Terms : Hide Images
| 9802245248 | Allegory | a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another; a symbolic narrative | 0 | |
| 9802253035 | Alliteration | repetition of the same sound at the beginning of several words in a sequence | 1 | |
| 9802257254 | Allusion | a direct or indirect reference to something from history, the Bible, another literary work, mythology | 2 | |
| 9802261884 | Anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines | 3 | |
| 9802264664 | Anecdote | a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature; a short, obscure historical or biographical account | 4 | |
| 9802267714 | Antimetabole | repetition of words in reverse order | 5 | |
| 9802271091 | Antithesis | contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction | 6 | |
| 9802275504 | Assumption | a belief or statement taken for granted without proof | 7 | |
| 9802277697 | Asyndeton | omission of conjunctions between phrases, clauses, or words in a series (red, white, blue) | 8 | |
| 9802277698 | Bias | prejudice or predisposition toward one side of a subject or issue | 9 | |
| 9802280873 | Cause/Effect | analyzing the causes that lead to a certain effect, or the effects that result from a cause | 10 | |
| 9802282956 | Claim | an assertion, usually supported by evidence | 11 | |
| 9802289324 | Classification/Division | sorting ideas within a text into categories | 12 | |
| 9802297123 | Clause | a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; a dependent clause does not express a complete thought and must be accompanied by an independent clause | 13 | |
| 9802301158 | Comparison/Contrast | juxtaposing two things to highlight similarities and differences | 14 | |
| 9802303500 | Connotation | the implied or suggested meaning of a word | 15 | |
| 9802306306 | Context | the occasion or the time and place a text was written or spoken | 16 | |
| 9802308755 | Counterargument | a challenge to a position; an opposing argument | 17 | |
| 9802311675 | Cumulative sentence/Loose sentence | a sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence, and then builds/adds on | 18 | |
| 9802316986 | Definition | a text that provides a specific meaning to a term or idea | 19 | |
| 9802320051 | Denotation | the dictionary definition of a word | 20 | |
| 9802320052 | Diction | word choice | 21 | |
| 9802324684 | Euphemism | a less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word | 22 | |
| 9802327717 | Exemplification | writing that provides a series of examples | 23 | |
| 9802331438 | Extended metaphor | a comparison that continues throughout the length of the piece of writing | 24 | |
| 9802334342 | Figurative language | writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid | 25 | |
| 9802340239 | Genre | the major category into which a literary work fits (a few examples: prose fiction, prose nonfiction, poetry, drama) | 26 | |
| 9802343246 | Hortative sentence/Hortatory | a sentence used as a call to action | 27 | |
| 9802346008 | Hyperbole | an exaggerated statement | 28 | |
| 9802349311 | Imagery | detailed descriptions that involve one of the 5 senses of the reader/listener - sight, sound, touch, taste, smell | 29 | |
| 9802352833 | Inversion/Inverted sentence | inverted order of words in a sentence | 30 | |
| 9802390518 | Irony | the contrast between what is stated and what is really meant; the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true | 31 | |
| 9802394438 | Juxtaposition | the placing of two or more opposite words in a sentence to provide contrast | 32 | |
| 9802396924 | Metaphor | a direct comparison of two unlike things | 33 | |
| 9802399460 | Metonymy | a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it | 34 | |
| 9802402329 | Narration | telling a story or recounting a series of events | 35 | |
| 9802404840 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech that groups two contradictory terms together to describe one thing | 36 | |
| 9802407319 | Paradox | a statement that appears to be contradictory but is actually true | 37 | |
| 9802414089 | Parallelism | a similar grammatical pattern/structure in items in a series | 38 | |
| 9802418672 | Periodic sentence | a sentence that holds its meaning/main clause until the end | 39 | |
| 9802425919 | Persona | the speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing | 40 | |
| 9802428812 | Personification | a figure of speech in which the author gives human characteristics to concepts, animals, or inanimate objects | 41 | |
| 9802431068 | Polemic | an argument against an idea, usually regarding philosophy, politics, or religion | 42 | |
| 9802434405 | Process analysis | a type of writing that explains how something works or how to do something | 43 | |
| 9802439899 | Propaganda | a negative term for writing designed to sway opinion rather than present information | 44 | |
| 9802442249 | Purpose | one's intention or objective in a speech or piece of writing | 45 | |
| 9802442250 | Refute | to discredit an argument | 46 | |
| 9802448004 | Repetition | a repeated pattern in a written work; it can be a word, phrase, sound, idea, type of sentence | 47 | |
| 9802451247 | Rhetoric | the art of persuasion | 48 | |
| 9802455205 | Rhetorical Modes | the different purposes of writing: expository, narrative, descriptive, persuasive | 49 | |
| 9802458037 | Rhetorical question | a question asked, not for a genuine answer, but to create an expected effect | 50 | |
| 9802462161 | Satire | a sarcastic, ironic, witty composition that mocks an institution for the purpose of creating change | 51 | |
| 9802469681 | Schemes | the artful use of syntax or sentence structure | 52 | |
| 9802475148 | Simile | a comparison of two or more things that uses the words like or as | 53 | |
| 9802478518 | Style | the choices an author makes in blending diction, sentence structure, and figurative language to create his/her intended meaning | 54 | |
| 9802481364 | Syntax | sentence structure | 55 | |
| 9802484230 | Theme | the central idea or message in a written work | 56 | |
| 9802487147 | Thesis | the statement that expresses the main idea of an essay | 57 | |
| 9802490940 | Tone | the author's attitude | 58 | |
| 9802494158 | Tropes | the artful use of diction | 59 | |
| 9802496904 | Understatement | making something seem less important that it really is | 60 | |
| 9802496905 | Parody | a work that mocks or closely imitates another work for the purposes of humor or criticism | 61 | |
| 9802508347 | Zeugma | use of two words in a grammatically similar way but producing different meanings | 62 | |
| 9802512300 | Logos | logical or rational appeal; appealing to the intelligence of the audience by using sound reasoning and strong evidence | 63 | |
| 9802514199 | Pathos | emotional appeals; appealing to the emotions of the audience by focusing on the beliefs and feelings deeply embedded in their minds | 64 | |
| 9802514200 | Ethos | ethical appeals; the credibility of the speaker, implied through his/her use of sound logic, moderate tone, and strong evidence | 65 | |
| 9802524453 | Apostrophe | a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, an object, or an abstract idea. An apostrophe addresses someone or something who cannot respond. | 66 | |
| 9802528062 | Colloquialism/Colloquial language | the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing | 67 | |
| 9802533276 | Didactic | to teach/instruct | 68 | |
| 9802539189 | Homily | a sermon, serious speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice | 69 | |
| 9802542137 | Inference | to draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented | 70 | |
| 9802542138 | Invective | an emotionally violent, verbal attack that uses strong, abusive language | 71 | |
| 9802548330 | Mood | the prevailing atmosphere or emotional feeling of a work | 72 | |
| 9802552166 | Pedantic | an adjective that describes words, phrases, or the general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish | 73 | |
| 9802555096 | Point of view | the perspective from which the story is told | 74 | |
| 9802558432 | Prose | fiction or nonfiction writing that is NOT poetry | 75 | |
| 9802561989 | Sarcasm | a type of writing or speaking that involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something | 76 | |
| 9802561990 | Semantics | the study of the meaning, development, and connotations of words | 77 | |
| 9802565485 | Symbol | anything that stands for something else | 78 | |
| 9802571735 | ad hominem | Latin for "to the man": attacking the person instead of the issue | 79 | |
| 9802576695 | ad populum | Latin for to the crowd; a misconception that because many others believe it, then it must be true (also known as bandwagon) | 80 | |
| 9802581341 | Appeal to False Authority | using the testimony of a well-known person outside of his special field | 81 | |
| 9802624996 | False cause/post hoc | arguing that one event was caused by another event merely because it occurred after that event | 82 | |
| 9802634356 | Hasty generalization | drawing a conclusion on the basis of insufficient evidence or on the basis of a few examples | 83 | |
| 9802638258 | Red herring | a statement that diverts attention from the issue | 84 | |
| 9802641124 | Traditional wisdom | argues that the way things used to be is better than they are now, ignoring any problems in the past | 85 | |
| 9802645949 | Begging the question/circular reasoning | repeating the point in different words | 86 | |
| 9802650796 | Either-or reasoning/false dilemma | assuming there are only two choices | 87 | |
| 9802666219 | Refute/refutation | to discredit an argument, particularly a counterargument | 88 | |
| 9802669983 | Rebut/rebuttal | a refutation, or a contradiction | 89 | |
| 9802674741 | Analogy | a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification | 90 | |
| 9802678861 | Deduction | the process of reasoning from one or more statements (or premises) to reach a logically certain conclusion | 91 | |
| 9802678863 | Induction | reasoning in which the premises seek to supply strong evidence for (not absolute proof of) the truth of the conclusion. The conclusion is probably rather than certain. | 92 | |
| 9802692339 | Premise | a proposition supporting or helping to support a conclusion; in logic, an argument requires at least two sets of these declarative statements along with a third, known as the conclusion | 93 | |
| 9802697842 | Syllogism | (Greek for "conclusion, inference") A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Reasoning from the general to the specific; deduction | 94 | |
| 9802702350 | Logical fallacy | common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument | 95 | |
| 9802706302 | Enthymeme | an argumentative statement in which the writer or the speaker omits one of the major or minor premises, does not clearly pronounce it, or keeps the premise implied; however, the omitted premise in the statement remains understandable even if not clearly expressed | 96 | |
| 9802710064 | Equivocation | a half-truth, or a statement that is partially correct but that purposefully obscures the entire truth | 97 | |
| 9802710065 | False analogy | an argument based on misleading, superficial, or implausible comparisons | 98 | |
| 9802717421 | Non sequitur | arguments that do not follow a logical sequence. The conclusion doesn't logically follow the explanation. An important logical step may be missing in such a claim. | 99 | |
| 9802723095 | Straw man | an argument based on the misrepresentation of the opponent's argument in order to defeat him/her | 100 | |
| 9802728256 | Slippery slope | arguments that suggest that one step will inevitably lead to more, eventually negative steps | 101 |
