OSAT English flashcards
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32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Main idea
- The central claim that the entire passage supports; it is broader than any single supporting detail and is often stated in the first or last paragraph.
- Valid inference
- A conclusion forced by textual evidence rather than merely suggested; if two competing readings fit the passage equally well, the inference is not adequately supported.
- Author's purpose
- The reason a text was written, such as to persuade, inform, entertain, or explain; purpose is identified from the text's structure, diction, and intended effect on the reader.
- Tone
- The author's attitude toward the subject, conveyed through word choice and connotation; it differs from mood, which is the feeling created in the reader.
- Text structure
- The organizational pattern of a passage, such as cause-effect, compare-contrast, chronological, problem-solution, or description; signal words reveal which pattern is in use.
- Context clue
- Surrounding words or sentence logic that reveals an unfamiliar word's meaning; types include definition, example, contrast, and cause-effect clues.
- Paired-passage strategy
- A reading approach that first identifies each passage's central claim, then locates the point of agreement and the specific point of disagreement between them.
- Graphic organizer
- A visual structure matching a text's relationships, such as a Venn diagram for overlap, a timeline for sequence, or a web for a central idea with supporting details.
- Climax
- The turning point of a narrative where tension peaks, usually a decisive choice or revelation; it is not necessarily the most violent or loudest scene.
- Internal conflict
- A struggle within a single character, often person versus self, rendered through interior monologue, hesitation, or contradictory desires.
- Limited third person
- A narrative point of view using third-person pronouns but restricted to one character's thoughts and perceptions, so other minds remain opaque.
- Omniscient narrator
- A third-person narrator with access to the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters, able to move freely across time and place.
- Unreliable narrator
- A narrator whose account is distorted by bias, ignorance, or self-justification, signaled by contradictions between stated and revealed facts.
- Metaphor
- A figure of speech that directly identifies one thing with another without using like or as, asserting a resemblance that illuminates both terms.
- Personification
- A figure of speech granting human qualities or actions to nonhuman things, animals, or abstractions, often to create vivid imagery or emotional resonance.
- Dramatic irony
- A situation in which the audience knows something a character does not, creating tension or humor from the character's ignorance.
- Soliloquy
- A speech delivered by a character alone on stage that reveals inner thoughts to the audience rather than to other characters.
- Shakespearean sonnet
- A fourteen-line poem in three quatrains and a closing couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg, often turning the argument at the final couplet.
- Theme
- A claim about a subject that a literary work makes, stated as a full sentence; it differs from the subject, which is merely the topic.
- Arguable thesis
- A central claim that a reasonable person could dispute, that names the specific scope of the argument, and that the body paragraphs can support with evidence.
- Topic sentence
- The sentence that states a paragraph's controlling idea and unifies its contents; every other sentence in the paragraph should support it.
- Evidence sandwich
- A paragraph pattern that introduces a source, presents a quotation or paraphrase, and then explains how the evidence proves the paragraph's claim.
- Transition word
- A connective that signals the logical relationship between ideas, such as addition, contrast, cause, example, concession, or sequence.
- Paraphrase
- A restatement of a source's idea in the writer's own words and sentence structure; it requires a citation but not quotation marks.
- Revision versus editing
- Revision reshapes ideas, organization, and evidence; editing corrects grammar, punctuation, and word choice; proofreading is the final surface check.
- Audience and register
- The intended reader and the level of formality appropriate to them; formal academic writing avoids contractions, second person, slang, and unsupported absolutes.
- Conclusion function
- To restate the thesis in fresh words, synthesize the evidence already presented, and state the significance of the argument without introducing new evidence.
- Subject-verb agreement
- The rule that a verb agrees with its grammatical subject rather than an intervening phrase; indefinite pronouns like each and everyone are singular.
- Pronoun case
- The form of a pronoun determined by its grammatical role: nominative for subjects, objective for objects and prepositions, possessive for ownership.
- Semicolon use
- A punctuation mark joining two independent clauses without a conjunction, or separating series items that themselves contain internal commas.
- Dangling modifier
- A participial phrase that fails to modify the subject immediately following it, producing an unintended or illogical meaning.
- Derivational versus inflectional affix
- A derivational affix changes a word's class or meaning (un-, -ness); an inflectional affix changes grammatical form without changing class (-s, -ed, -er).