NY Regents ELA flashcards
NY Regents ELA · 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.
- Theme
- A central message about life or human nature that a literary work conveys, expressed as a full sentence rather than a single topic word such as 'love.'
- Central idea
- The main point an informational text develops about its subject, usually stated in a sentence that combines the topic with what the author claims about it.
- Textual evidence
- A direct quotation or precise paraphrase from a passage used to support an interpretation; the strongest evidence is the most relevant to the claim being made.
- Characterization
- The methods an author uses to reveal a character's traits, including direct description, the character's own words and actions, thoughts, and other characters' reactions.
- Point of view
- In informational texts, the stance or perspective from which an author addresses a subject, shaped by the author's role, audience, and purpose for writing.
- Author's purpose
- The reason an author writes a text, such as to inform, persuade, explain, or entertain; purpose shapes word choice, evidence, and organizational pattern.
- Text structure
- The way an author organizes ideas, for example by comparison, cause and effect, problem and solution, chronological order, or main idea with supporting details.
- Tone
- The author's or speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience, conveyed through word choice and details, and describable as ironic, admiring, urgent, or bitter.
- Mood
- The feeling a literary text creates in the reader, produced by setting, imagery, diction, and pacing; unlike tone, it belongs to the audience's emotional response.
- Inference
- A conclusion drawn by combining details in a text with prior knowledge; it is not stated directly but must be supported by evidence from the passage.
- Objective summary
- A brief restatement of a text's main ideas in the reader's own words that omits personal opinion and minor details while preserving the author's meaning.
- Claim
- A precise, arguable statement that takes a position on an issue and can be supported with evidence; a fact or a personal preference is not a claim.
- Counterclaim
- An opposing position that a strong argument acknowledges and then answers, showing the writer has considered alternative views before defending the main claim.
- Rebuttal
- The part of an argument that answers a counterclaim by exposing its weakness, offering new evidence, or conceding a limited point while maintaining the main claim.
- Thesis statement
- A single sentence, usually near the end of an introduction, that states the essay's claim and previews the reasons the body paragraphs will develop.
- Command of evidence
- A rubric criterion measuring whether an essay cites accurate, relevant evidence from the provided sources and connects that evidence explicitly to its claim.
- Source attribution
- Naming the author, title, or publication of a source when presenting its evidence, so readers can verify information and distinguish the writer's ideas from borrowed ones.
- Elaboration
- Explaining how a piece of evidence supports a claim; without elaboration, a quotation or statistic sits in the paragraph unconnected to the argument being made.
- Paraphrase
- A restatement of a source's idea in the writer's own words and sentence structure, close enough in meaning that the source still requires citation.
- Formal tone
- An academic register that avoids slang, contractions, and conversational asides, using precise vocabulary and complete sentences suited to an audience of educated readers.
- Coherence
- The quality of an essay whose ideas link logically, achieved through clear organization, topic sentences, and transitions showing how sentences and paragraphs relate.
- Argument essay (Part 2)
- The Regents task in which a writer reads several short sources on one issue and composes a source-based argument, scored on a six-point state rubric.
- Figurative language
- Language departing from literal meaning to create effect, including metaphor, simile, personification, and hyperbole; it shapes tone and conveys ideas indirectly.
- Imagery
- Descriptive language appealing to the senses that creates a vivid picture and often carries emotional associations supporting a text's theme or central idea.
- Symbolism
- The use of a concrete object, person, or event to represent an abstract idea, so the object carries meaning beyond its literal role in the text.
- Connotation
- The emotional or cultural associations a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning, which can make two near-synonyms feel approving, neutral, or disapproving.
- Denotation
- The literal, dictionary meaning of a word, independent of the feelings or associations the word may suggest to readers in a particular context.
- Semicolon
- A punctuation mark joining two independent clauses that are closely related and are not already joined by a coordinating conjunction such as 'and' or 'but.'
- Parallel structure
- Repeating the same grammatical form for items in a series or for paired ideas, which clarifies writing and signals that the items carry equal importance.
- Comma splice
- An error in which a comma alone joins two independent clauses; it is corrected with a period, a semicolon, or a coordinating conjunction.
- Context clues
- Information in surrounding words, sentences, or paragraphs that helps a reader infer an unfamiliar word's meaning, such as a definition, contrast, or example.
- Pronoun-antecedent agreement
- The rule that a pronoun must agree with the noun it replaces in number and person, so a plural antecedent takes a plural pronoun such as 'they.'