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Fiction, Narrative, and Figurative Language Units
Use the following vocabulary to help you answer the questions that follow.

Literary texts: Literary texts are passages that are stories, dramas, or poems.

Inference: To infer means to come to a reasonable conclusion based on evidence found in the text.

Theme: The theme of a literary text is its lesson or message. For example, a story could be about two friends who like to do things together, and the theme might be about the importance of friendship.

Central idea: The central idea is the most important point or idea that the author is making in a text. The central idea is also known as the main idea.

Objective summary: An objective summary is an overview of a text. It captures the main points but does not give every detail and does not include opinions.

Plot: The specific order of a series of events that form a story is known as the plot.

Resolution: In most stories, there is a conflict or problem. The resolution is the solution to the problem or the end of the main dramatic conflict.

Characterization: Characterization refers to the way an author develops a character over the course of a text.

Figurative language: To understand figurative language, you need to distinguish between literal and figurative meanings of words and phrases. Literal refers to the actual meaning of a word or phrase. For example, if someone tells you to open the door, you can open a physical door. If someone tells you to open the door to your heart, you are not expected to find a door in your chest. Instead, you open up your feelings and emotions.
The following are examples of figurative language:
• Personification: When an author describes an object as if it were a person, he or she is using personification; for example, The trees sighed in the afternoon breeze. The trees cannot really sigh but seemed to as they moved gently in the breeze.
• Simile: A simile is a comparison using like or as; for example, She is as pretty as a picture.
• Metaphor: A metaphor is a direct comparison that states one thing is another. It isn’t meant to be literal, but descriptive. For example, if someone describes recess by saying that it was a zoo, he or she is using a metaphor. Recess was chaotic, with lots of different people running around; it was not literally a zoo.
• Hyperbole: Hyperbole is exaggeration beyond belief. My father can lift two tons is an example of hyperbole.

Connotative meaning: A meaning beyond the explicit meaning of a word is known as a connotative meaning. For example, the word childlike connotes innocence. Connotations are meanings inferred from certain words.

Tone: Tone is the attitude of an author about a subject or an audience. The author chooses words and language to create a tone and express a viewpoint in a text.

Structure: In literary writing, writers use structure to convey meaning. This structure helps break longer pieces of writing into smaller portions that are grouped together because they happened around the same time or because they share a similar meaning.
• Chapter: A chapter is a section of a book. Books are often divided into chapters.
• Scene: A scene is a section of a drama or play. Plays are often divided into scenes.
• Stanza: A stanza is a section of a poem. Poems are often divided into stanzas.

Setting: Setting refers to where and when a story takes place, including the time of day, the season, or the location.

Point of view: The perspective from which a story is told is called the point of view. The point of view depends on who the narrator or speaker is and how much he or she knows. The point of view could be first person (I went to the store), second person (You went to the store), or third person (He went to the store).

Narrator: The character who tells the story in a literary text from his or her point of view is called the narrator of the story.

Speaker: The speaker is the voice of a literary text that speaks about the writer’s feelings or situation. The speaker is not always the author because the author may be writing the text from a different perspective. In poems and stories, the speaker may not be an actual person but an imagined one.

Compare and contrast: Though similar, comparing is analyzing two things, such as characters or stories, in relation to each other, while contrasting is specifically analyzing the differences between two things, such as two different characters or stories.

Genre: A genre is the category of a text, such as fiction or nonfiction. Each genre has a particular style, form, and content.

Narrative techniques: Narrative techniques are the tools writers use to create interesting experiences, events, and characters in a story.

• Dialogue: Writers use dialogue to show the reader the exact words the characters are saying. Dialogue usually has quotation marks around it. Each time a new character speaks, a new paragraph begins.Readers learn about characters from the way characters speak or respond to a situation. Dialogue can also move the action forward in a story or cause a character to decide something.
• Description: Good writers use description to help the reader imagine the characters, settings, and events. Description helps make it feel like the reader is living the events of the story, seeing what the character sees, and feeling what the character feels. This sentence does not have good description: The kids at my new school were friendly. These sentences use description to help readers see and feel what the character experiences: I stepped into the classroom. I worried that I would not make new friends in my class. After the teacher introduced me, she asked me to tell the class where I was from. “I moved to Georgia from India,” I said. “This is my first time in the United States.” Everyone in the class smiled at me with shining eyes. “Welcome to our class,” a girl in the front row said. “Would you like to sit with me at lunch today?”
• Pacing: Pacing is the speed at which a story is told. The pace of a story is influenced by the
description of characters, settings, and thoughts or reflections; the use of sensory language; the number of telling details related; the length of sentences, paragraphs, and scenes; dialogue and how many words or sentences a character speaks at one time; and the use of precise word choice. Writers may choose to slow the pace in one part of the narrative and speed up the pace in another or to keep a consistent pace throughout the narrative.

Transitional words and phrases: The reader needs clues in a story to help them know how time is passing and how events are ordered. Transitional words and phrases link one idea to the next and help the reader understand how time is passing in the story. Transitional words and phrases also make clear the order in which events happen. Examples of transitional words are first, next, before, during, and finally. Examples of transitional phrases are after that, in the beginning, it started when, and the next day.

Sensory language: Sensory language describes concrete words and phrases in a way that allows the reader to experience the way things look, sound, smell, taste, or feel through imagination. Good writers share sensory details to help the reader paint a picture of what it would be like to experience the story. For example, the sentence The hot spring stank does not help the reader imagine what the hot spring smelled like. The sentence The hot spring smelled like rotten eggs that had blown up in the microwave helps the reader better imagine the smell.

Conclusion: Every story needs to have an end. The end can be anywhere the writer chooses to stop writing. But the reader needs to feel like the story is over. Good writers create this feeling of ending with a conclusion. In the conclusion, the events of the story stop, and the reader understands one or more of these ideas: what the story meant, what characters learned, how characters felt about the experience, how characters changed, and what the reader can learn from the story.

Answer 1

1. What is the difference between theme and central idea in a literary text?
2. How does a writer use dialogue to develop characters in a story?
3. Explain the difference between literal and figurative language. Give an example of each.
4. How does description help to engage the reader in a story?
5. Why is it important for a writer to use transitional words and phrases in a narrative?
6. Give an example of sensory language used in a story. How does it enhance the reader's experience?
7. What is the purpose of a conclusion in a story?

Answer 2

Have you studied?

Answer 3

Yes, I have reviewed the vocabulary and concepts related to fiction, narrative, and figurative language units. I am ready to answer the questions you have provided.

Answer 4

Now you will answer some Questions. Are you ready?

Answer 5

Yes, I am ready to answer the questions. Please go ahead and ask them.

Answer 6

1. What is a characteristic of a good summary?
It includes direct quotations from the text.
It includes a personal opinion.
It is written in the author's own words.
It is written from a first-person point of view.

2. Which is the BEST example of personification?

A. The ice cream turned to soup in the summer heat.
B. The bed groaned when the dog jumped on it.
C. The boat rocked back and forth quickly.
D. The car's engine was overheating.

3. "...his eyes...were like the mountain sky when rain is pending..." is an example of ____ .

A. hyperbole
B metaphor
C. alliteration
D. simile

Answer 7

1. A characteristic of a good summary is: It is written in the author's own words.

2. The BEST example of personification is: B. The bed groaned when the dog jumped on it.

3. "...his eyes...were like the mountain sky when rain is pending..." is an example of: B. metaphor.