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| 4784646567 | Active Voice | The subject of the sentence performs the action. This is a more direct and preferred style of writing in most cases. EX:"Anthony drove while Toni searched for the house." The opposite is passive voice - when the subject of the sentence receives the action. EX: "The car was driven by Anthony." Passive voice is often overused, resulting in lifeless writing. When possible, try to use active voice. |  | 0 |
| 4784651015 | Allusion | An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text, although it can be other things commonly known, such as plays, songs, historical events) with which the reader is supposed to be familiar. |  | 1 |
| 4784653832 | Anecdote | A brief recounting of a relevant episode. Often inserted into fictional or non-fictional texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor. |  | 2 |
| 4784656195 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. EX: "If I could command the wealth of all the world by lifting my finger, I would not pay such a price for it." An AP question might read: "What is the antecedent for "it"? |  | 3 |
| 4784664398 | Comic relief | When a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story, in order to lighten the mood somewhat. |  | 4 |
| 4784680790 | Diction | Word choice, particularly as an element of style. Different types of words have significant effects on meaning. EX: An essay written in academic diction would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise than street slang. |  | 5 |
| 4784718419 | Colloquial | Ordinary or familiar type of conversation. (adage or an aphorism) |  | 6 |
| 4784720436 | Connotation | Rather than the dictionary definition (denotation), the associations suggested by a word. Implied meaning rather than literal meaning. EX:( "policeman," "cop," and "The Man" all denote the same literal meaning of police officer, but each has a different connotation.) |  | 7 |
| 4784724323 | Denotation | The literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations. |  | 8 |
| 4784725400 | Jargon | The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity. EX: Lawyers speak using particular jargon, as do soccer players. |  | 9 |
| 4784726938 | Vernacular | 1. Language or dialect of a particular country. 2. Language or dialect of a regional clan or group. 3. Plain everyday speech |  | 10 |
| 4784729697 | Didactic | A term used to describe fiction, nonfiction or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking. |  | 11 |
| 4784729698 | Adage | A folk saying with a lesson. "A rolling stone gathers no moss."Similar to aphorism and colloquialism. |  | 12 |
| 4784731411 | Allegory | A story, fictional or non fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts. The interaction of these characters, things, and events is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth. EX: Animal Farm, by George Orwell |  | 13 |
| 4784736286 | Aphorism | A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle. EX: "God helps them that help themselves." EX: "A watched pot never boils." |  | 14 |
| 4784745905 | Ellipsis | The deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author. EX: "The whole day, rain, torrents of rain." |  | 15 |
| 4784751453 | Euphemism | A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts. EX: "Physically challenged," in place of "crippled." Sometimes used to exaggerate correctness to add humor. EX:"Vertically challenged" in place of "short." |  | 16 |
| 4784753937 | Figurative Language | writing that is not meant to be taken literally. the opposite of "Literal Language" which is writing that makes complete sense when you take it at face value. |  | 17 |
| 4784763111 | Analogy | comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables. When a writer argues argues that the relationship between the first pair of variables is the same as the relationship between the second pair of variables. EX: "America is to the world as the hippo is to the jungle." |  | 18 |
| 4784771221 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration. EX:"My mother will kill me if I am late." |  | 19 |
| 4784772110 | Idiom | A common and often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally. EX: "I got chewed out by my coach." |  | 20 |
| 4784775018 | Metaphor | Making an implied comparison, not using "like," as," or other such words. EX: "My feet are popsicles." |  | 21 |
| 4784779718 | Metonymy | Replacing an actual word or idea, with a related word or concept. EX: "Relations between London and Washington have been strained," does not literally mean relations between the two cities, but between the leaders of The United States and England. |  | 22 |
| 4784782013 | Synecdoche | A kind of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa. EX: "The cattle rancher owned 500 head." EX: "Check out my new wheels." |  | 23 |
| 4784788301 | Simile | Using words such as "like" or "as" to make a direct comparison between two very different things. EX: "My feet are so cold they feel like popsicles." |  | 24 |
| 4784790086 | Synesthesia | a description involving a "crossing of the senses." EX: "A purplish scent filled the room." EX: "I was deafened by his brightly-colored clothing." |  | 25 |
| 4784792953 | Personification | Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human. EX: "The tired old truck groaned as it inched up the hill." |  | 26 |
| 4784794597 | Foreshadowing | When an author gives hints about what will occur later in a story. |  | 27 |
| 4784803465 | Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. |  | 28 |
| 4784813527 | Gothic | Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death. |  | 29 |
| 4784820455 | Imagery | Word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind. Usually this involves the five senses. |  | 30 |
| 4784821875 | Invective | A long, emotionally violent, attack using strong, abusive language. |  | 31 |
| 4784822989 | Irony | When the opposite of what you expect to happen does. |  | 32 |
| 4784825566 | Verbal irony | When you say something and mean the opposite/something different. EX: if your gym teacher wants you to run a mile in eight minutes or faster, but calls it a "walk in the park" it would be verbal irony. If your voice tone is bitter, it's called sarcasm. |  | 33 |
| 4784830605 | Dramatic irony | When the audience of a drama, play, movie, etc. knows something that the character doesn't and would be surprised to find out. EX: in many horror movies, we (the audience) know who the killer is, which the victim-to-be has no idea who is doing the slaying. Sometimes the character trusts the killer completely when (ironically) he/she shouldn't |  | 34 |
| 4784831541 | Situational irony | Found in the plot (or story line) of a book, story, or movie. Sometimes it makes you laugh because it's funny how things turn out. EX:( Johnny spent two hours planning on sneaking into the movie theater and missed the movie. When he finally did manage to sneak inside he found out that kids were admitted free that day). |  | 35 |
| 4784843663 | Juxtaposition | Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison. Authors often use juxtaposition of ideas or examples in order to make a point. EX: For example, an author my juxtapose the average day of a typical American with that of someone in the third world in order to make a point of social commentary). |  | 36 |
| 4784844506 | Mood | The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice (diction). |  | 37 |
| 4784849316 | Motif | a recurring idea in a piece of literature. EX: In To Kill a Mockingbird, the idea that "you never really understand another person until you consider things from his or her point of view" is a _________, because the idea is brought up several times over the course of the novel. |  | 38 |
| 4784855993 | Oxymoron | When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox - EX: "wisefool," "eloquent silence," "jumbo shrimp." |  | 39 |
| 4784862376 | Pacing | The speed or tempo of an author's writing. |  | 40 |
| 4784870714 | Paradox | A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true. EX: "You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without getting a job." |  | 41 |
| 4784878194 | Parallelism | Sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns. EX: "Cinderella swept the floor, dusted the mantle, and beat the rugs." |  | 42 |
| 4784884540 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row. EX: "I came, I saw, I conquered." |  | 43 |
| 4784888597 | Chiasmus ( antimetabole ) | When the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed. EX: "Fair is foul and foul is fair." EX: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." |  | 44 |
| 4784889913 | Antithesis | Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure. EX: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" |  | 45 |
| 4784893055 | Zeugma (Syllepsis) | When a single word governs or modifies two or more other words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies. EX: "The butler killed the lights, and then the mistress." EX: "I quickly dressed myself and the salad." |  | 46 |
| 4784896882 | Parenthetical Idea | Parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence. It is almost considered an aside...a whisper, and should be used sparingly for effect, rather than repeatedly. Parentheses can also be used to set off dates and numbers. EX: "In a short time (and the time is getting shorter by the gallon) America will be out of oil." |  | 47 |
| 4784907290 | Parody | An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes. The Simpsons often _______ Shakespeare plays. Do not confuse with satire. |  | 48 |
| 4784907291 | Persona | The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story. |  | 49 |
| 4784913897 | Polysyndeton | When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions. EX:"I walked the dog, and fed the cat, and milked the cows." EX: "Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast, or a carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass of unclean creeping things...he also shall be unclean." |  | 50 |
| 4784920031 | Pun | When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way. EX: "My dog has a fur coat and pants!" EX:"I was stirred by his cooking lesson." |  | 51 |
| 4784921931 | Rhetoric | The art of effective communication. |  | 52 |
| 4784923966 | Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle | The relationships, in any piece of writing, between the writer, the audience, and the subject. |  | 53 |
| 4784928537 | Rhetorical Question | Question not asked for information but for effect. |  | 54 |
| 4784928538 | Hypophora | a figure of speech in which a writer raises a question and then immediately provides an answer to that question. EX: "What made me take this trip to Africa? There is no quick explanation. Things got worse and worse and worse and pretty soon they were too complicated." |  | 55 |
| 4784934681 | Sarcasm | A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded. |  | 56 |
| 4784940603 | Satire | A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect. It targets human vices and follies, or social institutions and conventions. |  | 57 |
| 4784945175 | Appositive | A word or group of words placed beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its meaning. EX: "Bob, the lumber yard worker, spoke with Judy, an accountant from the city." |  | 58 |
| 4784946807 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. EX: "Other than baseball, football is my favorite sport." In this sentence, the independent clause is "football is my favorite sport" and the dependent clause is "Other than baseball." |  | 59 |
| 4784956092 | Balanced sentence (parallelism) | A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale. EX: "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." | | 60 |
| 4784964902 | Compound sentence | Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses. |  | 61 |
| 4784966382 | Complex sentence | Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. |  | 62 |
| 4784968534 | Cumulative sentence (loose sentence) | When the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements. EX: "He doubted whether he could ever again appear before an audience, his confidence broken, his limbs shaking, his collar wet with perspiration." The opposite construction is called a periodic sentence. |  | 63 |
| 4784971392 | Periodic sentence | When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence. The writer begins with subordinate elements and postpones the main clause. EX: "His confidence broken, his limbs shaking, his collar wet with perspiration, he doubted whether he could ever again appear before an audience." The opposite construction is called a cumulative sentence. |  | 64 |
| 4784973865 | Simple sentence | Contains only one independent clause. |  | 65 |
| 4784975667 | Declarative sentence | States an idea. It does not give a command or request, nor does it ask a question. EX: "The ball is round." |  | 66 |
| 4784978419 | Imperative sentence | Issues a command. EX: "Kick the ball." |  | 67 |
| 4784981817 | Interrogative sentence | Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns (what, which, who, whom, and whose). EX: "To whom did you kick the ball?" |  | 68 |
| 4784983590 | Style | The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes. May be conscious or unconscious. |  | 69 |
| 4784987741 | Symbol | Anything that represents or stands for something else. Usually something concrete such as an object, actions, character...that represents something more abstract. EX: The Whale in Moby Dick, the river and the jungle in Heart of Darkness, and the Raven in "The Raven." |  | 70 |
| 4784987742 | Syntax/sentence variety | Grammatical arrangement of words. This is perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to master. First, a reader should examine the length of sentences (short or long). How does sentence length and structure relate to tone and meaning. Are they simple, compound, compound-complex sentences? How do they relate to one another? |  | 71 |
| 4784991300 | Theme | The central idea or message of a work. May be directly stated in nonfiction works, although not necessarily. It is rarely stated directly in fiction. |  | 72 |
| 4785005244 | Thesis | The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition. It should be short and clear. |  | 73 |
| 4785006041 | Tone | A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization. It can be: playful, serious, businesslike, sarcastic, humorous, formal, somber, etc. |  | 74 |
| 4785010595 | Understatement | The ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is. The effect can frequently be humorous. EX: "Our defense played valiantly, and held the other team to merely eight touchdowns in the first quarter." |  | 75 |
| 4785016229 | Litotes | a particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used. |  | 76 |
| 4785019696 | Argument | a piece of reasoning with one or more premises and a conclusion. The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade an audience that one's ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else's. |  | 77 |
| 4785030315 | Aristotle's appeals | Ethos (credibility) ,Pathos (emotional) Logos (logical) |  | 78 |
| 4785033280 | Concession (multiple perspectives) | Accepting at least part or all of an opposing viewpoint. Often used to make one's own argument stronger by demonstrating that one is willing to accept what is obviously true and reasonable, even if it is presented by the opposition. Sometimes mmediately followed by a rebuttal of the concession. | 79 | |
| 4785037908 | Conditional Statement | an if-then statement and consists of two parts, an antecedent and aconsequent. EX: "If you studied hard, then you will pass the test." Often used as premises in an argument. |  | 80 |
| 4785041498 | Contradiction | occurs when one asserts two mutually exclusive propositions, such as, EX: "Abortion is wrong and abortion is not wrong." |  | 81 |
| 4785043439 | Counter example | an example that runs counter to (opposes) a generalization, thus falsifying it. EX: Premise: Jane argued that all whales are endangered. Premise: Belugas are a type of whale. Premise: Belugas are not endangered. Conclusion: Therefore, Jane's argument is unsound. |  | 82 |
| 4785048095 | Deductive Argument (inducitve argument) | An argument in which it is thought that the premises provide a guarantee of the truth of the conclusion. | 83 | |
| 4785050623 | Fallacy | an attractive but unreliable piece of reasoning. |  | 84 |
| 4785053636 | Ad Hominem | Personally attacking your opponents instead of their arguments. It is an argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason, feeling rather than intellect. |  | 85 |
| 4785054603 | Appeal to authority | The claim that because somebody famous supports an idea, the idea must be right. This fallacy is often used in advertising. |  | 86 |
| 4785056947 | Appeal to the bandwagon | The claim, as evidence for an idea, that many people believe it, or used to believe it, or do it. |  | 87 |
| 4785057788 | Appeal to emotion | An attempt to replace a logical argument with an appeal to the audience's emotions. |  | 88 |
| 4785058980 | False analogy | Claiming that two situations are highly similar, when they aren't. EX: "We have pure food and drug laws regulating what we put in our bodies; why can't we have laws to keep musicians from giving us filth for the mind?" |  | 89 |
| 4785060252 | False cause | Assuming that because two things happened, the first one caused the second one. (Sequence is not causation.) EX: "Before women got the vote, there were no nuclear weapons. Therefore women's suffrage must have led to nuclear weapons." |  | 90 |
| 4785063602 | Hasty generalization | A generalization based on too little or unrepresentative data. EX: "My uncle didn't go to college, and he makes a lot of money. So, people who don't go to college do just as well as those who do." |  | 91 |
| 4785066629 | Non Sequitur | A conclusion that does not follow from its premises; an invalid argument. EX: "Hinduism is one of the world's largest religious groups. It is also one of the world's oldest religions. Hinduism helps millions of people lead happier, more productive lives. Therefore the principles of Hinduism must be true." |  | 92 |
| 4785068953 | Slippery slope | The assumption that once started, a situation will continue to its most extreme possible outcome. EX: "If you drink a glass of wine, then you'll soon be drinking all the time, and then you'll become a homeless alcoholic." |  | 93 |
| 4785069815 | Inductive argument | An argument in which it is thought that the premises provide reasons supporting the probable truth of the conclusion. |  | 94 |
| 4785073180 | Qualifier | a word or phrase, especially an adjective, used to attribute a quality to another word, especially a noun. |  | 95 |
| 4785078279 | Sound argument | A deductive argument is said to be _______ if it meets two conditions: First, that the line of reasoning from the premises to the conclusion is valid. Second, that the premises are true. |  | 96 |
| 4785082328 | Valid argument | An argument is valid if the conclusion logically follows from the premises. |  | 97 |
| 4785115994 | Warrant | Explanation of why or how the data supports the claim, the underlying assumption that connects your data to your claim. |  | 98 |
| 5919852004 | Anastrophe | inversion, inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. it is a fancy word for inversion. | 99 | |
| 5919853849 | antithesis | a figure of speech in which opposing or contrasting ideas are balanced against each other using grammatically parallel syntax | 100 | |
| 5919856801 | apposition | placing side by side two coordinate elements the second of which serves as an explanation or modification of the first, often set apart with colon or comma | 101 | |
| 5919872791 | asyndeton | a rhetorical device where conjunctions are deliberately omitted while separating a group of clauses or series of words, emphasizing the parts equally | 102 | |
| 5919879707 | episotrophe | a device of repetition in which the same expression is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences. opposite of anaphora. | 103 | |
| 5919884275 | loose sentence | sentence in which the main clause comes first followed by further dependent grammatical units. | 104 | |
| 5919912561 | periodic sentence | a sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements | 105 | |
| 5919919629 | periphrasis or circumlocution | a rhetorical device in which the author adds in superfluous words to extend the intended message. Sentences with periphrasis are often also syntactic permutation. | 106 | |
| 5919922441 | polysyndeton | (opposite of asyndeton) a rhetorical structure in which many conjunctions are unnecessarily used, often to cause a slowing effect or an added solemnity to the statement. | 107 | |
| 5919924254 | syntactic permutation | sentences that are extraordinarily complex or involved often difficult for a reader to follow. | 108 | |
| 5919928785 | telegraphic sentence | a sentence that includes no more than five words. | 109 | |
| 5919933715 | consonance | repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of consecutive or nearby words | 110 | |
| 5919936838 | catalog | a long list or inventory | 111 | |
| 5919939066 | connotation | emotional associations implied by a word, in addition to the literal meaning | 112 | |
| 5919949190 | denotation | literal meaning of a word, dictionary definition | 113 | |
| 5919951575 | hyperbole | exaggeration, overstatement for specific effect. | 114 |
