Literary Terms

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The Significance of Literary Tools and Devices

First, please note four subpages in the far left margin: Figures of Repetition, Figures of Speech, Figures of Sound, and Satire.

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT: All writings are rhetorical.

Any poem, short story, novel, essay, etc., contains certain ideas or feelings. The writer wishes for the reader to understand his or her thoughts or feelings. In Advanced Placement parlance, the writer conveys certain feelings, attitudes, thoughts, or ideas. Both the multiple choice and essay section measure whether students understand the relationship between an author’s choices and the author’s intent. First, the student must understand what it is that the writer wants him or her to understand, think, or feel. Next, the student must recognize HOW the writer makes choices designed to get the reader to think/feel/understand as the writer does.

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT:   The author’s choices reveal the author’s intent.

Writers make choices. The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Test measures a student’s ability to understand WHY a writer has made particular choices, e.g.:

Why use that word? (diction)

Why use that simile? (figurative language)

Why use intentional repetition? (sentence structure)

In class, we have discussed a series of stylistic and rhetorical devices. Test-takers must understand these terms and be able to explain why and/or how a writer uses them for effect.

In order to communicate ideas, writers must make choices. All choices can be categorized as a literary tool or device.

For example:

A writer might use some form of repetition (e.g., alliteration, assonance, parallelism, motif, anaphora, etc.) in order to draw the reader's attention to something important.

A writer might construct a sentence in an usual way (e.g., periodic sentence, antithetical sentence) in order to draw the reader's attention to certain ideas or images.

A writer might make usual comparisons or analogies (e.g., similes, metaphors, metonymy) in order to help the reader better see his or her understanding.

And so on.

A writer's choices reveal his or her intended meaning.

The links below contain glossaries of common literary tools and devices. In class, we are constantly analyzing a writer's choices in pursuit of understanding the writer's intent.

Dr. Kip Wheeler's Literary Term Glossary
Exception site with detailed definitions, explanations, and examples. I usually go here first.

Glossary of Literary Terms: Alternate Link
Remember: Definitions are written by people. And people are different. If the first link did not help you with the term, try someone else's explanation.

A Second Alternate Glossary of Literary Terms
Ditto.

American Rhetoric
This site does not include all essential literary terms, but it compiles examples of numerous terms from film, speeches, and advertisements. Most examples include soundbites or moving images.

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