Topic Eleven (0.11): Literary Terminology

Introduction

To ensure you include enough detail in your responses, and to demonstrate a clear understanding of writers’ methods, you will need to draw on a good range of literary terminology in all of your essays. You will have covered a lot of new terminology at AS, but this is an area on which you should keep working throughout your AL course as well.

As mentioned earlier in this module, this does NOT mean making endless lists of terms or ‘feature-spotting’; the terminology needs to be used as part of a developed discussion of what a writer is doing and the effects this creates. Obviously though, the wider your critical vocabulary, the more points you can make and the more specific you can be when you make them, and these are both features of a high-scoring response.

You will already be familiar with a list of key terms from AS, and these still apply, but at AL, you will be expected to broaden your critical vocabulary even further. You are not expected to do this all in one go; it will be a steady process throughout the course, but you should use appropriate terminology from Assignment One onwards, and you need to pay close attention to any new terms introduced in each topic.

There are some terms which apply to all kinds of text, for example metaphors and alliteration may be identified in prose, drama and poetry, but there are others which are specific to particular types of text (e.g. a stanza in poetry or a soliloquy in drama) and which you will learn as you study the conventions each type of text. You must make sure that you always use the correct terminology for the type of text you are discussing.

Tasks

• You will find a glossary in the back of Mastering English Literatureon pages 501 to 512. Go through this now, and highlight any terms you already know, so you can begin to use them in your work, then highlight new terms as they come up in your reading.
• You will also find the following online glossaries very helpful:

EXPLORE – Literary Devices (Literarydevices.net) Links to an external site.

EXPLORE – Literary Devices and Terms (LitCharts) Links to an external site.

EXPLORE – Literary Devices (Literary-devices.com) Links to an external site.

• As you are studying, if you come across any terms that do not appear in the Mastering English Literature glossary, add them as extra notes at the end of the book or on a separate sheet of paper.

Top Tip

• A really helpful way to revise terminology is to make flashcards for the key terms, where you write the term on one side (checking spellings very carefully) and the definition, and perhaps an example, on the other side so you can test yourself regularly.
• You will have amassed a lot of terminology by the end of this course and this is why making flashcards and learning as you go along is highly recommended, so that you are not overwhelmed when it comes to revising.
• You are also more likely to use a broader range of terminology in your assignments if you are continually learning these new words. This is why you will see the following instruction throughout the course:

Terminology

Make sure you understand any new literary terminology covered in this topic. You may like to make flashcards of key terms now, to help you with revision later on.

Task

You are now ready to move on to the core content of the course in Module One. Check you have printed out everything you need from this module and that it is filed in your folder and ready to use.

Top Tip

Students who work on developing their essay-writing skills throughout the course see regular improvements in their marks and tend to perform better in the final exams. Make good use of all the resources provided to ensure you are one of them.

Good luck!