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| 7266829944 | Abstract | words or phrases denoting ideas, qualities, and conditions that exist but cannot be seen in a tangible (concrete) manner (ex. love, happiness). | 0 | |
| 7266835318 | Academic argument | writing addressed to an audience well informed about the topic that aims to convey a clear and compelling point in formal writing. | 1 | |
| 7266839958 | Accidental condition | aka essential condition. in a definition, an element that helps to explain what's being defined but isn't essential to it. | 2 | |
| 7266897402 | Ad hominem argument | a fallacy of argument in which a writer's claim is answered by irrelevant attacks on his / her character (mudslinging). | 3 | |
| 7266902302 | Ad populem argument | a fallacious argument that appeals to the passions and prejudices of a group rather than its reason (ex. An appeal to support an issue because it's "the American Way"). | 4 | |
| 7295935600 | Allegory | a narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even the setting demonstrate multiple levels of meaning and significance; a universal symbol (ex. Cupid). | 5 | |
| 7295937442 | Alliteration | the sequential repetition of a similar sound, usually applied to consonants (ex. "She sells seashells by the seashore"). | 6 | |
| 7295938333 | Allusion | - a reference to some famous literary work, historical figure, or event (ex. My friend has the patience of Job - this means the friend has enduring patience just as the Biblical figure of that name). | 7 | |
| 7295939383 | Ambiguity | a word or an expression having two or more possible meanings. | 8 | |
| 7295939384 | Anachronism | an object or person that appears outside of its designated and appropriate time period. | 9 | |
| 7295940929 | Analogy | an extended comparison between something unfamiliar and something more familiar for the purpose of illustrating the unfamiliar. | 10 | |
| 7295941874 | Anaphora | a figure of speech involving repetition, particularly the same word at the beginning of several clauses. | 11 | |
| 7295943560 | Anecdote | a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident. | 12 | |
| 7295943561 | Antithesis | the use of parallel structures to call attention to contrasts or opposites ("To err is human, to forgive divine" - Alexander Pope). | 13 | |
| 7295944851 | Anthropomorphism | a specific type of personification where animals are given human qualities (ex. The Fox in Aesop's fables). | 14 | |
| 7295946155 | Antonomasia | use of a title, epithet, or description in place of a name (Your Honor for Judge). | 15 | |
| 7295947757 | Aphorism | a concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief (ex. "Life is short" or "Haste makes waste"). | 16 | |
| 7295949023 | Apostrophe | the act of addressing some inanimate abstraction or person that is not physically real; this can often help a speaker to express his / her thoughts aloud. | 17 | |
| 7295975183 | Ethos | an appeal to ethics, and it is a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader. the self-image a writer creates to define a relationship with readers (writers should try to establish an ethos that suggests authority and credibility). | 18 | |
| 7295973471 | Appeals to authority, emotion, or logic | rhetorical arguments in which the speaker claims to be an authority or expert in a field, attempts to play upon the emotions, or appeals to the use of reason. | 19 | |
| 7295979229 | Pathos | an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. | 20 | |
| 7295983724 | Logos | an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason. | 21 | |
| 7295956029 | Argument | (1) a spoken, written, or visual text that expresses a point of view; (2) the use of evidence and reason to discover some version of the truth - the attempt to change someone else's point of view. | 22 | |
| 7295956030 | Artistic appeal | support for an argument that a writer creates based on principles of reason and shared knowledge rather than on facts and evidence. | 23 | |
| 7295957764 | Assonance | the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words (ex. "She sells seashells by the seashore"). | 24 | |
| 7295959435 | Assumption | a belief regarded as true, upon which other claims are based. | 25 | |
| 7295960646 | Assumption (cultural) | a belief regarded as true or commonsensical within a particular culture (such as the belief in individual freedom in American culture). | 26 | |
| 7295961797 | Attitude | the sense expressed by the tone of voice of a piece of writing; the author's feelings toward his or her subject. | 27 | |
| 7295961798 | Audience | the person or persons to whom an argument is directed. | 28 | |
| 7295963193 | Authority | the quality conveyed by a writer who is knowledgeable about his or her subject and confident in that knowledge. | 29 | |
| 7295964514 | Background | the information a writer provides to create the context for an argument. | 30 | |
| 7295965610 | Backing | the evidence provided to support a warrant. | 31 | |
| 7295965611 | Bandwagon appeal | a fallacy of argument in which a course of action is recommended on the grounds that everyone else is following it. | 32 | |
| 7295967164 | Begging the question | a fallacy of argument in which a claim is based on the very grounds that are in doubt or dispute (Rita can't be the bicycle thief; she's never stolen anything). | 33 | |
| 7295968187 | Bombast | language that is overly rhetorical or pompous; graduation speeches tend to be bombastic. | 34 | |
| 7296030189 | Canon | that which has been accepted as authentic. | 35 | |
| 7296030190 | Caricature | a ludicrous exaggeration of the defects of persons or things. | 36 | |
| 7296031779 | Casual analysis | a mode of developing an essay in which the writer's chief aim is to analyze cause or predict effect. | 37 | |
| 7296032922 | Casual argument | an argument that seeks to explain the effect(s) of a cause, the cause(s) of an effect, or a casual chain in which A causes B, B causes C, and so on. | 38 | |
| 7296034590 | Ceremonial argument | another name for an epideictic argument -- an argument that deals with current values and addresses the questions of praise and blame (Eulogies and graduation speeches). | 39 | |
| 7296035923 | Character | (appeal based on) a strategy in which a writer presents an authoritative or credible self-image to convince an audience to accept a claim. | 40 | |
| 7296038045 | Chiasmus | a figure of speech and generally a syntactical structure wherein the order of the terms for the first half of a parallel clause is reversed in the second (ex. "He thinks I am but a fool. A fool, perhaps I am"). | 41 | |
| 7296039476 | Circumlocution | talking around a subject or talking around a word; avoid this in all forms of writing - get straight to the point! | 42 | |
| 7296040905 | Claim | a statement that asserts a belief or truth; claims require supporting evidence. | 43 | |
| 7296041991 | Classical oration | a highly structured form of an argument developed in ancient Greece or Rome to defend or refute a thesis; (includes six distinct parts - exordium, narration, partition, confirmation, refutation, and peroration). | 44 | |
| 7296044862 | Cliche | a stale image or expression and the bane of good expository writing! | 45 | |
| 7296044863 | Coherence | the principle of clarity and logical adherence to a topic that binds together all parts of a composition. | 46 | |
| 7296046076 | Colloquialism | a word or expression acceptable in informal usage but inappropriate in formal discourse; identifying diction of common folks for a particular region (ex. Coke, pop, or soda pop -- Bug refers to an insect; when used to designate a virus, for example "She is at home recovering from a bug," the word is a colloquialism). | 47 | |
| 7296048978 | Conceit | a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out in a piece of literature. | 48 | |
| 7296050388 | Confirmatio | the fourth part of a classical oration, in which a speaker or writer offers evidence for the claim. | 49 | |
| 7296050389 | Connotation | the suggestions or associations that surround most words and extend beyond their literal meaning (slender and skinny have similar meanings the former more positive than the latter). | 50 | |
| 7296051722 | Consonance | - the repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels (ex. Pitter-patter, splish-splash). | 51 | |
| 7296052967 | Context | the entire situation in which a piece of writing takes place including: writer's purpose; audience; time and place of writing; the institutional, social, personal, and other influences on the piece of writing; and the writer's attitude toward the subject and the audience. | 52 | |
| 7296054394 | Convention | an accepted manner, model, or tradition (ex. Aristotle's conventions of tragedy). | 53 | |
| 7296054395 | Conviction | the belief that a claim or course of action is true or reasonable. | 54 | |
| 7296055629 | Credibility | an impression of integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness conveyed by a writer in an argument. | 55 | |
| 7296056544 | Criterion | in evaluative arguments, the standard by which something is measured to determine its quality or value. | 56 | |
| 7296058458 | Critique | an assessment or analysis of something such as a passage of writing. | 57 | |
| 7296059674 | Deductive reasoning | something inferred or concluded where the method of argument moves from general to the specific. | 58 | |
| 7296059675 | Definition | (argument of definition) - an argument in which the claim specifies that something does / not meet the conditions or features set forth in a definition (Pluto is not a major planet). | 59 | |
| 7296063641 | Deliberative argument | an argument that deals with action to be taken in the future, focusing on matters of policy (parliamentary debates and campaign platforms) | 60 | |
| 7296063642 | Delivery | the presentation of a spoken argument. | 61 | |
| 7296064739 | Denotation | the specific and literal meaning of a word. | 62 | |
| 7296065677 | Description | a rhetorical mode used to develop an essay whose primary aim is to depict a scene, person, thing, or idea; descriptive writing evokes the look, feel, sound, and sense of events, people, or things. | 63 | |
| 7296065678 | Dialect | the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area (Minnesota - "you betcha" or the South - "ya'll"). | 64 | |
| 7296067755 | Diction | word choice; we have a choice of words with various shades of meaning so a writer can and does choose among words to express ideas as determined by the audience and occasion of their writing. | 65 | |
| 7296067756 | Didactic | in the Greek it means "good teaching" (ex. Aesop's fables are didactic in that they contain an underlying moral or social message). | 66 | |
| 7296070389 | Division and classification | a rhetorical mode for developing an essay whose chief aim is to identify the parts of a whole. | 67 | |
| 7296072195 | Dogmatism | a fallacy of argument in which a claim is supported on the grounds that it's the only conclusion acceptable within a given community. | 68 | |
| 7296073783 | Either or choice | a fallacy of argument in which a complicated issue is misrepresented as offering only two possible alternatives, one of which is often made to seem vastly preferable to the other. | 69 | |
| 7296073784 | Elegy | a poem or prose work that laments or meditates upon the death of a person(s); (ex. Elegy laments; eulogy praises). | 70 | |
| 7296078901 | Emotional appeal | (appeal to pathos) a strategy in which a writer tries to generate specific emotions (fear, envy, anger, pity) in an audience to dispose it to accept a claim. | 71 | |
| 7296081612 | Enthymeme | a statement that links a claim to a supporting argument; in classical rhetoric, an ___________ is a syllogism with one term understood but not stated (Socrates is mortal because he is a human being -- the understood term is the all human beings are mortal). | 72 | |
| 7296081613 | Epistrophe | in rhetoric, the repetition of a phrase at the end of successive sentences. | 73 | |
| 7296087871 | Epitaph | writing in praise of a dead person, most often inscribed upon a headstone. | 74 | |
| 7296089537 | Equivocation | a fallacy of argument in which a lie is given the appearance of truth, or in which the truth is misrepresented in deceptive language. | 75 | |
| 7296089538 | Ethical appeal | an appeal based on ethos | 76 | |
| 7296090928 | Ethnographic observation | a form of field research involving close and extended observation of a group, event, or phenomenon (careful and detailed note-taking during the observation; analysis of the notes; and interpretation of that analysis). | 77 | |
| 7296097941 | Eulogy | a speech or written passage in praise of a person; an oration in honor of a deceased person (ex. Elegy laments; eulogy praises). | 78 | |
| 7296099246 | Euphemism | an indirect, kinder, or less harsh / hurtful way of expressing unpleasant information. | 79 | |
| 7296099247 | Evaluation | (argument of evaluation) an argument in which the claim specifies that something does / not meet established criteria. | 80 | |
| 7296102784 | Evidence | material offered to support an argument. | 81 | |
| 7296102785 | Example | (definition by example) a definition that operates by identifying individual examples of what is being defined (sports car - Corvette, Viper, Miata, Boxster). | 82 | |
| 7296105352 | Exemplification | The act or process of creating an example, a case in point, an exemplar. | 83 | |
| 7296105353 | Exordium | the first part of a classical oration, in which a speaker or writer tries to win the attention and goodwill of an audience while introducing a subject. | 84 | |
| 7296107080 | Experimental evidence | evidence gathered through experimentation; evidence that can be quantified and is frequently crucial to scientific arguments. | 85 | |
| 7296108361 | Exposition | writing whose chief aim is to explain (its own meaning or purpose); most college composition assignments are expository. | 86 | |
| 7296108378 | Extended metaphor | a series of comparisons within a piece of writing; a metaphor that lasts for more than one phrase or sentence; if they consistently involve one concept, this is also known as a conceit. | 87 | |
| 7296116423 | Fact | (argument of fact) an argument in which the claim can be proved/disproved with specific evidence or testimony. | 88 | |
| 7296117877 | Fallacy of argument | a flaw in the structure of an argument that renders its conclusion invalid or suspect (ex. Ad hominem argument, bandwagon appeal, begging the questions, dogmatism, either-or choice, equivocation, false authority, faulty analogy, faulty casualty, hasty generalization, non sequitur, scare tactic, sentimental appeal, slippery slope, and straw man). | 89 | |
| 7296119287 | False authority | a fallacy of argument in which a claim is based on the expertise of someone who lacks appropriate credentials. | 90 | |
| 7296119288 | Farce | a light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect; a ludicrous mockery. | 91 | |
| 7296120567 | Faulty analogy | a fallacy argument in which a comparison between two objects or concepts is inaccurate or inconsequential. | 92 | |
| 7296122359 | Faulty casualty | a fallacy of argument making the unwarranted assumption that because one event follows another, the first event causes the second; faulty casualties are the basis for many superstitions (also called post hoc, ergo propter hoc). | 93 | |
| 7296124185 | Firsthand evidence | data (including surveys, observations, personal interviews, etc.) collected and personally examined by the writer. | 94 | |
| 7296124186 | Forensic argument | an argument that deals with actions that have occurred in the past. | 95 | |
| 7296125377 | Formal definition | a definition that identifies something first by the general class to which it belongs (genus) and then by the characteristics that distinguish it from other members of that class (species). | 96 | |
| 7296126249 | Generalization | a statement that asserts some broad truth based upon knowledge of specific cases (ex. Big cars are gas guzzlers). | 97 | |
| 7296126250 | Genre | a type or class of literature (ex. Epic, narrative, biography, history). | 98 | |
| 7296127578 | Genus | in a definition, the general class to which an object or concept belongs. | 99 | |
| 7296127580 | Grounds | the evidence provided to support a claim and reason (enthymeme). | 100 | |
| 7296129354 | Hard evidence | support for an argument using facts, statistics, testimony, or other evidence the writer finds. | 101 | |
| 7296130450 | Hasty generalization | a fallacy of argument in which an inference is drawn from insufficient data. | 102 | |
| 7296130451 | Homily | a sermon, but more contemporary uses include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual life. | 103 | |
| 7296131526 | Hyperbole | use of overstatement for special effect; exaggeration (ex. You are hungry and say "I'm starving!"). | 104 | |
| 7296131547 | Hypothesis | an expectation for the findings of one's research or the conclusion to one's argument. | 105 | |
| 7296133363 | Idiom | an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meaning of its elements (ex. "Kick the bucket" or "Hang one's head"). | 106 | |
| 7296133364 | Imagery | writing that appeals to one or more of the five senses. | 107 | |
| 7296134496 | Immediate reason | the cause that leads directly to an effect, such as an automobile that results in an injury to the driver. | 108 | |
| 7296136409 | Inartistic appeal | support for an argument using facts, statistics, eyewitness testimony, or other evidence the writer finds rather than creates. | 109 | |
| 7296136410 | Inductive reasoning | form of reasoning that proceeds from specific instances to a general inference or conclusion. | 110 | |
| 7296137704 | Inference | a conclusion or proposition arrived at by considering facts, observations, or other specific data. | 111 | |
| 7296137705 | Intended readers | the actual real-life people whom a writer consciously wants to address in a piece of writing. | 112 | |
| 7296139112 | Invention | the process of finding and creating arguments to support a claim. | 113 | |
| 7296140193 | Inverted word order | moving grammatical elements of a sentence out of their usual order for special effect (ex. Tired I was; sleepy I was not). | 114 | |
| 7296140194 | Invitational argument | a term used to describe arguments that are aimed not at vanquishing an opponent but at inviting others to collaborate in exploring mutually satisfying ways to solve problems. | 115 | |
| 7296141129 | Invoked readers | the readers directly addressed or implied in a text, which may include some that the writer didn't consciously intended to reach. | 116 | |
| 7296142200 | Irony | use of language that suggests a meaning in contrast to the literal meaning of the words; often used to create poignancy or humor (ex. Antony's description of Brutus as an "honorable man" is ironic since Brutus was one of Caesar's assassins). | 117 | |
| 7296143259 | Verbal irony | what the author / narrator says is the opposite of what is meant. | 118 | |
| 7296143260 | Situational irony | when events end up the opposite of what is expected. | 119 | |
| 7296144327 | Dramatic irony | facts or situations are known to the reader / audience but not to the characters. | 120 | |
| 7296145987 | Isocolon | parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also in length (ex. The Biblical admonition - "Many are called, but few are chosen"). | 121 | |
| 7296147577 | Jargon | the specialized or technical language of a specific trade, profession, class, or other group of people. | 122 | |
| 7296148579 | Juxtaposition | the location of one thing adjacent (juxtaposed) to another to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish some other purpose. | 123 | |
| 7296149735 | Lampoon | the location of one thing adjacent (juxtaposed) to another to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish some other purpose. | 124 | |
| 7296150958 | Line of argument | a strategy or approach used in an argument (heart appeals -pathos; ethical appeals; logical appeals). | 125 | |
| 7296150959 | Litote | a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite (ex. This is no small problem). | 126 | |
| 7296152073 | Logical appeal | a strategy in which a writer uses facts, evidence, and reason to make audience members accept a claim. | 127 | |
| 9965849885 | Logical fallacies | errors in reasoning used by speakers or writers, sometimes in order to dupe their audiences (ex. If you don't quit smoking, you'll die of lung cancer). | 128 | |
| 9965859135 | Malapropism | the unintentional use of a word that resembles the word intended but that has a very different meaning (ex. "He was a man of great statue"). | 129 | |
| 9965860494 | Metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison (ex. The ship was a beacon of hope). | 130 | |
| 9965862161 | Mode of discourse | the way in which information is presented in written or spoken form; the Greeks believed there were only four modes of discourse: narration, description, exposition, and argumentation). | 131 | |
| 9965867494 | Motif | an important idea or subject repeated throughout a story or essay (usually three times or more). | 132 | |
| 9965869794 | Mood | a feeling resulting from the tone of a piece; the "feeling" that establishes the atmosphere in a work of literature. | 133 | |
| 9965869795 | Narratio | the second part of a classical oration, in which a speaker or writer presents the facts of a case. | 134 | |
| 9965875290 | Narrative | a mode of discourse that tells a story of some sort. | 135 | |
| 9965877138 | Necessary reason | a cause that must be present for an effect to occur | 136 | |
| 9965879010 | Non sequitur | a fallacy of argument in which claims, reasons, or warrants fail to connect logically; one point doesn't follow from another (ex. If you are really my friend, you'll lend me five hundred dollars). | 137 | |
| 9965880648 | Objective writing | when an author tries to present material fairly and without bias. | 138 | |
| 9965894760 | Onomatopoeia | a word capturing the sound it describes. | 139 | |
| 9966181898 | Operational definition | a definition that identifies an object by what it does or by the conditions that create it (ex. A line is the shortest distance between two points). | 140 | |
| 9966183536 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements (ex. "wise fool," "deafening silence"). | 141 | |
| 9966189355 | Pacing | the speed at which a piece of writing moves along; pacing depends on the balance between summarizing action and representing the action in detail. | 142 | |
| 9966190993 | Paradox | a statement that seems contradictory but is possibly true (ex. Fight for peace). | 143 | |
| 9966192519 | Parallelism | use of similar grammatical structures or forms used for a pleasing effect (I will live an American, I will die an American). | 144 | |
| 9966194948 | Parenthetical expression | a phrase or clause that's inserted within—in effect, it interrupts—another phrase or clause. | 145 | |
| 9966196349 | Parody | imitation for comic effect. | 146 | |
| 9966178681 | Partio | the third part of a classical oration, in which a speaker or writer divides up the subject and explains what the claim will be. | 147 | |
| 9966178682 | Peroratio | the sixth and final part of a classical oration, in which the speaker or writer summarizes the case and moves the audience to action. | 148 | |
| 9966176095 | Personification | treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by endowing it with human features or qualities (ex. William Wordsworth speaks of the stars as "tossing their heads in sprightly dance"). | 149 | |
| 9966174275 | Persuasion | the act of seeking to change someone else's point of view. | 150 | |
| 9965897488 | Refutatio | the fifth part of a classical oration, in which a speaker or writer acknowledges and refutes opposing claims or evidence.the fifth part of a classical oration, in which a speaker or writer acknowledges and refutes opposing claims or evidence. | 151 | |
| 9965901490 | Rebuttal | an answer that challenges or refutes a specific claim or charge; writers need to anticipate potential objections when shaping an argument. | 152 | |
| 9965904127 | Reason | in writing, a statement that expands a claim by offering evidence to support it. | 153 | |
| 9966171508 | Precedents. | actions or decisions in the past that have established a pattern or model for subsequent actions | 154 | |
| 9965906374 | Realism | attempting to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail; Mark Twain is an author of this school of thought. | 155 | |
| 9966172769 | Point of view | the relation in which a narrator / author stands to a subject of discourse; determining point of view in non-fiction requires the reader to establish the historical perspective of what is being said. | 156 | |
| 9965894761 | Red herring | a side issue introduced into an argument in order to distract from the main argument; a common device of politicians. | 157 | |
| 9966132604 | Qualitative argument | an argument of evaluation that relies on non-numerical criteria supported by reason, tradition, precedent, or logic. | 158 | |
| 9966154342 | Premise | a statement or position regarded as true and upon which other claims are based; an assertion or statement that is the basis for an argument. | 159 | |
| 9966157870 | Propaganda | an argument advancing a point of view without regard to reason, fairness, or truth. | 160 | |
| 9966139109 | Pun | a play on words used for comic effect; puns play on the multiple meanings of words or replaces one word with another that is similar in sound but very different in meaning. | 161 | |
| 9966155930 | Proposal argument | an argument in which a claim is made in favor of or opposing a specific course of action. | 162 | |
| 9966155931 | Prose | the ordinary form of written language (not poetry or verse). | 163 | |
| 9966136525 | Purpose | the goal of an argument (ex. entertaining, informing, convincing, exploring, and deciding). | 164 | |
| 9966136526 | Qualifiers | words or phrases that limit the scope of a claim. | 165 | |
| 9966132605 | Quantitative argument | an argument of evaluation that relies on criteria that can be measured, counted, or demonstrated objectively. | 166 | |
| 9966205892 | Reversed structures | a figure of speech that involves the inversion of clauses (ex. What is good in your writing is not original; what is original is not good). | 167 | |
| 9966216070 | Rhetoric | the art of persuasion in writing or speaking. | 168 | |
| 9966219089 | Rhetorical analysis | an examination of how well the components of an argument work together to persuade or move an audience. | 169 | |
| 9966221934 | Rhetorical questions | questions posed to raise an issue or create an effect rather than get a response (ex. You may well wonder, "What's in a name?"). | 170 | |
| 9966221958 | Rogerian argument | an approach to argumentation based on the principle, articulated by psychotherapist Carl Rogers, in which audiences respond best when they don't feel threatened; this type of argument stresses trust and urges those who disagree to find common ground. | 171 | |
| 9966225726 | Sarcasm | a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually critical. | 172 | |
| 9966227844 | Satire | a social or political criticism that relies heavily on irony, sarcasm, and often humor; often an attack on a person; the use of wit and humor in order to ridicule society's weaknesses so as to correct them; George Orwell is a master of satire. | 173 | |
| 9966229379 | Scare tactic | a fallacy of argument presenting an issue in terms of exaggerated threats or dangers. | 174 | |
| 9966231783 | Scheme | a figure of speech that involves a special arrangement of words, such as inversion. | 175 | |
| 9966231784 | Secondhand evidence | any information taken from outside sources, including library research and online sources. | 176 | |
| 9966234814 | Sentimental appeal | a fallacy of argument in which an appeal is based on excessive emotion. | 177 | |
| 9966236581 | Simile | a comparison that uses "like" or "as" (ex. My love is like a red, red rose or I wandered lonely as a cloud). | 178 | |
| 9966240922 | Slanting | the characteristic of selecting facts, words, or emphasis to achieve a preconceived intent (favorable intent - "Although the Senator looks bored, when it comes time to vote, he is on the right side of the issue." unfavorable intent - "The Senator may vote on the right side of issues, but he always looks bored."). | 179 | |
| 9966243704 | Slippery slope | a fallacy of argument exaggerating the possibility that a relatively inconsequential action or choice today will have serious adverse consequences in the future. | 180 | |
| 9966245149 | Species | in a definition, the particular features that distinguish one member of a genus from another. | 181 | |
| 9966252449 | Spin | a kind of political advocacy that makes any fact or event, however unfavorable, serve a political purpose. | 182 | |
| 9966258546 | Stance | the writer's attitude toward the topic and the audience. | 183 | |
| 9966260697 | Stasis theory | in classical rhetoric, a method for coming up with appropriate arguments by determining the nature of a given situation. | 184 | |
| 9966260698 | Straw man | a fallacy of argument in which an opponent's position is misrepresented as being more extreme than it actually is, so that it's easier to refute; common strategy in debate. | 185 | |
| 9966264186 | Style | manner of expression; how the author uses language to get his/her point across. | 186 | |
| 9966271857 | Subjective writing | when an author stresses personal responses and interpretations in writing. | 187 | |
| 9966271858 | Sufficient condition | in a definition, an element or set of elements adequate to define a term (ex. A sufficient condition in defining God might be "supreme being" or "first cause"). | 188 | |
| 9966268101 | Sufficient reason | a cause that alone is enough to produce a particular effect (ex. A particular level of smoke in the air will set off a smoke detector). | 189 | |
| 9966267112 | Syllogism | in formal logic, a structure of deductive logic in which correctly formed major and minor premises lead to a necessary conclusion. Major premise - All human beings are mortal. Minor premise - Socrates is a human being. Conclusion - Socrates is mortal. | 190 | |
| 9966280078 | Symbolism | use of a person, place, thing, event, or pattern that figuratively represents or "stands for" something else (ex. The golden arches are symbolic of McDonald's). | 191 | |
| 9966285248 | Syntax | the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences; syntax is sentence structure and how it influences the way the reader receives a particular piece of writing; good syntax requires correct grammar, effective sentence patterns, unity, coherence, and emphasis. | 192 | |
| 9966286883 | Testimony | a personal experience or observation used to support an argument. | 193 | |
| 9966289481 | Theme | the central or dominant idea or focus of a work; the statement a passage makes about its subject | 194 | |
| 9966288206 | Thesis | a sentence that succinctly states a writer's main point. | 195 | |
| 9966292522 | Tone | the attitude the narrator / author takes toward a subject and theme; tone reflects the narrator / author's attitude. | 196 | |
| 9966293819 | Toulmin argument | a method of informal logic first described by Stephen Toulmin in The Uses of Argument in 1958; Toulmin argument describes the key components of an argument as the claim, reason, warrant, backing, and grounds. | 197 | |
| 9966297991 | Trope | a word, phrase, expression, or image that is used in a figurative way, usually for rhetorical effect. | 198 | |
| 9966302259 | Understatement | a figure of speech that makes a weaker statement than a situation seems to call for; it can lead to powerful or to humorous effects. | 199 | |
| 9966305023 | Values (appeal to values) | a strategy in which a writer invokes shared principles and traditions of a society as a reason for accepting a claim. | 200 | |
| 9966306526 | Voice | the presence or the sound of self chosen by an author; good writing sounds like someone delivering the message; the narrator's particular "take" on an idea based on a particular passage and how all the elements of the style of the piece come together to express his or her feelings. | 201 | |
| 9966310684 | Warrant | the statement (expressed or implied) that establishes the logical connection between a claim and its supporting reason Claim - Don't eat that mushroom. Reason - It's poisonous. Warrant - What is poisonous should not be eaten. | 202 | |
| 9966312419 | Wit | ingenious humor; clever and often humorous association of words or ideas. | 203 | |
| 9966314015 | Zeugma | a grammatically correct construction in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, is applied to two or more nouns without being repeated (ex. "The thief took my wallet and the Fifth Avenue bus"). | 204 |
