Kerala Plus Two English Literature (DHSE) cheat sheet

Main idea: read the first and last sentences of each paragraph; the passage's thesis is usually stated in the introduction and restated in the conclusion.

Fact versus opinion: verifiable statements with dates, numbers, or names are facts; evaluative words such as 'should', 'wonderful', or 'fail' signal opinion.

Vocabulary in context: substitute each option into the original sentence and keep only the choice that preserves the sentence's logic and tone.

Pronoun reference: the antecedent is the nearest preceding noun that agrees in number and gender and makes sense in context.

Inference: reject options that are explicitly stated but do not answer the question; the correct answer follows logically from textual clues.

Tone: identify the author's attitude from adjectives, adverbs, and punctuation; common labels are critical, nostalgic, objective, and ironic.

Summary or heading: cover all paragraphs, not one; reject options that are too narrow or too broad for the whole passage.

Sequence: track time markers such as first, then, finally, and cause-effect markers such as because and therefore to order events.

True or false with justification: quote the exact phrase from the passage that confirms or contradicts the statement.

Speaker and poet are distinct: identify who is talking and to whom before stating the theme.

Theme statement = abstract idea + comment on it, for example 'The poem presents time as a destructive force that exposes human pride.'

Imagery types: visual (sight), auditory (sound), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), kinesthetic (movement).

Metaphor says one thing is another without like or as; simile uses like or as; personification gives human qualities to non-human things.

Sound devices: alliteration repeats initial consonants, assonance repeats vowel sounds, onomatopoeia imitates sound, and rhyme scheme is labelled abab or aabb.

Structure: note stanza pattern, line length, enjambment (no punctuation at line end), caesura (pause within a line), and refrain.

Irony and paradox: verbal irony says the opposite of what is meant; paradox seems contradictory but reveals a truth; oxymoron joins contradictory words.

Tone and mood: tone is the speaker's attitude; mood is the feeling created in the reader. Both are built through diction and sound.

Apostrophe addresses an absent person or abstraction; metonymy substitutes an associated thing for the thing itself.

Identify the central claim and its evidence: examples, statistics, anecdote, comparison, or authority.

Purpose: persuade, inform, explain, entertain, or reflect; the purpose controls the tone and structure.

Rhetorical appeals: ethos = credibility, pathos = emotion, logos = logic and evidence.

Non-fiction subgenres: personal essay, reflective essay, argumentative essay, speech, memoir, travelogue, editorial, biography.

Anecdote illustrates; evidence proves. A personal story alone is not sufficient proof of a general claim.

Cohesive devices: however, therefore, moreover, in contrast, for example; they signal the relationship between ideas.

Bias: loaded adjectives, sweeping generalizations, omission of counterarguments, and appeals to fear indicate a biased stance.

Tone is conveyed through diction and syntax; formal register avoids contractions, slang, and first-person emotion.

Distinguish the author's view from the views the author reports or quotes.

Plot arc: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution; identify the turning point where the outcome becomes inevitable.

Characterization: direct telling uses adjectives; indirect showing uses action, dialogue, thought, appearance, and other characters' reactions.

Point of view: first person (I), third limited (one character's mind), third omniscient (all minds), second person (you).

Setting includes place, time, social conditions, and atmosphere; it can create mood or function as a symbol.

Conflict types: person versus person, self, nature, society, fate, or technology.

Symbol = concrete object carrying abstract meaning; motif = repeated image or idea that develops theme.

Foreshadowing plants clues; irony reverses expectations; epiphany gives a character sudden insight.

Theme is the story's central insight, not its moral; state it in a full sentence about human experience.

Narrator reliability: a first-person narrator may be limited, biased, or self-deceived.

Dialogue advances conflict; monologue is a long speech to others; soliloquy is spoken alone; aside is unheard by other characters.

Stage directions give setting, props, movement, and tone; they are part of the text, not production extras.

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows a fact that a character does not, making the character's words misleading.

Tragic hero: high status, hamartia (flaw), peripeteia (reversal), anagnorisis (recognition), catastrophe.

Foil: a character whose contrast with the protagonist highlights the protagonist's traits.

Comic techniques: mistaken identity, disguise, witty wordplay, exaggeration, and resolution through revelation.

Structure: act and scene divisions; each scene has a beat or change in power, knowledge, or emotion.

Verse versus prose: verse often signals elevated or formal speech; prose signals ordinary conversation.

Conflict in a scene: identify who wants what, who blocks it, and how the balance of power changes.

Essay: introduction with thesis, body paragraphs with topic sentence plus evidence and explanation, conclusion that restates the thesis.

Formal letter: sender's address, date, receiver's address, subject, salutation, body, complimentary close, signature.

Notice: answer what, when, where, who, why; include date and issuing authority; keep it concise and boxed.

Report: headline, byline, dateline, lead paragraph with the five Ws, factual past tense, third person, no personal opinion.

Précis: one-third of original length, own words, retains main idea, omits examples and repetition, no comment.

Review: title, genre, brief summary without spoilers, evaluation of strengths and weaknesses, recommendation.

Speech: address the audience, state position, use signposting and rhetorical questions, end with a call to action.

Article: headline, byline, opening hook, subheadings, short paragraphs, factual and lively style.

Letter to the editor: formal, brief, states the issue, gives evidence, suggests action, includes name and address.

Present perfect: has or have plus past participle for a past action with present relevance or an unfinished time period.

Passive: move the object to subject position; use be plus past participle; retain by-agent only if important.

Reported speech: backshift tense one step, change pronouns to the reporter's viewpoint, adjust time and place words.

Relative clauses: who for people, which for things, that for defining clauses, whose for possession; commas mark non-defining clauses.

Conditionals: zero (general truth), first (real future), second (unreal present), third (unreal past); mix only when time relations differ.

Subject-verb agreement: ignore intervening phrases; each, either, neither, everyone are singular; both and few are plural.

Transformation: too...to = so...that...not; although or though = despite or in spite of plus noun; no sooner...than = hardly...when.

Clause types: independent clause stands alone; noun clause acts as subject or object; adjective clause modifies a noun; adverb clause modifies a verb.

Voice restriction: intransitive verbs such as arrive, happen, and sleep have no passive form.

Prefixes change meaning (un-, dis-, re-, pre-); suffixes change word class (-ness noun, -ful adjective, -ly adverb, -ise verb).

Compounding joins two words (notebook); conversion changes class without affix (to email); clipping shortens (ad, phone).

Blending joins parts of words (smog); acronym uses initial letters pronounced as a word (NASA); abbreviation is read letter by letter.

Idiom meaning is non-literal; phrasal verb meaning changes with the particle (give up, give in, give away).

Figures of speech: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, oxymoron, metonymy, synecdoche.

Connotation is the emotional association of a word; denotation is its dictionary meaning.

Collocation: learn words in frequent partnerships such as make a decision, take a risk, heavy rain.

Homophones sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning (their/there); homonyms share spelling or sound but differ in meaning.

Register: formal writing avoids contractions, slang, and clichés; informal writing may use them for effect.