the terms and concepts tested on the AP Language exam
Terms : Hide Images
| 5433899925 | formal | Following rules or customs, often in an exact and proper way. | 0 | |
| 5433899926 | assertion | the act of declaring something; a claim or declaration stated positively | 1 | |
| 5433899927 | thesis | the primary position taken by a writer or speaker | 2 | |
| 5433899928 | claim | An assertion, usually supported by evidence | 3 | |
| 5433899929 | analogy | drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect | 4 | |
| 5433899930 | syllogism | a three-part deductive argument in which a conclusion is based on a major premise and a minor premise ("All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal.") | 5 | |
| 5433899931 | enthymeme | shortened syllogism; when one premise is missing or incomplete | 6 | |
| 5433899932 | deductive | reasoning from general to specific | 7 | |
| 5433899933 | inductive | reasoning that begins with specific ideas that lead to a general idea | 8 | |
| 5433899934 | premise | assumption; postulate; proposition upon which an argument is based | 9 | |
| 5433899935 | faulty assumption | the idea or point on which the argument is based is wrong. | 10 | |
| 5433899936 | false dilemma | occurs when it is suggested that only two alternatives exist even though there may be others | 11 | |
| 5433899937 | equivocation | The use of equivocal or ambiguous expressions, esp. in order to mislead or hedge; prevarication. | 12 | |
| 5433899938 | begging the question | the truth of the conclusion is assumed by the premises; similar to circular reasoning | 13 | |
| 5433899939 | argument | A single assertion or a series of assertions presented and defended by the writer | 14 | |
| 5433899940 | ad hominim | attacking individual instead of argument | 15 | |
| 5433899941 | red herring | When a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue | 16 | |
| 5433899942 | straw man argument | consists of an oversimplification of an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack | 17 | |
| 5433899944 | deduction | a process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises presented, so that the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true; from a generalization to specific examples | 18 | |
| 5433899945 | non sequitur | (logic) a conclusion that does not follow from the premises | 19 | |
| 5433899946 | inference | a conclusion one draws (infers) based on premises or evidence | 20 | |
| 5433899947 | rebut | to offer arguments or evidence that contradicts an assertion; to refute | 21 | |
| 5433899948 | prejudice | an opinion or strong feeling formed without careful thought or regard to the facts | 22 | |
| 5433899949 | fallacy | a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning | 23 | |
| 5433899950 | bandwagon | tries to persuade the reader to do, think, or buy something because it is popular or everyone is doing it | 24 | |
| 5433899951 | plain folks | attempting to convince the public that one's views reflect those of the common person (for example, using the accent or dialect of a specific audience). | 25 | |
| 5433899952 | testimonial | Using the testimony or statement of someone to persuade you to think or act as he or she does | 26 | |
| 5433899953 | circular reasoning | stating and restating an assertion and assuming that it constitutes proof | 27 | |
| 5433899954 | ethos | The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator | 28 | |
| 5433899955 | pathos | an appeal based on emotion. | 29 | |
| 5433899956 | logos | an appeal based on logic or reason | 30 | |
| 5433899957 | post hoc ergo propter hoc | Assuming that an incident that precedes another is the cause of the second incident | 31 | |
| 5433899958 | loaded words | words or images used to evoke positive or powerful feelings | 32 | |
| 5433899959 | antithesis | opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction | 33 | |
| 5433899960 | emotional | a strong feeling that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort | 34 | |
| 5433899961 | charged words | words likely to produce a strong emotional response | 35 | |
| 5433899962 | repetition | sounds, words, phrases, lines or stanzaz are repeated for emphasis | 36 | |
| 5433899963 | assent | agreement with a statement or proposal to do something | 37 | |
| 5433899964 | 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 | 38 | |
| 5433899965 | subjective | influenced by personal opinion, biased | 39 | |
| 5433899966 | periodic | Sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements. | 40 | |
| 5433899967 | loose | term for a sentence in which the main point is put at the beginning | 41 | |
| 5433899968 | anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses | 42 | |
| 5433899969 | parallelism | the use of corresponding grammatical or syntactical forms | 43 | |
| 5433899970 | chiasmus | inversion in the second of two parallel phrases | 44 | |
| 5433899971 | phrases | groups of words that act as a unit and convey a meaning | 45 | |
| 5433899972 | clauses | groups of words containing a subject and predicate and functioning as a member of a complex or compound sentence | 46 |
