Terms : Hide Images
| 167619325 | abstract | describe concepts, ideas, and qualities (rather than concrete, observable images) | |
| 167619326 | ad hominem | in an argument, an attack on person rather than on the opponent's ideas | |
| 167619327 | allegory | extended narrative in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities (second meaning intended) | |
| 167619328 | alliteration | repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another | |
| 167619329 | allusion | reference to a well known person, place, or thing from literature, history, etc. | |
| 167619330 | analogy | comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or relationship (assembly of an essay is like an assembly of a hamburger) | |
| 167619331 | anaphora | repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of 2+ sentences in a row; deliberate and helps make an author's point more coherent (i want a wife) | |
| 167619332 | anecdote | short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humor or to make a point | |
| 167619333 | annotation | explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data | |
| 167619334 | antithesis | the presentation of two contrasting images balanced by word, phrase, clause, or paragraph | |
| 167619335 | aphorism | short, often witty statement of a principle or truth about life (early bird gets the worm) | |
| 167619336 | apostrophe | calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or two a place, thing, or personified abstraction | |
| 167619337 | argumentation | writing that attempts to prove the validity of a point of view or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments (persuasive writing) | |
| 167619338 | assonance | repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants (neigh/fade) | |
| 167619339 | asyndeton | commas used to separate a series of words (w/o comma; be one of the few, the proud, the marines) | |
| 167619340 | cacophony | harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose | |
| 167619341 | caricature | descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or facet of personality | |
| 167619342 | colloquialism | a word or phrase used in every day conversation and informal writing | |
| 167619343 | coherence | quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle | |
| 167619344 | concrete language | describes specific, observable things, people, or places (rather than ideas or qualities) (the aroma of the soup sizzling in the pot spread throughout the flame) | |
| 167619345 | connotation | implied or suggested meaning of a word b/c of it's association in the reader's mind | |
| 167619346 | consonance | repetition of identical consonant sounds within 2+ words in close proximity; also can be seen in compound words (fulfill, ping pong) | |
| 167619347 | conundrum | a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; may also be a paradox or difficult problem | |
| 167619348 | deduction | general-->specific | |
| 167619349 | denotation | literal meaning of a word as defined | |
| 167619350 | description | the picturing of words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse | |
| 167619351 | diction | word choice; creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning | |
| 167619352 | didactic | writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach; usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns (the moral of the story is.... [and does not invite interpretation]) | |
| 167619353 | discourse | spoken or written language, including literary works; four traditionally classified modes are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion | |
| 167619354 | dissonance | harsh or grating sounds that do not go together | |
| 167619355 | dramatic irony | when the audience knows something that a character does not (aware off an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfictional character's perception of a situation and the truth of that situation) | |
| 167619356 | emotional appeal | when the writer appeals to readers' emotions (pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument | |
| 167619357 | epigraph | use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme | |
| 167619358 | epistrophe | repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses for rhetorical or poetic effect | |
| 167619359 | ethical appeal | writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him based on a presentation of image of self through text; reputation is sometimes a factor; gain audience's confidence (ethos) | |
| 167619360 | euphemism | more acceptable way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable (died=passed away) | |
| 167619361 | euphony | a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose | |
| 167619362 | example | an individual instance taken to be representative off a general pattern; considered reliable if they are demonstrably true or factual and relevant | |
| 167619363 | explication | the art off interpreting or discovering the meaning off a text; usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language | |
| 167619364 | exposition | the immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot(explanation); one of the four modes of discourse | |
| 167619365 | extended metaphor | sustained comparison, often referred to as a conceit; developed throughout a piece of writing | |
| 167619366 | false analogy | when two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them | |
| 167619367 | figurative language | language that contains figures of speech in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal | |
| 167619368 | figures of speech | expressions that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or associations | |
| 167619369 | foreshadowing | the use off a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs late in the work | |
| 167619370 | freight train | sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions | |
| 167625889 | generalization | when a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable; sweeping generalizations occur when a writer asserts that a claim applies to all instances instead of some | |
| 167625890 | genre | a type of literary work | |
| 167625891 | hubris | excessive pride of ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impending doom, eventually causing his downfall | |
| 167625892 | humor | anything that causes laughter or amusement (up until the end of the Renaissance, it meant a person's temperament) | |
| 167625893 | hyperbole | deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis | |
| 167625894 | image | word(s) used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the sense; always a concrete representation | |
| 167625895 | imagery | words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture | |
| 167625896 | induction | the process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization | |
| 167625897 | inference | a conclusion one can draw form the presented details | |
| 167625898 | inferior monologue | writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head | |
| 167625899 | invective | a verbally abusive attack | |
| 167625900 | inversion | reversing the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase (usually the element that appears first is emphasized more than the subject) | |
| 167640498 | irony | a situation in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected | |
| 167640499 | jargon | the special language of a profession or group; usually pejorative, with the implication that it is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders (writings of lawyer or literary critic) | |
| 167640500 | logic | process of reasoning | |
| 167640501 | logical fallacy | mistake in reasoning | |
| 167640502 | lyrical | song like; characterized by emotions, subjectivity, and imagination | |
| 167640503 | metaphor | figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another (my love is a fragile flower) | |
| 167640504 | metonymy | figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated (the crown- monarch, wall street) | |
| 167640505 | mode | the method or form of literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written | |
| 167640506 | mood | similar to tone; primary emotional attitude of the work; syntax is determiner b/c of sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing | |
| 167640507 | moral | the lesson drawn from a story; can mean a heavily didactic story | |
| 167640508 | motif | main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea | |
| 167900519 | narration | the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse | |
| 167900520 | negative-positive | sentence that begins by stating what is NOT true, then ending by stating what is true | |
| 167900521 | non-sequitur | when one statement is not logically connected to another | |
| 167900522 | objectivity | an impersonal presentation of events and characters (no personal involvement) | |
| 167900523 | onomatopoeia | the use of words that sound like what they mean (hiss, buzz, boom) | |
| 167900524 | oversimplification | when a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument (World hunger can be solved by giving everyone food.) | |
| 167900525 | oxymoron | figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases (wise fool, bittersweet, jumbo shrimp) | |
| 167900526 | pacing | movement of a literary piece from one point/section to another | |
| 167900527 | parable | a short tale that teaches a moral (prodigal son) | |
| 167900528 | paradox | statement that seems to contradict itself but turns out to have a rational meaning (i never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude) | |
| 167900529 | parallelism | technique of arranging words or phrases by placing them side by side and making them appear similar in form (we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields) | |
| 167900530 | parody | a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements; utterly mocking or gently humorous; depends on allusion and exaggerates and distorts the original style and content | |
| 167900531 | pathos | an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion or emotions | |
| 167900532 | pedantic | a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing; scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant | |
| 167900533 | personification | attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or inanimate object (the grass was dancing) | |
| 167900534 | persuasion | a form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion (using ethos, pathos, logos) | |
| 167900535 | point of view | perspective from which a story is presented | |
| 167900536 | first person | narrator referred to as "i", character in the story, relates the actions through his own thoughts | |
| 167900537 | stream of consciousness | like first person, but placing the reader inside the character's head (connected to the chaotic flow of disconnected thoughts an impressions) | |
| 167900538 | omniscient | third person narrator; he/she/they; able to see into each character's mind and understand all the action | |
| 167900539 | limited omniscient | third person who reports the thoughts of only one character and generally only what they see | |
| 167900540 | objective | third person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a camera (thoughts and feelings only revealed if characters speak them) | |
| 167900541 | polysyndeton | sentence which uses and or another conjunction w/o commas to separate the items in a series; equally stresses each member of a series; makes the sentence slower and makes item more emphatic (we bought apples and oranges and watermelon) | |
| 167900542 | protagonist | the main character of a literary work | |
| 167900543 | red herring | when a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue | |
| 167900544 | reductio ad absurdum | creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique; rhetorical fallacy b/c reduces an argument to an either/or choice | |
| 167900545 | regionalism | conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot | |
| 167900546 | repetition | word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity | |
| 167917221 | rhetoric | the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse; focuses on the interrelationship of invention, arrangement, and style in order to create felicitous and appropriate discourse | |
| 167917222 | rhetorical modes | exposition, description, narration, argumentation | |
| 167917223 | rhetorical question | one that does not expect an explicit answer; used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience (Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice'?) | |
| 167917224 | sarcasm | harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony | |
| 167917225 | satire | a work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way; targets groups and large concepts rather than individuals | |
| 167917226 | setting | time and place of literary work | |
| 167917227 | simile | fa figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities (the sky looked like an artist's canvas) | |
| 167917228 | speaker | the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself for as a fictitious persona | |
| 167917229 | stereotype | a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality; a conventional patter, expression, or idea (women are bad drivers) | |
| 167917230 | straw man | when a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak; diverts attention from the real issues | |
| 167917231 | style | an author's characteristic manner of expression' his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute | |
| 167917232 | subjectivity | a personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author's opinion | |
| 167917233 | syllogism | a form of reasoning in which two states are made and a conclusion is drawn from them (major premise, minor premise, conclusion: all girls are tall; daria is a girl; daria is tall) | |
| 167917234 | symbolism | the use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance | |
| 167917235 | synecdoche | figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole (all hands on deck) | |
| 167917236 | syntactic fluency | ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and /or simple and varied in length | |
| 167917237 | syntactic permutation | sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved; often difficult for a reader to follow | |
| 167917238 | syntax | the grammatical structure of a sentence; arrangement of words; includes the length of sentence and kind of sentence (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, or compound) | |
| 167917239 | theme | the central idea or message of a literary work (romance, drama, mystery, etc) | |
| 167917240 | thesis | the main idea off a piece of writing; presents the author's assertion or claim | |
| 167917241 | tone | the characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience (arrogant, empathetic) | |
| 167917242 | transition | a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph | |
| 167917243 | tricolon | sentence consisting of 3 parts of equal importance and length; usually three independent clauses | |
| 167917244 | understatement | the opposite of exaggeration; technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended | |
| 167917245 | unity | quality of a piece of writing | |
| 167917246 | voice | refers to two different areas of writing; one refers to the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active/passive); the second refers to the total sound of a writers style |
