ELA Terms To Know
Explaining The Stuff That Was Explained But Slightly Better
Connotation and Denotation
So basically, when telling someone you hate them from the deepest pits of your heart, you're using denotation, but lying and saying that you like someone when you really want to hit them with a flaming chair covered in knives, is connotation.
Points Of View
In first person point of view, you're the niave little character who thinks you know everything but you don't. You're only entitled to your opinion and your opinion alone, it's like how us humans speak, you would say, "Oh yeah! I went to see Asking Alexandria that time!" You're saying, 'I' and you mean yourself, so you would refer to yourself in first person point of view as 'I'.
Second person point of view is what I'm using right now, by the author saying, 'you did,' or, 'you think,' or, 'you want' they're basically adding the reader to this story. It's a tricky concept to grasp at first, but there have been entire books written in second person POV! Some examples are Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney (I've never read it...) and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Also never read that one.)
Simile and Metaphor
Now for the similes, a simile is a metaphor in the sense of it's comparing something, but, it compares certain things that are alike, and it uses like or as. When you say, "My love is like a red, red rose." (Robert Burns said that not me) you're comparing the attributes of a rose to those of a woman, with a ruddy complexion, soft skin and a nice (or fragrant) scent.
Types of Poetry
Epics are long, narrative poems normally celebrating the adventures and achievements of a person and they can deal with the traditions, mythical or historical facts of a nation. I don't really like epics because they're really long and sometimes really boring. THe way you can tell them apart is by reading one, and possibly nearly falling asleep. Not the best way to tell a poem apart from another poem but it works.
Narrative poetry is telling a story of something, just shorter than epics. A narrative poem can be about anything, as long as it tells a story, so an easy way to remember them is: Narrative poems are shorter than epics and I won't fall asleep in them.
Commonplace Assertion, Opinion, Fact
An opinion is just what you believe, like how some people think EDM is a great music genre, that's their opinion. Or like how some people think Linkin Park was the best band in history (before they got all mainstream that is...during their Hybrid Theory days they were amazing...but hey, that's my opinion.) An opinion is really easy to spot, if you don't agree with what the person is saying or if you think that they belong so far off in Alcatraz that not even the guards can reach them justifies whether the statement is an opinion or not.
And a Fact is pretty simple, it's something that someone says that's backed up by, well, facts. You say something and it's proved by legit data and not something off some pro-hackers website. Like, when you say something like, "Squidgy (OM&M fans will get it) is adorable." That's not proven, so it's an opinion, but, when you say, "Squidgy is a rainbow squid." That's proven, because Squidgy is a rainbow squid.