MYP MYP English Lang & Lit Key Definitions

Having mixed feelings, or presenting conflicting attitudes at the same time.

A rhetorical device where conjunctions are omitted from a list to create a fast-paced, forceful effect.

An attempt to take responsibility for wrongdoing and to repair harm through apology, changed behavior, restitution, or other forms of making amends.

The readers or viewers a text is intended for, who influence the content, tone, and language choices.

The feelings, thoughts, and judgments a reader or listener experiences when engaging with a text.

A biography published with the subject’s permission, often influenced by the subject’s access, preferences, or involvement.

A long narrative poem that tells a story, often in short stanzas.

A connected set of beliefs and assumptions about how the world works (religious, cultural, political, or personal beliefs) that helps someone decide what is right or wrong.

A written account of a person’s life created by someone else, typically using third person narration and mainly past tense.

The trajectory of a character across a story, shown through what they think, feel, value, and do at the beginning, how they are challenged, and what changes (or stays the same) by the end.

A character arc is the journey a character goes on from the start of the text to the end.

A consistent quality or tendency in a character’s behaviour or thinking (for example, cautious, proud, empathetic).

Character traits are the qualities or characteristics that describe how a person typically thinks, feels, and behaves: essentially the features that make up their personality and define who they are.

An external conflict where one character’s goals clash with another’s, resulting in physical, verbal, or social opposition.

An external conflict where a character struggles against nature, physical surroundings, or conditions such as weather, terrain, or illness.

An external conflict where a character struggles against an outcome that appears inevitable or beyond human control.

An external conflict where a character opposes a social system such as laws, cultural expectations, traditions, or institutions.

An external conflict where technological systems or inventions create obstacles or threats to a character’s goals, safety, or values.

An external conflict where a character struggles against forces that are not explained by ordinary natural laws (for example ghosts, curses, or mythical beings).

A narrative structure that presents events in time order, often making causes and consequences easier to track.

A way of telling a story in time order, from earlier events to later events.

The turning point of highest tension where a key decision or event determines the direction of the story’s outcome.

A struggle or problem that drives the action of a story, such as a clash between characters, a character and society, or a character and their own beliefs.

A struggle between opposing forces (internal or external) that writers use to reveal character, relationships, and tensions in a plot.