Skip to main content
We’re so back. See what’s new for the 2026-2027 school year →
The new Teacher Workspace is here. Your first 3 assignments are free. Try it →

🖋️English Prose Style
Key Terms

138 essential vocabulary terms and definitions to know for your English Prose Style exam

Study English Prose Style →

Browse All A-Z

A

Abstract
Abstract imagery
Abstract Terms
Academic voice
Active Verbs
Ad hominem fallacy
Additive transitions
Adversative transitions
Aesthetic experience
Agent-less constructions
Ambiguous pronoun references
Anecdotal leads
Auditory imagery

B

Balanced Sentences
Block quote
Busy as a bee

C

Character profiles
Chronological sequence
Composite characters
Compound structure
Concrete details
Concrete imagery
Concrete Nouns
Condensing Prepositional Phrases
Conjunctive Adverbs
Conversational style
Conversational voice
Coordinate Conjunction
Coordinating Conjunctions
Cultural representation

D

Descriptive paragraph
Dialogue Style
Dialogue tags
Direct characterization
Dramatic Irony
Dramatic pause

E

Eliminating Redundant Pairs
Em dash
Em dashes
Emotional resonance
Emotional truth
Epistolary format
Expository Writing
External conflict

F

Falling Action
Fan fiction
Feature writing
First-person narration
First-person narrative
Flash-forwards
Foreshadowing

G

Genre conventions
Given-New Principle
Global coherence

H

Headline-style capitalization
Hedging language
Hierarchy of Ideas
Hybrid forms

I

Imprecise Verbs
Indirect characterization
Interactive journalism
Internal monologue
Intertextuality
Inverted pyramid
Investigative journalism

J

Joan Didion

L

Lexical chains
Lexical cohesion
Literary journalism
Long sentences
Loose Sentence
Low Information Density
Lyric essay

M

Man vs. nature
Misplaced modifiers