Rhetorical Terms and Definitions for Mrs. Martenson's AP Language and Composition Class.
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| 13763832375 | Allegory | The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. In some allegories for example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope or freedom. The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence. | 0 | |
| 13763832376 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (as in "she sells sea shells"). Although the term is not used in the multiple choice section, you can look for alliteration in any essay passage. The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, and/or supply a musical sound. | 1 | |
| 13763832377 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Allusions can be historical (like referring to Hitler), literary (like referring to Kurtz in Heart of Darkness), religious (like referring to Noah and the flood), or mythical 9like referring to Atlas). There are, of course, many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of allusion. | 2 | |
| 13763832378 | Ambiguity | The Multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, or a word, phrase, sentence or passage. | 3 | |
| 13763832379 | Anadiplosis | The repetition of a key word, especially the last one, at the beginning of the next sentence or clause. For example, "He gave his life; life was all he could give." | 4 | |
| 13763832380 | Analogy | A similarity or comparison between tow different things or the relationship between them. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. Analogies can also make writing more vivid, imaginative, or intellectually engaging. | 5 | |
| 13763832381 | Anapestic | A foot in poetry with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. | 6 | |
| 13763832382 | Anaphora | The rhetorical device of repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences for emphasis and rhythm. | 7 | |
| 13763832383 | Anathema | A thing or person accursed or damned; a thing or person greatly detested; a formal curse or condemnation excommunicating a person from a church or damning something; any strong curse. | 8 | |
| 13763832384 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. The AP language exam occasionally asks for the antecedent of a given pronoun in a long complex sentence or in a group of sentences. | 9 | |
| 13763832385 | Anticlimax | Using a sequence of ideas that abruptly diminish in dignity or importance at the end of a sentence, generally for satirical effect. | 10 | |
| 13763832386 | Antimetabole | Repeating words in reverse order for surprise and emphasis. Same as Chiasmus. | 11 | |
| 13763832387 | Antithesis | A contrast or opposition of thoughts, usually in two phrases, clauses, or sentences. For example, You are going; I am staying. The exact opposite (Joy is the antithesis of sorrow). | 12 | |
| 13763832388 | Aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. (If the authorship is unknown, the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb). An aphorism can be a memorable summation of the author's point. | 13 | |
| 13763832389 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity. William Wordsworth addresses John Milton as he writes, "Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee. | 14 | |
| 13763832390 | Archetype | The original pattern, or model from which all other things of the same kind of thing are made; a perfect example of a type or group. | 15 | |
| 13763832391 | Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words; e.g., the words "cry and "side" have the same vowel sound and so are said to be in assonance. | 16 | |
| 13763832392 | Asyndeton | The practice of leaving out the usual conjunctions between coordinate sentence elements. For example: smile, shake hands, part. | 17 | |
| 13763832393 | Atmosphere | The emotional mood created by the entirety of the literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described. Even such elements as a description of the weather can contribute to the atmosphere. Frequently, atmosphere foreshadows events. | 18 | |
| 13763832394 | Attitude | The position or posture assumed in connection with an action, feeling, mood. For example, to kneel in an attitude of prayer. Also a manner of acting, feeling or thinking that shows one's disposition, opinion or mental set, etc. | 19 | |
| 13763832395 | Balanced Sentence | In a balanced sentence, the phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their likeness in structure, meaning, or length: e.g., He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. | 20 | |
| 13763832396 | Bathos | An abrupt change from the lofty to the ordinary or trivial in writing or speech; anticlimax. | 21 | |
| 13763832397 | Blank Verse | Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. An iamb is a poetic foot consisting of one weak stress followed by one strong stress. A pentameter line is a line of five poetic feet. | 22 | |
| 13763832398 | Cacophony | Harsh sounding, jarring sound; dissonance. | 23 | |
| 13763832399 | Caesura | A pause or break in the middle of a line of poetry | 24 | |
| 13763832400 | Chiasmus | Similar to antimetabole, but reversing the grammatical elements rather than just words, for emphasis. | 25 | |
| 13763832401 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent, or main, clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate, clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause. Examine this sample sentence: "Because I practiced hard, my AP scores were high." In this sentence, the independent clause is "my AP scores were high," and the dependent clause is "Because I practiced hard." | 26 | |
| 13763832402 | Cliche | An overused, worn-out, hackneyed expression that used to be fresh but is no more. "Blushing bride" and "clinging vine" are clichés used to describe people. | 27 | |
| 13763832403 | Climax | Arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of their importance, the least forcible coming first and the others rising in poser until the last. | 28 | |
| 13763832404 | Colloquial | The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local and regional dialects. | 29 | |
| 13763832405 | Complex Sentence | A complex sentence contains two or more principal clauses and one or more subordinate clauses: e.g., You said that you would tell the truth. | 30 | |
| 13763832406 | Compound Sentence | A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction (and, but, or) or by a semicolon: e.g., The singer bowed to the audience, but she sang no encores. | 31 | |
| 13763832407 | Compound-Complex Sentence | A compound-complex sentence contains two or more principal clauses and one or more subordinate clauses: e.g., The singer bowed while the audience applauded, but she sang no encores. | 32 | |
| 13763832408 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness due to the unusual comparison made. | 33 | |
| 13763832409 | Connotation | The nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. Connotations may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. | 34 | |
| 13763832410 | Consonance | The repetition of a constant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect: e.g., And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. The "d" sound is in consonance. The "s" sound is also in consonance. | 35 | |
| 13763832411 | Cumulative sentence | An independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions that gather details about a person, place, event, or idea | 36 | |
| 13763832412 | Dactylic | A foot in poetry with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. | 37 | |
| 13763832413 | Declarative Sentence | A sentence that makes a statement: e.g., The king is sick. | 38 | |
| 13763832414 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 39 | |
| 13763832415 | Device | A plan. Something used to gain an artistic effect. | 40 | |
| 13763832416 | Diction | Related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. For the AP exam, you should be able to describe an author's diction (for example, formal or informal, ornate or plain) and understand the ways in which diction can complement the author's purpose. Diction, combined with syntax, figurative language, literary devices etc., creates the author's style. | 41 | |
| 13763832417 | Didactic | From the Greek, didactic literally means "teaching." Didactic works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles. | 42 | |
| 13763832418 | Dimeter | A verse written in two-foot lines. | 43 | |
| 13763832419 | Dirge | A funeral hymn; a slow, sad song, poem, or musical composition expressing grief or mourning. | 44 | |
| 13763832420 | Elegy | A poem or song of lament and praise for the dead. | 45 | |
| 13763832421 | Ellipsis | The omission of a word or words necessary for complete grammatical construction but understood in the context. For example, "if possible" for "if it is possible." Also an intentional omission of words or letters or an abrupt change of thought, lapse of time, incomplete statement, etc. | 46 | |
| 13763832422 | Enjambment | In poetry, the running on of a sentence from one line or couplet to the next with little or no pause. | 47 | |
| 13763832423 | Epanalepsis | Opening and closing a sentence with the same word or praise for surprise and emphasis. For example, Buster is deeply concerned to promote the health and well being of Buster. | 48 | |
| 13763832424 | Epic | A long narrative poem in a dignified style about the deeds of a tradition or historical hero or heroes. | 49 | |
| 13763832425 | Epigram | A short poem with a witty or satirical point; any terse, witty, pointed statement, often antithetical. For example: "Experience is the name everyone gives to his mistakes." | 50 | |
| 13763832426 | Epistles | An epistle, or literary letter, is a formal composition written in the form of a letter addressed to a distant person or group of people. Unlike common personal letters, which tend to be conversational and private compositions, epistles are carefully-crafted works of literature, intended for a general audience. | 51 | |
| 13763832427 | Epitagh | An inscription on a tomb or gravestone in memory of the person buried there; short composition in prose or verse, written in attribute to a person. | 52 | |
| 13763832428 | Euphemism | Form the Greek for "good speech," euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. The euphemism may be used to adhere to standards of social or political correctness or to add humor or ironic understatement. Saying "earthly remains" rather than "corpse" is an example of euphemism. | 53 | |
| 13763832429 | Euphony | The quality of having a pleasant sound; pleasant combination of agreeable sounds. | 54 | |
| 13763832430 | Extended Parallelism | The repetition of words or grammatical elements to achieve cumulative force and rhythm. For example, in a single sentence: I photographed the living things of the Mojave Desert: cactus flowers in yellow bloom , an indigo bush with dark blue flowers, kangaroo rats hopping frantically over the sand, a vulture circling overhead, a rattlesnake basking in the sun. | 55 | |
| 13763832431 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length , occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 56 | |
| 13763832432 | Fable | A brief history, usually with animal characters, that teaches a lesson or moral. | 57 | |
| 13763832433 | Figurative Language | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include, for example, apostrophe, hyperbole. Irony, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia etc. | 58 | |
| 13763832434 | Genre | Kinds of types of literature. For example, poetry, drama, novel, short story, nonfiction, etc. | 59 | |
| 13763832435 | Homily | A solemn, moralizing talk or writing; a sermon ( especially a long, boring one.) | 60 | |
| 13763832436 | Hortative Sentence | A sentence meant to encourage | 61 | |
| 13763832437 | Hyperbole | An overstatement or exaggerated way of saying something. Example: "This book weighs a ton." In literature, hyperbole is classified a s a figure of speech. | 62 | |
| 13763832438 | Iambic | A foot in poetry with one unstressed syllable, followed by one stressed syllable. | 63 | |
| 13763832439 | Imagery | Anything in a literary work that calls up sensations of sight, taste, smell, touch, heat, pressure. In the expression, "My heart is like a singing bird", both the singing bird and the heart are images | 64 | |
| 13763832440 | Infer/Inference | To conclude or decide from something known or assumed; derive by reasoning. | 65 | |
| 13763832441 | Invective | A violent verbal attack; strong criticism, curses; an abusive term. | 66 | |
| 13763832442 | Inverted order of a sentence | This involves constructing a sentence so the predicate comes before the subject: e.g., In California grow oranges. This is a device in which normal sentence patterns are reversed to create an emphatic or rhythmic effect. | 67 | |
| 13763832443 | Imperative sentence | A sentence that commands | 68 | |
| 13763832444 | Irony | General, irony is an implied contrast. In verbal irony the contrast is between what is said and what is intended, as when one says in disgust, "That's just great." In dramatic irony, a character in a play, short story, or novel expects one outcome of a situation that the audience knows will end a different way. In situational irony the opposite or something very different happens than what is expected. | 69 | |
| 13763832445 | Juxtaposition | a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit: e.g., "The apparition of these face sin the crowd;/petals on a wet, black bough." | 70 | |
| 13763832446 | Language | The entire body of words used in a text, not simply bits of isolated diction; for example: an invitation to a graduation might use formal language, where as a biology text would use scientific and clinical language. | 71 | |
| 13763832447 | Literal/ Figurative | Literal is based on the actual words in the ordinary meaning. Figurative gives a more symbolic meaning or representing one concept in terms of another that may be thought of as analogous within sense of reference. In the words "screaming headlines," screaming is a figurative use. Litotes- Understatement employed for the purpose of enhancing the effect of the ideas expressed. Contains a negative. | 72 | |
| 13763832448 | Litotes | Ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary | 73 | |
| 13763832449 | Loose Sentence | a loose sentence makes sense if brought to a close before the actual ending: e.g., We reached Edmonton/ that morning/ after a turbulent flight/ and some exciting experiences | 74 | |
| 13763832450 | Lyric | A melodic poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker. Unlike a narrative poem, a lyric focuses on a single, united effect. Types of lyrics include elegy, the ode, and the sonnet. Among contemporary American poets, the lyrics is the most common poetic form. | 75 | |
| 13763832451 | Metaphor | A comparison, like a simile but usually implied and without a comparative word such as like or as. Example: "My heart is a singing bird"; "He wolfed his food" | 76 | |
| 13763832452 | Metonymy | The use of the name of one thing for that of another associated with or suggested by it. For example "the White House" of the "President." | 77 | |
| 13763832453 | Mock Heroic | burlesquing or mocking heroic manner, action, or character. | 78 | |
| 13763832454 | Monometer | A verse written in one-foot lines. | 79 | |
| 13763832455 | Mood | The atmosphere of the literary work. In verbs, an expression of the manner in which the action is done. The three moods in English are indicative, the most common, which states the action is an actual fact ("Tony hit the ball"), imperative, stating a command ("Tony, hit the ball!"). A third mood, the subjunctive, is now rare in English. It is used to express a wish or a conditional statement: "If I were you...", "It is required that the applicant be under twenty-one." | 80 | |
| 13763832456 | Motif | A main theme or subject. | 81 | |
| 13763832457 | Myth | A fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or heroes or the causes of natural phenomena. Some myths are a kind of primitive science, explaining how and why natural phenomena came about. Other myths express the central values of the people who created them. | 82 | |
| 13763832458 | Narrative | The telling of any story, or the story itself, the plot. | 83 | |
| 13763832459 | Natural order of a sentence | This involves constructing a sentence so the subject comes before the predicate: e.g., Oranges grow in California. | 84 | |
| 13763832460 | Novel | A fictional prose narrative, usually long enough to be published in a book by itself. | 85 | |
| 13763832461 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words that sound like what they mean. Buzz, clang, and hiss are onomatopoeia. | 86 | |
| 13763832462 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined; for example: thunderous silence, sweet sorrow and jumbo shrimp are oxymorons. | 87 | |
| 13763832463 | Parable | A parable is a brief story, usually with human characters, that teaches a moral lesson. The most famous parables are those told by Christ in the Bible. | 88 | |
| 13763832464 | Paradox | a statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but that may actually be true in fact. | 89 | |
| 13763832465 | Parellelism | refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence. It involves an arrangement of words, phrase, sentences, and paragraphs so that elements of equal importance are equally developed and similarly phrased: e.g., He was walking, running, and jumping for joy. I learned to swim, to play tennis, and to ride a horse. | 90 | |
| 13763832466 | Parody | A literary that imitates and makes fun of another type of work, or specific author. | 91 | |
| 13763832467 | Pedantic | An unnecessary display of scholarship lacking in judgment or sense of proportion. | 92 | |
| 13763832468 | Pentameter | A verse written in five-foot lines. | 93 | |
| 13763832469 | Periodic Sentence | A periodic sentence makes sense only hen the end of the sentence is reached. E.g., that morning, after a turbulent flight and some exciting experiences, we reached Edmonton. | 94 | |
| 13763832470 | Personification | The treatment of an object or an abstract idea as if it were a person, as in Tennyson's "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white," and Shakespeare's "Time's cruel hand." | 95 | |
| 13763832471 | Point of View | In fiction, point of view is the person or intelligence the writer creates to tell the story to the reader. The point of view may be that of a character in the story or of an outside observer who is not part of the action. | 96 | |
| 13763832472 | Prose | The ordinary form of written or spoken language, without rhyme or meter; speech or writing that is not poetry. | 97 | |
| 13763832473 | Prosody | The science or art of versification, including the study of metrical structure, rhyme, stanza forms, etc. | 98 | |
| 13763832474 | Pun | play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings. Puns can have serious as well as humorous uses: e.g., When Mercutio is bleeding to death in Romeo and Juliet, he says to his friends, "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me grave man." | 99 | |
| 13763832475 | Repetition | A device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and create emphasis: e.g., "...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall perish form the earth" | 100 | |
| 13763832476 | Rhetoric | The skill of using spoken or written communication effectively. It is the art of guiding the reader or listener to agreement with the writer or speaker. Spoken rhetoric is called oratory. | 101 | |
| 13763832477 | Rhetorical Modes | Narrative, descriptive, expository & argumentative. | 102 | |
| 13763832478 | Rhetorical Question | a question that expects no answer. It is used to draw attention as a point and is generally stronger than the direct statement: e.g., "If Mr. Ferchoff is always fair, as you have said, why did he refuse to listen to Mr. Baldwing's arguments?" | 103 | |
| 13763832479 | Rhyme Scheme | A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. To describe rhyme scheme, one uses a letter of the alphabet to represent each rhyming sound in a poem or stanza. | 104 | |
| 13763832480 | Romance | A story that presents a remote or imaginative incidents rather than ordinary, commonplace experiences. Although the events in a romance are improbable or impossible, the characters still reflect "truth of heart." | 105 | |
| 13763832481 | Sarcasm | A taunting, sneering, cutting or caustic remark; gibe or jeer. | 106 | |
| 13763832482 | Satire | A literary work that ridicules various aspects of human behavior. Its purpose is often to correct certain faults, but underneath the surface it is sometimes pure personal attack. Gulliver's Travels and Animal Farm and both satires. | 107 | |
| 13763832483 | Scheme | Figures of speech that deal with word order, syntax, letters, and sounds | 108 | |
| 13763832484 | Semantics | The nature, structure, development and changes of the meanings of speech forms with contextual meaning. | 109 | |
| 13763832485 | Sentence Inversion | any sentence in which the normal word order is reversed, with the verb coming before the subject or the complete subject and predicate coming after another clause. | 110 | |
| 13763832486 | Sentence Structure | How a speaker or author constructs a sentence affects what the audience understands. The inverted order of an interrogative sentence cues the reader or listener to a question and creates a tension between speaker and listener. Similarly short sentences ar e often emphatic, passionate or flippant, whereas longer sentences suggest the writer's thoughtful response. | 111 | |
| 13763832487 | Shift | A change of feelings by the speaker from the beginning to the end, paying particular attention to the conclusion of the literature. (Progression) | 112 | |
| 13763832488 | Simile | The comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of words like or as. It is a definitely stated comparison in which the poet says one thing is like another; e,g,, The warrior fought like a lion. | 113 | |
| 13763832489 | Simple Sentence | a simple sentence contains one subject and one verb: e.g., The singer bowed to her adoring audience. | 114 | |
| 13763832490 | Soliloquy | Lines in a drama in which a character reveals his thoughts to the audience, but not to the other characters, by speaking as if to himself. | 115 | |
| 13763832491 | Sonnet | a fourteen-line lyric poem focused on a single theme. Sonnets have many variations, but are usually written in iambic pentameter, following one or two traditional patterns. The Petrarchan, or Italian, or the Shakespearean, or English. | 116 | |
| 13763832492 | Split order of a sentence | This divides the predicate into two parts with the subject coming in the middle: e.g., In California oranges grow | 117 | |
| 13763832493 | Stream of Conscioiusness | A narrative technique that presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from a character's mind. Instead of being arranged in chronological order, the events of the story are presented from the character's point of view, mixed in character's feelings and memories just as they might spontaneously occur in the mind of a real person. | 118 | |
| 13763832494 | Style | a group of different aspects of writing that have to do with the writer's way of saying something. Diction, sentence structure, figurative language, and various sound patterns all enter into style. | 119 | |
| 13763832495 | Syllogism | An argument or form of reasoning in which two statements or premises are made and a logical conclusion drawn form them. Example: All mammals are warm blooded. Whales are mammals. Therefore whales are warm blooded. | 120 | |
| 13763832496 | Symbol/Symbolism | A thing or action that is made to mean more than itself. A rose, for instance, is used to symbolize love. Writers of ten use symbols to express ideas that are too complicated, too elusive, or too deep for words. | 121 | |
| 13763832497 | Synecdoche | A from of a metaphor, In synecdoche , a part of something is used to signify the whole: e.g., All hands on deck. Also, the reverse, whereby the whole can represent a part, is synecdoche: e.g., Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey finals. Another form of synecdoche involves the container representing the thing be contained: e.g., The pot is boiling. In one last form of synecdoche, the material from which an objects is made stands for the object itself: e.g., The quarterback tossed the pigskin. In metonymy, the name of one thing is applied to another thing with which is closely associated: e.g., I love Shakespeare. | 122 | |
| 13763832498 | Synesthetic Imagery | Detail that moves from the simulation of one sense to a response by another sense, as a certain odor induces the visualization of a certain color. Here the act of reading, a visual stimulus, produces sound. e.g., "the cinnamon beat of the music," "yellow cocktail music," "the sparkling odor of jonquils," etc. | 123 | |
| 13763832499 | Syntax | At its simplest level, syntax consists of sentence structure and word order, but analysis of style and meaning never relies on one concept alone. Syntax should not be studied in isolation, but rather it should be examined in conjunction with other stylistic techniques that work together to develop meaning. | 124 | |
| 13763832500 | Tetrameter | A verse written in four lines. | 125 | |
| 13763832501 | Theme | What the author is saying bout the subjects in his work. | 126 | |
| 13763832502 | Tone | The writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject and the audience. | 127 | |
| 13763832503 | Tragedy | A serious play typically dealing with the problems of a central character, leading to an unhappy or disastrous ending brought on as in ancient drama, by fate and a tragic flaw in this character, or, in modern drama, usually by moral weakness, psychological maladjustment, or social pressures. | 128 | |
| 13763832504 | Trimeter | A verse written in three-foot lines. | 129 | |
| 13763832505 | Trite | is applied to something, especially a n expression or idea which through repeated use or application has lost its origin freshness. | 130 | |
| 13763832506 | Trope | A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression | 131 | |
| 13763832507 | Trochaic | A foot in poetry with one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable. | 132 | |
| 13763832508 | Understatement (meiosis) | The opposite of hyperbole. It is a king of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is: e.g., I could probably manage to survive on a salary of two million dollars a year. | 133 | |
| 13763832509 | Vernacular | Using the native language of a country or place; commonly spoken by the people of a particular country or place. | 134 | |
| 13763832510 | Vignette | A short, delicate literary sketch. | 135 | |
| 13763832511 | Zeugma | Figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses | 136 | |
| 13763832512 | Rhetorical Strategies | methods of development | 137 | |
| 13763832513 | Argument and persuasion | stating opinions and proposals | 138 | |
| 13763832514 | Cause and Effect | asking why | 139 | |
| 13763832515 | Classification | sorting into kinds | 140 | |
| 13763832516 | Definition | tracing boundaries | 141 | |
| 13763832518 | begging the question | Often called circular reasoning, occurs when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim. | 142 | |
| 13763832519 | 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." | 143 | |
| 13763832520 | ad populum | This fallacy occurs when evidence boils down to "everybody's doing it, so it must be a good thing to do." | 144 | |
| 13763832521 | Red Herring | A fallacy that introduces an irrelevant issue to divert attention from the subject under discussion | 145 | |
| 13763832522 | Complex Question Fallacy | A fallacy of form where a question is crafted to exclude any possible legitimate response - also known as a "loaded question." Something unstated is being assumed which causes a fallacy. | 146 | |
| 13763832523 | Enthymeme | an argument in which one premise is not explicitly stated | 147 | |
| 13763832524 | Enthymeme example | "He is a US citizen, so he is entitled to due process." (There is an unstated assumption that US citizens are entitled to due process.) | 148 | |
| 13763832525 | Thesis | Focus statement of an essay; premise statement upon which the point of view or discussion in the essay is based. | 149 | |
| 13763832526 | Antithesis | Direct opposite | 150 | |
| 13763832527 | Synthesis | combining parts into a whole | 151 | |
| 13763832528 | Synthesis Essay | Similar to argument essay, but uses given sources to argue a point | 152 |
