english conventions and techniques Flashcards
(26 cards)
Symbolism
The use of a person or item to symbolise and convey ideas about something else.
Subject
The focal person or thing within an image or illustration.
Colour
The emotional connotations of different colours in the image.
Salience
The most important or significant part of an image.
Reading path
The ways a reader’s eyes are guided around a page or spread by the arrangement of words and images.
Gaze
The direction in which the subject is looking (eg. Directly at the reader through the page or somewhere else within the image.
Composition
The arrangement of all features of a page or spread and how they work together.
Simple sentence
One complete thought. It can be short in length (but it doesn’t have to be), and must contain a verb and a subject, eg: ‘The angry dog barks’.
Narrative elements
The integral features of a story: plot, characterisation, setting and point of view.
Stages of a traditional narrative arc
Exposition; initial conflict; rising action; crisis point; falling action; resolution/ denouement.
Simile
A comparison of two distinctly different things by using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ in order to create an effect such as humour or exaggeration, (eg. My teacher has a temper as fiery temper as a dragon’s).
Metaphor
The presentation of one thing as something it could not possibly be in order to create an effect such as humour or exaggeration, (eg. My teacher is a dragon).
Personification
Giving lifelike attributes to an inanimate object (this does not mean any verb which suggests movement!).
Sensory imagery
To create an image in the mind of the reader using descriptions that evoke each of the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sound and sight).
Onomatopoeia
Words which sound like the noises they make (eg. Cuckoo, sizzle, crash).
Noun
A naming word (person, place or thing). Proper nouns have capital letters (Sarah, Toyota, Pepsi), common nouns begin with a lower case letter (girl, car, cola).
Adjective
A word which describes a noun (eg. the intelligent student).
Verb
A doing word or action.
Adverb
Words which are used to describe the ways a verb is executed (done).
Alliteration
The intentional repetition of the same letter at the start of two important words in the same sentence.
Rhyme
A similarity of sound between words or the ends of words.
Colloquial language
Informal language such as slang.
Lexical choice/ diction
Word choice and connotations or language choices.
Hyperbole
A gross exaggeration in order to emphasise a point (eg. ‘I’m starving!’)
