5 Categories of Literary Techniques
- Teacher's Workshop
- Aug 15
- 2 min read
Students can get overwhelmed with the terminology of literary analysis. There are a lot of techniques (free resource) and it can be hard to keep track of them all. Literary techniques make a story more than just a sequence of events and they are the reason students can individually interpret the emotion and perspective of the characters and narrator.
Early in the year, my students will create a word wall using examples from a few poems so they can refer to it throughout the year. Some of the techniques apply more to short stories, novels, and nonfiction, so I categorize the techniques to make it simple.
1. Grammar
Few teachers enjoy teaching grammar but studying syntax in literature can be a lot of fun. This mostly has to do with the identification of patterns more than single instances of say, prepositional phrases, verbs, conjunctions, modal auxiliary verbs, or punctuation.
2. Figurative language
These techniques mostly involve metaphors or other techniques that make a comparison such as synecdoche, personification, metonymy, and apostrophe. This is the language of the imagination and helps the reader see the places and understand the emotions of the story clearly. These techniques are important because they reveal the perspective and emotions of the narrator or speaker.
3. Narrative Mode
This category has to do with who is telling the story. A story can be told from a single or multiple points of view. There is a reason why narrative voices shift or change in a story and it usually has to do with the plot. The narrator controls what information the reader receives and what information they don’t receive. The reader might have to imagine reality if they don’t have all the facts. Free indirect discourse, limited omniscient narration, and the unreliable narrator are some terms associated with the narrative mode.
4. Poetic devices
Poetic techniques have to do with sound and rhythm like alliteration, internal rhyme, or assonance and consonance. I tell my students that with some exceptions, the line break is what makes poetry poetry. From line breaks you get enjambment, end rhyme, stanzas, rhythm and of course forms like the sonnet, villanelle or sestina.
5. Narrative
There is some crossover between the categories, but there are a few terms like flashback, foil, foreshadowing, and climax that are more common in narratives.
Teacher's Workshop, professional development for secondary ELA teachers
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