Terms : Hide Images
| 169212077 | abstraction | a concept or value that cannot be seen and which the writer illustrates by comparing it metaphorically to a known, concrete object | |
| 169212078 | absolute phrase | group of words which is almost a complete sentence and which adds information to the sentence; can be made into a sentence by adding was or were | |
| 169212079 | ad hominem fallacy | an argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason; to feelings rather than intellect | |
| 169212080 | ad populum fallacy | misconception that a widespread occurrence of something makes it true or correct | |
| 169212081 | allegory | a verse or prose narrative in which the characters, action, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the work | |
| 169212082 | alliteration | repretition of initial sounds | |
| 169212083 | allusion | reference to artistic, literacy, scientific, or historical people, places, or things to convey tone, purpose, or effect | |
| 169212084 | ambiguity | expression of an idea in such a way that suggests more than one meaning | |
| 169212085 | analogy | a comparison of two things to show how something unfamiliar is like something widely known | |
| 169212086 | anapest | a metrical foot that has two unstressed syllable follwed by one stressed syllable | |
| 169212087 | anaphora | repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses | |
| 169212088 | anecdote | a brief story that illustrates a point | |
| 169212089 | antagonist | the force or person working against the protagonist; the villian | |
| 169212090 | antithesis | a contrast of ideas expressed in grammatically balanced statement | |
| 169212091 | antecedent | the word to which a pronous refers | |
| 169212092 | aphorism | a brief, clever saying that expresses a principle, truth, or observation about life | |
| 169212093 | appositive | a noun which restate the noun preceding it | |
| 169212094 | apostrophe | directly addressing some dead, someone missing, an abstract quality, or something nonhuman as if he/she/it was present | |
| 169212095 | approximate rhyme | using words taht have some sound correspondance but imperfect rhyme | |
| 169212096 | archetype | a character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it accurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or forklore | |
| 169212097 | archetypical settings | settings that have universal aspects associated by most people with a particular human experience | |
| 169212098 | archetypical characters | characters who embody a certain universal human experience | |
| 169212099 | argumentation | the art of the persuasive essay with a specific purpse and trageted audience; includes logos, ethos, and pathos | |
| 169212100 | aside | private words by character on the stage so that the audience hears the words but the other characters do not | |
| 169212101 | assonance | repetition of vowel sounds | |
| 169212102 | asyndeton | deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses | |
| 169212103 | atmosphere | the mood of a work partly established through description of setting and partly through the objects chosen to be described | |
| 169212104 | attitude | the author's way of looking at a subject, implicit in the mode and essential to writing | |
| 169212105 | ballad | a narrative poem with songlike qualities wrtten in quatrains with the rythm scheme abcb, usually in iambic pentameter | |
| 169212106 | begging the question | taking for granted something that really needs proving | |
| 169212107 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter | |
| 169212108 | cacophony | succession of harsh, discordant sounds in porse or verse to achieve a specific effect | |
| 169212109 | caesura | a pause in a line of verse, usually near the middle of the line | |
| 169212110 | characterization | the process by which the writer reveals the personalities of the characters: direct statement, physical description, dialouge, thoughts and feelings, actions, effect on others, other's reactions | |
| 169212111 | chiasmus | sentence strategy in which the arrangement of ideas in the second clause is reversal of the first | |
| 169212112 | circular reasoning | trying to prove one idea with another idea that is too similar to the first idea | |
| 169212113 | clause | a group of words with a subject and a verb; may be independent or dependent | |
| 169212114 | climax | the decisive or turing point in a story or play when the action changes course and begins to resolve itself | |
| 169212115 | closed couplet | two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme and represent a complete thought | |
| 169212116 | colloquialism | the use of slang or informalities in speech and writing; not generally acceptable in formal writing; create a conversational tone | |
| 169212117 | comic relief | something said or done that provides a break from the seriousness of the work | |
| 169212118 | conceit | a juxtaposition that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly different things | |
| 169212119 | conclusion | a reaffirmation or restatment of the thesis; also expresses a final thought about a subject, summarizes main points, uses a quotation, predicts an outcome, makes an evaluation, or recomments a course of action | |
| 169212120 | confessional poetry | poetry that uses intimite and painful, disturbing or sad material from a poet's life | |
| 169212121 | conflict | internal or external tension created by the struggle or by the outcome of the struggle | |
| 169212122 | connotative language | words which have an implied meaning, emphasizing feelings or subjectivity that surrounds the word | |
| 169212123 | contrast | a literacy technique in which the author examins two opposites to create an attitude, to accomplish a purpose of effect, or to make an assertion | |
| 169212124 | control of a wide range of the elemets of wrting | mature diction, varied syntax, and effective organization to convey a clear and insightful evaluation, anaylsis, impression, or assertion | |
| 169212125 | couplet | two lines of poetry | |
| 169212126 | dactyl | a metrical foot with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables | |
| 169212127 | deduction | deriving at a conslusion by making an inference from the premise | |
| 169212128 | denotative language | the literal, dictionary definition of a word, emphasizing an objective tone | |
| 169212129 | denouement | resolution of a plot | |
| 169212130 | description | using vivid words to create a dominant impression of what the five senses are experiencing | |
| 169212131 | dialogue | conversation between two or more characters | |
| 169212132 | diction | word choice | |
| 169212133 | didactic | a work in which the author's primary purpse is to instruct, teach or moralize | |
| 169212134 | digression | use of material unrelated to the subject of the work | |
| 169212135 | dilemma | a type of conflict in which both choices have negative connotations | |
| 169212136 | dramatic monologue | a poem in which the speaker addresses one or more listeners who remain silent or whose replies are not revealed | |
| 169212137 | economy | a style of writing characterized by brevity and concisness | |
| 169212138 | either/or reasoning | the tendency to see an issue as having only two sides | |
| 169212139 | elegy | a solemn, reflective poem, usually about death, written in a formal style | |
| 169212140 | ellipsis | omission of an element from a sentence so that the grammatical structure is incomplete but the meaning is clear | |
| 169212141 | end-stopped lines | lines of poetry that end with punctuation marks | |
| 169212142 | enjambment | in poetry, the running over of a sentence from one verse or stanza to the next without stopping at the first | |
| 169212143 | epic | long narrative poem dealing with herose and adventrues; having a national, world-wide, or cosmic setting; involving supernatural forces, and written in a deliberatly ceremonial style | |
| 169212144 | epigram | a short witty verse or saying, often ending with a wry twist | |
| 169212145 | epigraph | a motto or quotation at the beginning of a story, novel, or chapter, often indicating theme | |
| 169567884 | epistolary novel | a novel in letter form written by one or more characters | |
| 169567885 | ethos | ethical appeal in argumentation | |
| 169567886 | euphemism | describing something distasteful in a positive way | |
| 169567887 | euphony | a choice and arrangement of words creating a pleasant sound | |
| 169567888 | exemplum | a short medieval story illustrating a moral | |
| 169567889 | exposition | one of the four major types of writing; in drama, exposition is the initail part of the play when the background information is presented to the audience | |
| 169567890 | fable | brief tale which teaches a moral truth and which contains characters who are often animals | |
| 169567891 | figure of speech | imaginative conparisons to convey tone, purpose, or effect | |
| 169567892 | fixed form | poem which have specific rhyme, meter, and/or stanza arrangement | |
| 169567893 | flashback | going back in time to reveal past history that is important to the work | |
| 169567894 | flat character | a one-dimensional character who remains the same throughout the work and about whom little is revealed | |
| 169567895 | foil | a character who contrasts another character | |
| 169567896 | foot | a unit of meter that contains a measure of syllables | |
| 169567897 | form | external patter of the poem | |
| 169567898 | foreshadowing | a literary technique in which the author gives hints about future events | |
| 169567899 | free verse | poetry with no set rhyme and no set meter | |
| 169567900 | frame | a narrative device presenting a story or group of stories within the context of a larger work | |
| 169567901 | genre | form of type of literary work | |
| 169567902 | gerund | the ing form of the verb used as a noun | |
| 169567903 | gothic | narrative which combines a desolate setting and mysterious events to create an atmosphere of terror | |
| 169567904 | grotesque | an element of gothic Romanticism in which bizarre, fantastically ugly of absurd elements are important to the overall effect | |
| 169567905 | hasty generalization | drawing a premature conclusion on the basis of insuffcient evidence | |
| 169567906 | heroic couplet | two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry written in iambic pentameter | |
| 169567907 | hexamter | six feet/lines of poetry | |
| 169567908 | homily | generally means a sermon; can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice | |
| 169567909 | hyperbole | exaggeration to create an effect, to accomplish a particular purpse, or to reveal an attitude | |
| 169567910 | iamb | metrical foot that has one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable | |
| 169567911 | imagery | diction describing the five sense to convey tone, purpose, or effect | |
| 169567912 | imperative | mood of the verb that expresses an order or a command | |
| 169567913 | indicative | mood of the verb that states a fact or asks a question | |
| 169567914 | induction | the process of reasoning from a part to a whole or form of the particular to the general | |
| 169567915 | inference | a reasonable conclusion drawn from the information presented | |
| 169567916 | infinitive | to + verb form used as a noun, adjective, or adverb | |
| 169567917 | internal rhyme | rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry | |
| 169567918 | invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language; a satire technique | |
| 169567919 | inverted order | reversing the usual subject-verb-complement order, sometimes used to conform to rhyme and rythm patterns in poetry or for effect in prose | |
| 169567920 | irony | the discrepancy between what is said and what is mean | |
| 169567921 | juxtaposition | placing two persons, places, or things next to each other to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish a purpose | |
| 169567922 | litotes | understatement in which the negative of an antonym is used to achieve emphasis and intensity | |
| 169567923 | local color | detailed representation in fiction of the dialect, dress, climate, manners, customes of a particular area | |
| 169567924 | logical fallacies | errors i n reasoning which render an argument invalid | |
| 169567925 | logos | logical appeal of an argumentation | |
| 169567926 | loose sentence | a sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses | |
| 169567927 | lyrical poetry | poetry which expresses an emotion | |
| 169567928 | metaphor | direct of implied comparison of two unlike thigns | |
| 169567929 | meter | the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry | |
| 169567930 | metonymy | a figure of speech in which a term naming an object is substituted for anouther word with which it is closely associated | |
| 169567931 | mock heroic | a type of a satire using an elevated sytle out of proportion to its trivial subject | |
| 169567932 | mood | the overall atmosphere in a work | |
| 169567933 | motif | recurring image | |
| 169567934 | myth | traditional tale of unknown authorship involving gods and godesses or other supernatural beings, often explaining some aspect of nature | |
| 169567935 | narrative structure | using a chronology of events to convey tone, purpose or effect | |
| 169567936 | narrator | person telling the story | |
| 169567937 | Naturalism | 19th century literary movement that carried Realism to the extreme by creating characters doomed by heredity and/or environment | |
| 169567938 | non sequitur | an inference or conclusion that does not follow from an established premise or evidence | |
| 169567939 | novel of manners | narrative which defines social mores of a specific group, often the upper-middle class | |
| 169567940 | octave | an eight line poem OR the first eight lines of an Italian sonnet | |
| 169567941 | ode | a long lyric poem, formal in style and complex in form, often written in commeoration or celebration of a special qualitiy, object, or occasion | |
| 169567942 | onomatopoeia | use of words whose meanings imitate their sounds | |
| 169567943 | organization | arranging of evidence to support a thesis | |
| 169567944 | oxymoron | figure of speech that combines contradictory terms | |
| 169567945 | pacing | rate of movement in a work | |
| 169567946 | parable | story with an implied or stated moral | |
| 169567947 | paradigm | a model, ideal, or standard | |
| 169567948 | parallel structures | items in a series created with identical grammatical forms | |
| 169567949 | paradox | a statement or situation that appears contradicoty but isn't | |
| 169567950 | paraphrase | the restatement of a pem or work in your own words | |
| 169567951 | parody | a rewording of a popularly recognized work to make fun of something | |
| 169567952 | pathos | emotional appeal of argumentation | |
| 169567953 | participle | verb form used as an adjective | |
| 169567954 | pastoral poem | poem which often depicts an imaginary life in the country filled with happy charactes who are sheperds; events are ideal, but not real | |
| 169567955 | pedantry | a display of narrow-minded and trivial scholarship; an arbitrary adherence to rules and forms | |
| 169567956 | pentameter | five feet/line of poetry | |
| 169567957 | periodic sentence | a sentence which does not complete its thought until the very end due to introductory modifiers | |
| 169567958 | persona | the mask or voice of the author of the author's creation in a work | |
| 169567959 | Petrarchan sonnet | sonnet composed of an octave and a sestet, usually with rhyme scheme abbaabba cdecde | |
| 169567960 | personification | a specific type of metaphor in which inanimate objects are given human qualities | |
| 169567961 | persuassion | writing which appeals to the reader's emotions and value systems, encouraging the reader to adopt an attitude or change position | |
| 169567962 | phrase | a group of words | |
| 169567963 | picaresque | novel which usually presnets the life story of quick-witted rogues and their adventrues | |
| 169567964 | plot | sequence of events | |
| 169670384 | point of view | the vantage point from which an author presents the action and characters | |
| 169670385 | polysyndeton | deliberate use of many conjunctions for special emphasis | |
| 169670386 | post hoc, ergo propter hoc | assuming that an incident that precedes an incident is the cause of the second incident | |
| 169670387 | predicate adjective | an adjective, an adjective phrase, or an adjective clause which follows a linking verb | |
| 169670388 | predicate nominative | a noun or pronoun, groups of nouns or pronouns, or a noun clause which follows a linking verb | |
| 169670389 | prologue | section of a work preceding the main plot and serving as an introduction | |
| 169670390 | propaganda | writing that directly advocates a certain doctrine as the solution to some social or political problem | |
| 169670391 | prose | fiction or nonfiction written in ordinary language and most closely resembles ordinary speech | |
| 169670392 | portagonist | the main character | |
| 169670393 | psychological novel | narrative which emphasizes motives, conflicts, and opinions of main characters, which then develop the external action | |
| 169670394 | pun | play on words based on mulitple meanings of the word | |
| 169670395 | quatrain | poem of four lines OR a stanza of four lines in a poem | |
| 169670396 | Realism | 19th century literary movemnt that attempted to portray life accurately; characters have free will | |
| 169670397 | refrain | repeated words, phrases, or groups of words for effect | |
| 169670398 | resolution | conclusion | |
| 169670399 | rhetorical purpose | reason for the speaker's remarks OR the attitude the author would like the reader to adopt | |
| 169670400 | rhetorical structure | any organizational device used to convey tone, purpose, or effect | |
| 169670401 | rhetorical strategy | writing choices to accomplish a purpose | |
| 169670402 | rhetorical shift | a change in attitude, purpose, or effect | |
| 169670403 | rhetorical question | questions that require no answer | |
| 169670404 | rhetorical modes | the variety, purposes, and conventions of the major kinds of writing | |
| 169670405 | rime royal | a Chaucerian stanza composed of seven lines written in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ababbcc | |
| 169670406 | Romanticism | a literary movement that emphasizes intuition, imagination, and emotions over reason; expresses a love of nature and contempt for material objects | |
| 169674990 | satire | writing which makes fun of human weaknesses, vice, or folly to bring about change | |
| 169674991 | scansion | the marking of meter in a poem | |
| 169674992 | sarcasm | bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something | |
| 169674993 | sestet | six lines of poetry OR the last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet | |
| 169674994 | setting | time and location of a story | |
| 169674995 | Shakespearean sonnet | sonnet composed of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg | |
| 169674996 | sociological novel | a narrative which depicts the injustices of society, making moral judgements and offering resolution | |
| 169674997 | sonnet | a fourteen line poem written in iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme | |
| 169674998 | Spenserian stanza | a nine line stanza with the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc; the first eight lines are written in iambic pentameter and the last line is written in iambic hexameter | |
| 169674999 | spondee | a metrical foot of two accented syllables | |
| 169675000 | stanza | a division of a poem | |
| 169675001 | sterotype | a character whose attitudes, words, and actions fall within a widely-held idea of what that "type" is like | |
| 169728092 | stichomythia | dialogue in which the endings and beginnings of each line cho each other, taking on new meaning with each new line | |
| 169728093 | stream of consciousness | a form of writing which replicates the way the human mind works; ideas are presented in random; thoughts may be unfinished | |
| 169728094 | style | author's choice and arrangement of words, tone, mood, imagery, sound decives, syntax | |
| 169728095 | subject complement | the word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements the sentence by renaming it or by describing it | |
| 169728096 | subjunctive | mood of the verb that expresses a wish or a statement that is contrary to fact | |
| 169728097 | subordinate clause | a dependent clause which cannot stand alone as a complete sentence | |
| 169728098 | syllabic verse | poetry which contains the same number of syllables in each line or fololws a pattern of syllables per line | |
| 169728099 | symbol | a person, place, or thing that represents something else | |
| 169728100 | synecdoche | a type of figurative langauge in which the part stands for the whole | |
| 169728101 | syntax | arrangement of words in sentences to convey tone, puporse or effect | |
| 169728102 | syllogism | formal argument of deductive reasoning | |
| 169728103 | tercet | three lines of poetry which usually rhyme | |
| 169728104 | terza rima | an interlocking three line stanza with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded | |
| 169728105 | theme | underlying meaning of a work | |
| 169728106 | thesis | sentence that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition in expository writing | |
| 169728107 | tone | author's attitude toward the subject | |
| 169728108 | tragedy | a play in which the progtagonist comes to an unhappy ending | |
| 169728109 | Transcendentalism | 19th century movement in the Romantic tradition which believes that humans can arise above materialism to a higher happiness through simplicity and communion with nature | |
| 169728110 | transition | a word or phrase that links ideas, signaling a shift from one idea to another | |
| 169728111 | trochee | a metrical foot composed of one accented syllable followed by an unaccnted syllable | |
| 169728112 | understatement | ironic mimimalizing of fact | |
| 169728113 | verbal | a verb form used as a noun, adjective, or adverb | |
| 169728114 | villanelle | a poetic form consisting of five three line stanzas followed by a quatrain with the rhyme scheme aba aba aba aba aba abaa, lines 1 and 3 repeating alternately as refrains | |
| 169728115 | wit | cleaverness and keen perception | |
| 169728116 | zeugma | use of a verb that has two different meanings with objects that compliment both meanings |
