Analogy: An analogy is a type of extended comparison. Usually an analogy compares otherwise unlike things. For example, Florida is like California is not an analogy because they are both states, and pretty similar ones at that. Nobody would be surprised that they are alike. Further, an analogy is used to compare two things in a number of ways, not just one. "An essay is a lot like a person," would make a good analogy since they are quite different things but share a number of things in common. The purpose of an analogy is to encourage a reader to consider one thing in a way they probably hadn't considered it before.

Argument (academic argument): A stated position that takes one side of an issue and that supports its claims with specific evidence.

Connotation: The meanings associated with or suggested by a certain word. For example, "home" connotes something different than just "house."

Criticism: A kind of reading that looks to see how an argument is constructed or that looks to find patterns in style or meaning. Criticism in this sense is not to be critical in the general sense of finding something bad to say.

Denotation: The dictionary definition of a word. "Home" and "house" have roughly the same denotation, but different connotations.

Diction: A writer's choice of words.

Explication: To explicate something is not just to summarize it, but to offer an interpretation by searching for meaning. If you are asked to explicate a poem, for example, you need to consider what you think the poem means.

Exposition: Not to be confused with explication, exposition involves giving information about something, not necessarily analyzing it for meaning.

Foreshadowing: To foreshadow something is to give a hint of something before it actually happens. Often, background elements like setting can foreshadow changes to come to central characters or to the main narrative. A violent storm, for example, usually foreshadows some sort of disruptive event.

Generalization: A generalization is a statement about all parts of a larger category. For example, "Generalizations are bad," is a generalization since it applies to all generalizations. Racism and sexism are types of generalization since they attribute certain characteristics to all members of a given race or sex.

Imagery (see also metaphor, simile, and symbolism): Imagery is the use of images to convey meaning. Concrete images, like sunlight, for example, will often be linked to nontangible emotions, like happiness, to give readers a better sense of things that can't always be easily described.

Interpretation: Interpreting literature means explaining what you think the meaning of a certain work is. If a translator interprets a sentence, she moves it from one language to another. When you interpret a poem, you say what you think it says in your own words.

Irony: An ironic situation is one in which the real outcome of the situation is different from the intended outcome. An ironic statement is one that has a double meaning, especially where a character involved in the statement is unaware of the second meaning. For example, Dracula says to his tailor, "I'd love to have you for dinner tonight." The tailor agrees, unaware that "have you for dinner" carries significantly different connotations for Dracula than for himself. This kind of irony is sometimes called, more specifically, dramatic irony, since it depends on an observer who gets both meanings but seeing a character who gets only one.

Juxtaposition: When two otherwise unlike things are set against each other (literally or metaphorically) in order to highlight their differences. Characters in literature are often juxtaposed such that the evil one appears even more evil because he or she is so often in the company of a good character.

Literary device: A literary device designates a certain general structure used by an author in a work, usually to produce a known effect. Simile is a literary device, for example. Foreshadowing is another kind of literary device, often used to create suspense and tension for the reader.

Metaphor: A metaphor is a comparison that doesn't use the words "like" or "as." Metaphor works best when the two things being compared are not apparently similar at all. This way we are led to seeing one thing in a surprisingly different way, not the way we usually see it.

Narrative: A narrative is a story. Narration is the telling of a story or sequence of events.

Narrator: The voice telling a story. The narrator, even when it is the first person "I," is not necessarily the author of the story.

Paradox: An apparent contradiction. For example, "She was only truly happy when her life was in crisis." A paradox is a great way to open a story since it makes a statement that cannot be true, or so we think, but the story can show how true the statement really is.

Rhetoric: Rhetoric is the study of the art of verbal or written communication, with specific attention to the structure and development of persuasive argument. Rhetoric has come to carry negative connotations, as in "....just a bunch of political rhetoric." That is, someone's speech was just words and empty promises. The negative connotation is somewhat understandable since rhetoric as the art of persuasion is meant to allow anybody to argue any side of an issue whether they actually believe what they are saying or not. A "rhetorical strategy" is simply a device used within the construction of a persuasive argument. For example, opening a speech with "My fellow Americans" is a rhetorical strategy meant to align the speaker with the common man and to show nationalistic pride.

Simile: A comparison using the words "like" or "as." As with metaphor, similes are most evocative when they compare two things that are otherwise apparently very different.

Style: Style is a way of describing the choices a given author has made in a certain text.

Summary: To summarize is to condense information into your own words. In a summary you are not giving your opinion or interpreting as you would in an explication.

Theory (literary theory): Theory designates a set of practices and certain vocabulary. Chaos theory, for example, is a set of rules and meanings that describe given phenomena. Literary theory allows us to see how local contexts relate to each other in a larger picture.

Thesis statement: A brief statement, one or two sentences, which lays out an argument, position, or stance on a topic.

Tone: The mood attached to and created by a certain text. Tone is part of style since it reflects choices (specifically of diction) made by an author.