FAST ELA Grade 7 cheat sheet

Theme is the message about life or human nature that a text conveys; it must be stated as a full sentence idea (for example, "Perseverance can grow out of failure"), never as a single topic word like "courage."

Plot follows exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution; the climax is the point of highest tension where the central conflict turns, not simply the most exciting moment.

Conflict types: character vs. character, character vs. nature, character vs. self, and character vs. society; a single story may carry more than one conflict, but one is usually dominant.

Direct characterization tells the reader a trait outright; indirect characterization reveals it through the character's speech, thoughts, effect on others, actions, and looks (the STEAL categories).

A static character stays essentially unchanged; a dynamic character changes in attitude or behavior, and that change often points to the theme.

In poetry, a stanza is a grouped set of lines, a refrain is a repeated line or phrase, and rhyme scheme is labeled with letters (ABAB, AABB) marking which line endings rhyme.

Figurative language: simile uses like or as, metaphor states one thing is another, personification gives human qualities to nonhuman things, and hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration.

Point of view: first person uses I or we and limits knowledge to the narrator; third-person limited stays inside one character's mind; third-person omniscient moves among several characters' thoughts.

Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject, while mood is the feeling the text creates in the reader; word choice and imagery drive both.

Central idea is the main point of the whole text, stated in a complete sentence; a supporting detail is a fact, example, or statistic that backs it up.

Text structures: chronological (time order), cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, and description; signal words such as "because," "however," and "as a result" reveal the structure.

An objective summary states the central idea and key supporting details in the reader's own words and contains no personal opinion or minor examples.

Author's purpose is usually described as to inform, to persuade, to explain, or to entertain; the purpose shapes which evidence and tone the writer chooses.

Tracing an argument means identifying the claim, the reasons offered, the evidence supplied, and any counterclaim the author addresses or ignores.

Relevant evidence directly supports the claim; sufficient evidence is enough in amount and variety to be convincing, so relevance and sufficiency are separate tests.

Two texts on the same topic can differ in emphasis, evidence selected, or point of view; comparing them requires noting both shared ideas and points of disagreement.

Graphic and text features such as headings, captions, charts, and bold terms carry information, so a reader must integrate them with the body text rather than skip them.

Context clues include definition (the meaning is stated nearby), example (a sample is given), contrast (an antonym appears nearby), and inference (meaning is pieced together from surrounding sense).

A prefix attaches to the front of a base word and shifts meaning: un- and non- mean not, re- means again, pre- means before, mis- means wrongly, and sub- means under.

Common suffixes and their effects: -able and -ible mean capable of, -tion and -ment form nouns, -less means without, -ous means full of, and -ly usually forms an adverb.

Denotation is a word's dictionary meaning; connotation is the feeling it carries, so "thrifty" and "stingy" denote similarly but differ sharply in connotation.

A synonym has a similar meaning and an antonym an opposite meaning, but few synonyms are exact substitutes, so check how the word functions in the sentence.

Greek and Latin roots unlock many words: bio means life, graph means write, tele means far, port means carry, aud means hear, and spec means look.

Figurative meanings extend literal ones, so idioms such as "break the ice" must be interpreted as a whole phrase rather than by combining the individual words.

Words can shift meaning with part of speech, so identifying whether a term is used as a noun, verb, or adjective in the sentence is a required first step.

A comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma; repair it with a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

A sentence fragment lacks a subject, a verb, or a complete thought; a run-on contains two or more independent clauses that are not properly joined.

Commas set off introductory phrases, nonessential clauses, items in a series, and direct address; they do not separate a subject from its verb.

Apostrophes mark possession (singular: the dog's bowl; plural ending in s: the dogs' bowls) and contractions; plain plural nouns take no apostrophe.

Pronoun case follows function: subjects use I, he, she, they; objects of verbs and prepositions use me, him, her, them; comparisons using than or as require the case the omitted verb would take.

Pronoun-antecedent agreement requires matching number and gender, and indefinite pronouns such as everyone, each, and nobody are singular.

Verbals act as other parts of speech: an infinitive is to plus a verb, a gerund is a verb form ending in -ing used as a noun, and a participle is a verb form used as an adjective.

Misplaced modifiers sit too far from the word they describe; a dangling modifier has no logical word to modify, as in "Walking home, the rain began."

Sentence types by structure: simple (one independent clause), compound (two or more independent clauses), complex (one independent clause plus a dependent clause), and compound-complex (both).

Vary sentence openings and lengths so the writing does not fall into a repeated subject-verb pattern, which flattens emphasis.

Active voice makes the doer the subject ("The team solved the problem"); passive voice makes the receiver the subject ("The problem was solved") and works best when the doer is unknown or unimportant.

A coordinating conjunction links equal elements, while a subordinating conjunction (because, although, when, if) makes one clause dependent on the other.

Parallel structure means items in a list or comparison share grammatical form, so a series should not mix nouns with verb phrases.

Transition words signal relationships: however and nevertheless show contrast, therefore and consequently show result, and for example signals illustration.

Precise verbs and concrete nouns carry meaning better than strings of adjectives and adverbs, so revise vague word pairs like "very big" into a single exact term.

Combining short choppy sentences with subordination shows which idea is main and which is secondary, improving both flow and clarity.

An effective introduction establishes the topic, gives needed background, and ends with a clear thesis or controlling idea that the body paragraphs support.

Body paragraphs typically open with a topic sentence, develop one idea with evidence and explanation, and close with a link back to the thesis.

A conclusion restates the thesis in fresh wording, ties the main points together, and offers a final insight rather than introducing a new argument.

Research steps in order: narrow the topic, form a question, locate and evaluate sources, take notes, outline, draft, cite, and revise.

Source evaluation criteria include author credentials, publication date, publisher or sponsor, purpose, and whether claims are supported by evidence.

Plagiarism is presenting another's words or ideas as one's own; it is avoided by quoting exactly with quotation marks, paraphrasing fully in one's own words, and crediting the source.

A paraphrase restates a source's idea in the writer's own sentence structure and vocabulary and still requires a citation; a summary condenses the whole source.

In a works-cited entry, the author name comes first, then the title, then container and publication details, and entries are alphabetized by the first word of each entry.