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Glossary STAAR Terms Act a collection of scenes that forms a major segment of a play Affix a set of letters attached to the beginning or the end of a root word that changes the word’s meaning Alliteration the repetition of the beginning sound of a word Allusion a reference to a famous person, event or work of literature Analogy a word relationship that compares two dissimilar things Antonyms words that have opposite or nearly opposite meanings Aphorism a succinct statement of a philosophy or principle; often quoted Argument an attempt to persuade someone on a topic open to debate Author’s purpose the reason the author wrote the passage Author’s viewpoint in persuasive text, the author’s attitude toward or opinion about the subject Caricature a fallacy that involves an exaggerated, overly simplified version of an opposing point of view Cause the reason something happens, such as an event or action Character a person, animal, or other creature in a work of fiction Claim a statement of the author’s point of view Climax the turning point in the story, usually the most exciting part Commonplace assertion a statement that many people assume to be true, though it may or may not actually be true Compare to study the similarities between two things Conflict a struggle or problem that a character in a story must resolve Context clue a word, phrase, or sentence in the text around an unfamiliar word that helps you identify the word’s meaning Contrast to evaluate the differences between two things Diagram an illustration with labels that describes something or shows how it works Dialogue what a character is saying Dictionary a book or online reference that contains an alphabetical listing of words, including their parts of speech, syllabifications, pronunciations, meanings, and origins Directions a set of instructions with multiple steps Drama a play written to be performed. The story is divided into acts and scenes, and told with stage directions and dialogue. Draw conclusions to use details, facts, and evidence from a text come to a new understanding about a topic or idea Effect what happens as a result of an event or action Epic poetry lengthy narrative poetry that may tell a story of a great hero or mythical adventure. Epigraph a quote set apart from the a body of text at the beginning of a chapter or speech Exposition the beginning of the story; introduces the setting, characters, and problem Extended metaphor a detailed, complex metaphor that continues through a long section of text Extraneous information extra information that is not necessary Factual claim a statement that can be verified, independently and objectively with facts, personal observations, reliable sources, or an expert’s findings. Fallacy a persuasive technique that does not rely on sound reasoning Falling action point in a story where the conflict begins to be resolved False assumption the fallacy of an idea or a principle that is untrue Flowchart a graphic that shows the sequence of steps in a process, typically with boxes, circles, and arrows Figurative language words that express more than their literal meaning First person a point of view in which the narrator is a character in the story who reveals personal thoughts and feelings, and cannot reveal the thoughts and feelings of other characters Graph a diagram that shows relationships between sets of data; examples: bar graph, line graph Graphic a visual representation of information or ideas Glossary an alphabetical list of important words or technical terms and their definitions, often found at the back of a nonfiction publication Illustration a photograph or drawing related to a text Incorrect premise the fallacy of an erroneous basis for a logical statement Infer to use details in the passage and what you already know about the topic to make an educated guess about an unstated idea Leading question a fallacy in the form of a question that suggests the desired answer or tries to make the audience think in a particular way Legend explanatory list of symbols or colors on a graphic Literary devices the effective narrative techniques used in literature to produce a specific effect Loaded term in persuasive text, a word or phrase that reveals the author’s feelings and rouses the reader’s emotions Lyric poem a poem, often short, in which the poet conveys an emotion or paints a word picture of his or her experience in a particular situation Main idea the main point a writer wants to communicate with a text Make inferences to think about the clues in the text along with your own prior knowledge in order to make an educated guess about an unstated idea Map a representation of regions on Earth and their geographical or political features Media any platform used to reach a vast audience, such as radio, television, Internet, and newspapers Metaphor a type of figurative language that compares two unlike things or ideas by stating that one thing is something else Motivation a reason why a character acts the way he or she does Multiple-meaning word a word that has more than one meaning Myth a story about unreal or immortal characters, often explaining some aspect of the natural world Narrator someone who tells the story in a work of fiction Opinion a personal belief; a statement that cannot be proven true Organizational pattern the logical structure in which text is arranged, such as a sequence, comparison and contrast, problem and solution, or cause and effect Parallelism the repetition of phrases that contain similar words or have the same grammatical structure Paraphrase to summarize part of or all of a text you read in your own words Persuasive text a text in which the author is trying to convince the reader of something Plot the sequence of events in fiction or drama Poetry structured, imaginative writing. Poetry may have variations in the arrangement of words on the page, the length of the lines of text, or patterns of rhyme and meter Point of view in a work of fiction, the narrator’s outlook in relation to the story Prefix an affix added to the beginning of a root word Primary source something written by a witness at the time an event occurred Prior knowledge the information, experiences, ideas, and beliefs that you already have Problem a conflict or difficulty Procedural text step-by-step instructions for completing a task or project Prose ordinary language in the style of everyday speech, with sentences grouped into paragraphs and a continuous flow of text Resolution the ending of a story, when the conflict is resolved Rising action the bulk of the story, during which the character works to resolve the problem Root the main part of a word Scene a portion of a play that takes place in one location Secondary source something written after an even occurred by someone who didn’t witness the event Sensory language language that appeals to one or more of the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch Sequence a presentation of information or events in the order in which they happen Setting the time and location in which a story takes place Simile a type of figurative language that compares two unlike things or ideas by using the word like or as Solution a resolution to a conflict or a way of overcoming a difficulty Stage directions italicized words in a drama that describe the unspoken parts of a play; where the characters are, how they are acting, and what is happening around them Subplot a smaller plot within the main plot or a story Suffix an affix added to the end of a root word Summary a short restatement of a longer text in the reader’s own words Supporting detail an example, reason, fact, or description that backs up the main idea of a text Synonyms words that have similar meanings Table an arrangement of information in columns and rows Theme the central message or lesson of a literary work Thesaurus a book or online reference that contains an alphabetical listing of words, including their synonyms and antonyms Third-person limited a point of view in which the narrator is not a character in the story but can see into the mind of one of the characters, often the main character Third-person objective a point of view in which the narrator cannot see into the minds of any of the characters and tells only what can be directly observed, without passing judgment on what is happening Third-person omniscient a point of view in which the narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can see into the minds of all the characters in the story Timeline a representation of events in chronological order Tone aspects of writing that reveal the emotions that an author brings to a subject. Tone can be positive, negative, or neutral. Topic sentence a sentence that states a paragraph’s main idea Trait a quality that defines a character