Terms needed for success on the AP Language and Composition Exam
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| 10685959982 | Personification | The assigning of human qualities to inanimate objects or concepts. An example: Wordsworth's "the sea that bares her bosom to the moon." | 0 | |
| 10685959983 | Antithesis | the presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by phrase, clause, or paragraphs. "To be or not to be . . ." "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times . . ." "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country . . ." | 1 | |
| 10685959984 | Oxymoron | From the Greek for "pointedly foolish," ___ is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms. Simple examples include "jumbo shrimp" and "cruel kindness." | 2 | |
| 10685959985 | Sarcasm | from the Greek meaning "to tear flesh," ___ involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. It may use irony as a device. | 3 | |
| 10685959986 | Synecdoche | . a figure of speech that utilizes a part as representative of the whole. "All hands on deck" is an example. | 4 | |
| 10685959987 | Hyperbole | a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement | 5 | |
| 10685959988 | 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. | 6 | |
| 10685959989 | Euphony | the pleasant, mellifluous presentation of sounds in a literary work. | 7 | |
| 10685959990 | Theme | The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually, __ is unstated in fictional works, but in nonfiction, the __ may be directly stated, especially in expository or argumentative writing. | 8 | |
| 10685959991 | Metonomy | a term from the Greek meaning "changed label" or "substitute name" __ is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. For example: a news release that claims "The White House declared" rather than "The President declared" | 9 | |
| 10685959992 | Paradox | A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. | 10 | |
| 10685959993 | Transition | a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. | 11 | |
| 10685959994 | Onomatopoeia | a figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum. | 12 | |
| 10685959995 | Cacophony | harsh and discordant sounds in a line or passage in a literary word. | 13 | |
| 10685959996 | Metaphor | a direct comparison between dissimilar things. "Your eyes are stars" is an example. | 14 | |
| 10685959997 | Symbol | generally, anything that represents, stands for, something else. Usually, a ___ is something concrete—such as an object, action, character, or scene—that represents something more abstract. | 15 | |
| 10685959998 | Begging the Question | Often called circular reasoning, __ occurs when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim. | 16 | |
| 10685959999 | Invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. | 17 | |
| 10685960000 | Understatement | the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended. | 18 | |
| 10685960001 | Either-or reasoning | When the writer reduces an argument or issue to two polar opposites and ignores any alternatives. | 19 | |
| 10685960002 | Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 20 | |
| 10685960003 | Pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish. | 21 | |
| 10685960004 | Causal Relationship | In __, a writer asserts that one thing results from another. To show how one thing produces or brings about another is often relevant in establishing a logical argument. | 22 | |
| 10685960005 | Equivocation | When a writer uses the same term in two different senses in an argument. | 23 | |
| 10685960006 | Imagery | The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, __ uses terms related to the five senses; we refer to visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory. For example, a rose may present visual __ while also representing the color in a woman's cheeks. | 24 | |
| 10685960007 | 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 __ for "he died." They are also used to obscure the reality of the situation. | 25 | |
| 10685960008 | Figure of Speech | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Examples are apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonomy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. | 26 | |
| 10685960009 | Irony | The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant. The difference between what appears to be and what actually is true. | 27 | |
| 10685960010 | Satire | A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and convention for reform or ridicule. Regardless of whether or not the work aims to reform humans or their society, ___ is best seen as a style of writing rather than a purpose for writing. The effect of __, often humorous, is thought provoking and insightful about the human condition. | 28 | |
| 10685960011 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." | 29 | |
| 10685960012 | 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. One of them is "You are all a lost generation" by Gertrude Stein. | 30 | |
| 10685960013 | Periodic Sentence | A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. The independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. The effect is to add emphasis and structural variety. | 31 | |
| 10685960014 | Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 32 | |
| 10685960015 | Ethos | an appeal based on the character of the speaker. An __-driven document relies on the reputation of the author. | 33 | |
| 10685960016 | Situational Irony | a type of irony in which events turn out the opposite of what was expected. | 34 | |
| 10685960017 | Consonance | Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity. | 35 | |
| 10685960018 | Pathos | an appeal based on emotion. | 36 | |
| 10685960019 | Syllogism | From the Greek for "reckoning together," a __ is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. | 37 | |
| 10685960020 | Logos | an appeal based on logic or reason | 38 | |
| 10685960021 | Verbal Irony | In this type of irony, the words literally state the opposite of the writer's true meaning | 39 | |
| 10685960022 | Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point. | 40 | |
| 10685960023 | Abstract Language | Language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places. | 41 | |
| 10685960024 | 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." | 42 | |
| 10685960025 | Denotation | the literal or dictionary meaning of a word | 43 | |
| 10685960026 | Cumulative | Sentence which begins with the main idea and then expands on that idea with a series of details or other particulars | 44 | |
| 10685960027 | Dramatic Irony | In this type of irony, facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or a piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work | 45 | |
| 10685960028 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. | 46 | |
| 10685960029 | Connotation | the interpretive level or a word based on its associated images rather than its literal meaning. | 47 | |
| 10685960030 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, or any element of language, such as sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 48 | |
| 10685960031 | Syntax | The grammatical structure of prose and poetry. | 49 | |
| 10685960032 | Assonance | Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity | 50 | |
| 10685960033 | Voice | can refer to two different areas of writing. One refers to the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active and passive). The second refers to the total "sound" of the writer's style. | 51 | |
| 10685960034 | Infer | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. | 52 | |
| 10685960035 | Argument | A single assertion or a series of assertions presented and defended by the writer | 53 | |
| 10685960036 | Allusion | A reference contained in a work | 54 | |
| 10685960037 | Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. | 55 | |
| 10685960038 | Stream-of-consciousness | This is a narrative technique that places the reader in the mind and thought process of the narrator, no matter how random and spontaneous that may be. | 56 | |
| 10685960039 | Allegory | A work that functions on a symbolic level | 57 | |
| 10685960040 | Explication | The act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. __ usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language. | 58 | |
| 10685960041 | Parallelism | refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. | 59 | |
| 10685960042 | Semantics | The branch of linguistics that studies that meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. | 60 | |
| 10685960043 | Rhetorical Modes | The flexible term describes the variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of writing. | 61 | |
| 10685960044 | Analogy | a literary device employed to serve as a basis for comparison. It is assumed that what applies to the parallel situation also applies to the original circumstance. In other words, it is the comparison between two different items. | 62 | |
| 10685960045 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 63 | |
| 10685960046 | Example | an individual instance taken to be representative of a general pattern | 64 | |
| 10685960047 | Description | The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to re-create, invent, or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader can picture that being described. Sometimes an author engages all five senses. | 65 | |
| 10685960048 | Narrative Device | This term describes the tools of the storyteller, such as ordering events to that they build to climatic movement or withholding information until a crucial or appropriate moment when revealing in creates a desired effect. | 66 | |
| 10685960049 | 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. | 67 | |
| 10685960050 | Exposition | The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to explain and analyze information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence, and appropriate discussion. | 68 | |
| 10685960051 | Attitude | the relationship an author has toward his or her subject, and/or his or her audience | 69 | |
| 10685960052 | Backing | Support or evidence for a claim in an argument | 70 | |
| 10685960053 | Ellipsis | Indicated by a series of three periods, the __ indicates that some material has been omitted from a given text. | 71 | |
| 10685960054 | Argumentation | The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to prove the validity of an idea, or point of view, by presenting sound reasoning, discussion, and argument that thoroughly convince the reader. | 72 | |
| 10685960055 | Didactic | writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. A ___ work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. | 73 | |
| 10685960056 | Ambiguity | an event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. | 74 | |
| 10685960057 | Narration | The purpose of this type of rhetorical mode is to tell the story or narrate an event or series of events. | 75 | |
| 10685960058 | Rhetoric | from the Greek for "orator," this term describes the principle governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. | 76 | |
| 10685960059 | Third Person Limited Omniscient | This type of point of view presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all remaining characters | 77 | |
| 10685960060 | Third Person Omniscient | In ___, the narrator, with a godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters. | 78 | |
| 10685960061 | Comic Relief | the inclusion of a humorous character or scene to contrast with the tragic elements of a work, thereby intensifying the next tragic event. | 79 | |
| 10685960062 | Character | those who carry out the action of the plot in literature. Major, minor, static, and dynamic are the types. | 80 | |
| 10685960063 | Colloquial | the use of slang in writing, often to create local color and to provide an informal tone. Huckleberry Finn in written in a __ style. | 81 | |
| 10685960064 | Antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers. | 82 | |
| 10685960065 | Style | an evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. | 83 | |
| 10685960066 | Thesis | The sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition. | 84 | |
| 10685960067 | Authority | Arguments that draw on recognized experts or persons with highly relevant experience. | 85 | |
| 10685960068 | Chiasmus | Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X. It is often short and summarizes a main idea. | 86 | |
| 10685960069 | Deconstruction | a critical approach that debunks single definitions of meaning based on the instability of language. It "is not a dismantling of a structure of a text, but a demonstration that it has already dismantled itself." | 87 | |
| 10685960070 | Balance | a situation in which all parts of the presentation are equal, whether in sentences or paragraphs or sections of a longer work. | 88 | |
| 10685960071 | Conflict | a clash between opposing forces in a literary work, such as man vs. man; man vs. nature; man vs. God; man vs. self | 89 | |
| 10685960072 | Tone | Similar to mood, __ describes the author's attitude toward his or her material, the audience, or both. | 90 | |
| 10685960073 | Prose | One of the major divisions of genre, ___ refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms, because they are written in ordinary language and most closely resemble everyday speech. | 91 | |
| 10685960074 | Dialect | the recreation of regional spoken language, such as a Southern one. Hurston uses this in Their Eyes Were Watching God. | 92 | |
| 10685960075 | 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. X, Y, Z as opposed to X, Y, and Z. | 93 | |
| 10685960076 | Wit | In modern usage, intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. Usually uses terse language that makes a pointed statement. | 94 | |
| 10685960077 | Point of View | In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. | 95 | |
| 10685960078 | Deduction | The process of moving from a general rule to a specific example. | 96 | |
| 10685960079 | Annotation | explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. | 97 | |
| 10685960080 | Mood | This term has two distinct technical meanings in English writing. The first meaning is grammatical and deals with verbal units and a speaker's attitude. The second meaning is literary, meaning the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. | 98 | |
| 10685960081 | Diction | the author's choice of words that creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning | 99 |
