Terms : Hide Images
| 6081539562 | Abstract Language | Language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places. (For example: Take words such as pride and kindness--as opposed to more concrete words such as cat or table.) | 0 | |
| 6081539563 | Ad Baculum (or Appeal to Fear) | A rhetorical tactic that uses unlikely but frightening illustrations to move an audience. (Scare tactics) Using the threat of force. | 1 | |
| 6081539564 | Ad Hominem | In an argument, this is an attack on an opponent's character as opposed to the opposed ideas. It comes from the Latin meaning "against the man." It is a fallacy when the person's background or character has nothing no relevance to their argument. The purpose of the fallacy is to make the person look bad such that no one pays attention to what they say. | 2 | |
| 6081539565 | Affirming the Consequent | Here is an example: People who go to university are more successful in life. John is successful; hence, he must have gone to university. --In this logical fallacy, people connect a general truth (A is to B) with a "consequent" (B) that presumes the general truth (A) caused (B). In the above example, John is a success (B) but it is illogical to presume that is was caused by him attending university (A). Essentially, this fallacy is a form of prejudice--assuming a cause that may not exist. | 3 | |
| 6081539566 | Allegory | A work that functions on more than one level: both concrete and symbolic. For example: A person is not just a person, they are also a symbol of something else. | 4 | |
| 6081539567 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." | 5 | |
| 6081539568 | Allusion | A reference contained in a work to another person, place, or thing. The author assumes that the reader understands the reference and takes meaning from it. For example: He dances like Fred Astaire! (This only has meaning if you know who Fred Astaire was.) | 6 | |
| 6081539569 | Ambiguity | an event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. | 7 | |
| 6081539570 | Analogy | a literary device employed to serve as a basis for comparison. It is assumed that what applies to the parallel situation also applies to the original circumstance. In other words, it is the comparison between two different items. | 8 | |
| 6081539571 | Anaphora | repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent. | 9 | |
| 6081539572 | Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point. | 10 | |
| 6081539573 | Annotation (AN/AD + NOTE) | Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. | 11 | |
| 6081539574 | Antecedent (ANTE + CEDE) | The noun to which a later pronoun refers. | 12 | |
| 6081539575 | Antithesis (ANTI + THESIS) | The presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by phrase, clause, or paragraph. | 13 | |
| 6081539576 | Aphorism | A short, astute statement of a general truth. | 14 | |
| 6081539577 | Apostrophe | The speaker or author breaking off and speaking to an imaginary person. | 15 | |
| 6081539578 | Appeal to Hypocrisy | Essentially, this logical fallacy occurs when a false charge is rejoined by another false charge. The original voice was hypocritical--but so is the response. (Example: "This man is wrong because he has no integrity; just ask him why he was fired from his last job," to which Jack replies, "How about we talk about the fat bonus you took home last year despite half of your company being downsized?" --From each side, there is no attempt to argue reasonably--only an attempt to label the other as a hypocrite who can't be trusted. Tune in to any political debate or political ad for examples of this fallacy.) | 16 | |
| 6081539579 | Appeal to Ignorance | In this logical fallacy, an argument assumes a claim to be true simply because there is no evidence proving that it is not. (Classic example: Because we cannot explain how humans built the Egyptian pyramids, it is reasonable to conclude that they were built by supernatural forces.) | 17 | |
| 6081539580 | Appeal to Irrelevant Authority | This is a logical fallacy that occurs when--in the course of an argument--an expert person is used to strengthen the validity of an argument; however, that person is not truly an expert on that subject. | 18 | |
| 6081539581 | Appeal to Pity | A rhetorical tactic that uses sympathy in order to move an audience. | 19 | |
| 6081539582 | Argument | A single assertion or a series of assertions presented and defended by the writer | 20 | |
| 6081539583 | Argument from Consequences | Any specific causes will lead to a series of effects. This logical fallacy occurs when the person making the argument chooses only certain effects and ignores the others. For example, they may point out only the positive effects when the negatives truly outweigh the positives--leading to a false conclusion. | 21 | |
| 6081539584 | Argument from Outrage | A rhetorical tactic when one tries to use loaded language and emotion to get people as angry as possible about an issue without giving a good reason to be angry. | 22 | |
| 6081539585 | Argumentation | The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to prove the validity of an idea, or point of view, by presenting sound reasoning, discussion, and argument that thoroughly convince the reader. | 23 | |
| 6081539586 | Argumentum Ad Populum (or Bandwagon) | A fallacy in which the appeal to the popularity of a claim is presented as a reason for accepting it. (The number of people who believe a claim is irrelevant to its truth.) | 24 | |
| 6081539587 | Assonance (AS/AD + SON) | Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity. | 25 | |
| 6081539588 | Asyndeton (A/AN + SYN) | Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are thus emphasized equally. (Example: I came, I saw, I conquered.) | 26 | |
| 6081539589 | Attitude | the relationship an author has toward his or her subject, and/or his or her audience | 27 | |
| 6081539590 | Authority | Arguments that draw on recognized experts or persons with highly relevant experience. | 28 | |
| 6081539591 | Backing | Support or evidence for a claim in an argument | 29 | |
| 6081539592 | Balance | a situation in which all parts of the presentation are equal, whether in sentences or paragraphs or sections of a longer work. | 30 | |
| 6081539593 | Begging the Question (including Circular Reasoning) | __ occurs when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim. Or, in other words, when an argument is build on a premise or fact that other doubt or question--when in effect negates the entire argument. | 31 | |
| 6081539594 | Cacophony (CACO + PHON) | Harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony. | 32 | |
| 6081539595 | Causal Relationship | In __, a writer asserts that one thing results from another. To show how one thing produces or brings about another is often relevant in establishing a logical argument. | 33 | |
| 6081539596 | Character | those who carry out the action of the plot in literature. Major, minor, static, and dynamic are the types. | 34 | |
| 6081539597 | Chiasmus | Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X. It is often short and summarizes a main idea. (For example: "Never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You.") This term is similar to antimetabole, which also uses inversion. However, antimetabole inverts the wording exactly (e.g., when the going gets tough, the tough get going), whereas in this term does not require the words to be repeated in exact sequence. But--in modern usage, the terms are generally equivalent. | 35 | |
| 6081539598 | Colloquial/Colloquialism (CO + LOQU) | An informal or conversational use of language. | 36 | |
| 6081539599 | Comic Relief | the inclusion of a humorous character or scene to contrast with the tragic elements of a work, thereby intensifying the next tragic event. | 37 | |
| 6081539600 | Composition and Division | These logical fallacies are based on assumptions between parts and the whole. In composition, one assumes that--if all the parts have a certain quality--then the whole must have that same quality. (Example: All the parts have passed safety inspections; there, the ride as a whole is safe.) In division, one assumes that a quality of the whole is shared by all of the parts. (Mr. Anderson's class performed exceptionally well on the AP test; therefore, each of his students performed exceptionally well.) | 38 | |
| 6081539601 | Conflict | a clash between opposing forces in a literary work, such as man vs. man; man vs. nature; man vs. God; man vs. self | 39 | |
| 6081539602 | Connotation (CON + NOTE) | That which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning. | 40 | |
| 6081539603 | Consonance (CON + SON) | Repetition of a consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity. | 41 | |
| 6081539604 | Cumulative | Sentence which begins with the main idea and then expands on that idea with a series of details or other particulars | 42 | |
| 6081539605 | Deconstruction | a critical approach that debunks single definitions of meaning based on the instability of language. It "is not a dismantling of a structure of a text, but a demonstration that it has already dismantled itself." | 43 | |
| 6081539606 | Deduction (DE + DUCT) | The process of moving from a general rule to a specific examples. | 44 | |
| 6081539607 | Denotation (DE + NOTE) | The literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition. | 45 | |
| 6081539608 | Description | The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to re-create, invent, or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader can picture that being described. Sometimes an author engages all five senses. | 46 | |
| 6081539609 | Dialect | the recreation of regional spoken language, such as a Southern one. Hurston uses this in Their Eyes Were Watching God. | 47 | |
| 6081539610 | Diction (DICT) | Word choice | 48 | |
| 6081539611 | Didactic | writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. A ___ work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. | 49 | |
| 6081539612 | Downplayers | The use of qualifier words or phrases to make someone or something look less important or significant. ("So-called skeptics." "She got her 'degree' from a correspondence school." "Passed only two bills while in office.") | 50 | |
| 6081539613 | Dramatic Irony | In this type of irony, facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or a piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work | 51 | |
| 6081539614 | Either/Or Logical Fallacy (or False Dilemma) | A fallacy in which only two choices or options are given, such that one appears as clearly the best choice. The fallacy is that there are OTHER alternative choices that might offer a better solution; however, they are intentionally ignored or kept hidden. | 52 | |
| 6081539615 | Ellipsis | Indicated by a series of three periods, the __ indicates that some material has been omitted from a given text. | 53 | |
| 6081539616 | Epigraph (EPI + GRAPH) | The use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. | 54 | |
| 6081539617 | Equivocation (EQUI equal + VOC voice) | This term denotes arguments in which the meaning or definition of a word changes in the course of reasoning. (Example: How can you be against faith when we take leaps of faith all the time? --In this, note how the meaning of faith shifts from spiritual belief to risk-taking.) | 55 | |
| 6081539618 | Ethical Appeal | When a writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him or her based on a presentation of image of self through the text. | 56 | |
| 6081539619 | Ethos | an appeal based on the character of the speaker. An __-driven document relies on the reputation of the author. | 57 | |
| 6081539620 | Euphemism (EU) | The substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. | 58 | |
| 6081539621 | Euphony (EU + PHON) | The pleasant, mellifluous presentation of sounds in a literary work. | 59 | |
| 6081539622 | Example | an individual instance taken to be representative of a general pattern | 60 | |
| 6081539623 | Explication | The act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. __ usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language. | 61 | |
| 6081539624 | Exposition (EX + POS) | A setting forth of the meaning or purpose (as of a writing). | 62 | |
| 6081539625 | False analogy | When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them. | 63 | |
| 6081539626 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 64 | |
| 6081539627 | Figure of Speech | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Examples are apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonomy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. | 65 | |
| 6081539628 | Genetic Fallacy (GEN birth/origin) | This logical fallacy occurs when--instead of addressing the reasonableness of an argument--a person questions the origins of the person who is making the argument itself. (Example: Of course he supports the union stance as his father was a former leader of the union! --In this case, the person making the statement wants readers to throw out the person's argument solely because they may have a personal connection to the issue. But--that is not logical! Evaluations should be made of the argument itself--not the origin of a person's views or opinions.) | 66 | |
| 6081539629 | Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. | 67 | |
| 6081539630 | Guilt by Association | This logical fallacy tries to discredit an argument solely by connecting it to a group or person generally deemed "bad." For example, we all know that Hitler and the Nazi's were sinister people. So, one might argue: You should not read the works of Doestoyevsky because Hitler praised him. Or, the Nazi's encouraged socialist policies; therefore, all socialist policies are wrong. | 68 | |
| 6081539631 | Hasty Generalization | To draw a broad conclusion from only a few specific examples. This occurs when the conclusion is not necessarily true because the sample size is too small. | 69 | |
| 6081539632 | Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 70 | |
| 6081539633 | Hyperbole (HYPER) | The use of extravagant overstatement or exaggeration. ("Barack Obama is a Socialist!") | 71 | |
| 6081539634 | Imagery | The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, __ uses terms related to the five senses; we refer to visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory. For example, a rose may present visual __ while also representing the color in a woman's cheeks. | 72 | |
| 6081539635 | Induction (IN + DUCT) | The process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization. | 73 | |
| 6081539636 | Infer or to make an inference | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. To "read between the lines" of a series of facts to recognize a probable truth. | 74 | |
| 6081539637 | Innuendo | The use of language to imply that a particular inference is justified, as if saying "go ahead and read between the lines!" In this way, the speaker doesn't have to actually make a claim that can't be supported; instead, the audience is led to make the leap on their own. | 75 | |
| 6081539638 | Invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. | 76 | |
| 6081539639 | Inversion (anastrophe) [IN + VERT] | Changing the customary order of words grammatically. | 77 | |
| 6081539640 | Irony | The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant. The difference between what appears to be and what actually is true. | 78 | |
| 6081539641 | Juxtaposition (JUX/JUNCT + POS) | Placement of two things side by side for emphasis. | 79 | |
| 6081539642 | Labeling (euphemism and dysphemism) [EU and DYS] | The use of a highly connotative word or phrase to name or describe a subject or action, a technique also called using loaded language. For example: freedom fighter vs. guerrilla fighter. | 80 | |
| 6081539643 | Logical fallacy | A mistake in reasoning. | 81 | |
| 6081539644 | Logos | An appeal to logic. | 82 | |
| 6081539645 | Metaphor | a direct comparison between dissimilar things. "Your eyes are stars" is an example. | 83 | |
| 6081539646 | Metonymy (META + NYM) | A figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated. | 84 | |
| 6081539647 | Mood | This term has two distinct technical meanings in English writing. The first meaning is grammatical and deals with verbal units and a speaker's attitude. The second meaning is literary, meaning the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. | 85 | |
| 6081539648 | Motif (MOT) | Main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea. | 86 | |
| 6081539649 | Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 87 | |
| 6081539650 | No True Scotsman | This logical fallacy occurs when a person's argument has been countered by an example; however, rather than respond to the counterexample, the person instead changes the argument to exclude the example. (Example: No true TIS student would root for Maple Leaf to win the annual game. --But is that true in every case?) | 88 | |
| 6081539651 | Non sequitur (NON + SEQU) | A statement that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said. | 89 | |
| 6081539652 | Onomatopoeia | a figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum. | 90 | |
| 6081539653 | Oxymoron | From the Greek for "pointedly foolish," ___ is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms. Simple examples include "jumbo shrimp" and "cruel kindness." | 91 | |
| 6081539654 | Pacing | The relative speed with which a story is told. | 92 | |
| 6081539655 | Paradox | A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. | 93 | |
| 6081539656 | Parallelism | refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. | 94 | |
| 6081539657 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. | 95 | |
| 6081539658 | Pathos | an appeal based on emotion. | 96 | |
| 6081539659 | Pedantic (PED) | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish. To speak or write in a manner as if one were talking to a child. | 97 | |
| 6081539660 | Periodic Sentence | A sentence that begins with dependent phrases and ends with a main clause containing the central meaning. In other words, the sentence begins with descriptive details and ends with the subject--such that you do not know who or what is being spoken about until the very end of the sentence--creating suspense or intrigue. | 98 | |
| 6081539661 | Personification | The assigning of human qualities to inanimate objects or concepts. An example: Wordsworth's "the sea that bares her bosom to the moon." | 99 | |
| 6081539662 | Point of View | In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. | 100 | |
| 6081539663 | Polysyndeton (POLY + SYN) | The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions. (Example: For Thanksgiving, we have turkey and cranberries and sweet potatoes and green beans and rice cakes and M&Ms. | 101 | |
| 6081539664 | Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (or sometimes just Post Hoc, also known as "Not a Cause for a Cause") | Latin for "after this, therefore because of this," is a logical fallacy (of the questionable cause variety) that states, "Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one." It is also sometimes referred to as false cause, coincidental correlation, or correlation not causation. | 102 | |
| 6081539665 | Prose | One of the major divisions of genre, ___ refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms, because they are written in ordinary language and most closely resemble everyday speech. | 103 | |
| 6081539666 | Red Herring | A rhetorical diversion: Distracting the audience from the main argument by tossing out something unrelated but yet interesting. | 104 | |
| 6081539667 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, or any element of language, such as sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 105 | |
| 6081539668 | Rhetoric | The study of effective, persuasive language use. | 106 | |
| 6081539669 | Rhetorical Modes | The flexible term describes the variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of writing. | 107 | |
| 6081539670 | Ridicule/Sarcasm | The use of language that suggests the subject is worthy of scorn. The language seeks to evoke a laugh or sarcastically mock the subject. | 108 | |
| 6081539671 | Satire | A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and convention for reform or ridicule. Regardless of whether or not the work aims to reform humans or their society, ___ is best seen as a style of writing rather than a purpose for writing. The effect of __, often humorous, is thought provoking and insightful about the human condition. | 109 | |
| 6081539672 | Semantics | The branch of linguistics that studies that meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. | 110 | |
| 6081539673 | Shift | To change place, position, or direction of something. | 111 | |
| 6081539674 | Situational Irony | a type of irony in which events turn out the opposite of what was expected. | 112 | |
| 6081539675 | Slippery Slope Fallacy | A tricky precarious situation, especially one that leads gradually but inexorably to disaster. A fallacy in which a course of action is objected to on the grounds that once taken it will lead to additional actions until some undesirable consequence results. | 113 | |
| 6081539676 | Straw Man | An argument or opponent set up so as to be easily refuted or defeated. The idea is to make an opponent or opposing idea look weak. Note that the term itself suggests something weak and easily defeated. | 114 | |
| 6081539677 | Stream-of-consciousness | This is a narrative technique that places the reader in the mind and thought process of the narrator, no matter how random and spontaneous that may be. | 115 | |
| 6081539678 | Style | A distinctive manner of expression. | 116 | |
| 6081539679 | Syllogism (SYN + LOG) | A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. A syllogism is the format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Example: | 117 | |
| 6081539680 | Symbol | generally, anything that represents, stands for, something else. Usually, a ___ is something concrete—such as an object, action, character, or scene—that represents something more abstract. | 118 | |
| 6081539681 | Synecdoche (SYN) | A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "wheels" to mean a car. | 119 | |
| 6081539682 | Syntax (SYN + TAX) | The arrangement-the ordering, grouping, and placement-of words within a sentence. | 120 | |
| 6081539683 | Theme | The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually, __ is unstated in fictional works, but in nonfiction, the __ may be directly stated, especially in expository or argumentative writing. | 121 | |
| 6081539684 | Thesis | The main idea of a piece of writing. It presents the author's assertion or claim. The effectiveness of a presentation is often based on how well the writer presents, develops, and supports this. | 122 | |
| 6081539685 | Third Person Limited Omniscient | This type of point of view presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all remaining characters | 123 | |
| 6081539686 | Third Person Omniscient | In ___, the narrator, with a godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters. | 124 | |
| 6081539687 | Tone | The speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience. | 125 | |
| 6081539688 | Transition | a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. | 126 | |
| 6081539689 | Truth Surrogates | Hinting that proof exists to support a claim without actually citing that proof. For example: Ads often say that "studies show," and tabloids often say "according to an insider." | 127 | |
| 6081539690 | Understatement | the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended. | 128 | |
| 6081539691 | Unity (Coherence) [UNI or CO + HERE) | Quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle. | 129 | |
| 6081539692 | Verbal Irony | In this type of irony, the words literally state the opposite of the writer's true meaning. (For example: I love your new hair cut! Unspoken truth: You look terrible.) | 130 | |
| 6081539693 | Voice | can refer to two different areas of writing. One refers to the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active and passive). The second refers to the total "sound" of the writer's style. | 131 | |
| 6081539694 | Wit | In modern usage, intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. Usually uses terse language that makes a pointed statement. | 132 |
