CSET English (Subtests I 105 & II 106) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Main idea

The central point an informational text develops, stated or implied, and supported by key details. It differs from theme, which is an implied insight about life in literary texts.

Thematic statement

A full-sentence claim about a literary work's insight into human experience, such as loyalty surviving loss. It must be arguable and text-supported, unlike a one-word topic like friendship.

Text structure

The organizational pattern of a text: description, chronological sequence, comparison-contrast, cause-effect, or problem-solution. Signal words such as because, however, and first reveal which pattern dominates.

Author's purpose

The writer's primary aim: to inform, persuade, entertain, explain, or describe. Purpose is inferred from evidence selection, tone, and structure rather than from the topic alone.

Quantitative text complexity

A readability score such as Lexile or Flesch-Kincaid derived from sentence length and word frequency. It is one of three complexity measures, alongside qualitative features and reader-task fit.

Text features

Navigational and graphic elements such as headings, captions, bold terms, sidebars, diagrams, and indexes. They carry meaning beyond body prose and can independently support comprehension or be tested directly.

Claim versus evidence

A claim is the arguable assertion a writer wants accepted; evidence is the facts, statistics, examples, or testimony offered to support it. Reasons connect the two and require warrants.

Dramatic irony

A gap between what the audience knows and what a character understands, creating tension or humor. It differs from verbal irony, where a speaker means the opposite of the words.

Situational irony

An outcome that reverses reasonable expectation, as when a fire station burns down. The reversal must be meaningful to the narrative, not merely coincidental or unlucky.

Third-person limited

A narrator outside the story who reports the thoughts and perceptions of a single character. Access to other characters' minds is excluded, which shapes reliability and reader sympathy.

Indirect characterization

Revealing character through speech, thoughts, actions, physical appearance, and others' reactions rather than explicit narrator statements. Direct characterization states traits outright instead.

Metonymy versus synecdoche

Metonymy substitutes a related attribute for a thing (the crown for monarchy); synecdoche substitutes a part for the whole or whole for part (all hands on deck).

Shakespearean sonnet

A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter arranged as three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. The couplet typically delivers a turn or summary.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the writer's attitude toward the subject, revealed through diction and syntax. Mood is the emotional atmosphere the reader experiences. They often align but can deliberately diverge.

Motif versus symbol

A motif is a recurring element that accumulates meaning across a work; a symbol is a concrete object standing for an abstract idea. Motifs are usually built from repeated symbols or images.

Foil character

A character whose traits contrast with another's, sharpening the protagonist's defining qualities by comparison. The contrast is structural, not necessarily antagonistic.

Phonemic awareness

The ability to identify and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words, such as blending, segmenting, and deleting sounds. It is a subset of broader phonological awareness.

Grapheme

The written symbol or group of letters representing a phoneme, such as sh or igh. English has about 44 phonemes but only 26 letters, producing many multi-letter graphemes.

Free versus bound morpheme

A free morpheme can stand alone as a word (book, run); a bound morpheme must attach to another (un-, -ed, -s). Roots may be bound, as in receive or reduce.

Derivational affix

A prefix or suffix that changes a word's meaning or grammatical class, as un- or -ness does. It contrasts with inflectional affixes, which only mark grammatical features like tense or number.

Inflectional affix

One of eight English suffixes marking grammatical relationships without changing word class: plural -s, possessive -'s, third-person -s, past -ed, past participle -en, present participle -ing, comparative -er, superlative -est.

Phrase versus clause

A phrase is a group of words with a head but no subject-predicate pairing; a clause contains a subject and predicate. Only independent clauses can stand alone as sentences.

Compound-complex sentence

A sentence containing at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. Identification requires counting clause types, not sentence length or punctuation alone.

Pragmatics

The study of meaning as shaped by context, including implicature, presupposition, and speech acts. It contrasts with semantics, which addresses literal word and sentence meaning.

Overgeneralization

A child's extension of a grammatical rule beyond its correct domain, producing forms like goed or mouses. Such errors evidence rule construction rather than simple imitation of adult speech.

Miscue analysis

Examining oral reading deviations such as substitutions and omissions to determine whether a reader draws on semantic, syntactic, or graphophonic cues. Patterns reveal the reader's active strategies.

BICS and CALP

Cummins's distinction between basic interpersonal conversational skills, acquired in roughly one to two years, and cognitive academic language proficiency, which typically takes five to seven years.

Rhetorical appeals

Ethos establishes the speaker's credibility, pathos engages audience emotion, and logos relies on logical reasoning and evidence. They function as persuasive modes, not as essay organizational patterns.

Toulmin warrant

The unstated assumption that licenses moving from evidence to claim. A warrant such as past performance predicts future results must be shared by the audience for the argument to succeed.

Straw man fallacy

Misrepresenting an opponent's position in a weakened form, then refuting that distorted version. It substitutes a fabricated target for the actual argument under discussion.

Post hoc fallacy

Assuming that because one event followed another, the first caused the second. It confuses temporal sequence with causal relationship and is a common flaw in causal arguments.

Dangling modifier

A participial or other modifying phrase whose implied subject does not match the sentence's actual subject, as in Walking home, the rain began. Revision names the true agent.