10646981548 | rhetorical appeals | Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are the ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion). | 0 | |
10646981549 | ethos | Greek for "character." Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say. | 1 | |
10646981550 | counterargument | An opposing argument to the one a writer is putting forward. Rather than ignoring a counterargument, a strong writer will usually address it through the process of concession and refutation. | 2 | |
10646981551 | concession (concede) | An acknowledgement that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable. In a strong argument, a concession is usually accompanied by a refutation challenging the validity of the opposing argument. | 3 | |
10646981552 | refutation (refute) | A denial of the validity of an opposing argument. In order to sound reasonable, refutations often follow a concession that acknowledges that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable. | 4 | |
10646981553 | logos | Greek for "embodied thought." Speakers appeal to logos or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up. | 5 | |
10646981554 | connotation | Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. Connotations are usually positive or negative, and they can greatly affect the author's tone. | 6 | |
10646981555 | pathos | Greek for "suffering" or "experience." Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience's values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other. | 7 | |
10646981556 | Rhetorical Triangle | A diagram that illustrates the interrelationship among the speaker, audience, and the subject in determining a text. | 8 | |
10646981557 | audience | The listener, viewer, or reader of a text. Most texts are likely to have multiple audiences | 9 | |
10646981558 | context | The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text. | 10 | |
10646981559 | occasion | The time and place a speech is given or a piece is written. | 11 | |
10646981560 | persona | Greek for "mask." The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience. | 12 | |
10646981561 | polemic | Greek for "hostile." An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion over all others. Polemics generally do not concede that opposing opinions have any merit. | 13 | |
10646981562 | propaganda | The spread of ideas and information to further a cause. In its negative sense, propaganda is the use of rumors, lies, disinformation, and scare tactics in order to damage or promote a cause. | 14 | |
10646981563 | purpose | The goal the speaker wants to achieve. | 15 | |
10646981564 | rhetoric | As Aristotle defined the term, "The faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." In other words, it is the art of finding ways to persuade an audience. | 16 | |
10646981565 | SOAPSTone | A mnemonic device that stands for Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker, and Tone. It is a handy way to remember the various elements that make up the rhetorical situation. | 17 | |
10646981566 | speaker | The person or group who creates a text. This might be a politician who delivers a speech, a commentator who writes an article, an artist who draws a political cartoon, or even a company that commissions an advertisement. | 18 | |
10646981567 | subject | The topic of a text; what the text is about. | 19 | |
10646981568 | text | While this terms generally means the written word, in the humanities it has come to mean any cultural product that can be "read"-meaning not just consumed and comprehended, but investigated. This includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, political cartoons, fine art, photography, performances, fashion, cultural trends, and much more. | 20 | |
10646981569 | diction | The speaker's choice of words | 21 | |
10646981570 | syntax | How the words are arranged | 22 | |
10646981571 | tone | The speaker's attitude toward's the subject as revealed by his or her choice of language | 23 | |
10646981572 | mood | How the work makes the reader feel. | 24 | |
10646981573 | metaphor | Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as; says one thing IS another. | 25 | |
10646981574 | similes | Figure of speech that compares two things using like or as. | 26 | |
10646981575 | personification | Attribution of a human quality to an inanimate object or idea. | 27 | |
10646981576 | hyperbole | Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken seriously | 28 | |
10646981577 | parallelism | Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. | 29 | |
10646981578 | juxtaposition | Placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences. | 30 | |
10646981579 | antithesis | Opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a parallel construction. | 31 | |
10646981580 | compound sentence | A sentence with more than one subject or predicate | 32 | |
10646981581 | complex sentence | A sentence containing a subordinate clause or clauses | 33 | |
10646981582 | periodic sentence | Sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end. | 34 | |
10646981583 | cumulative sentence | Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence and then builds and adds on. | 35 | |
10646981584 | imperative sentence | Sentence used to command or enjoin. | 36 | |
10646981585 | pacing | How fast a story unfolds. Does the author reveal details quickly or slowly? How does he or she build suspense? | 37 | |
10646981586 | figures of speech | A word or phrase used in a nonliteral sense to add rhetorical force to a spoken or written passage | 38 | |
10646981587 | zeugma | Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different, often incongruous meanings. | 39 | |
10646981588 | satire | The use of irony or sarcasm to criticize | 40 | |
10646981589 | anaphora | Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines. | 41 | |
10646981590 | hortative sentence | Sentence that exhorts, urges, entreats, implores, or calls to action. | 42 | |
10646981591 | alliteration | Repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in sequence. | 43 | |
10646981592 | allusion | Brief reference to a person, event, or place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art. | 44 | |
10646981593 | antimetabole | Repetition of words in reverse order. | 45 | |
10646981594 | archaic diction | Old-fashioned or outdated choice of words. | 46 | |
10646981595 | Asyndeton | Omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words. | 47 | |
10646981596 | inversion | Inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order). | 48 | |
10646981597 | oxymoron | Paradoxical juxtaposition of words that seem to contradict one another. | 49 | |
10646981598 | rhetorical question | Figure of speech in form of a question posed for the rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer. | 50 | |
10646981599 | synedoche | Figure of speech that uses a part to represent a whole. | 51 | |
10646981600 | imagery | When a writer describes something using language that appeals to our five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing) | 52 |
AP Language and Composition: The Language of Composition General Terms Flashcards
Primary tabs
Need Help?
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
Need Notes?
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!