Terms : Hide Images
| 5532683427 | 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 | |
| 5532697421 | 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, social, or satiric | 1 | |
| 5532708744 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds or any vowel sounds within a formal grouping, such as a poetic line or stanza, or in close proximity in prose | 2 | |
| 5532717601 | Allusion | A figure of speech which makes brief, even casual reference to a historical or literary figure, event, or object to create a resonance in the reader or to apply a symbolic meaning to the character or object of which the allusion consists. EX: In "Of Mice and Men" the surname of the protagonist, George Milton, is an allusion to John Milton, author of "Paradise Lost," since by the end of the novel, George has lost the dream of having a little ranch of his own to share with his friend Lennie | 3 | |
| 5532757291 | Anachronism | Use of historically inaccurate details in a text; for example, depicting a 19th century character using a computer. Some authors employ anachronisms for humorous effect, and some genres, such as science fiction or fantasy, make extensive use of anachronism | 4 | |
| 5532770295 | Anadiplosis | Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause. EX: "The crime was common, common be the pain." (Alexander Pope) | 5 | |
| 5532793097 | Analogy | Comparison of two things that are alike in some respects. Metaphors and similes are both types of this. | 6 | |
| 5532797325 | Anaphora | Regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. EX: "We shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight on the oceans. We shall fight in the sky." | 7 | |
| 5532804876 | Anecdote | A short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point | 8 | |
| 5532819601 | Annotation | Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data | 9 | |
| 5532824275 | Antithesis | The presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by word, phrase, clause, or paragraphs. "To be or not to be..." or "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country..." | 10 | |
| 5532836185 | Aphorism | A short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life: "The early bird gets the worm." | 11 | |
| 5532840845 | 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 | 12 | |
| 5532848850 | 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 | 13 | |
| 5532860616 | Assonance | The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words | 14 | |
| 5532864455 | Asyndeton | The practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list, it gives a more extemporaneous effects and suggests the list may be incomplete. EX: "He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing." | 15 | |
| 5532874895 | Begging the question | To sidestep of evade the real problem | 16 | |
| 5532877611 | Cacophony, Dissonance | Harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony | 17 | |
| 5532882501 | Caricature | Descriptive writings that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or a facet of personality | 18 | |
| 5532887090 | Colloquialism | A word of phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing (y'all, ain't) | 19 | |
| 5532895535 | Coherence; Unity | Quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle | 20 | |
| 5537556646 | Concrete language | Language that describes specific, observable things, people, or paces, rather than ideas or qualities | 21 | |
| 5537556647 | Connotation | Implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind | 22 | |
| 5537556648 | 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 | 23 | |
| 5537556649 | Contradiction | A direct opposition between things compared; inconsistency | 24 | |
| 5537556650 | Conundrum | A riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem | 25 | |
| 5537556651 | Deduction | The process of moving from a general rule to a specific example | 26 | |
| 5537556652 | Denotation | The literal meaning of a word as defined | 27 | |
| 5537556653 | Description | The picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of colour, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse | 28 | |
| 5537556654 | Diction | Word choice, an element of style; Diction creates tome, attitude, and style, as well as meaning. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning. An essay written in academic diction would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise than street slang | 29 | |
| 5537556655 | Didactic | Writing whose purpose is to instruct or teach. A didactic work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. Didactic writing may have fiction or non-fiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking | 30 | |
| 5538215590 | Discourse | Spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of discourse are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion | 31 | |
| 5538215591 | Emotional appeal, pathos | When a writer appeals to readers' emotions (often through pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument | 32 | |
| 5538215592 | 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 epigraphs. One of them is "You are all a lost generation" by Gertrude Stein | 33 | |
| 5538215593 | Epiphany | A sudden or intuitive insight or perception into the reality or essential meaning of something usually brought on by a simple or common occurence or experience | 34 | |
| 5538215594 | Ethical appeal, ethos | 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 ethical appeal, but in all cases the aim is to gain the audience's confidence | 35 | |
| 5538215595 | Euphemism | A more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropraite or uncomfortable. "He went to his final rewars" is a common euphemism for "He died." Euphemisms are also often used to obscure the reality of a situayiom. The military uses "collateral damage" to indicate civilian deaths in a military operation. | 36 | |
| 5538215596 | Euphony | A succession of harmonius sounds used in poetry or prose; opposite of cacophony | 37 | |
| 5538215597 | Example | An individual instance taken to be representative of a general pattern. Arguing by example is considered reliable if examples are demonstrable true or factual as well as relevant | 38 | |
| 5551885547 | Expletive | A single word or short phrase intended to emphasize surrounding words. Commonly, expletives are set off by commas. EX: in fact, of course, after all, certainly | 39 | |
| 5551885548 | Explication | The art of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. Explication usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language | 40 | |
| 5551885549 | 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 | 41 | |
| 5551885550 | Generalization | When a writer basis 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 | 42 | |
| 5551885551 | 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 | 43 | |
| 5551885552 | Humor | Anything that causes laughter or amusement; up to the end of the Renaissance, humor meant a person's temperament | 44 | |
| 5551885553 | Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis (EX: He was so hungry he could have eaten a horse). | 45 | |
| 5551885554 | Image | A word or words, either figurative or literal, used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the sense. An image Iis always a concrete representation | 46 | |
| 5551885555 | 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 | 47 | |
| 5551885556 | Induction | The process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization | 48 | |
| 5551885557 | Inference | A conclusion one can draw from the presented details | 49 | |
| 5551885558 | Invective | A verbally abusive attack | 50 | |
| 5624339546 | Irony | A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. Irony is frequently humorous, and can be sarcastic when using words to imply the opposite of what they actually meant | 51 | |
| 5624339547 | Inversion | Reversing the customary (subject first, then verb, then complement) order of elements in a sentence or a phase; 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. *Yoda talk* | 52 | |
| 5624339548 | Jargon | The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon 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 | 53 | |
| 5625120532 | Logical appeal, logos | When a writer tried to persuade the audience based on statistics, facts, and reasons. The process of reasoning. | 54 | |
| 5625120533 | Lyrical | Songlike; characterized by emotioms, subjectivity, and imagination | 55 | |
| 5625120534 | Mode | The method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written | 56 | |
| 5625120535 | Mood | Similar to tone, mood is the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere). Syntax is also a determiner of mood sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing | 57 | |
| 5625120536 | Motif | Recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event | 58 | |
| 5625120537 | Narration | The telling of a story in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse | 59 | |
| 5625120538 | Objectivity | An impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself of any subjective, personal involvement in a story. Hard news journalism is frequently prized for its objectivity, although even fictional stories can be told without the author rendering any judgement | 60 | |
| 5625120539 | Oversimplification | When a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument | 61 | |
| 5625120540 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool," "bitter sweet," "pretty ugly," "jumbo shrimp," "cold fire" | 62 | |
| 5625120541 | Pacing | The movement of a literary piece from one point or one section to another | 63 | |
| 5625120542 | Parable | A short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory | 64 | |
| 5625120543 | 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 have never found the companion that was so companioanble as solitude." | 65 | |
| 5625120544 | Parallelism | (Usually within a sentence) 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, ohrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence. EX: (from Churchill): "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounz, we shall fight in the fields." | 66 | |
| 5625120545 | Parody | A work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating it's elements. It can 've utterly mocking or gently humorous. It depends on allusions and exaggerates and distorts the original style and content | 67 | |
| 5625120546 | Pathetic appeal, pathos | When a writer tries to persuade the audience by appealing to their emotions. The aspects of a literary work that elicit sorrow or pity from an audience. An appeal to emotion that can be used as a means to persuade. Over- emotionalism can be the result from an excess of pathos | 68 | |
| 5625120547 | Pedantic | A term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant | 69 | |
| 5625120548 | Persona | The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share of the values of the actual author. | 70 | |
| 5625120549 | Personification | Treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by giving it human qualities | 71 | |
| 5625120550 | Perspective | A character's or speaker's personalized view of the situation or events | 72 | |
| 5625120551 | Persuasion | A form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion | 73 | |
| 5625120552 | Propaganda | Information or rumor deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, or institution | 74 | |
| 5625120553 | Regionalism | An element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and it's influenced as a major part of the plot | 75 | |
| 5625120554 | Repetition | Word or phrase used two or more times in proximity | 76 | |
| 5625120555 | Rhetorical modes | Exposition, description, narratiom, argumentation | 77 | |
| 5625120556 | Sarcasm | Harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony | 78 | |
| 5625360389 | 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 | 79 | |
| 5625360390 | Satire | A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. Satire doesn't simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). Satire targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals | 80 | |
| 5625360391 | Speaker | The voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious persona. | 81 | |
| 5626124491 | Stereotype | A character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality; a conventional pattern, expression or idea | 82 | |
| 5626141238 | Style | An author's characteristic manner of expression- his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to style | 83 | |
| 5626158727 | Subjectivity | A personal representation of events and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions | 84 | |
| 5626297444 | Syllogism | A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from there. A syllogism is the format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. EX: Major Premise: All tragedies end unhappily. Minor Premise: Hamlet is a tragedy. Conclusion: Therefore, Hamlet ends unhappily | 85 | |
| 5626323250 | 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." | 86 | |
| 5626334159 | Syntactic Fluency | Ability to create a variety of sentence structure, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length | 87 | |
| 5626341253 | Syntactic Permutation | Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. They are often difficult for a reader to follow | 88 | |
| 5626354018 | 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). | 89 | |
| 5626379478 | Theme | The central idea or "message" of a literary work. | 90 | |
| 5626393831 | 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. | 91 | |
| 5626406542 | Tone | The characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience (anger, sarcastic, loving, didactic, emotional, etc). | 92 | |
| 5626414955 | Transition | A word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph | 93 | |
| 5626422148 | Understatement | The opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended | 94 | |
| 5626430343 | 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. | 95 |
