Terms : Hide Images
| 2631179460 | Allusion | a reference to another text or assumed knowledge of a reference; an allusion references and draws on the authority of the alluded work and connects the reader with the author by assuming common knowledge; typically historical, literary, Biblical, and/or current event | 0 | |
| 2631183230 | Ambiguity | vague expression that is open to multiple interpretations | 1 | |
| 2631188253 | Antithesis | the presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by word, phrase, clause, or paragraphs. "To be or not to be..." "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country...." | 2 | |
| 2631189073 | Annotations | comments and questions a reader writes while reading a text; used to deepen understanding and promote careful consideration of the text | 3 | |
| 2631190020 | Aphorism | a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life: "Early bird gets the worm." | 4 | |
| 2631191080 | 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 | 5 | |
| 2631192092 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase commonly used in plain and relaxed speech but rarely found in formal writing (i.e. "She's lost her mind.") | 6 | |
| 2631193313 | Concession | the acknowledgment of a valid point from an opposing argument | 7 | |
| 2631194352 | Connotation | implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind (i.e. Connotation makes "crazy" much more negative than "eccentric.") | 8 | |
| 2631195502 | Counterargument | a direct rebuttal to an opposing argument | 9 | |
| 2631195503 | Denotation | literal meaning of a word as defined | 10 | |
| 2631196952 | Diction | word choice; analyze only unusual word choice such as archaic language or especially evocative choices that contain powerful connotations | 11 | |
| 2631198185 | Discourse | spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of discourse are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion. | 12 | |
| 2631199424 | Dramatic irony | occurs when the audience knows something that the characters don't know (i.e. In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Oedipus doesn't realize what the audience knows - that he's called a curse upon himself when he curses the killer of Laius.); used to heighten suspense and drama | 13 | |
| 2631200473 | 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 euphemism for "he died." Euphemisms are also often used to obscure the reality of a situation. The military uses "collateral damage" to indicate civilian deaths in a military operation. | 14 | |
| 2631200474 | 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. | 15 | |
| 2631201524 | Hyperbole | deliberate exaggeration for emphasis; "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" | 16 | |
| 2631202303 | Imagery | words evoking sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell, which affects readers by allowing them to more fully participate in the work with images and experiences that they can tie to directly or indirectly; typically an emotional appeal | 17 | |
| 2631204753 | Inference | a conclusion one can draw from the presented details | 18 | |
| 2631204754 | Irony | the speaker means something other than what is said (i.e. In "Short People," Randy Newman sings, "Short people got no reason to live," but is in fact using the song to criticize prejudice. Also, Twain's portrayal of racist characters to show that the black slave Jim is the only good influence on Huck Finn in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) | 19 | |
| 2631205839 | Metaphor | a stated comparison between two unlike things: "A sea of troubles." | 20 | |
| 2631206897 | Motif | recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story. | 21 | |
| 2631207826 | Onomatopoeia | refers to the use of words whose sound reinforces their meaning: "cackle," "bang," or "pop." | 22 | |
| 2631209653 | 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." | 23 | |
| 2631210779 | Parallelism | the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form (i.e. Winston Churchill famously stated, "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields.") | 24 | |
| 2631213114 | Personification | attributing human qualities to an inanimate object: "The tired chair..." | 25 | |
| 2631213875 | Persuasive Appeals | Aristotle's description of the appeals a writer or speaker uses to persuade his or her audience | 26 | |
| 2631218200 | Ethos | refers to a character, speaker, writer, or persona and their credibility (authority) on the topic | 27 | |
| 2631218201 | Logos | appeals to the reasoning or logic of the argument | 28 | |
| 2631218202 | Pathos | appeals to the emotions of the reader and needed if the purpose of the speaker is to incite action. Remember, people are typically moved in the end by their emotions but only after a strong logical argument has laid the foundation for their change in attitude. A strictly emotional argument is a rant or a tirade and is not effective | 29 | |
| 2631221116 | Prose | Traditional writing using sentences and paragraphs (as opposed to poetry of drama). Novels, articles, short stories, letters, etc., are written in prose. | 30 | |
| 2631223188 | Purpose | a writer's primary motivation and/or goal for writing a particular work (Consider the difference in purpose between Rand's Anthem, Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet".) | 31 | |
| 2631223189 | Repetition | repeated use of words, phrases, or clauses to emphasize its meaning | 32 | |
| 2631224161 | Rhetorical Modes | exposition, description, narration, argumentation | 33 | |
| 2631224162 | Simile | an explicit comparison between two unlike things with the use of "like" or "as": "I'm as tired as a dog." | 34 | |
| 2631225225 | Situational irony | a situation in which circumstances or conclusions are exactly the opposite of what the audience's common sense or logic would predict | 35 | |
| 2631227110 | Rhetorical questions | a "leading" question a writer or speaker poses with no intent of receiving an answer from his or her audience; used to make a point or advance an argument (i.e. In his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" Martin Luther King, Jr., asks, "Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?" | 36 | |
| 2631230802 | Syllogism | A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. A syllogism is the format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Example: Major Premise: All tragedies end unhappily. Minor Premise: Hamlet is a tragedy. Conclusion: Therefore, Hamlet ends unhappily. | 37 | |
| 2631231591 | Symbolism | use of a word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level (i.e. In Ayn Rand's Anthem, color represents freedom.) | 38 | |
| 2631231592 | Syntax | The grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. Syntax includes length of sentence, kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, or compound). | 39 | |
| 2631233200 | 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 the thesis. | 40 | |
| 2631234137 | Tone | the accumulated and implied attitude toward the subject reached by analyzing diction, detail, syntax, and all other figurative language elements | 41 | |
| 2631235241 | Tragic Hero | the protagonist in a classic tragedy in which he or she is powerful and respectable but plagued by a character flaw that leads to his or her ruin (i.e. Sophocles' Oedipus and Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth) | 42 | |
| 2631236259 | Transition | a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph | 43 | |
| 2631237058 | Understatement | the opposite of exaggeration; a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended (i.e. Tom Waits' sings, "A little rain never hurt no one" to describe the feeling that a gravedigger has after burying a teenage girl who was murdered by a drifter.) | 44 | |
| 2631237792 | Verse | writing that is metrical (usually poetry) rather than prose | 45 | |
| 2631238863 | Voice | a writer's individual style created by, among others, diction, syntax, imagery, punctuation, selected detail, etc. (i.e. Consider Rand's change in voice from the beginning of Anthem, in which she simply states, "It is a sin to write this," to the final scene, in which she "sends her salute across the centuries" to those who "perished with their banners smeared by their own blood.") | 46 | |
| 2631240795 | Allegory | writing that has a double meaning in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level but also something else on the symbolic level. (i.e. William Golding's The Lord of the Flies and George Orwell's Animal Farm) | 47 | |
| 2631240796 | Parody | An exaggerated imitation making fun of certain characteristics of the subject. A parody can be light-hearted, even almost affectionate, or satirical. | 48 | |
| 2631243013 | Satire | The use of entertainment, usually humor, to sharply criticize (i.e. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and Mark Twain's "The Damned Human Race") | 49 | |
| 2631244368 | Dystopia | a story in which "hell on earth" is depicted to point out to the audience that society is, for some particular reason, currently on a very dangerous course (i.e. Ayn Rand's Anthem, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron") | 50 | |
| 2631245134 | Bildungsroman | a "coming-of-age" story in which a young protagonist experiences a crisis that forces himself or herself to mature and see the world as an adult (i.e. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird) | 51 | |
| 2631247119 | Tragedy | a story in which the protagonist meets a series of misfortunes leading to a catastrophic end (i.e. Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Antigone and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) | 52 |
