SK SSA ELA 4 flashcards
SK SSA ELA 4 · 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.
- Central idea
- The main point that an entire informational passage supports. It is stated or implied in the introduction and conclusion, and every supporting detail connects back to it.
- Text structure
- The way an author organizes ideas, such as cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological order, or description. Signal words reveal which structure is used.
- Inference
- A conclusion drawn from details in the text combined with what the reader already knows. A valid inference can be supported with specific evidence from the passage.
- Primary source
- A document or object created by someone who took part in or witnessed an event, such as a diary, letter, photograph, or interview recorded at the time.
- Summary
- A brief restatement of a text's central idea and most important details, written in your own words and leaving out minor facts, examples, and repetition.
- Author's point of view
- The position or claim an informational author takes on a topic. Reasons and evidence are the support offered to convince the reader that the claim is sound.
- Theme
- The message about life or human nature that a story conveys, expressed as a complete sentence. It is developed through character change and events, not stated as a topic word.
- Plot
- The sequence of events in a story, usually organized as exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The conflict drives the action forward.
- Character trait
- A lasting quality of a character, such as honesty or stubbornness, revealed through words, actions, thoughts, and other characters' responses rather than stated directly.
- Third-person limited
- A point of view in which a narrator outside the story uses he, she, or they and reports only one character's thoughts and feelings.
- Personification
- A figure of speech giving human qualities to a nonhuman thing, as in the wind whispered through the trees or the old house groaned.
- Dialogue
- The words characters speak to one another, set off by quotation marks or written as lines in a drama. It reveals character and moves the plot forward.
- Relative pronoun
- A word such as who, whom, whose, which, or that that introduces a clause describing a noun. Use who for people, which for things, and that for either.
- Progressive verb tense
- A verb form showing ongoing action, built with a form of be plus the -ing verb: was walking, is walking, will be walking.
- Modal auxiliary
- A helping verb such as can, may, must, should, or will that expresses ability, permission, obligation, advice, or future time. It never takes -s or -ed.
- Ordering adjectives
- The conventional sequence for multiple adjectives: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose, as in a lovely small old red wooden bowl.
- Run-on sentence
- Two or more independent clauses joined without correct punctuation or a conjunction. Repair it with a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction.
- Homophone
- One of two or more words that sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning, such as their, there, and they're, or its and it's.
- Topic sentence
- The sentence that states the main idea of a paragraph. In explanatory writing it names the subtopic that the rest of the paragraph develops with facts and examples.
- Transition word
- A word or phrase that shows how ideas connect, signaling addition, example, cause, contrast, or sequence, such as moreover, for instance, therefore, however, and finally.
- Paraphrase
- A restatement of a source's idea in your own words and sentence structure, not just a few swapped synonyms. It still requires crediting the source.
- Precise language
- Word choice that names exactly what is meant. Specific nouns and verbs replace vague words like good, nice, thing, and a lot, making explanatory writing clearer.
- Show, don't tell
- A narrative technique that reveals emotion through concrete action, dialogue, and sensory detail instead of naming the feeling directly.
- Narrative arc
- The shape of a story: characters and setting are established, a conflict arises, events build to a climax, and the conflict resolves with some change.
- Sensory detail
- Description that appeals to sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch, making a scene concrete and helping the reader experience the setting as the character does.
- Dialogue punctuation
- Commas and periods belonging to a quotation go inside the closing quotation mark, and each new speaker begins a new paragraph.
- Paraphrasing a speaker
- Restating another person's point in your own words during a discussion to confirm you understood it before you respond or disagree.
- Formal English
- Language suited to presentations and unfamiliar audiences: complete sentences, standard grammar, and no slang. Informal English suits peers and casual settings.
- Multimedia element
- An image, audio clip, video, or chart used in a presentation or report. It should clarify the message and, when appropriate, carry a caption or credit.
- Fact versus opinion
- A fact can be checked or proven; an opinion is a judgment or belief. Words like best, worst, and should often signal that a statement is an opinion.
- Root word
- The base part of a word that carries its core meaning. Greek and Latin roots such as bio, graph, spect, and port help readers infer unfamiliar words.
- Idiom
- An expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from its individual words, such as break the ice, which means to start a conversation.