Use this glossary to discover the meanings of words commonly used
by writers. Each meaning has an example provided.
| anecdote |
An anecdote is a brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event. You add an anecdote into your composition to make a point.
Example:
To get me to clean my room, my dad always tells me the story about his sister Mary. Mary was very messy. One day she was cleaning her living room, and she found some kittens under the sofa. And guess what? She didn’t even have a pet cat! |
| colourful adjective |
Colourful adjectives are lively words used to describe nouns or pronouns. When you use colourful adjectives you help paint a picture of the subject in the reader’s mind.
Example:
The heavy, prickly blanket |
| detail |
Details are facts, examples, and words that you write to support your main idea and add colour to your writing. Details can help a reader understand your thoughts, feelings and ideas much more clearly.
Example, to use detail to describe why Mary is kind:
My cousin Mary always brings me a gift when she visits. She always shares her toys with me. Last week, she let me borrow her bike. |
| comparison |
A comparison is a description of things that are similar. You can use comparisons in your writing to make an idea clearer. When you use a comparison, you are painting a picture with words.
Example:
Thank you for helping me. You are a perfect angel. |
| composition |
A completed piece of writing, either in draft for or final published copy. Your narrative is an example of a composition. |
| draft |
An unrevised and unedited composition. |
| edit |
To edit a composition means to correct all grammar and spelling mistakes. You must revise your composition before editing it. You will edit other learner's compositions in Step 5 of Wiggly Pencils. |
| exaggeration |
When you exaggerate in your writing, you create characters and
scenes that stretch the truth. You can use exaggeration to make your point
stronger to the reader.
Example:
I was walking along when suddenly this enormous dog came up to me. It was as big as an elephant. |
| hook |
A narrative trick in the introduction paragraph that grabs a reader’s attention and keeps them reading.
Examples of hooks include asking a question to the reader about the topic. An exciting sentence from the body of the story. |
| idiom |
Idioms are words, phrases, or expressions
that cannot be taken literally. The words in the idiom have a different meaning from the one you would find in the dictionary.
Example:
Jjang-i-ya is a Korean idiom meaning something is the best. English speakers have the same idiom, ‘This is the bomb!’ |
| introduction |
The first paragraph of a composition that informs the reader of the topic, characters, setting, and events within the narrative. |
| metaphor |
A metaphor compares two things that are not alike in most ways, but are similar in one important way. Metaphors are a way to describe something. Authors use metaphors to make their writing more interesting or entertaining.
Example:
Tommy was such a hog. He ate all the pizza before I got home! |
| (personal) narrative |
A composition that tells a story. Your composition will be a
story about yourself. This is called a personal narrative. |
| personification |
Personification is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colours, qualities, or ideas).
Example:
The wind howled through the house. |
| revise |
To improve the meaning and interest of a composition. You will revise other learner's compositions in Step 4 of Wiggly Pencils. |
| sensory detail |
When you add sensory detail to your writing, you help the reader understand what a subject
looks, smells, sounds, tastes and feels like. Sensory detail will help the reader imagine clearly the experience that you are writing about.
Example:
The ice cream tasted like a chocolate orchestra playing on my tongue.
It was medicine as it soothed my sore throat. As the sun beat down the ice cream made a brown chocolate river down my arm. I could smell the chocolate on my skin hours later. |
| simile |
Similes compare two things that are not alike in most ways, but are similar in one important way. Similes are different from metaphors because they use like or as to compare the two things.
Example:
The orange juice was as refreshing as a swim in the cool pool. |
| specific noun |
A specific noun is a word that names a certain person, place, thing or
idea. When you use specific nouns, the reader will understand and become more familiar with the character, places, ideas and things in your writing.
Example:
My brother, Sam, played with his new volcano water gun in the neighbour’s backyard on Christmas Day. |
| writing technique |
A way of writing that adds interest and meaning to an idea. Examples of writing techniques include similes, sensory detail, and personification. |
| vivid verb |
Vivid verbs are lively words used to describe actions. When you use vivid verbs you help paint a picture of the action in the reader’s mind.
Example:
The cat leaped and bounded over the fence. |
