The Technologic Part of Reading

Tautology

A tautology is when a sentence or short paragraph repeats a word or phrase, expressing the same idea twice. Often, this is a sign that you should trim your work to remove the redundancy (such as "frozen ice") but can also be used for poetic emphasis. Example: "But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door" - The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe

Allegory

A type of narrative that uses characters and plot to depict abstract ideas and themes. In an allegorical story, things represent more than they appear to on the surface. Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell. A commentary on the events leading up to Stalin's rise and the formation of the Soviet Union, the pigs at the heart of the novel represent figures such as Stalin, Trotsky, and Molotov.

Aphorism

A universally accepted truth stated in a concise, to-the-point way. Typically witty and memorable, often becoming adages or proverbs as people repeat them over and over. Example: "To err is human, to forgive divine." — Alexander Pope

Onomatopoeia

Amusingly, onomatopoeia (itself a difficult-to-pronounce word) refers to words that sound like the thing they're referring to. Well-known instances of onomatopoeia include whiz, buzz, snap, grunt, etc. Example: The excellent children's book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. "Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows like to type. All day long he hears: Click, clack, moo. Click, clack, moo. Clickety, clack, moo."

Hyperbole

An exaggerated statement that emphasizes the significance of the statement's actual meaning. Example: "At that time Bogotá was a remote, lugubrious city where an insomniac rain had been falling since the beginning of the 16th century." — Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez

Euphemism

An indirect, "polite" way of describing something too inappropriate or awkward to address directly. However, most people will still understand the truth about what's happening. Example: When an elderly person is forced to retire, some might say they're being "put out to pasture."

Oxymoron

An oxymoron comes from two contradictory words that describe one thing. While juxtaposition contrasts two story elements, oxymorons are about the actual words you are using. Example: "Parting is such sweet sorrow." — Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. (Find 100 more examples of oxymorons here.)

Frame story

Any part of the story that "frames" another part of it, such as one character telling another about their past, or someone uncovering a diary or a series of news articles that then tell the readers what happened. Since the frame story supports the rest of the plot, it is mainly used at the beginning and the end of the narrative, or in small interludes between chapters or short stories. Example: In The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, Kvothe is telling Chronicler the story of his life over the span of three days. Most of the novel is the story he is telling, while the frame is any part that takes place in the inn.

Imagery

Appeals to readers' senses through highly descriptive language. Example: "In the hard-packed dirt of the midway, after the glaring lights are out and the people have gone to bed, you will find a veritable treasure of popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribblings, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones and wooden sticks of lollipops." — Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Symbolism

Authors turn to tangible symbols to represent abstract concepts and ideas in their stories Symbols typically derive from objects or non-human — for instance, a dove might represent peace, or raven might represent death. Example: In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg (actually a faded optometrist's billboard) to represent God and his judgment of the Jazz Age.

Metaphor

Compares two similar things by saying that one of them is the other. As you'd likely expect, when it comes to literary devices, this one is a heavy hitter. Example: "Wishes are thorns, he told himself sharply. They do us no good, just stick into our skin and hurt us."

Irony

Creates a contrast between how things seem and how they really are. There are three types: dramatic , situational, and verbal. Example: This opening scene from Orson Welles' A Touch of Evil is a great example of how dramatic irony can create tension.

Cumulative sentence

Sentence that starts with an independent clause, but then has additional or modifying clauses. They're often used for contextual or clarifying details. This may sound complex, but even, "I ran to the store to buy milk, bread, and toilet paper" is an example because the first clause, "I ran to the store," is a complete sentence, while the rest tells us extra information about your run to the store. Example: "It was a large bottle of gin Albert Cousins had brought to the party, yes, but it was in no way large enough to fill all the cups, and in certain cases to fill them many times over, for the more than one hundred guests, some of whom were dancing not four feet in front of him." - Commonwealth, Ann Patchett

Alliteration

Series of words in quick succession that all start with the same letter or sound. It lends a pleasing cadence to prose and poetry both. Love's Labour's Lost, Sense and Sensibility, and The Haunting of Hill House. Example: "Peter Piper picked a pot of pickled peppers."

Soliloquy

Soliloquy involves a character speaking their thoughts aloud, usually at length (and often in a Shakespeare play). The character in question may be alone or in the company of others, but they're not speaking for the benefit of other people; the purpose of a soliloquy is for a character to reflect independently. Example: Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech, in which he ruminates on the nature of life and death, is a classic dramatic soliloquy.

Polysyndeton

Instead of using a single conjunction in a lengthy statements, polysyndeton uses several in succession for a dramatic effect. This one is definitely for authors looking to add a bit of artistic flair to their writing, or who are hoping to portray a particular (usually naïve) sort of voice. Example: "Luster came away from the flower tree and we went along the fence and they stopped and we stopped and I looked through the fence while Luster was hunting in the grass." — The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Hypophora

Much like a rhetorical question, where someone asks a question that doesn't require an answer. However the person raises a question and answers it immediately themselves. It's often used when characters are reasoning something aloud. Example: "Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it." — Daisy in The Great Gatsby

Repetition

Though too much repetition is rarely a good thing, occasional repetition can be used quite effectively to drill home a point, or to create a certain atmosphere. For example, horror writers often use repetition to make the reader feel trapped and scared. Example: In The Shining, Jack Torrance types over and over again on his pages, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." In this case, obsessive repetition demonstrates the character's unraveling mind.

Tmesis

Tmesis is when a word or phrase is broken up by an interjecting word, such as abso-freaking-lutely. It's used to draw out and emphasize the idea, often with a humorous or sarcastic slant. Example: "This is not Romeo, he's some other where." - Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

Anthropomorphism

To apply human traits or qualities to a non-human thing such as objects, animals, or the weather. But unlike personification, in which this is done through figurative description, this is literal: a sun with a smiling face, for example, or talking dogs in a cartoon. Examples: In Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Mrs. Potts the teapot, Cogsworth the clock, and Lumière the candlestick are all household objects that act and behave like humans.

Tone

Tone refers to the overall mood and message of your book. It's established through a variety of means, including voice, characterization, symbolism, and themes. Tone sets the feelings you want your readers to take away from the story. Example: No matter how serious things get in The Good Place, there is always a chance for a character to redeem themselves by improving their behavior. The tone remains hopeful for the future of humanity in the face of overwhelming odds.

Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is just what it sounds like: a blend of tragedy and comedy. Tragicomedy helps an audience process darker themes by allowing them to laugh at the situation even when circumstances are bleak. Example: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events uses wordplay, absurd situations, and over-the-top characters to provide humor in an otherwise tragic story.

Motif

Whatever form a motif takes, it recurs throughout the novel and helps develop the theme of the narrative. This might be a symbol, concept, or image. Example: In Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, trains are an omnipresent motif that symbolize transition, derailment, and ultimately violent death and destruction.

Malapropism

When similar-sounding words replace their appropriate counterparts, typically to comic effect — one of the most commonly cited is "dance a flamingo," rather than a "flamenco." Often employed in dialogue when a character flubs up their speech. Example: "I am not to be truffled with."

Anachronism

When something happens or is attributed to a different era than when it actually existed. This is usually a mistake, such as an author writing a period piece and accidentally using language that's too modern. However, it can also be intentionally used as a literary device, if the author wants to comment on a theme like time or society. Example: Cassius in Julius Caesar says that "the clock has stricken three,"

Foreshadowing

When the author hints at events yet to come in a story. Similar to flashbacks, this technique is also used to create tension or suspense. Example: One popular method of foreshadowing is through partial reveals — the narrator leaves out key facts to prompt readers' curiosity. Jeffrey Eugenides does this in The Virgin Suicides: "On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese, the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope."

Exposition

When the narrative provides background information in order to help the reader understand what's going on. When used in conjunction with description and dialogue, this literary device provides a richer understanding of the characters, setting, and events. Example: "The Dursley's had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it." - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling

Dramatic irony

When the readers know more about the situation going on than at least one of the characters involved. This creates a difference between the ways the audience and the characters perceive unfolding events. Example: In Titanic, the audience knows from the beginning of the movie that the boat will sink. This creates wry humor when characters remark on the safety of the ship.

Chiasmus

When two or more parallel clauses are inverted. Example: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." — John F. Kennedy

Simile

A simile draws resemblance between two things by saying "Thing A is like Thing B," or "Thing A is as [adjective] as Thing B." Unlike a metaphor, a similar does not posit that these things are the same, only that they are alike. As a result, it is probably the most common literary device in writing — you can almost always recognize a simile through the use of "like" or "as." Example: There are two similes in this description from Circe by Madeline Miller: "The ships were golden and huge as leviathans, their rails carved from ivory and horn. They were towed by grinning dolphins or else crewed by fifty black-haired nereids, faces silver as moonlight."

Archetype

A "universal symbol" that brings familiarity and context to a story. It can be a character, a setting, a theme, or an action. Represent feelings and situations that are shared across cultures and time periods, and are therefore instantly recognizable to any audience — for instance, the innocent child character, or the theme of the inevitability of death. Example: Superman is a heroic type: noble, self-sacrificing, and drawn to righting injustice whenever he sees it.

In Medias Res

A Latin term that means "in the midst of things" and is a way of starting a narrative without exposition or contextual information. It launches straight into a scene or action that is already unfolding. Example: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." — The opening line of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Allusion

A passing or indirect descriptive reference to something. Example: "This list of literary devices will turn me into a bona fide Mark Twain."

Anastrophe

Figure of speech where the traditional sentence structure is reversed. So a typical verb-subject-adjective sentence such as "Are you ready?" becomes a Yoda-esque adjective-verb-subject question: "Ready, are you?" Or a standard adjective-noun pairing like "tall mountain" becomes "mountain tall." Example: "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing." — The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Metonymy

Metonymy is like symbolism, but even more so. A metonym doesn't just symbolize something else, it comes to serve as a synonym for that thing or things — typically, a single object embodies an entire institution. Examples: "The crown" representing the monarchy, "Washington" representing the U.S. government

Paradox

Paradox derives from the Greek word paradoxon, which means "beyond belief." It's a statement that asks people to think outside the box by providing seemingly illogical — and yet actually true — premises. Example: In George Orwell's 1984, the slogan of the totalitarian government is built on paradoxes: "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength." While we might read these statements as obviously contradictory, in the context of Orwell's novel, these blatantly corrupt sentiments have become an accepted truth.

Personification

Personification uses human traits to describe non-human things. Again, while the aforementioned anthropomorphism actually applies these traits to non-human things, personification means the behavior of the thing does not actually change. It's personhood in figurative language only. Example: "Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin." — The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Juxtaposition

Places two or more dissimilar characters, themes, concepts, etc. side by side, and the profound contrast highlights their differences. Example: In the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses it to emphasize the societal disparity that led to the French Revolution: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness..."

Point of view

Point of view is, of course, the mode of narration in a story. There are many POVs an author can choose, and each one will have a different impact on the reading experience. Example: Second person POV is uncommon because it directly addresses the reader — not an easy narrative style to pull off. One popular novel that manages to employ this perspective successfully is Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney: "You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy."

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of clauses or sentences. It's often seen in poetry and speeches, intended to provoke a emotional response in its audience. Example: Martin Luther King's 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech.

Flashback

Split up present-day scenes in a story, usually to build suspense toward a big reveal. They are also an interesting way to present exposition for your story, gradually revealing to the reader what happened in the past. Example: Every other chapter in the first part of Gone Girl is one, with Amy's old diary entries describing her relationship with her husband before she disappeared.

Synecdoche

Synecdoche is the usage of a part to represent the whole. That is, rather than an object or title that's merely associated with the larger concept (as in metonymy), synecdoche must actually be attached in some way: either to the name, or to the larger whole itself. Examples: "Stanford won the game" (Stanford referring to the full title of the Stanford football team) or "Nice wheels you got there" (wheels referring to the entire car)

Litotes

The signature literary device of the double negative. Writers use it to express certain sentiments through their opposites, by saying that that opposite is not the case. Examples: "You won't be sorry"; "you're not wrong"; "I didn't not like it"

Colloquialism

The use of casual and informal language in writing, which can also include slang. Writers use it to provide context to settings and characters, and to make their writing sound more authentic. Example: Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh takes place in Scotland, a fact made undeniably obvious by the dialect: "Thing is, as ye git aulder, this character-deficiency gig becomes mair sapping. Thir wis a time ah used tae say tae aw the teachers, bosses, dole punters, poll-tax guys, magistrates, when they telt me ah was deficient: 'Hi, cool it, gadge, ah'm jist me, jist intae a different sort ay gig fae youse but, ken?'"

Isocolon

This is when two or more phrases or clauses have similar structure, rhythm, and even length — such that, when stacked up on top of each other, they would line up perfectly. Example: Veni, vidi, vici ("I came, I saw, I conquered")

Satire

Writers use satire to make fun of some aspect of human nature or society — usually through exaggeration, ridicule, or irony. There are countless ways to satirize something; most of the time, you know it when you read it. Example: The famous adventure novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is a classic example of satire, poking fun at "travelers' tales," the government, and indeed human nature itself.

Zoomorphism

Zoomorphism is when you take animal traits and assign them to anything that's not an animal. It's the opposite of anthropomorphism and personification, and can be either a physical manifestation, such as a god appearing as an animal, or a comparison, like calling someone a busy bee. Example: When vampires turn into bats, their bat form is an instance of zoomorphism.