I am having trouble differentiating between several terms needed for an essay

On an essay outline I recieved recently, there are a lot of terms that I am unfamiliar with. Funny enough I don't know what "term" means in this context:

"Topical Sentence(s): Begin with a rhetorical question, a discussion of the terms, or a quotation. Outline your understanding of the terms and topic."

It is also suggested that I:
"Define or Interpret the terms that are given to you. Rather than making your chosen text fit within the confines of the terms that are given to you, make the terms fit to your text. The terms you are given are synonymous to or easily associated to other things. eg. Security: Acceptance from others, confidence, safety, etc..."

I also need to consider the following in an essay I have to write in response to an article:
diction
terminology
syntax
rhetorical devices
figurative and poetic devices
literal/figurative language
theme
message
tone
voice
style
genre

I already asked my teacher for help but I'm still not clear on a couple things.

My understanding is that diction and terminology is the same thing and they indicate the use of hard words/ advanced vocab. Syntax is how well the words were put together (so a very long sketchy comment would most likely have poor syntax).

I think rhetorical, figurative, and poetic devices are the same and they are examples of metaphors, similes, rhetorical questions, personification, anthropomorphy, and anything that induces imagery.

The theme and message is the moral/message of the literature. I have a feeling though that they are supposed to be two different things.

Tone is the emotion conveyed to the reader through the diction and syntax. But I don't understand how tone is different from voice and style?

Genre is the setting of the literature (but not necessarily time and place). A scientific article would have a totally different genre from Jungle Book (the latter I find is a lot easier to describe).

I think I got most of these terms correct, but if there is a mistake please correct me. Without thouroughly knowing these terms, it is impossible for me to write a good essay knowing my teachers and professors will like it, and the writter's block that comes with the stress is always fun to deal with.

I don't know how I managed to do this but I meant to post this thread under General Writing Questions. At least this is still essay related.

When writing many essays, it is a good idea to identify any key terms you will be discussing. So, if you are writing an essay in which you will be discussing, say the role of liberty, justice, security, etc., in a given text, you should talk about what you think those words mean, how other people might use them, how the author of the text seems to use them, etc. This can avoid a great deal of confusion. I have sometimes spent hours arguing with someone only to realize that we actually agree on the issues, and are merely using words to mean different things when discussing them. In other words, what seems to be an important difference in principle turns out to be a wholly semantic affair.

As for the various terms, you are right in noting that they often overlap at least partially. You can look up all the words in wikipedia (/wiki/Index_of_literary_terms) to get a rough idea of how they fit together, and to check your definitions. Better yet, go to the library and get a dictionary of literary terms, and look them up in that.

I want to know how to write a literature review

It depends on in what field and for what purpose you are writing the review. In general, for papers in the hard and social sciences, a literature review provides an overview of the classic and recent scholarly literature related to the subject of the paper. Some studies may merit only a mention in a list of studies that proved (or disproved) this or that. Others may merit a sentence or even a paragraph of their own.

For a literature review of any length, you will need to organize the literature reviewed into topics or categories. How to do this will not be evident until you have read all of the literature in question and reviewed your notes. Then you can decide whether to order your literature review chronologically, topically, or according to the type of research performed. For example, a literature review on the treatment of schizophrenia might go from the time that the disorder was first named to the present day, with sub-headers for times when particular treatment paradigms were dominant. Or, it might be organized according to type of treatment (psychotherapy, medication, etc.). Or, it might be organized by type of research (case studies, experiments, etc.).

You may elect to assess and discuss each work as it is mentioned or hold off on doing this until after reviewing all of the literature at hand. Only after reviewing the literature may you assess and discuss the literature as a whole, offering your own assessment of the overall trends.