Terms : Hide Images
| 7136370348 | Abstract | refers to language that describes concepts rather than concrete images ( ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places). The observable or "physical" is usually described in concrete language. | 0 | |
| 7136371064 | Allegory | an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface of the story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric. Examples: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Temptations of Christians) , Orwell's Animal Farm (Russian Revolution), and Arthur Miller's Crucible ("Red Scare") | 1 | |
| 7136374694 | Analogy | Comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship, such as comparing the work of a heart to that of a pump. An analogy is a comparison to a directly parallel case. Ex: Shells were to ancient cultures as dollar bills are to modern American culture. Ex: Running a business is like managing an orchestra. Ex: The heart is like a pump. | 2 | |
| 7136379973 | Anecdote | a short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point. | 3 | |
| 7136380741 | Annotation | Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. | 4 | |
| 7136384180 | Aphorism | a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life. Examples: "Early bird gets the worm." "What goes around, comes around.." "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." | 5 | |
| 7136385397 | Canon | that which has been accepted as authentic, such as in canon law, or the "Canon according to the Theories of Einstein." | 6 | |
| 7136385749 | Caricature | descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or a facet of personality. | 7 | |
| 7136386691 | Coherence | quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle | 8 | |
| 7136389280 | Conundrum | a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem | 9 | |
| 7136390762 | Convention | an accepted manner, model, or tradition. For instance, Aristotle's convention's of tragedy | 10 | |
| 7136396240 | Didactic | writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. The work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. This type of writing may be fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking. | 11 | |
| 7136397042 | Discourse | spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion. | 12 | |
| 7136397522 | Dramatic Irony | When the reader is aware of an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfictional character's perception of a situation and the truth of that situation. | 13 | |
| 7136408041 | Epigraph | the use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. Hemingway begins The Sun Also Rises with two quotations. One of them is "You are all a lost generation" by Gertrude Stein. | 14 | |
| 7136408837 | Explication | The art of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. It usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language. | 15 | |
| 7136410813 | Exposition | the immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot; also, explanation; one of the four modes of discourse | 16 | |
| 7136412094 | Genre | a type of literary work, such as a novel or poem; there are also subgenres, such as science fiction or sonnet, within the larger genres | 17 | |
| 7136413338 | Hubris | the excessive pride of ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impending doom, eventually causing his or her downfall. | 18 | |
| 7136416154 | Humor | anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end of the Renaissance, humor meant a person's temperament | 19 | |
| 7136416847 | Interior Monologue | writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head | 20 | |
| 7136418151 | Irony | a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected. Verbal Irony—what the author/narrator says is actually the opposite of what is meant; Situational Irony—when events end up the opposite of what is expected; Dramatic Irony—in drama and fiction, facts or situations are known to the reader or audience but not to the characters | 21 | |
| 7136427514 | Mode of Discourse | the method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written. The Greeks believed there were only four modes of discourse: narration, description, exposition (cause/effect, process analysis, compare/contrast), and argumentation. Contemporary thought often includes other modes, such as personal observation and narrative reflection. | 22 | |
| 7136428345 | Moral | The lesson drawn from a fictional or nonfictional story. It can also mean a heavily didactic story. | 23 | |
| 7136429384 | Motif | main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea | 24 | |
| 7136430404 | Narration | the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse | 25 | |
| 7136432095 | Objectivity | an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement in a story. Hard news journalism is frequently prized for its objectivity, although even fictional stories can be told without a writer rendering personal judgment. | 26 | |
| 7136434943 | Pacing | the movement of a literary piece from one point or one section to another | 27 | |
| 7136435160 | Parable | a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory | 28 | |
| 7136437282 | Point of View | the perspective from which a story is presented | 29 | |
| 7136437815 | Protagonist | the main character of a literary work | 30 | |
| 7136441474 | Regionalism | an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot | 31 | |
| 7136443232 | Rhetoric | the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse; Rhetoric focuses on the interrelationship of invention, arrangement, and style in order to create felicitous and appropriate discourse. | 32 | |
| 7136443995 | Rhetorical modes | exposition, description, narration, argumentation | 33 | |
| 7136445608 | Satire | A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. It doesn't simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). It targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals. | 34 | |
| 7136446658 | Setting | Time and place of a literary work | 35 | |
| 7136448887 | Speaker | the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious person | 36 | |
| 7136449998 | Style | an author's characteristic manner of expression - his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to style | 37 | |
| 7136450908 | Subjectivity | a personal presentation of evens and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions | 38 | |
| 7136451780 | Theme | the central idea or "message" or a literary work | 39 | |
| 7136452333 | Thesis | the main idea of a piece of writing. It presents the author's assertion or claim. The effectiveness of a presentation is often based on how well the writer presents, develops, and supports this. | 40 | |
| 7136453587 | Transition | a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. | 41 | |
| 7136458427 | Unity | quality of a piece of writing (also see coherence) | 42 | |
| 7136468014 | Voice | refers to two different areas of writing. One refers to the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active and passive voice). The second refers to the total "sound" of a writer's style. | 43 | |
| 7136473078 | Alliteration | repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another: Mickey Mouse; Donald Duck; Daffy Duck; Suzy Sells Seashells ... | 44 | |
| 7136479871 | Allusion | a reference to a well-known person, place, or thing from literature, history, etc. Example: Eden, Scrooge, Prodigal Son, Catch-22, Judas, Don Quixote, Mother Theresa | 45 | |
| 7136480759 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent. Ex: "There was the delight I caught in seeing long straight rows. There was the faint, cool kiss of sensuality. There was the vague sense of the infinite...." | 46 | |
| 7136481943 | Antithesis | the presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by word, phrase, clause, or paragraphs. Examples: "To be or not to be..." Shakespeare's Hamlet "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country...." Kennedy "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Lincoln 49. : 50. : 51. : | 47 | |
| 7138929810 | Apostrophe | usually in poetry but sometimes in prose; the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction Ex: "For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him." Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. | 48 | |
| 7138931609 | Assonance | repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such as in neigh/fade, | 49 | |
| 7138935300 | Asyndeton | Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are emphasized equally when the conjunction is omitted; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence. Asyndeton takes the form of X, Y, Z as opposed to X, Y, and Z. Ex: "Be one of the few, the proud, the Marines." Marine Corps Ex: "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." John F. Kennedy. | 50 | |
| 7138958984 | Cacophony | harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony. | 51 | |
| 7138960948 | Chiasmus | a figure of speech and generally a syntactical structure wherein the order of the terms in the first half of a parallel clause is reversed in the second. For example, "He thinks I am a fool. A fool, perhaps I am." | 52 | |
| 7138965466 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing (y'all, ain't) | 53 | |
| 7138979548 | Conceit | a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of literature, in particular an extended metaphor within a poem. However, conceits can also be used in non-fiction and prose. For instance, Richard Selzer's passage "The Knife" compares the preparation and action of surgery to preparing for and conducting a religious service or sacred ritual. | 54 | |
| 7138982214 | Concrete Language | Language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places, rather than ideas or qualities. | 55 | |
| 7138982988 | Connotation | implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind. | 56 | |
| 7138984137 | Consonance | repetition of identical consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity, as in boost/best; it can also be seen within several compound words, such as fulfill and ping-pong | 57 | |
| 7138988289 | Denotation | literal meaning of a word as defined | 58 | |
| 7138995501 | Description | the picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse | 59 | |
| 7138996460 | Diction | word choice, an element of style; it creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning. An essay written in academic ______ would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise than street slang. | 60 | |
| 7138998178 | Dissonance | harsh or grating sounds that do not go together | 61 | |
| 7138999729 | Epistrophe | repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect (as Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people") Compare to anaphora. Ex: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child." (Corinthians) Ex: I'll have my bond!/ Speak not against my bond!/ I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.---The Merchant of Venice. | 62 | |
| 7139000610 | Euphemism | a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable. "He went to his final reward" is a common saying for "he died." These are also often used to obscure the reality of a situation. The military uses "collateral damage" to indicate civilian deaths in a military operation. | 63 | |
| 7139003226 | Euphony | a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony | 64 | |
| 7139005927 | Extended Metaphor | a sustained comparison, often referred to as a conceit. The extended metaphor is developed throughout a piece of writing | 65 | |
| 7139007601 | Figurative Language | language that contains figures of speech, such as similes and metaphors, in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal. | 66 | |
| 7139008877 | Figures of Speech | expressions, such as similes, metaphors, and personifications that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or associations. | 67 | |
| 7139009763 | Foreshadowing | the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs late in the work | 68 | |
| 7139011471 | Freight-Train | Sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions. | 69 | |
| 7139012895 | Hyperbole | deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis (Example: He was so hungry he could have eaten a horse.) | 70 | |
| 7139014041 | Image | A word or words, either figurative or literal, used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the sense. An image is always a concrete representation. | 71 | |
| 7139014590 | 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 | 72 | |
| 7139015565 | Invective | a verbally abusive attack | 73 | |
| 7139017014 | Inversion | reversing the customary (subject first, then verb, then complement) order of elements in a sentence or phrase; it is used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question: "Are you going to the store?" Usually, the element that appears first is emphasized more than the subject. | 74 | |
| 7139018851 | Jargon | The special language of a profession or group. The term usually has pejorative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders. The writings of the lawyer and the literary critic are both susceptible to jargon. | 75 | |
| 7139019513 | Juxtaposition | the location of one thing adjacent to or juxtaposed with another to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish some other purpose. | 76 | |
| 7139020559 | Litote | a figure of speech that emphasizes its subject by conscious understatement, for instance, the understated "not bad" as a comment about something especially well done. George Orwell wrote, "Last week I saw a woman flayed and you would hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse." | 77 | |
| 7139023368 | Loose sentence | a long sentence that starts with its main clause, which is followed by several dependent clauses and modifying phrases; for example, "The child ran, frenzied and ignoring all hazards, as if being chased by demons." | 78 | |
| 7139026697 | Lyrical | Songlike; characterized by emotions, subjectivity, and imagination. | 79 | |
| 7162721618 | Metaphor | a figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another; for example, "my love is a fragile flower" | 80 | |
| 7162724596 | Metonymy | a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to a monarch ; Also, "The pen is mightier than the sword." | 81 | |
| 7162725258 | Mood | similar to tone, it is the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere). Syntax is also a determiner of this term because sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing. | 82 | |
| 7162726361 | Negative-Positive | Sentence that begins by stating what is NOT true, then ending by stating what is true. | 83 | |
| 7162727247 | Onomatopoeia | the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as "hiss," "buzz," "slam," and "boom" | 84 | |
| 7162728045 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool," bitter-sweet," "pretty ugly," "jumbo shrimp," "cold fire" | 85 | |
| 7162728937 | Paradox | a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau; "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." | 86 | |
| 7162732847 | Parallelism | the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. Parallel structure may be as simple as listing two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or verb; it may take the form of two or more of the same type of phrases (prepositional, participial, gerund, appositive) that modify the same noun or verb; it may also take the form of two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Or, parallel structure may be a complex bend of singe-word, phrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence. | 87 | |
| 7162734661 | Parody | a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements. It can be utterly mocking or gently humorous. It depends on allusion and exaggerates and distorts the original style and content. | 88 | |
| 7162737033 | Pathos | an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion. Over-emotionalism can be the result of an excess of pathos. | 89 | |
| 7162738481 | Pedantic | a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant | 90 | |
| 7162738811 | Personification | the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or an inanimate object | 91 | |
| 7162739484 | Polysyndeton | Sentence which uses and or another conjunction (with no commas) to separate the items in a series. Polysyndeton appear in the form of X and Y and Z, stressing equally each member of a series. It makes the sentence slower and the items more emphatic than in the asyndeton. | 92 | |
| 7162740327 | Repetition | Word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity | 93 | |
| 7162742697 | Rhetorical Question | one that does not expect an explicit answer. It is used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience. | 94 | |
| 7162745347 | Sarcasm | harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony | 95 | |
| 7162745641 | Simile | a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities; for example, "The sky looked like an artist's canvas." | 96 | |
| 7162748514 | 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 | 97 | |
| 7162749733 | Synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "boards" to mean a stage or "wheels" to mean a car - or "All hands on deck." | 98 | |
| 7162750457 | Syntactic Fluency | Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length. | 99 | |
| 7162751270 | Syntactic Permutation | Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. They are often difficult for a reader to follow. | 100 | |
| 7162752053 | Syntax | the grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. It includes length of sentence, kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, or compound). | 101 | |
| 7162752631 | Tone | the characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience (anger, sarcastic, loving, didactic, emotional, etc.) | 102 | |
| 7162754916 | Tricolon | Sentence consisting of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses. | 103 | |
| 7162755457 | Understatement | the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended. | 104 | |
| 7162756896 | Zeugma | a grammatically correct construction in which a word, usually a verb or adjective, is applied to two or more nouns without being repeated. Often used to comic effect, "The thief took my wallet and the Fifth Avenue bus." | 105 | |
| 7162760782 | Exaggeration | To enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen. Caricature is the exaggeration of a physical feature or trait. Cartoons, especially political cartoons, provide extensive examples of caricature. Burlesque is the ridiculous exaggeration of language. For instance, when a character who should use formal, intelligent language speaks like a fool or a character who is portrayed as uneducated uses highly sophisticated, intelligent language. | 106 | |
| 7162762109 | Incongruity | To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings. Particular techniques include oxymoron, metaphor, and irony. | 107 | |
| 7162767882 | Parody | To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing in order to ridicule the original. For a parody to be successful, the reader must know the original text that is being ridiculed. | 108 | |
| 7162768746 | Reversal | To present the opposite of the normal order. Reversal can focus on the the order of events, such as serving dessert before the main dish or having breakfast for dinner. Additionally, reversal can focus on hierarchical order—for instance, when a young child makes all the decisions for a family or when an administrative assistant dictates what the company president decides and does. | 109 | |
| 7162836448 | Ad Hominem | In an argument, this is an attack on the person rather than on the opponent's ideas. It comes from the Latin meaning "against the man." | 110 | |
| 7162838565 | Ad populum | The Latin name of this fallacy means "to the people." There are several versions of the ad populum fallacy, but what they all have in common is that in them, the arguer takes advantage of the desire most people have to be liked and to fit in with others and uses that desire to try to get the audience to accept his or her argument. One of the most common versions is the bandwagon fallacy, in which the arguer tries to convince the audience to do or believe something because everyone else (supposedly) does. | 111 | |
| 7162841056 | Appeal to authority | Often we add strength to our arguments by referring to respected sources or authorities and explaining their positions on the issues we're discussing. If, however, we try to get readers to agree with us simply by impressing them with a famous name or by appealing to a supposed authority who really isn't much of an expert, we commit the fallacy of appeal to authority. | 112 | |
| 7162843068 | Argument | The assertion of a conclusion based on logical premises. | 113 | |
| 7162844442 | Argumentation | writing that attempts to prove the validity of a point of view or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments; persuasive writing is a form of argumentation | 114 | |
| 7162853226 | Begging the question | A complicated fallacy; it comes in several forms and can be harder to detect than many of the other fallacies we've discussed. Basically, an argument that begs the question asks the reader to simply accept the conclusion without providing real evidence; the argument either relies on a premise that says the same thing as the conclusion (which you might hear referred to as "being circular" or "circular reasoning"), or simply ignores an important (but questionable) assumption that the argument rests on. Sometimes people use the phrase "beg the question" as a sort of general criticism of arguments, to mean that an arguer hasn't given very good reasons for a conclusion, but that's not the meaning we're going to discuss here. | 115 | |
| 7162857200 | Conclusion | Logical result of the relationship between the premises. Conclusions serve as the thesis of the argument. | 116 | |
| 7162857716 | Deduction | the process of moving from a general rule to a specific example or A process through which the premises provide conclusive proof for the conclusion | 117 | |
| 7162859146 | Emotional Appeal | When a writer appeals to readers' emotions (often through pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument. | 118 | |
| 7162860418 | Enthymeme | A shortened syllogism which omits the first premise, allowing the audience to fill it in. For example, "Socrates is mortal because he is a human" is an enthymeme which leaves out the premise "All humans are mortal." | 119 | |
| 7162861325 | Equivocation | Equivocation is sliding between two or more different meanings of a single word or phrase that is important to the argument. | 120 | |
| 7162862407 | Ethical Appeal | When a writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him or her based on a presentation of image of self through the text. Reputation is sometimes a factor in this type of appeal, but in all cases the aim is to gain the audience's confidence. (Ethos) | 121 | |
| 7162865359 | False Analogy | When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them. | 122 | |
| 7162869863 | False dichotomy or False dilemma | In false dichotomy, the arguer sets up the situation so it looks like there are only two choices. The arguer then eliminates one of the choices, so it seems that we are left with only one option: the one the arguer wanted us to pick in the first place. But often there are really many different options, not just two—and if we thought about them all, we might not be soquick to pick the one the arguer recommends! | 123 | |
| 7162873096 | 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 applied to all instances instead of some. | 124 | |
| 7162874544 | Induction | the process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization or A process through which the premises provide some basis for the conclusion. | 125 | |
| 7162876340 | Inference | a conclusion one can draw from the presented details | 126 | |
| 7162877118 | Logic | the process of reasoning | 127 | |
| 7162878061 | Logical Fallacy | a mistake in reasoning | 128 | |
| 7162880510 | Non-sequitur | Latin for "it does not follow." When one statement isn't logically connected to another | 129 | |
| 7162881599 | Oversimplification | When a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument | 130 | |
| 7162886467 | Persuasion 133. This fallacy gets its name from the Latin phrase "post hoc, ergo propter hoc," which translates as "after this, therefore because of this." 134. Premise: Proposition used as evidence in an argument. 135. Red Herring: When a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue 136. Reductio ad Absurdum: the Latin for "to reduce to the absurd." This is a technique useful in creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique. It is considered a rhetorical fallacy because it reduces an argument to an either/or choice 137. Slippery slope: The arguer claims that a sort of chain reaction, usually ending in some dire consequence, will take place, but there's really not enough evidence for that assumption. The arguer asserts that if we take even one step onto the "slippery slope," we will end up sliding all the way to the bottom; he or she assumes we can't stop halfway down the hill. | a form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion. | 131 |
