Terms : Hide Images
| 8174405598 | abstract | refers to language that describes concepts rather than concrete images (ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places). The opposite is concrete language | 0 | |
| 8174405599 | 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." | 1 | |
| 8174405600 | 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, political, social, or satiric | 2 | |
| 8174408327 | alliteration | the practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with the same sound | 3 | |
| 8174408328 | allusion | a reference to mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing in order to develop a comparison | 4 | |
| 8174410514 | analogy | Comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship | 5 | |
| 8174410515 | anaphora | the repetition of the same word of group of words at the beginning of successive clauses | 6 | |
| 8174410516 | anecdote | a short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point | 7 | |
| 8174413476 | antithesis | a direct juxtaposition of structurally parallel words, phrases, or clauses for the purpose of contrast | 8 | |
| 8174413477 | aphorism | a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life | 9 | |
| 8174416002 | apostrophe | a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present and the inanimate, as if animate | 10 | |
| 8174416003 | assonance | repetition of accented vowel sounds between different consonants in a series of words | 11 | |
| 8174423085 | asyndeton | a deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses | 12 | |
| 8186047158 | cacophony | harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose | 13 | |
| 8186047159 | caricature | descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates specific features, most often of a person's appearance or a facet of personality | 14 | |
| 8186047160 | chiasmus | A sentence arrangement in which the arrangement of ideas in the second phrase or clause is a reversal of the first (using the different words). | 15 | |
| 8186050399 | colloquialism | a word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing | 16 | |
| 8186050400 | conceit | an extended metaphor; it is developed throughout a piece of writing | 17 | |
| 8186053958 | concrete | refers to language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places, rather than ideas or qualities | 18 | |
| 8186053959 | concession | used in argument as the acknowledgement of a point made by one's opponent. | 19 | |
| 8186053960 | connotation | implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind | 20 | |
| 8186054022 | consonance | repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words for a harmonious effect | 21 | |
| 8186056669 | counterargument | a response to a point of the opposition | 22 | |
| 8186056670 | denotation | literal meaning of a word as defined | 23 | |
| 8186056671 | diatribe | a bitter attack or criticism | 24 | |
| 8186059554 | diction | word choice intended to convey a certain effect | 25 | |
| 8186059555 | didactic writing | writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. This is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns | 26 | |
| 8186062402 | dissonance | harsh or grating sounds that do not go together | 27 | |
| 8186649990 | emotional appeal | When a writer appeals to readers' emotions (often through pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument | 28 | |
| 8186649991 | epigraph | the use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme | 29 | |
| 8186649992 | ethical appeal | When a writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him or her based on his/her credibility/reliability, past experiences, level of education, etc | 30 | |
| 8186649993 | euphemism | a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable | 31 | |
| 8186653334 | euphony | a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose | 32 | |
| 8186653335 | exigence | The situation (reason) that has prompted an author, speaker, etc. to produce a piece of rhetoric | 33 | |
| 8186657179 | extended metaphor | an extended, sustained comparison, often referred to as a conceit | 34 | |
| 8186781197 | false analogy | When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them | 35 | |
| 8186784143 | figurative language | language that contains figures of speech, such as similes and metaphors, in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal | 36 | |
| 8186784144 | foreshadowing | the use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future actions | 37 | |
| 8186784145 | freight-train | Sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions to make a long sequential statement | 38 | |
| 8186806039 | generalization | When a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable | 39 | |
| 8186806040 | genre | a type of literary work | 40 | |
| 8187893295 | homily | a "sermon"; informally it can include serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice | 41 | |
| 8187893296 | hyperbole | deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration | 42 | |
| 8187893297 | hypophora | when a writer poses a question and immediately follows the question with an answer | 43 | |
| 8187897286 | imagery | words or phrases a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings, and ideas descriptively by appealing to the senses | 44 | |
| 8187897287 | inference | a conclusion one can draw from the presented details | 45 | |
| 8187897288 | interior monologue | writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head | 46 | |
| 8187907686 | invective | a verbally abusive attack | 47 | |
| 8188355472 | verbal irony | when a speaker or narrator says one thing while meaning the opposite | 48 | |
| 8188355473 | situational irony | when a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect | 49 | |
| 8188357897 | dramatic irony | when a character or speaker says or does something that has different meanings from what he/she thinks it means, though the audience and other characters understand the full implications of the speech or actions | 50 | |
| 8188357898 | jargon | The special language of a profession or group | 51 | |
| 8188357899 | juxtaposition | Normally unassociated words or phrases are placed next to one another, often creating an effect of surprise, dramatic enhancement, or wit | 52 | |
| 8188357900 | logical fallacy | a mistake in reasoning | 53 | |
| 8188360601 | loose sentence | Sentence makes complete sense if brought to a close before the actual ending | 54 | |
| 8196611671 | metaphor | a comparison of two unlike things not using "like" or "as" | 55 | |
| 8196611672 | metonymy | a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated | 56 | |
| 8196611673 | mode | the method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written | 57 | |
| 8196611674 | mood | similar to tone, this is the atmosphere or dominant emotion in a literary work | 58 | |
| 8196613839 | motif | main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea | 59 | |
| 8196613840 | negative-positive | Sentence that begins by stating what is NOT true, then ending by stating what is true | 60 | |
| 8196616702 | non-sequitur | Latin for "it does not follow." When one statement isn't logically connected to another | 61 | |
| 8196686568 | objectivity | an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement in a story | 62 | |
| 8196690619 | onomatopoeia | imitative harmony that is the use of words that mimic the sounds they describe in order to reflect on the overall mood in a work | 63 | |
| 8196690620 | oversimplification | When a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument | 64 | |
| 8196692102 | oxymoron | a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single, unusual expression | 65 | |
| 8196692103 | parable | a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory | 66 | |
| 8196692104 | paradox | when the elements of a statement contradict each other; although the statement may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, it turns out to have coherent meaning that reveals a hidden truth | 67 | |
| 8196692105 | parallelism | a similarity in the way parts of a sentence or sentences are put together; this allows the author to reveal that the ideas are of equal importance | 68 | |
| 8196694657 | parody | a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements | 69 | |
| 8196694658 | pedantic | a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant | 70 | |
| 8196696431 | periodic sentence | makes sense fully only when the end of the sentence is reached | 71 | |
| 8196696432 | personification | a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics | 72 | |
| 8196698789 | first person narrator | a narrator, referred to as "I," who is a character in the story and relates the actions through his or her own perspective, also revealing his or her own thoughts | 73 | |
| 8196698790 | point of view | the perspective from which a narrative is told | 74 | |
| 8196701499 | omniscient point of view | third person narrator, referred to as "he," "she," or "they," who is able to see into each character's mind and understands all the action | 75 | |
| 8196701500 | limited omniscient point of view | a third person narrator who reports the thoughts of only one character and generally only what that one character sees | 76 | |
| 8196703323 | polysyndeton | the deliberate use of many conjunctions for special emphasis to highlight quantity of mass of detail or to create a flowing, continuous pattern | 77 | |
| 8196703324 | protagonist | the central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem | 78 | |
| 8196703325 | red herring | When a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue | 79 | |
| 8196706160 | reductio ad absurdum | the Latin for "to reduce to the absurd." This is a technique useful in creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique. It is considered a rhetorical fallacy because it reduces an argument to an either/or choice | 80 | |
| 8196706161 | repetition | a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and to create emphasis | 81 | |
| 8196706162 | rhetoric | the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse; this focuses on what is said and how it is crafted together | 82 | |
| 8196707728 | rhetorical fragment | a sentence fragment used deliberately for a persuasive purpose or to create a desired effect | 83 | |
| 8196709203 | rhetorical question | a question that requires no answer because the answer is implied. It is used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience | 84 | |
| 8196799654 | sarcasm | the use of verbal irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it | 85 | |
| 8196799655 | satire | A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way | 86 | |
| 8196799656 | simile | a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words "like" or "as" | 87 | |
| 8196801427 | speaker | the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious persona | 88 | |
| 8196801428 | stereotype | a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality; a conventional patter, expression or idea | 89 | |
| 8196801429 | straw man | When a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak. Setting this up diverts attention from the real issues | 90 | |
| 8196803417 | stream of consciousness | a perspective in which the reader in placed inside the character's head, making the reader privy to the continuous, chaotic flow of disconnected, half-formed thoughts and impressions in the character's mind | 91 | |
| 8196803418 | style | a writer's characteristic manner of crafting language - his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to this | 92 | |
| 8196803440 | subjectivity | a personal presentation of evens and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions | 93 | |
| 8196807079 | syllogism | A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. The format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion | 94 | |
| 8196807080 | symbol | any object, person, place, or action that has both a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or value | 95 | |
| 8196809147 | synecdoche | a form of metaphor; a part of something is used to signify the whole | 96 | |
| 8196809148 | syntactic fluency | Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length | 97 | |
| 8196811113 | syntax | the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence | 98 | |
| 8196811114 | telegraphic sentence | short dramatic sentences, usually used in succession | 99 | |
| 8196811115 | theme | the central idea or "message" or a literary work | 100 | |
| 8196813087 | tone | the writer's or speaker's attitude toward a subject, character, or audience, and it is conveyed through the author's choice of words and detail | 101 | |
| 8196815808 | understatement | the opposite of exaggeration/hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is | 102 |
