QCAA English flashcards
QCAA English · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Thesis statement
- A sentence or two that states the central argument of an essay and directly answers the question, guiding the structure of the response.
- Topic sentence
- The first sentence of a body paragraph that states the paragraph's main claim and links it to the essay's thesis.
- Metalanguage
- The specialised vocabulary used to describe and analyse language, such as 'metaphor', 'syntax', 'modality', and 'register'.
- Narrative voice
- The persona or perspective from which a story is told, including first-person, third-person limited, or omniscient narration.
- Register
- The variety of language chosen according to context, audience, and purpose, ranging from formal to informal.
- Modality
- The degree of certainty, obligation, or possibility expressed in language, from high (must, certainly) to low (might, perhaps).
- Cohesion
- The linguistic devices that connect ideas across a text, including pronouns, conjunctions, lexical chains, and repetition.
- Representation
- The way people, places, events, or ideas are depicted in a text, including what is emphasised, omitted, or stereotyped.
- Perspective
- The viewpoint or position from which a text is narrated or presented, shaping what the audience sees and knows.
- Context
- The historical, social, cultural, and biographical circumstances surrounding the production and reception of a text.
- Comma splice
- An error in which two independent clauses are joined only by a comma, without a conjunction or semicolon.
- Subject-verb agreement
- The grammatical rule that a verb must agree in number and person with its subject.
- Apostrophe use
- A punctuation mark used to show possession (the cat's toy) or to indicate omitted letters in contractions (don't).
- Homophone
- A word that sounds the same as another but has different spelling or meaning, such as 'their' and 'there'.
- Simile
- A figure of speech comparing two things using 'like' or 'as', such as 'her smile was like sunshine'.
- Metaphor
- A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another, creating an implicit comparison without using 'like' or 'as'.
- Personification
- A figure of speech in which human qualities are given to non-human things, animals, or abstract ideas.
- Alliteration
- The repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words, often used for emphasis or rhythmic effect.
- Assonance
- The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words, contributing to rhythm and mood in poetry and prose.
- Onomatopoeia
- A word that imitates the sound it describes, such as 'buzz', 'crash', or 'whisper'.
- Irony
- A discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, or between appearance and reality, often creating humour or critique.
- Symbolism
- The use of an object, person, or event to represent a larger abstract idea or theme beyond its literal meaning.
- Imagery
- Descriptive language that appeals to the senses, creating vivid mental pictures and evoking emotional responses.
- Foreshadowing
- A narrative device that hints at events to come, creating anticipation or suspense for the reader.
- Flashback
- A narrative technique that interrupts the chronological sequence to show an earlier event, providing context or insight.
- Binary opposition
- A pair of related terms that are opposite in meaning, such as good/evil or nature/culture, often used to structure meaning.
- Stereotype
- A simplified and generalised representation of a group, often reinforcing assumptions rather than reflecting individual complexity.
- Reader positioning
- The ways a text invites audiences to adopt particular attitudes, values, or alignments through language and structure.
- Creative response
- A piece of writing that transforms or extends a source text, demonstrating understanding of its style, themes, and context.
- Reflective statement
- A short piece explaining the choices made in a creative response and linking them to the original text and task.
- Textual evidence
- Quotations, paraphrases, or specific details from a text used to support an analytical claim or interpretation.
- Analytical claim
- A statement about a text's meaning or effect that goes beyond summary and requires evidence and reasoning to support it.