Terms : Hide Images
| 5340033665 | Ad Hominem | "against the man" Attacking the person, not the argument "How can you trust the mayor to do a good job on the economy when he was just caught cheating on his wife?" | 0 | |
| 5340046389 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word of phrase a the beginning of two or more sentences in a row deliberately. "We will fight in the street. We will fight in the air. We will fight in the sea" | 1 | |
| 5340070274 | Asyndeton | Commas used with no conduction to separate a series of words "The assassin was fast, menacing, deadly, remorseless" | 2 | |
| 5340077795 | Begging the Question | This is when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim. "Since lowering taxes always helps the economy, it's right to lower taxes" | 3 | |
| 5340314312 | Chiasmus | A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed "I flee who chases me and chase who flees me" | 4 | |
| 5340315933 | Deconstruction | A critical approach that debunks single definitions of meaning based on the instability of language "Although the poem claims that spiritual rewards are greater than material rewards, the poem describes the spiritual rewards using materialistic imagery." | 5 | |
| 5340315934 | Deductive Reasoning | Reasoning that begins with a general principle and concludes with a specific instance that demonstrates that principle | 6 | |
| 5340318204 | Epistrophe | The repetition of a group of words at the end of successive clauses-For example, "they saw no evil; they spoke no evil; the heard no evil" | 7 | |
| 5340318205 | Equivocation | When language is used purposely to mislead the audience, even though technically, the author is speaking truth. For example, a child tells his parents that he's going to his friend's house. He stops at the friends' house for ten minutes, but then takes the bus to the city for the night. | 8 | |
| 5340320809 | Ethical Appeal | When a writer tries to persuade the audience to believe him/her based on self-image "You all know me to be an honest person with no personal ambition; therefore, you must believe that I seek the throne only because it is demanded of me | 9 | |
| 5340320810 | Freight Train | Sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clause joined by conjunctions "She donates to charity, and she gives her time to the community, and she attends town meetings, and she is involved in every good thing this town accomplishes" | 10 | |
| 5340323652 | Generalization | When a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim applies to all instances instead of some "Of course she is lying. All politicians lie" | 11 | |
| 5340323653 | Inversion | Variation of normal word order to emphasize what comes first in the sentence. "Actions, I want, not words" | 12 | |
| 5340323654 | Litotes | Understatement used to subtly criticize or dismiss a notion "It wasn't the worst performance I've ever seen" | 13 | |
| 5340326274 | Major Premise | The first premise in a syllogism. States and irrefutable generalization | 14 | |
| 5340326275 | Metonymy | An entity referred to by one of its attributes "The admissions office claims applications have risen" | 15 | |
| 5340326276 | Minor Premise | The second premise of a syllogism. The minor premise offers a particular instance of the generalization stated in the major premise | 16 | |
| 5340329489 | Non Sequitor | "It does not follow" When one statement isn't logically connected to another "Of course he can't keep track of his finances. He can't even play tennis" | 17 | |
| 5340332417 | Oversimplification | When a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issue "To help the economy, all we have to do is put everyone to work" | 18 | |
| 5340332418 | Paradox | A seemingly contradictory statement that is actually true "In order to live righteously, you must die to your self" | 19 | |
| 5340335887 | Parallelism | Sentence construction which places in close proximity two or more equal grammatical constructions :"She flares her nostrils, purses her lips, and grinds her teeth when she gets angry" | 20 | |
| 5340335888 | Periodic | Sentence that places the main idea or central idea at the end of the sentence "After packing the clothes, and making sure everything was in perfect order for when he came home, she signed the divorce paper" | 21 | |
| 5340335889 | Polysyndeton | Sentence which uses and or another conjunction with no commas to separate the items in a series "He whines and complains and mutters and drives everyone crazy" | 22 | |
| 5340338623 | Post Hoc, ergo propter hoc | "after this, therefore because of this" When a writer implies that because one thing follow another, the first caused the second. "He went to the store to buy shoes, and therefore the house burned down" | 23 | |
| 5340338624 | Red Herring | When a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue "Ms. Swanson wants to know why the business is losing money. Maybe we should look anther affiliation with the Communist party" | 24 | |
| 5340341622 | Rhetorical Triangle | A diagram showing the relations of writer, reader, and topic in a rhetorical situation | 25 | |
| 5340341623 | Straw Man | When a writer argues against a claim that is universally considered weak "Some people argue that family isn't important anymore. Well, I disagree with that" | 26 | |
| 5340343644 | Syllogism | Deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises "People trust those who are honest. You often lie. Therefore people don't trust you" | 27 | |
| 5340343645 | Trope | An artful variation from expected modes of expression of thoughts and ideas | 28 | |
| 5340346130 | Zeugma | A trope in which one word, usually a noun or the main verb, governs two other words not related in meaning--for example "She drowned her sorrows and her cat" | 29 |
