Turn to the Literary Terms section of your English I binder to record the following term and its definition:

Characterization: The use of writing techniques to plant the picture of a character in a reader’s mind. (A character is a person, or sometimes an animal, who figures in the action of a story.) Three major writing techniques used for characterization are:

direct description describing a character’s behavior describing a character’s thoughts

Is it correct to call “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (which you’ve just read) a legend?

A legend is a story often based on real events or characters from older times. Legends are popularly regarded as historical, but they may contain elements that are fantastic or unverifiable. Examples of legends are George Washington chopping down the cherry tree and the existence of Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus.

These images help show how artists, actors, and even video-game creators have pictured the characters in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” How do you picture these characters?