Terms : Hide Images
| 7544278009 | 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 | |
| 7544278010 | 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 | |
| 7544278011 | 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 | |
| 7544278014 | Hyperbole | a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement | 3 | |
| 7544278015 | 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. | 4 | |
| 7544278017 | 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. | 5 | |
| 7544278019 | 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. (e.g. I was a coward. I went to the war.) | 6 | |
| 7544278021 | 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. | 7 | |
| 7544278023 | Metaphor | a direct comparison between dissimilar things. "Your eyes are stars" is an example. | 8 | |
| 7544278024 | 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. | 9 | |
| 7544278025 | Begging the Question | Often called circular reasoning, __ occurs when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim. | 10 | |
| 7544278027 | Understatement | the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended. | 11 | |
| 7544278028 | Either-or Reasoning | When the writer reduces an argument or issue to two polar opposites and ignores any alternatives. (e.g. Either we study and we fail or we don't study and we fail.) | 12 | |
| 7544278031 | 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. | 13 | |
| 7544278033 | 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. | 14 | |
| 7544278034 | 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. | 15 | |
| 7544278036 | 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. This can have several forms: situational, verbal, dramatic. | 16 | |
| 7544278037 | 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. (e.g. Think Colbert and truthiness.) | 17 | |
| 7544278038 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." | 18 | |
| 7544278040 | Periodic Sentence | A sentence with a main clause that is not grammatically complete until the very end of the sentence.The effect is to add emphasis and structural variety. | 19 | |
| 7544278041 | Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 20 | |
| 7544278042 | Situational Irony | a type of irony in which events turn out the opposite of what was expected. | 21 | |
| 7544278044 | Pathos | an appeal based on emotion. | 22 | |
| 7544278046 | Logos | an appeal based on logic or reason | 23 | |
| 7544278047 | Verbal Irony | In this type of irony, the words literally state the opposite of the writer's true meaning | 24 | |
| 7544278048 | Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point. | 25 | |
| 7544278050 | 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." (e.g. You cannot lead us because your son ended up in prison. If you can't parent, you can't govern.) | 26 | |
| 7544278051 | Denotation | the literal or dictionary meaning of a word | 27 | |
| 7544278053 | 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 | 28 | |
| 7544278055 | Connotation | the interpretive level or a word based on its associated images rather than its literal meaning. | 29 | |
| 7544278056 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, or any element of language, such as sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 30 | |
| 7544278057 | Syntax | The grammatical structure of prose and poetry. | 31 | |
| 7544278060 | Infer | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. | 32 | |
| 7544278061 | Argument | A single assertion or a series of assertions presented and defended by the writer | 33 | |
| 7544278062 | Allusion | A reference contained in a work | 34 | |
| 7544278063 | Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. | 35 | |
| 7544278067 | Parallelism | refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. | 36 | |
| 7544278069 | Rhetorical Modes | The flexible term describes the variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of writing. | 37 | |
| 7544278071 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 38 | |
| 7544278072 | Example | an individual instance taken to be representative of a general pattern | 39 | |
| 7544278074 | 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. | 40 | |
| 7544278075 | 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 and based on the audience's ethics/morals. (e.g. A celebrity drinks Gatorade; you respect that celebrity and his/her opinion, so you drink it, too.) | 41 | |
| 7544278080 | 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. | 42 | |
| 7544278081 | Didactic | writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. A ___ work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. Sermons are often ______. | 43 | |
| 7544278083 | Narration | The purpose of this type of rhetorical mode is to tell the story or narrate an event or series of events. | 44 | |
| 7544278084 | Rhetoric | from the Greek for "orator," this term describes the principle governing the art of writing and speaking effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. | 45 | |
| 7544278085 | Third Person Limited | This type of point of view presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all remaining characters | 46 | |
| 7544278086 | Third Person Omniscient | In ___, the narrator, with a godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters. | 47 | |
| 7544278087 | 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. | 48 | |
| 7544278088 | Character | those who carry out the action of the plot in literature. Major, minor, static, and dynamic are the types. | 49 | |
| 7544278090 | Antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers. | 50 | |
| 7544278091 | Style | an evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. | 51 | |
| 7544278092 | Thesis | The sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition. | 52 | |
| 7544278097 | Conflict | a clash between opposing forces in a literary work, such as man vs. man; man vs. nature; man vs. God; man vs. self | 53 | |
| 7544278098 | Tone | Similar to mood, __ describes the author's attitude toward his or her material, the audience, or both. | 54 | |
| 7544278099 | 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. | 55 | |
| 7544278100 | Dialect | the recreation of regional spoken language, such as a Southern one. Hurston uses this in Their Eyes Were Watching God. | 56 | |
| 7544278103 | Point of View | In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. | 57 | |
| 7544278105 | Annotation | explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. | 58 | |
| 7544278107 | Diction | the author's choice of words that creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning | 59 | |
| 7544316132 | Patriotic Appeal | this appeal invokes an allegiance to one's country | 60 | |
| 7544317548 | Plain Folk Appeal | this appeal seeks to convince the audience that the speaker/writer is a "regular" person, often with humble beginnings, in order to make a connection | 61 | |
| 7544320772 | Snob Appeal | this appeal is aimed at those who like the finer things in life and who feel somewhat elevated above others in society | 62 |
