LITERARY TERMS TO REVIEW
Diction: Word choice. On the AP Test, please don't say, "The passage features diction." Everything does. Use an adjective--"The passage's use of esoteric diction highlights the author's purpose, which is to educate and baffle." Or something to that effect.
Syntax: Sentence structure, and yes, this also applies to poems. How are the words connected? Are the sentences or phrases elongated, or terse?
Author’s purpose and tone: When in doubt, “establish mood.” Just don’t rely on that alone. For tone words—check the handy-dandy word bank in the review packet. It’s quite awesome and mighty.
Tone: Don’t forget that tone is NOT mood, and is the author’s attitude toward the subject matter. Thus, while the “mood” of HofD might be melancholy, the tone is judgmental, evaluative, or revelatory.
Structure: How is the passage or poem organized? Is it a sonnet, or a lyric? Even free verse has some structure, even if it is implied.
Social commentary: How has the author conveyed some evaluation of our society? Class consciousness, marital relationships, gender roles, crime—all of these could be construed as elements of social commentary.
Figurative Language:
Metaphor/simile/trope/conceit: These are all analogies. Similes use “like” or “as,” and tropes/conceits are generally expanded metaphors that run through an entire text.
Personification/apostrophe/ode: Remember the example of the bell from class. The bell sings is personification; “O bell, thou sing” is apostrophe, and “Ode to a Ringing Bell Covered in Bling” is an ode.
Synesthesia: confusing or blending sensory images. “Dark sound” is a good example.
Characterization: How does the author convey insight into the character? What physical, emotional, or spiritual details are given through dialogue, action, description?
Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sound. Bart bounced bodaciously off the bike.
Allusion: Reference to mythology, Biblical tales, published literature. “She had the beauty of Aphrodite, but, sadly, the brains of Hannah Montana.”
End-stopped v. run-on lines: Where the actual thought ends in poetry; most of Eliot, for example, spills over into subsequent lines, and very few poets end each thought at the end of a natural line of poetry.
Poetic meter and form: You probably won’t be asked to scan a poem for rhythm, but knowing what KIND of poem it is can be helpful. Dramatic monologue, sonnet, lyric, ballad, etc. You will not see haiku unless you write it in a margin.
Rhetorical Stances:
Logos: Appealing to logic or the intellect
Pathos: Appealing to emotions
Ethos: Appealing to morality
