For Final Exam

Literary Terms—Exam Prep

Read the definitions carefully and find examples in the story of each term.

1) The SETTING is the time and place of a story. What is the time and place of the story?

2) A THEME is the general meaning or message in a piece of writing. Themes can be things like forbidden love, family relationships, growing up/coming of age, finding one’s identity, etc. What do you think the themes are in this story?

3) PLOT is the story line in a piece of writing. What is the general story line or plot of the story? Write a summary of the plot. Use the plot line chart to describe the general story line.

4) SYMBOLS are when one thing (like a heart) stands for something greater or more abstract (like love). Other examples are books symbolizing knowledge or doves symbolizing peace. What are some symbols in this story?

5) The PROTAGONIST is the hero or heroine in the story and the ANTAGONIST is the enemy or the villain. Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist in this story?

6) The TONE of the story is the attitude on the part of a character, narrator or author, usually via word choice and acts as the “voice” of the story. Is the attitude formal, informal, businesslike, explanatory, descriptive, demanding, conversational, sarcastic, witty, or something else?

7) MOOD is the feeling or atmosphere in a story. Is the mood romantic, dark, scary, serious, joyful, light-hearted, mysterious, humorous, or something else?

8) FORESHADOWING is a hint or clue to something that comes later in the story. Usually it is something suspenseful or challenging. Give one example of foreshadowing in the story.

9) DICTION is the style of language or words in the story. Is it formal English or everyday English? Is there slang or use of another language? Is it easy to understand or full of difficult words?

10) The CLIMAX of the story is the highest point of action before the action begins to dip down. What is the climax of the story?

11) The RESOLUTION is the final point of the story where the conflict is resolved or the story is concluded (ended). What happens at the end of the story? Are any problems solved? Does it end happily?

Example of a Literary Response Paper Per. 5/6

Here's an example of a literary response essay!

http://www.greatsource.com/iwrite/pdf/259_260.pdf

For the body of your essay talk about Art's relationship with his mother or father.

One paragraph could be about his relationship with mom/dad when he was young.

Then the next paragraph could be about his relationship with mom/dad when he was older and how this changed him or caused his to grow or to learn more about life.

Include quotes in your paragraphs and explain your quotes. Make sure you have the page number in paratheses after the quote!

"My mother was the most important person in my life..." (5). Art thinks this because....

Journal--Art's Family Relationships 5/26 Per. 5/6

Journal—Art’s family relationships

Write about Art’s relationship with his mother. What do you think about this relationship?
Write about Art’s relationship with his father. What do you think about this relationship?
How does Art’s relationship change with his father by the end of the book!

Literary Response Essay 5/26 Per. 5/6

Literary Response Essay
Procedures and Reminders

A Literary Response is very similar to a persuasive essay. You will be demonstrating your understanding of a major theme in the novel and have accurate interpretations and clear ideas about this theme.

Prompt: In this essay, you will discuss one of the novel’s themes that “family relationships are important in our lives” by choosing to write about one of the following; Art’s relationship with his mom or with his dad and what lessons he learns from this relationship.

Format Guidelines:
I. Intro:
A. Hook: Start with an interesting opening that “hooks” your audience in (anecdotes, quotes, profound statements, and thought provoking questions work well).
B. Quick Review: This should be a one to two sentence introduction of the book including the title (see the example below), author, and the theme or Art’s relationship with his mom or dad.

Sample Intro: In S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, the main character Ponyboy, involved in his friend group called the Greasers, struggles to get along with the Socs.

C. Thesis: This is your answer (opinion statement) to the prompt with your reasons why- these reasons will then become your topic sentences for your body paragraphs.

Sample Thesis: While there are many themes that Hinton addresses in the novel, the most apparent one is that gang violence is futile because the main conflict surrounds this theme, tragedy occurs as a result, and the characters learn important lessons.

II. Body paragraphs:
A. Topic Sentence: This is your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd reason stated in your thesis.

Sample Topic Sentence for the Body Paragraphs: First of all, the basic situation and conflict introduce this important theme of gangs and violence.

(Note- notice the transition to start the paragraph!)

B. Two-Three Paragraphs: This is made up of two parts.
1. Concrete Details (CD)/Quotation from the book: This is your evidence that should be either paraphrased or directly quoted from the story you are analyzing.

For example, after Ponyboy runs away from his brother Darry and scurries out of the house, he calls out to Johnny, “Come on. We have to leave now” (34).

(Note- the punctuation should go after the last parenthesis just like this example!)
2. Commentary (COMM): This explains how your concrete details or quotes support your topic sentence. You should have at least double the amount of commentary as concrete detail. One sentence of Concrete Detail should have two sentences of commentary or more.
COMM Tip: Some helpful sentence starters you can use for your commentary include but are not limited to:
-This event in the novel shows/proves/explains…
-Because of this…
-One can see from this…
-This is interesting/fascinating/disturbing because…
-The author includes this in the story to show…

For example, after Ponyboy runs away from his brother Darry and scurries out of the house, he calls out to Johnny, “Come on. We have to leave now” (34). This shows that Ponyboy is worried….


C. Concluding Sentence: This should wrap-up your body paragraph by re-wording the topic of the paragraph in a fresh way.
Conclusion:
A. Thesis re-worded in a fresh way.
B. Closing thoughts: (at least 2 sentences!) Make interesting points to leave the audience with a strong final feeling about your topic (anecdotes, quotes, profound statements, and thought provoking questions work well here.

Literature Response Tips for Success:

· Use this outline carefully to make sure your essay has everything it needs to be a success!

· Don’t use first person personal pronouns like I, we, you, or me or second person pronouns like you, yours, and your. The focus should be on the literature, not on yourself or the reader.

· Avoid filler phrases like “Well…” or “I think that….” or “I believe…”; just get straight to the point of what you are saying. We know you think what you write because you are the author!

· Use present tense verbs because fiction happens as we read it, not in the past.

· Use active verbs, not “to be” verbs like is and are.
Poor example: He is running away.
Corrected example: He runs away.

· Use formal language (no clichés or slang like “it was sweet”) .

· Vary the vocabulary (a thesaurus can help!) trying not to repeat words or use low impact, generic words like good, bad, happy, sad.

· Make sure to read your essay out loud to catch simple mistakes.

Script for Screenwriting Style Questions

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Interview_Vampire.pdf

This is the script Interview with a Vampire that goes with the screenwriting style questions!