Praxis Middle School ELA flashcards

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

Dramatic irony

A device in which the audience or reader knows important information that one or more characters do not, creating tension, suspense, or humor.

Third-person limited point of view

A narrator outside the story who reports only the thoughts and feelings of a single character, referring to that character as he, she, or they.

Omniscient narrator

A third-person narrator who knows and can reveal the thoughts, feelings, motives, and backgrounds of all characters in the story.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things using 'like' or 'as,' as in 'her voice was like gravel on a road.'

Metaphor

A figure of speech asserting that one thing is another, implying comparison without 'like' or 'as,' as in 'time is a thief.'

Allusion

A brief, unexplained reference to a well-known person, place, event, or literary work that assumes the reader shares the background knowledge.

Iambic pentameter

A poetic meter of five iambs per line, each iamb being an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, for ten syllables total.

Verbal irony

Occurs when a speaker says something that contradicts the meaning actually intended, often through sarcasm or deliberate understatement.

Indirect characterization

Revealing a character's traits through speech, thoughts, effect on other characters, actions, and appearance rather than through direct narrator description.

Theme

The central, often universal insight about life or human nature that a literary work conveys, developed through its characters, plot, and imagery.

Cause-and-effect text structure

An organizational pattern explaining why something happened and what resulted, signaled by words such as because, therefore, and as a result.

Independent clause

A group of words containing a subject and a predicate that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.

Dependent clause

A clause with a subject and verb that cannot stand alone because it opens with a subordinating word such as although, because, or which.

Compound sentence

A sentence made of two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, a semicolon, or a conjunctive adverb.

Complex sentence

A sentence containing one independent clause and at least one dependent clause, such as 'When it rained, we stayed inside all afternoon.'

Passive voice

A verb construction using a form of 'be' plus a past participle, where the subject receives the action instead of performing it.

Gerund

A verb form ending in -ing that functions as a noun within a sentence, as in 'Swimming is excellent exercise for the whole body.'

Dangling modifier

An introductory modifier whose logical subject is missing from the main clause, as in 'Walking home, the rain began to fall.'

Semicolon

A punctuation mark that joins two closely related independent clauses without a conjunction, or separates list items that already contain commas.

Nonrestrictive clause

A clause adding nonessential information about a noun and set off by commas, as in 'My brother, who lives in Ohio, visited.'

Prefix

A meaningful word part attached to the beginning of a base or root that changes its meaning, such as un- in unhappy or re- in redo.

Collective noun agreement

When a collective noun such as team acts as one unit, it takes a singular verb; when members act individually, it takes a plural verb.

Ethos

The rhetorical appeal to the writer's credibility, character, and authority, established through credentials, fairness, and shared values with the audience.

Pathos

The rhetorical appeal to the audience's emotions, values, and beliefs, often triggered by vivid language, anecdotes, and concrete imagery.

Logos

The rhetorical appeal to reason and logic, built from evidence, data, examples, and a clearly structured chain of reasoning.

Toulmin model

An argument structure of claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, and rebuttal, used to analyze how evidence supports an assertion.

Thesis statement

A single sentence stating the main arguable claim of an essay and previewing the line of reasoning that will follow.

Ad hominem fallacy

A reasoning error that attacks the character or circumstances of the person making an argument instead of addressing the argument itself.

Straw man fallacy

A fallacy that misrepresents an opponent's position in exaggerated form and then refutes that distorted version rather than the real one.

Hasty generalization

A fallacy drawing a broad conclusion from too few or unrepresentative examples, such as judging an entire school by one student.

MLA in-text citation

A parenthetical reference giving the author's last name and page number with no comma between them, as in (Morrison 42).

Topic sentence

The sentence stating the main idea of a paragraph, which controls the evidence and commentary that follow it.