Terms : Hide Images
| 5444962738 | ad hominem | an attack on the person rather than his ideas; Ex. Sarah is an awful baker, so why is she running the carnival? | 0 | |
| 5444962741 | allegory | work that functions on a symbolic level; Ex. the book 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' (Aslan = Christ, Edmund = Judas, etc.) | 1 | |
| 5444964769 | alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds; Ex. Six shiny silver snakes slithered silently. | 2 | |
| 5444964770 | allusion | a reference to a historical, literary, Biblical, or mythical event with which a reader should be familiar; Ex. Pontius Pilate in The Crucible | 3 | |
| 5444976152 | analogy | comparison based on the like features of two unlike things; one familiar, the other unfamiliar; Ex. warrior is to spear as writer is to pen | 4 | |
| 5444981377 | anaphora | repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses; Ex. O Lord (in the Bible) | 5 | |
| 5444984866 | anecdote | a brief, often entertaining, story written or told in order to illustrate a point; Ex. telling a story about National FFA Convention to prove that the FFA offers a lot of opportunities | 6 | |
| 5444989414 | antecedent | the noun/pronoun to which a pronoun refers; Ex. Greg likes ice cream; he eats it all the time. =Greg | 7 | |
| 5444991425 | archaic language | words/phrases that were once used regularly in a language but are now less common; old-fashioned, outdated language; Ex. anon | 8 | |
| 5444995391 | argument from doubtful/unidentified authority | when someone tries to make an argument based on a person that has no authority; Ex. Elias says we shouldn't have AP tests anymore. | 9 | |
| 5445002977 | assonance | repetition of vowel sounds; Ex. Try to relight the fire if it dies. | 10 | |
| 5445002978 | asyndeton | omission of conjunctions that join coordinate words/phrases; Ex. "I came. I saw. I conquered." (Caesar) | 11 | |
| 5445007593 | atmosphere/mood | the feeling created in a piece of writing; Ex. melancholy | 12 | |
| 5445010379 | attitude | the relationship the author has toward his/her subject and/or audience; Ex. scornful | 13 | |
| 5445012970 | begging the question | taking for granted from the start what you set out to demonstrate (repeating what is true is true); Ex. Ghosts are real. | 14 | |
| 5445017490 | circular reasoning | restates the premise rather than giving a reason for holding that premise; Ex. Anselm's Ontological Argument | 15 | |
| 5445026152 | colloquial language | words/phrases occurring primarily in speech and informal language; Ex. slang words/curse words - ain't | 16 | |
| 5445032184 | comic relief | the inclusion of a humorous character or scene to contrast with the tragic elements of a work; Ex. Porter in Macbeth | 17 | |
| 5445035196 | connotation | the implied meaning of a word; Ex. gaunt | 18 | |
| 5445038686 | denotation | the literal meaning or dictionary definition of a word; Ex. skinny | 19 | |
| 5476032249 | dialect | way of speaking characteristic of a certain social group or people in a certain geographical area; the recreation of regional spoken language; Ex. "Reckon I have. Almost died first year I come to school and et them pecans — folks say he pizened 'em and put 'em over on the school side of the fence." -Walter in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (Harper Lee) | 20 | |
| 5476062183 | diction | author's choice of words that creates tone, attitude, and style; Ex. using the words dreary, bleak, depressing when describing something to create a melancholy attitude towards it | 21 | |
| 5476066243 | didactic | style of writing (usually formal and moral) that's purpose is to instruct or to teach; Ex. Aesop's fables | 22 | |
| 5476070996 | either/or generalization | assuming that a reality may be divided into only two parts or extremes; assuming that a given problem has only one or two possible solutions; Ex. Either you get yourself together or you get out. | 23 | |
| 5476075246 | false analogy | the claim of persuasive likeness when no significant likeness exists; Ex. Texting people frequently makes you no different than an alcoholic. | 24 | |
| 5476077847 | figurative language (figures of speech) | word/phrase that describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be taken literally; Ex. similes, metaphors, personification, hyperboles, idioms | 25 | |
| 5476080710 | flashback | device that enables a writer to refer to past thoughts, events, episodes; technique in narration in which the sequence of events is interrupted to recall an earlier period; Ex. the movie 'Titanic' | 26 | |
| 5476087529 | hasty generalization | leaping to a generalization from inadequate or faulty evidence (stereotype); Ex. All grandmothers are amazing cooks! | 27 | |
| 5476089400 | hyperbole | extreme exaggeration (often humorous); Ex. I have told you a million times to make up your bed. (*definitely did not reach a million times) | 28 | |
| 5476092766 | imagery | total effect of related sensory images; collection of mental pictures in a literacy work; Ex. The delicate limbs of the maple tree shivered and released their hold on autumn-colored leaves; each leaf slowly danced through the air before landing gently on the grassy earth. | 29 | |
| 5476094457 | in medias res | Latin for "in the middle of things"; Ex. "The Odyssey" by Homer (it starts when Odysseus is already in the middle of his journey home) | 30 | |
| 5476095849 | inference | conclusion one can draw from presented details; Ex. Elizabeth is a child who loves everything blue, so she will likely pick a blue popsicle over a purple popsicle regardless of flavor. | 31 | |
| 5476099027 | invective | verbally abusive attack; Ex. telling someone that they are too stupid to understand what being stupid means | 32 | |
| 5476100374 | irony | in general, a discrepancy between appearances and reality; Ex. dramatic, situational, verbal irony | 33 | |
| 5476101514 | dramatic irony | occurs when a character in play/story thinks one thing is true but the audience/reader knows better; Ex. in "The Crucible" when the Proctors hope for a 'fair summer' - they believe it will be a fair summer but the audience knows the summer will be rough with the witch trials | 34 | |
| 5476103799 | situational irony | a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really happens; Ex. when Elizabeth lies about John ("The Crucible") - since we were told she never lied, we expected her to tell the truth, but then she lied | 35 | |
| 5476107116 | verbal irony | occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else (often in the form of sarcasm); Ex. when John refers to Abigail's saintliness ("The Crucible") - John is being sarcastic and doesn't actually mean she is saintly, since he knows she is a sinner too | 36 | |
| 5476110259 | litotes | understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary; Ex. School food is not bad. | 37 | |
| 5476112080 | loose sentence | sentence in which the main point precedes less important details; Ex. I went shopping at the mall in Parkersburg and picked up jeans, necklaces, and perfume. | 38 | |
| 5521175748 | metaphor | direct comparison between two unlike things where one thing is said to be another (without using the words 'like' or 'as'); Ex. John is the fastest cross country runner I know; he is a bullet. | 39 | |
| 5521176918 | metonymy | figure of speech that consists of using the name of one part of something to represent the whole thing; Ex. All eyes on me - paying attention to something involves looking and listening, but just 'eyes' represents paying attention | 40 | |
| 5767265699 | narrative writing | mode of writing that tells a story; Ex. novels | 41 | |
| 5767265700 | scene narration | events are related as vividly and precisely as though it were a scene in a film; Ex. describing a graduation with details such as number of people graduating, gown colors, speakers, etc. | 42 | |
| 5767268424 | summary narration | events are related concisely with only the essentials of what has happened; Ex. simply stating that there was a graduation | 43 | |
| 5767273875 | non sequitur | (Latin - it does not follow); stating a conclusion that doesn't follow from the first premise(s); Ex. C'ierra is allergic to cinnamon, so she must be unable to eat sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving. | 44 | |
| 5767277400 | narrator | the speaker of a literary work; Ex. Katniss in The Hunger Games | 45 | |
| 5767278651 | objective narrator | one who focuses on the topic without including personal feelings or bias; Ex. author of an encyclopedia | 46 | |
| 5767280245 | subjective narrator | one who focuses on personal view of topic and may include feelings, emotions, and biases; Ex. various authors of novels | 47 | |
| 5767282461 | onomatopoeia | use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning; Ex. buzz | 48 | |
| 5767285374 | oversimplification | supplying neat and easy explanations for large and complicated phenomena; Ex. A road is used to go places. | 49 | |
| 5767287330 | oxymoron | an image of contradictory terms; Ex. deafening silence | 50 | |
| 5767287331 | pacing | the movement of a literary piece from one point/section to another; speed of a story's action; Ex. spending a longer time on something that needs emphasis, moving quicker over something trivial/boring | 51 | |
| 5767299666 | parable | story that teaches a moral or lesson; Ex. "The Emperor's New Clothes" (Hans Christian Anderson) | 52 | |
| 5767301483 | paradox | a seemingly self-contradictory statement that, on reflection, makes sense; Ex. Nobody goes to that restaurant because it is too crowded. | 53 | |
| 5767314880 | parallelism | use of repeated grammatical structures in nearby phrases, clauses, sentences, or lines of poetry; Ex. "Whenever you need me, wherever you need me, I will be there for you." | 54 | |
| 5767318527 | parody | work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style; comic imitation of a work that ridicules the original; Ex. Don Quixote (by Miguel de Cervantes) | 55 | |
| 5767326121 | periodic sentence | sentence in which less important details precede the main point; Ex. With a GPA of 4.5 and an ACT score of 35, Alicia was accepted to Harvard. | 56 | |
| 5767328438 | personification | figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human traits; Ex. The leaves danced in the wind. | 57 | |
| 5767329534 | point of view | vantage point from which the writer tells the story; Ex. first person, third-person limited, omniscient, objective | 58 | |
| 5767331879 | first person POV | one of the characters in the story tells the story using first person pronouns (I, we); Ex. The Hunger Games | 59 | |
| 5767335497 | third-person limited POV | an unknown narrator tells the story but zooms in to focus on thoughts and feelings of only one character; Ex. Nancy Drew series (focus is on Nancy) | 60 | |
| 5767339558 | omniscient POV | an "all knowing" narrator tells the story (uses third-person pronouns); Ex. Little Women (by Louisa May Alcott) | 61 | |
| 5767342859 | objective POV | a totally impersonal and objective narrator with no comment on any characters or events; Ex. encyclopedia | 62 | |
| 6193127240 | post hoc, ergo propter hoc | (Latin - after this, therefore because of this); assuming because B follows A, B was caused by A; Ex. Our school assuming that literacy week resulted in the increase of our test scores (even though other factors could have contributed to it) | 63 | |
| 6193158434 | pun | a "play on words" based on the multiple meanings of a single word; Ex. I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down. | 64 | |
| 6193190455 | rhetoric | entire process of written communication; art and logic of argument; Ex. "The purchase of Alaska was referred to as "Seward's Folly" by those in opposition to the purchase. The use of the word "Folly" was intended to be negative and degrading in order to persuade the public that the purchase was an ill-informed decision." [definitely didn't come up with that myself] | 65 | |
| 6193193218 | rhetorical question | one that does not expect/require an answer; Ex. Can't you do anything right? | 66 | |
| 6193195832 | rhetorical devices | use of language that is intended to have an effect on the audience; Ex. diction, imagery, figurative language, syntax | 67 | |
| 6193199898 | sarcasm | comic technique that ridicules through caustic language; Ex. Person A: wow, did you see it is raining outside? Person B(clearly knows it is raining): No, really? I thought it was sunny outside, I'm so glad you figured it out for me that it was raining. -.- | 68 | |
| 6193204938 | satire | writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change; Ex. Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) "What's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and isn't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" | 69 | |
| 6193207126 | simile | a direct comparison using like or as; Ex. Her smile was like a beam of sunshine. | 70 | |
| 6193207127 | straw-man argument | a speaker/writer attributes false or exaggerated characteristics/behaviors to the opponent and attacks those falsehoods; Ex. Trump vs "Crooked Hillary" | 71 | |
| 6193212997 | stream of consciousness | a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind; Ex. William Faulkner, "As I Lay Dying" | 72 | |
| 6193216485 | structure | the form and organization of a work; Ex. chronological | 73 | |
| 6193216486 | style | a writer's characteristic way of writing; the distinctive way a writer presents ideas; Ex. concise | 74 | |
| 6193220763 | symbol | something in a literary work that stands for itself and something else; Ex. the rose bush in The Scarlet Letter | 75 | |
| 6193222495 | syntax | the structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence; Ex. Yoda - Much to learn, you still have. (vs You still have much to learn) | 76 | |
| 6193222496 | theme | the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work; Ex. Love mankind | 77 | |
| 6193225689 | thesis | the main idea of a piece of writing, presents the author's assertion or claim; Ex. Macbeth is a tragic hero in the play "The Tragedy of Macbeth" because he exhibits several traits that are characteristic of a tragic hero. | 78 | |
| 6193227862 | tone | the attitude a writer takes toward the subject, characters, or audience; Ex. sarcastic, surprised, depressed, humorous | 79 | |
| 6193229935 | transition | a word or phrase that links one idea to the next; Ex. finally | 80 | |
| 6193229936 | understatement | the opposite of exaggeration; one writes or says less than what is meant; Ex. Braham's tests are hard. | 81 | |
| 6193234419 | voice | the sense of the author's character, personality, or attitude that comes through the words; the total "sound of a writer's style"; Ex. humorous | 82 | |
| 6193237234 | zeugma | use of a word to modify two or more words usually in different ways; Ex. "The farmers in the valley grew potatoes, peanuts, and bored." | 83 | |
| 6193239448 | rhetorical methods | a way or method of presenting a subject through writing or speech; Ex. narration, description, compare/contrast, argument/persuasion | 84 |
