reader’s attention.
56) Understatement the opposite of hyperbole is often used for comic affect.
57) Synesthesia describes a sensory experience as if it had been perceived by a different sense.
58) Iambic pentameter is a specific poetic meter in which each line is composed of five feet (pentameter), most of which are iambs.
59) Poetic license is a liberty taken by an author, artist, or writer deviating from conventional form to achieve a desired effect; involves making up new words, changing spelling on purpose.
60) Tragedy is a play in which the tragic hero, a person of great rank initially admired and respected by most who know him or her, falls from theses heights to the depths of despair because of fatal character flaws which compels him or her to violate a human, natural, or divine law.
61) Irony is a contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality.
62) Verbal Irony occurs when a person says one thing while meaning something quite different (sarcasm).
63) Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience or reader knows something that the characters do not know.
64) Situational Irony occurs when the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what someone expected.
65) An allusion is a reference to a work in literature to a well-known person, place, event, written work, or work of art.
66) Anecdotes are short written oral accounts of an event in a real person’s life.
67) A paradox is a situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradictory but is nevertheless true, literally or figuratively.
68) Parodies are humorous imitations of other literary work.
69) Ambiguity is the expression in a single term or passage of more than one meaning.
70) The atmosphere is the general mood or emotional quality of literary work.
71) Ballads are short songs or poems, which tell a story.
72) Satires are literature that ridicules the vices or follies of people or societies through devises such as exaggeration, understatement, and irony.
73) Short stories are brief fictional narratives usually focusing on single events with only a few characters.
74) An Epic is a long narrative poem, which recounts in formal language the exploits of a larger than life hero.
75) An epic hero is usually a man of high social status who is usually important in the history of his people.
76) Soliloquy is a dramatic device in which a character, alone on stage reveals his or her private thoughts and feelings as if thinking aloud.
77) Stream of consciousness is writing representing an author’s or character’s free flowing thoughts presented as the occur.
78) Journals are used to record personal thoughts, observations, and imagination.
79) Suspense is the anticipation of the outcome of events, especially as they affect a character for which n e has sympathy.
80) Tone is a reflection of the writer’s attitude toward a subject as conveyed through such elements as word choice, punctuation, sentence structure, and figures of speech.
81) Vernacular is the everyday spoken language of people in a particular locality and the writing that imitates this type of language; including slang, accents, and grammar errors.
82) Bias is the author’s personal inclination toward a certain opinion or position on a topic.
83) Stereotype is a generalized picture of a person, created without taking the whole person into account; to make such a generalization.
84) Epiphany is a moment of sudden realization of the true meaning of the situation, person, or object.
85) Rhetoric is the art of using language to present facts and ideas in order to persuade.
86) Rhetorical devices are the full repertoire of strategies used to create meaning in speaking and writing; often times understood as the tools and strategies used in persuasive writing or speaking.
87) Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. (Accessed on Critical Thinking.org, May 31, 2006)
88) Discourse is all texts, written and oral, that contribute to shared meaning. These texts represent cultural knowledge and are affected by intentional or unintentional uses of power.
89) A semi-colon is a punctuation mark (;) used to join two independent clauses in a sentence. The semicolon shows that the ideas in the two clauses are related: “Jack really didn't mind being left without a car; he had the house to himself.” Semi-colons are also used to incorporate transition words mid sentence. “Jack really didn't mind being left without a car; thus, he had the house to himself.”
90) Fallacies are incorrect or misleading notions or opinions based on inaccurate facts or invalid reasoning.
91) Inferences are the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation.
92) Interjections are words (such as "ouch" or "whoa") that seem to be spontaneous expressions that intrude on normal conversation/speech.
93) Transition words allow one to work smooth changes into one's writing; thus, simple sentences turn into compound sentences, complex sentences and long paragraphs. (Thus, However, Consequently, Furthermore, etc…)
94) William Shakespeare produced a great legacy of poetry and plays which remain popular today.
95) A resume is a one or two page summary of your education, skills, accomplishments, and experience.
96) A cover letter accompanies your resume when making initial contact with an employer.
97) The purpose of a cover letter is to introduce yourself, state why you are contacting the organization, highlight your qualifications, and give you and opportunity to suggest a possible date for future contact.
98) An aphorism is a short, pointed statement that expresses wise or clever observation about human experience.
99) An assumption is an idea taken for granted, but not necessarily proven.
100) Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement whose followers believed that basic truths could be reached only by “going beyond,” or transcending, reason and reflecting on the world of the spirit and on one’s deep and free intuition.
