Basic Reminder

Look over the “Terms to Study Before the Keystone Exam” document that is in the Keystone Review folder on
Schoology. You should already know most of these terms, but it wouldn’t hurt to review them anyway.

The Five Parts of the Plot (Elements of Fiction)

Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution

Active Voice Reminder

NEVER CHOOSE THE OPTION THAT SAYS, “THE USE OF ACTIVE VERBS,” ON THE KEYSTONE
EXAM!

Remember, we always want to write in active voice, rather than passive voice.

Active Voice—Describes a sentence where the subject performs the action stated by the verb.

Examples: “I really love this dog.” and “Monkeys live in the jungle.”

Passive Voice—Describes a sentence where the subject is acted upon by the verb.

Examples: “The pie was eaten by Tony.” and “Tom is loved by Alice.”

The Five Point of Views

 First person—told by a narrator who is a character in the story and who refers to him or herself as “I”. First
person narrators are sometimes unreliable narrators.

 Second person—though rare, some stories are told using second-person pronouns (you and we). This casts
the reader as a character in the story.

 Third person limited—(sometimes called Third person limited omniscient)—told by a narrator who relates
the action using third person pronouns (he, she, it). This narrator is usually privy to the thoughts and actions
of only one character.

 Third person omniscient—told by a narrator using third person pronouns. This narrator is privy to the
thoughts and actions of all of the characters in the story.

 Third person objective—employs a narrator who tells a story without describing any character's thoughts,
opinions, or feelings; instead, it gives an objective, unbiased point of view by only describing the characters’
actions

Types of Propaganda

1. Appeal to Statistics—Presenting data out of context in place of evidence.

 The results of a survey or opinion poll

2. Bandwagon—influencing people by implying that “everyone” supports one’s position. The bandwagon approach
is all about peer pressure. The idea is that “everyone” is doing something, so you should do it, too.

 “Everyone is voting for David, so definitely he is the best presidential candidate.”

 “Don’t be the odd one out; get yourself a pair of the newest Nike sneakers.”

3. Card-stacking—offering only one side of an issue to support one’s position

  An enlistment poster might focus upon an impressive picture, with words such as "travel" and
"adventure", while placing the words, "enlist for two to four years" at the bottom in a smaller and less
noticeable point size

4. Emotional Appeal—prodding people’s feelings to distract them from unpleasant facts

5. Glittering Generalities/Sweeping Generalization—using words that produce a positive emotional response but
that may mean different things to different people

 When Obama first ran for president, he campaigned using posters that read “Hope” and “Change”.

6. Name-calling—also known as mud-slinging: pointing out negative qualities of the opposing position while
ignoring any positive qualities.
 Donald Trump claimed that Marco Rubio had “the worst voting record in the Senate,” and was
“unbelievably weak on immigration.”

7. Plain Folk—appealing to the common point of view or using language like “we, the people” that signals the
speaker is like everyone else

 After a morning speech to wealthy Democratic donors, Bill Clinton stops by McDonald's for a burger,
fries, and photo-op.

8. Testimonial—using endorsements from celebrities or other people

 Adam Levine advertising that he uses Proactiv

9. Transfer—using a symbol to carry a message

 An image with the president standing in front of a flag (Transfer—the flag suggests he is patriotic)

 Dawn soap detergent putting a picture of a penguin on the bottle (Transfer—the penguin suggests that
Dawn soap is animal friendly

10. Circular argument—A sentence or argument that restates rather than proves. Thus, it goes in a circle.
 ‘President Reagan was a great communicator because he had the knack of talking effectively to the
people.' The terms in the beginning of the sentence (great communicator) and the end of the sentence
(talking effectively) are interchangeable."

 Colgate is the best toothpaste to use because it is the greatest teeth cleaning agent on the market.

 The CEO of our company is the most knowledgeable in his field because he comprehends everything.

11. Logical fallacies (fallacious reasoning)—applying logic, one can usually draw a conclusion from one or more
established premises. In the type of propaganda known as the logical fallacy, however, the premises
may be accurate but the conclusion is not.

EXAMPLE:
* Premise 1: Bill Clinton supports gun control.
* Premise 2: Communist regimes have always supported gun control.
* Conclusion: Bill Clinton is a communist.

We can see in this example that the Conclusion is created by a twisting of logic, and is therefore a fallacy.

12. Red Herring—something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand; a misleading clue
  Mike: It is morally wrong to cheat on your spouse, why on earth would you have done that?
 Ken: But what is morality exactly?
 Mike: It’s a code of conduct shared by cultures.
 Ken: But who creates this code?...

Constructed Response Reminders

Please remember the following when it comes to the Constructed Response questions on the Keystone Exam:

 Take your time!!

 Jump right into the question they have asked by restating the question. You do not need a fancy introduction.
 Use a mixture of quoted and paraphrased textual evidence. Try to weave in the most important parts of the
quote, rather than copy entire sentences. Either way is fine, but weaving takes less time and shows stronger
writing ability. Don’t forget to introduce all quotes (no matter what).
 Aim for no less than three pieces of textual evidence if possible (DEFINITELY NO LESS THAN TWO)!
Choose the strongest TE to support what they have asked you. After each piece of textual evidence, always
explain HOW/WHY the textual evidence supports your response. Remember, the HOW is the analysis!
 End with a final thought. Don’t end with textual evidence.
 Show them what you’re capable of when it comes to punctuation (semi-colons and colons for example) and
vocabulary. It never hurts to throw in extra knowledge regarding things like diction, tone, point of view, etc.
Just don’t get off topic when you do so! Focus on the question at hand, but they will be impressed if you show
them you know MORE than they have asked you!

Affixes, Prefixes, and Suffixes

An affix is added to the root of a word to change its meaning. An affix added to the front of a word is known as a
prefix. One added to the end of a word is known as a suffix.

Prefixes and Suffixes—Refer to the charts in the Keystone Review folder on Schoology.

Prefix and Suffix Reminders

 The suffixes I think you should memorize are -en, -ic, -ish, -ist, -ly, and -ous. I recommend
memorizing these suffixes because they are do not have “common sense” meanings like -able or -ful.

 The following suffixes, when added to a word, will always turn that word into a noun (-ance,
-ence, -ion, -ment, -ness, -ship, -tion, -ation). Therefore, the answer that you want on the Keystone
will always start with the word “the.” (Example: -ment when added to the word encourage =
encouragement. Encouragement is an idea/thing, which means it is a noun. If asked how does the
suffix -ment help us understand the meaning of the word encouragement, you will likely be given
choices such as these:

A. able to be encouraged
B. full of encouragement
C. the act of encouraging
D. of, or relating to encouraging

So, if you remember that encouragement is a noun (an idea/thing), you should automatically realize
that your answer will always start with the word “the.” If there are two answers that begin with the
word “the,” one of them usually sounds ridiculous, making the other “the” answer the correct one.

Match the prefixes with their meanings.

 1. _______ mid- A. not
2. _______anti- B. small
3. _______co- C. before
4. _______il-, non D. together
5. _______mis- E. against, opposite of
6. _______quad- F. middle
7. _______micro- G. self
8. _______pre- H. four
9. _______auto- I. bad or wrong
_________________________________________________________________________

10. _______in-, im- J. in, into, not

11. ______uni- K. under, of less importance
12. ______trans- L. against
13. ______sub- M. after
14. ______contra- N. not, opposite of
15. ______dis- O. through, over, across
16. ______inter- P. between, among
17. ______re- Q. one
18. ______post- R. back, again

Match the suffixes with their meanings.

1.________-ous A. able to, tending to do or be

2.________-less B. of, relating to

3.________-ly C. state, condition, or action

4.________-ance or –ence D. having the quality of

5.________-ic E. without

6.________-able or –ible F. full of, tending toward

7.________-ish G. like, in the manner of, tending to be

8.________-tion or –ation H. the act of

________________________________________________________________________________________

9.________-ist I. full of, able to

10._______-ment J. one who is or who does something

11._______-ness K. to cause to be, made of

12._______-ful L. the state or quality of

13._______-ship and -ion M. the act, condition, or state of

14._______-en N. the act of or result of