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| 3871000299 | Allegory | a narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even setting demonstrate multiple levels of meaning and significance. Often a universal symbol or personified abstraction, such as Cupid portrayed as a chubby angel with a bow and arrows. | 0 | |
| 3871005531 | Alliteration | the sequential repetition of a similar initial sound, usually applied to consonants, usually in closely proximate stressed syllables. For instance, "She sells seashells by the seashore." | 1 | |
| 3871007971 | Allusion | a literary, historical, religious, or mythological reference. For example, one might contrast the life and tribulations of Frederick Douglass to the trails of Job. | 2 | |
| 3871009540 | Anaphora | the regular repetition of the same words or phrases at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. Ex: "To raise a happy, healthful, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes businesspeople; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety; it takes all of us." (Hillary Clinton, Democratic Convention Address, 1996) | 3 | |
| 3871014034 | Antithesis | the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structure, or ideas. Ex: Alexander Pope reminds us that "to err is human, to forgive is divine." | 4 | |
| 3871019851 | Aphorism | a concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief. Ex: "Spare the rod and spoil the child." | 5 | |
| 3871021328 | Apostrophe | the act of addressing some inanimate abstraction or person that is not physically present: It often helps the speaker to be able to express his or her thoughts aloud. Ex: King Lear intones, "Ingratitude! Thou marble-hearted fiend, morde hideous when thou show'st thee in a child than the sea-monster." In this ex, ingratitude is a personified concept; by addressing the abstract, Lear commands a significant rhetorical power. | 6 | |
| 3871028704 | Appeals to... authority, emotion, or logic | rhetorical arguments in which the speaker claims to be an authority or expert in a field, attempts to play upon the emotions, or appeals to the use of reason. Classically trained rhetoricians identify these appeals with their Greek names: ethos is authority, pathos is emotion, logos is logic. | 7 | |
| 3871044605 | Assonance | the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words. The alliteration example also demonstrates ____________: "ShE sElls seashElls by the sEashore" | 8 | |
| 3871048368 | Asyndeton | a syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted in a series, usually producing more rapid prose. Ex: "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered), supposedly said by Julius Caesar. | 9 | |
| 3871050606 | Attitude | the sense expressed by the tone of voice or the mood of a piece of writing; the author's feelings toward his or her subject, characters, events, or theme. It might even be his or her feelings for the reader. AP English exam essay prompts often require students to respond to some aspect of the attitude of the writer, speaker, or narrator. | 10 | |
| 3871055045 | Begging the Question | an argumentative ploy where the arguer sidesteps the question or the conflict, evading or ignoring the real question. | 11 | |
| 3871056570 | Canon | that which it has been accepted as authentic, such as in ______ law, or the "_______ According to the Theories of Einstein." | 12 | |
| 3871181563 | Chiasmus | a figure of speech and generally a syntactical wherein the order of the terms in the first half of a parallel clause is reversed in the second. "He thinks I am but a fool. A fool, perhaps, I am" | 13 | |
| 3871057839 | Claim | in argumentation, an assertion or something as fact. | 14 | |
| 3871058379 | Colloquial | a term identifying the diction of the common, ordinary folks, especially in a specific region or area. For instance, most people expect Southerners to use the colloquial expression "y'all" to engage the attention of a group of people. In some parts of the country, "coke" means any product of the Coca-Cola Company, while in other parts of the country, "coke" means any type of carbonated beverage. Other people refer to such beverages as "pop" or "soda pop." These are all colloquial terms for the drink. | 15 | |
| 3871063541 | Comparison and Contrast | a node of discourse in which two or more things are compared, contrasted, or both. On one English Language exam, students were asked to contrast the two marriage proposals taken from literature, analyzing them for the use the narrators made of rhetorical devices and their argumentative success. | 16 | |
| 3871066027 | 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, _________ can also be used in non-fiction and prose. For instance, Richard Seltzer's passage "The Knife" compares the preparation and actions of surgery to preparing for and conducting a religious service or a sacred ritual. | 17 | |
| 3871070355 | Connotation | the implied, suggested, or underlying meaning of a word or phrase. It is the opposite of denotation, which is the "dictionary definition" of the word. | 18 | |
| 3871071869 | Consonance | the repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels, such as in pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack. | 19 | |
| 3871073335 | Convention | an accepted manner, model, or tradition | 20 | |
| 3871074587 | Critique | an assessment or analysis of something, such as a passage of writing, for the purpose of determining what it is, what its limitations are, and how it conforms to the standard of the genre. | 21 | |
| 3871076313 | Deductive reasoning (deduction) | the method of argument in which specific statements and conclusions are drawn from general principals; movement from the general to the specific | 22 | |
| 3871077932 | Dialect | the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, region, or group. Ex: Minnesotans say "you betcha" when they agree with you. Southerners refer to the gathering of folks as "y'all." Although _______ is most often found in fiction, sometimes it is evident in speeches from a different era or from a different culture. | 23 | |
| 3871080238 | Diction | the specific words choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect. | 24 | |
| 3871080975 | Didactic | (from the Greek, meaning "good teaching") writing or speech is _________ when it has an instructive purpose or a lesson. It is often associated with a dry, pompous presentation, regardless of its innate value to the reader/listener. | 25 | |
| 3871084249 | Elegy | a poem or prose work that laments, or meditates upon the death of, a person or persons. | 26 | |
| 3871084881 | Epistrophe | in rhetoric, the repetition or a phrase at the end of successive sentences. | 27 | |
| 3871085706 | Epitaph | writing in praise of a dead person, most often inscribed upon a headstone. | 28 | |
| 3871086680 | Ethos | in rhetoric, the appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator. | 29 | |
| 3871087576 | Eulogy | a speech or written passage in praise of a person; an oration in honor of a deceased person. | 30 | |
| 3871088919 | Euphemism | an indirect, kinder, or less harsh or hurtful way of expressing unpleasant information. | 31 | |
| 3871090834 | Exposition | writing that explains its own meaning or purpose | 32 | |
| 3871091476 | Extended metaphor | a series of comparisons within a piece or writing. If they consistently involve one concept, this is also known as a conceit. | 33 | |
| 3871093628 | Figurative language/figure of speech | (in contrast to literal); has levels of meaning expressed through figures of speech such as personification, metaphor, hyperbole, irony, oxymoron, litote, and others. | 34 | |
| 3871095929 | Flashback | (AKA retrospection) an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of the narration. | 35 | |
| 3871096815 | Genre | a type or class of literature, such as epic, narrative, poetry, biography, history | 36 | |
| 3871097664 | Homily | a sermon, but more contemporary uses include an serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual life. | 37 | |
| 3871098591 | Hyperbole | overstatement characterized by exaggerated language, usually to make a point or draw attention. | 38 | |
| 3871101776 | Imagery | broadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in a work; more narrowly, the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, to call to mind an idea, or to describe an object. Basically, ______ involves any of the five senses. | 39 | |
| 3871105391 | Inductive reasoning (induction) | the method of reasoning or argument in which general statements and conclusions are drawn from specific principles; movement from the specific to the general. | 40 | |
| 3871184592 | Inference | a conclusion or proposition arrived at by considering facts, observations, or some other specific data. It looking at the clues, learning the facts--that Sherlock Holmes was able to solve crimes. | 41 | |
| 3871107277 | Irony (ironic) (verbal, situational, dramatic) | the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant. The intended meaning is often the opposite of what is stated, often suggesting light sarcasm. There are three types: _____=what the author says is actually the opposite of what is meant. ____= when events end up the opposite of what is expected. ____=in drama and fiction, facts or situations are known to the reader or audience but not to the characters. | 42 | |
| 3871113049 | Isocolon | parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also length. "Many are called, but few are chosen." | 43 | |
| 3871114098 | Jargon | specialized or technical language of trade, profession, or similar group. | 44 | |
| 3871114819 | Juxtaposition | the location of one thing adjacent to with another to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish some other purpose. | 45 | |
| 3871116176 | Litote | a figure of speech that emphasized its subject by conscious understatement; for instance, the understated "not bad" as a comment about something especially well done. | 46 | |
| 3871117989 | Loose sentence | (a term from syntax) a long sentence that starts with its main clause, which is followed by several dependent clauses and modifying phrases. | 47 | |
| 3871119100 | Metaphor | one thing pictured as if it were something else, suggesting a likeness or analogy. ________ is an implicit comparison or identification or one thing with another, without the use of a verbal signal such as like or as. | 48 | |
| 3871190170 | Metonymy | a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something, as in "Buckingham Palace announced today..." | 49 | |
| 3871120114 | Mode of discourse | the way in which information is presented in written or spoken form. The Greeks believed there were only four modes: narration, description, exposition, and argumentation. Contemporary thought often includes other modes, such as personal observation and narrative reflection. | 50 | |
| 3871121624 | Mood | a feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator's attitude and point of view. It is a "feeling" that establishes the atmosphere in a work of literature or other discourse. | 51 | |
| 3871123442 | Narrative | a mode of discourse that tells a story of some sort. It is based on sequences of connected events, usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework | 52 | |
| 3871125205 | Onomatopoeia | a word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes; buzz is a good example. The purpose of these words is to make a passage more effective for the reader or listener. | 53 | |
| 3871127408 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements, as in "wise fool," "baggy tights," or "deafening silence." | 54 | |
| 3871128681 | Paradox | a statement that seems contradictory but is probably true. | 55 | |
| 3871131382 | Parallel structure | the use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts; for examples, "Jane enjoys readING, writING, and skiING." In prose, this is _______, recurrent syntactical similarity where several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed alike to show that their ideas are equal in importance. | 56 | |
| 3871133878 | Pathos | that element in literature that stimulates pity or sorrow. In argument or persuasion, it tends to be the evocation of pity from the reader/listener. | 57 | |
| 3871135928 | Periodic sentence | a long sentence in which the main clause is not completed until the end | 58 | |
| 3871136537 | Personification | treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by endowing it with human features or qualities. | 59 | |
| 3871137418 | Point of view | the relation in which a narrator/author stands to a subject of discourse.. Determining _______ in nonfiction requires the reader to establish the historical perspective of what is being said. | 60 | |
| 3871172566 | Polysyndeton | several coordinating conjunctions used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect. Such as the repetition of "and" in this example: "The dinner was so good; I ate the chicken, and the salad, and the turkey, and the wild rice, and the chocolate cake dessert." | 61 | |
| 3871138774 | Prose | the ordinary form of written language without metrical structure, in contrast to verse and poetry. | 62 | |
| 3871139960 | Realism | attempting to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail. Mark Twain is an author of this school. Thoreau, with his romantic outlook toward nature, is not. | 63 | |
| 3871141979 | Rebuttal/refutation | an argument technique wherein opposing arguments are anticipated and countered. | 64 | |
| 3871142900 | Rhetoric | the art of using words to persuade in writing or speaking. All types of writing may seek to persuade, and rhetoricians study writing for its persuasive qualities. | 65 | |
| 3871144252 | Rhetorical question | a question that is asked simply for the sake of stylistic effect and is not expected to be answered | 66 | |
| 3871146324 | Sarcasm | a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually critical. _____ can be light and gently poke fun at something, or it can be harsh, caustic, and mean. | 67 | |
| 3871147738 | Satire | a literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure. | 68 | |
| 3871148330 | Simile | a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another, usual using the words like or as to draw the connection. | 69 | |
| 3871149941 | Style | the manner in which a writer combines and arrangers words, shapes ideas, and utilizes syntax and structure. It is the distinctive manner of expression that represents that author's typical writing style. This is often queried on the AP English Lang/Comp exam. In particular, when two passages on the same topic are presented, you must pay the most attention to comparing their ______. | 70 | |
| 3871152696 | Symbolism | use of a person, place, thing, event, or patter that figuratively represents or "stands for" something else. Often the thing or idea represented is more abstract or general than the ______, which is concrete. Everyone recognizes the _______ of the golden arches representing McDonald's restaurants. | 71 | |
| 3871156424 | Synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole, such as "50 masts" representing 50 ships, or "100 head [of steer] had to be moved to their grazing land." | 72 | |
| 3871159706 | Syntax | the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. ______ is a sentence structure and how it influences the way the reader receives a particular piece of writing. It is important in establishing the tone of a piece and the attitude of the author/narrator. See loose sentence, parallel structure, and periodic sentence. | 73 | |
| 3871162342 | Theme | the central or dominant idea or focus of a work; the statement a passage makes about its subject. | 74 | |
| 3871163531 | Tone | the attitude the narrator/writer takes toward a subject and theme; the tenor of a piece of writing based on particular stylistic devices employed by the writer. ______ reflects the narrator/author's attitude. | 75 | |
| 3871165253 | Voice | the acknowledged or unacknowledged source of the words of the story; the speaker's or narrator's particular "take" on an idea based on a particular passage and how all the elements of the style of the piece come together to express his or her feelings. | 76 | |
| 3871167111 | Zeugma | a grammatically correct construction in which a word, usually a verb or adjective, is applies to two or more nouns without being repeated. Often used to comic effect ("the thief TOOK MY WALLET and the Fifth Avenue BUS"). | 77 |
