Semester 1 English 4-5 Page Essay

I learned a lot in my English class this semester, including things about interesting vocabulary words, literature, and genres. I learned a lot of interesting vocabulary words in this semester. Some were about character development, some were tied into a certain book I read. I also learned a lot about literature. There are different examples of literature, which will tell what kind of book it is. Is it a novel? A poem? I also learned a brain full of facts about genres. There are so many different genres, I can’t even list them all!
Vocabulary words can be very helpful in the future, so might as well learn them now, right? I learned a lot of cool vocabulary words at the beginning of the semester while I was reading the first few books. A few examples of the vocabulary I learned were juxtaposition, customs, milieu, and tone. Juxtaposition means: the fact of two things seen or placed together with contrasting effect. An example of juxtaposition is in one of the books I read, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. It is when one of the main characters, Clarence, is with a knight in armor, and he’s in rag clothes. They are completely different! Another vocabulary word I learned is custom. Custom means: what people do or what they are like during a certain time period. An example of a custom is the Egyptians. They make hieroglyphics, which is their way of writing their language (a hieroglyphic is a picture used to say a message). Or if you go to a Native American village, you will see that the things they do is weird compared to the things you do. Such as their clothing. They paint their faces, and they wear clothes that they make themselves. We buy our clothes from the store, or get hand-me-downs from our older siblings. That reminds me of family and friends, or a social environment. Speaking of social environments… A milieu is a person’s social environment. A milieu can give a book the special twists and turns that make it interesting. Or, my milieu is with my closest friends, or my cousins and family. The last vocab word I learned from the ‘Connecticut Yankee’ book is a tone. The tone is the way a story is told or the attitude in which it is told. The tone of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is of a comedian mocking the government and lifestyle of medieval England. These are the vocabulary words I learned in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
Literature is a topic that I also learned a lot about this semester. There are many different types of literature, such as a novel, a short story, a novella, or a poem. A novel is a long, prose narrative that describes fictional characters and events, usually in a form of a sequential story. Novels are the longest stories of all types of literature, and it is also the most well-known. A prose is a written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure. Novels and everyday speeches are both made up of prose, which is a general term in literature. Most of the books I have read during this semester are novels. Short stories, like novels, are written in prose. A short story makes use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components to a far greater degree than is typical of an anecdote, but to a far lesser degree than a novel. A short story’s length is obvious; it’s the shortest of all stories! A few examples of famous short stories include To Build a Fire by Jack London and The Gift of Magi by O. Henry. Another type of literature is a novella. Unlike a novel, a novella generally features fewer conflicts than a novel, but more complicated ones than a short story. A novella is generally longer than a short story, but it has a simplified plot compared to a novel. It usually only has one conflict, and if not a few smaller ones too. Several examples of novellas are Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Poetry is another style of literature. A poem uses rhythm or aesthetic qualities of language, in addition to prosaic language, to create a new style of literature. Poems don’t read like novels; there is a different style of reading required to effectively understand poetry. But like novels, poetry comes in many different forms. Poetry varies in length, where it can be just a few lines, or epics that can take up to more than 100 pages. Some poetry recounts stories, others give fiction in the style of a poem, and still others give a look into the author’s mind and heart, even better than prose does! My personal favorite type of literature is poetry, because I like writing poems sometimes.
There are so many types of genres, I don’t know if I can list them all! A genre is one word that tells what kind of book a book is. If it’s a book about the Civil War, my guess would be its nonfiction. If it’s a book about twin sisters becoming famous unicorn riders at the age of ten, it’s probably a fantasy story. If it’s a Nancy Drew book, then it’s obviously a mystery book. What about American Chillers? Most definitely horror. What about a book about a young girl starting her own baking business and becoming famous? That’s realistic fiction. Sure, that could happen to a lucky young girl, but the author made up everything, from the names of the characters to the setting the story took place to the foods she made. There are plenty of other genres, such as fiction, historical fiction, Sci-fi, biography, and much more. You’re probably now wondering what each of these genre words mean. A nonfiction book is a book full of facts, and everything in that book that can be proven true. A fantasy book is a book where everything is made up. There can be made up creatures, made up universes, made up foods; you name the imaginary thing, it could be put in a fantasy book! A mystery book is pretty much in the name; it’s a book with a mystery that someone or a group of people has to solve it. A horror book is a book that is meant to scare you, or a book meant to give you the chills. Realistic fiction is a genre where it could easily be real today, but the characters are made up by the author. Historical fiction is fiction, but the time period is before the 21st century (our time period). Fiction (just fiction!) is where the author makes everything up, but it has no imaginary things, like a disco planet far away overflowing with dancing blue aliens with pet unicorns. Science fiction (also known as Sci-fi) is fiction, but everything in the book is science-y. A biography is a type of nonfiction. A biography is where the author writes about a famous person’s life. There are so many more types of genres, but if I type them all, we would be here all day!
Vocabulary, literature, and genres are all parts of Language Arts (English). These are just three of many things I’ve learned this semester. In the beginning of the year while reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, I learned some vocabulary words such as juxtaposition, custom, tone, and milieu. I learned what they each meant, and examples of each one so I would understand it better. Later on, I learned about literature. I learned what literature was, different examples of literature (novels, poems, novellas, etc.), and what each one meant. After that, I learned about genres. I learned what a genre is, examples of genres, and what each genre was and examples of each genre.
In conclusion, I learned a lot of useful things this semester that weren’t only the things I listed, and I can’t wait to learn more awesome material next semester.