49. Humor anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end of the Renaissance, humor meant a person’s temperament
50. Hyperbole deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis (Example: He was so hungry he could have eaten a horse.)
51. Image A word or words, either figurative or literal, used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the sense. An image is always a concrete representation.
52. Imagery words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture
53. Induction the process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization
54. Inference a conclusion one can draw from the presented details
55. Interior Monologue writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character’s head
56. Invective a verbally abusive attack
57. Inversion reversing the customary (subject first, then verb, then complement) order of elements in a sentence or phrase; it is used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question: “Are you going to the store?” Usually, the element that appears first is emphasized more than the subject.
58. Irony a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected.
59. Jargon The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon usually has pejorative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders. The writings of the lawyer and the literary critic are both susceptible to jargon.
60. Logic the process of reasoning
61. Logical Fallacy a mistake in reasoning
62. Lyrical Songlike; characterized by emotions, subjectivity, and imagination.
63. Metaphor a figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another; for example, “my love is a fragile flower”
64. Metonymy a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using “the crown” to refer to a monarch ; Also, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
65. Mode the method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written
66. Mood similar to tone, mood is the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere). Syntax is also a determiner of mood because sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing.
67. Moral The lesson drawn from a fictional or nonfictional story. It can also mean a heavily didactic story.
68. Motif main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea
69. Narration the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse
70. Negative-Positive Sentence that begins by stating what is NOT true, then ending by stating what is true.
71. Non-sequitur Latin for “it does not follow.” When one statement isn’t logically connected to another
72. Objectivity an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer’s attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement in a story. Hard news journalism is frequently prized for its objectivity, although even fictional stories can be told without a writer rendering personal judgment.