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| 7270873228 | Anaphora | Repetition of beginning clauses. For instance, Churchill declared, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans..." | 0 | |
| 7270873229 | Antithesis | Contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence. It can be a contrast of opposites: "Evil men fear authority; good men cherish it." Or it can be a contrast of degree: "That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind." | 1 | |
| 7270873230 | 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. | 2 | |
| 7270873231 | Connotation | The nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. Connotations may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. | 3 | |
| 7270873232 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 4 | |
| 7270873233 | Diction | Author's word choice, especially with regard to their correctness, clarity, or effectiveness. For the AP exam, you should be able to describe an author's diction and understand the ways in which diction can complement the author's purpose. | 5 | |
| 7270873234 | Ethos | One of the rhetorical appeals - ethos establishes credibility in the speaker. Since by definition "ethos" means the common attitudes, beliefs, and characteristics of a group or time period, this appeal sets up believability in the writer. (see logos, pathos) | 6 | |
| 7270873235 | Figure of speech | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include, for example, apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. | 7 | |
| 7270873236 | Hyperbole | Figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. Usually creates a comic effect or produces irony. Example: "His thundering shout could split rocks." | 8 | |
| 7270873237 | Logos | One of the rhetorical appeals - logos employs logical reasoning, combining a clear idea (or multiple ideas) with well-thought-out and appropriate examples and details. (see ethos, pathos) | 9 | |
| 7270873238 | Loose sentence | Type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases or clauses. If a period were placed at the end of the independent clause, the clause would be a complete sentence. A work containing many loose sentences often seems informal, relaxed, and conversational. (see periodic sentence for contrast) | 10 | |
| 7270873239 | Metaphor | When something is something else: "the ladder of success" (i.e., success is a ladder), "The office is a bee-hive of activity on Mondays," or recall the old anti-drug commercial: "This is your brain on drugs." (image of egg to represent brain) | 11 | |
| 7270873240 | Paradox | A statement or situation that is seemingly contradictory on the surface, but delivers an ironic truth. | 12 | |
| 7270873241 | Parallelism | Writing similar patterns of grammatical structure and length. For instance, "King Alfred tried to made the law clear, precise, and equitable." (parallel structure in use of adjectives) | 13 | |
| 7270873242 | Pathos | One of the rhetorical appeals - pathos plays on the reader's emotions and interests. A sympathetic audience is more likely to accept a writer's assertions, so this appeal draws upon that understanding and uses it to the writer's advantage. (see ethos, logos) | 14 | |
| 7270873243 | Periodic sentence | A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. This independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. (see loose sentence for contrast) | 15 | |
| 7270873244 | Repetition | A device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and create emphasis | 16 | |
| 7270873245 | Rhetoric | From the Greek for "orator," this term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. | 17 | |
| 7270873246 | Rhetorical question | A question that expects no answer; it is used to draw attention to a point and is generally stronger than a direct statement. | 18 | |
| 7270873247 | Style | An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. Styles can be called flowery, explicit, succinct, rambling, bombastic, commonplace, incisive, or laconic, to name only a few examples. | 19 | |
| 7270873248 | Syntax | The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. This includes word order, the length and structure of sentences, and such schemes as parallelism, juxtaposition, antithesis, among others. | 20 | |
| 7270873249 | Theme | The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually, theme is unstated in fictional works, but in nonfiction, the theme may be directly stated, especially in expository or argumentative writing. It can be stated as a "universal truth," that is, a general statement about the human condition, about society, or about man's relation to the natural world. | 21 | |
| 7270873250 | Thesis | In expository writing, the thesis statement is the sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition. Expository writing is usually judged by analyzing how accurately, effectively, and thoroughly a writer has proven the thesis. | 22 | |
| 7270873251 | Tone | A speaker's attitude toward the subject conveyed by the speaker's stylistic and rhetorical choices. | 23 | |
| 7270873252 | Understatement | The ironic minimalizing of fact; something is presented as less significant than it really is. The effect can frequently be humorous and emphatic. This is the opposite of hyperbole. Example: Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub: "Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse. | 24 | |
| 7270873253 | Ad hominem | (Latin for "against the man") - this fallacy refers to the specific, diversionary tactic of switching the argument from the issue being discussed to the character of the other speaker. If you argue that a park in your community should not be renovated because the person supporting it was arrested during a domestic dispute, then you are guilty of ad hominem. | 25 | |
| 7270873254 | Ad populum | (bandwagon appeal) - this fallacy occurs when evidence boils down to "everybody's doing it, so it must be a good thing to do." You should vote to elect Rachel Johnson - she has a strong lead in the polls.- Polling higher does not necessarily make Johnson the "best" candidate, only the most popular. | 26 | |
| 7270873255 | Allegory | A story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or for abstract ideas or qualities. "The Masque of the Red Death" is an allegory because Poe uses Prince Prospero to show human arrogance, the rooms to show the stages of life, the clock to show time/warning of death, and the masked stranger to represent death. | 27 | |
| 7270873256 | Allusion | Brief reference to a person, event, or place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art. Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah... - John F. Kennedy | 28 | |
| 7270873257 | Analogy | A point-by-point comparison made between two seemingly dissimilar things for the purpose of clarifying the less familiar of the two subjects. Often, an analogy uses something simple or familiar to explain something unfamiliar or complex. In "The Crisis No. I, Thomas Paine draws an analogy between a thief breaking into a house and the king of England interfering in the affairs of the American Colonies. | 29 | |
| 7270873258 | Begging the question | A fallacy in which a claim is based on evidence or support that is in doubt. It "begs" a question whether the support itself is sound. Giving students easy access to a wealth of facts and resources online allows them to develop critical thinking skills. This begs the question: How does access to a wealth of facts and resources allow students to develop critical thinking skills? There needs to be proof that it does actually | 30 | |
| 7270873259 | Colloquial language | An informal or conversational use of language. Y'all. | 31 | |
| 7270873260 | Didactic | Literally means "teaching" particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive | 32 | |
| 7270873261 | Equivocation | A fallacy that uses a term with two or more meanings in an attempt to misrepresent or deceive. Consider the plagiarist who copies a paper word for word from a source then declares (honestly, thinks) that "I wrote the entire paper myself" - meaning the plagiarist physically copies the piece on her own. But the plagiarist is using wrote equivocally - in a limited sense - and knows that most people understand the word to mean both composing as well as mere copying of words. | 33 | |
| 7270873262 | Euphemism | From the Greek "good speech." A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. Saying "earthly remains" instead of "corpse" is an example of euphemism. | 34 | |
| 7270873263 | Irony | The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant; incongruity between action and result. 1. Verbal irony - words literally state the opposite of the writer's/speaker's true meaning 2. Situational irony - events turn out the opposite of what is expected 3. Dramatic irony - fact/events are unknown to the a character but known to the reader/audience and possibly other characters in the work. | 35 | |
| 7270873264 | Jargon | Special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand. Musical - Allegro: Cheerful or brisk tempo; Football - Facemask: A penalty of gripping an opponent's protective mask over his mouth; worth 15 yards. Military - IED is an improved explosive device | 36 | |
| 7270873265 | Metonymy | Figure of speech in which something is represented by another that is closely related to it or emblematic of it. The pen is mightier than the sword. A news release that claims "the White House declared" rather than "the President declared" is using metonymy. | 37 | |
| 7270873266 | Mood | The feel or atmosphere created by a text. "The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks...It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface, often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black, smothering mud..." - Washington Irving "The Devil and Tom Walker" | 38 | |
| 7270873267 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech where the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox. Jumbo shrimp, cruel kindness, peaceful revolution. | 39 | |
| 7270873268 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of criticism, comic effect or flattering tribute. | 40 | |
| 7270873269 | Pedantic | Ostentatious in one's learning; Overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory is a pedantic character. | 41 | |
| 7270873270 | Personification | Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea. The flowers danced in the gentle breeze. | 42 | |
| 7270873271 | Prose | A form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure rather than rhythmic structure "You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it." - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Tennessee Williams | 43 | |
| 7270873272 | Sarcasm | A literary and rhetorical device that is meant to mock with often satirical or ironic remarks where the literal meaning does not match what the speaker intends and with a purpose to amuse and hurt someone or some section of society simultaneously | 44 | |
| 7270873273 | Satire | The use of irony or sarcasm as a means of critique, usually of a society or an individual's foolishness or corruption The Daily Show, The Cobert Report | 45 | |
| 7270873274 | Syllogism | A logical structure that uses the major premise and minor premise to reach a necessary conclusion Exercise contributes to better health (major premise.) Yoga is a type of exercise (minor premise.) Yoga contributes to better health (conclusion.) | 46 | |
| 7270873275 | Synecdoche | Figure of speech that uses a part to represent the whole In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. - John F. Kennedy | 47 | |
| 7270873276 | Synesthesia | A figurative use of words that intends to draw out a response from readers stimulating multiple senses With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,/ Between the light and me;/ And then the windows failed, and then/ could not see to see. - from Emily Dickinson "I Heard a Fly When I Died" | 48 |
