Rhetorical Terms

85015935	Abstract	language that describes concepts rather than concrete images ( ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places)..
85015936	Ad Hominem	In an argument, this is an attack on the person rather than on the opponent's ideas. It comes from the Latin meaning "against the man."
85015937	Allegory	an extended narrative in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface of the story;. Examples: , Orwell's Animal Farm (Russian Revolution), and Arthur Miller's Crucible ("Red Scare")
85015938	Alliteration	repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another: Mickey Mouse; Donald Duck; Daffy Duck; Suzy Sells Seashells ...
85015939	Allusion	a reference to a well-known person, place, or thing from literature, history, etc. Example: Eden, Scrooge, Prodigal Son, Catch-22, Judas, Don Quixote, Mother Theresa
85015940	Analogy	Comparison of two similar but different things, such as comparing the work of a heart to that of a pump.
85015941	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. Ex: "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end.
85015942	Anecdote	a short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point.
85015943	Annotation	Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data.
85015944	Antithesis	two contrasting ideas balanced by word, phrase, clause, or paragraphs. Examples: "To be or not to be..." Shakespeare's Hamlet "
85015945	Aphorism	a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life. Examples: "Early bird gets the worm."
85015946	Apostrophe	the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction
85015947	Argumentation	writing that attempts to prove the validity of a point of view or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments
85015948	Assonance	repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such as in neigh/fade,
85015949	Asyndeton	Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence. Ex: "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." John F. Kennedy
85015950	Cacophony	harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony.
85015951	Caricature	descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or a facet of personality.
85015952	Colloquialism	a word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing (y'all, ain't)
85015953	Coherence	quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle
85015954	Concrete Language	Language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places, rather than ideas or qualities.
85015955	Connotation	implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind.
85015956	Consonance	repetition of identical consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity, as in boost/best; it can also be seen within several compound words, such as fulfill and ping-pong
85015957	Conundrum	a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem
85015958	Deduction	the process of moving from a general rule to a specific example
85015959	Denotation	literal meaning of a word as defined
85015960	Description	the picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse
85015961	Diction	word choice, an element of style; it creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning.
85015962	Didactic	writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. The work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns.
85015963	Discourse	spoken or written language, including literary works;
85015964	Dissonance	harsh or grating sounds that do not go together
85015965	Dramatic Irony	When the reader is aware of an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfictional character's perception of a situation and the truth of that situation.
85015966	Emotional Appeal	When a writer appeals to readers' emotions (often through pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument.
85015967	Epigraph	the use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. Hemingway begins The Sun Also Rises with two quotations. One of them is "You are all a lost generation" by Gertrude Stein.
85015968	Epistrophe	repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect (as Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people")
85015969	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.
85015970	Euphemism	a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable. "He went to his final reward".
85015971	Euphony	a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony
85015972	Example	An individual instance taken to be representative of a general pattern.
85015973	Explication	The art of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. It usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.
85015974	Exposition	the revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot;
85015975	Extended Metaphor	a sustained comparison, often referred to as a conceit. The extended metaphor is developed throughout a piece of writing
85015976	False Analogy	When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them.
85015977	Figurative Language	language that contains figures of speech, such as similes and metaphors, in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal.
85015978	Figures of Speech	expressions, such as similes, metaphors, and personifications, that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or associations.
85015979	Foreshadowing	the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs late in the work
85015980	Freight-Train	Sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions.
85015981	Generalization	When a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable.
85015982	Genre	a type of literary work, such as a novel or poem; there are also subgenres, such as science fiction or sonnet, within the larger genres
85015983	Hubris	the excessive pride of ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impending doom, eventually causing his or her downfall.
85015984	Humor	anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end of the Renaissance, humor meant a person's temperament
85015985	Hyperbole	deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis (Example: He was so hungry he could have eaten a horse.)
85015986	Image	A word or words, either figurative or literal, used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the sense. An image is always a concrete representation.
85015987	Imagery	words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture
85015988	Induction	the process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization
85015989	Inference	a conclusion one can draw from the presented details
85015990	Interior Monologue	writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head
85015991	Invective	a verbally abusive attack
85015992	Inversion	reversing the customary (subject first, then verb, then complement) order of elements in a sentence or phrase;
85015993	Irony	a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected.
85015994	Jargon	The special language of a profession or group.
85015995	Logic	the process of reasoning
85015996	Logical Fallacy	a mistake in reasoning
85015997	Lyrical	Songlike; characterized by emotions, subjectivity, and imagination.
85015998	Metaphor	a figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another; for example, "my love is a fragile flower"
85015999	Metonymy	uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to a monarch ;
85016000	Mode	the method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written
85016001	Mood	similar to tone, the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere).
85016002	Moral	The lesson drawn from a fictional or nonfictional story. It can also mean a heavily didactic story.
85016003	Motif	main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea
85016004	Narration	the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse
85016005	Negative-Positive	Sentence that begins by stating what is NOT true, then ending by stating what is true.
85016006	Non-sequitur	Latin for "it does not follow." When one statement isn't logically connected to another
85016007	Objectivity	an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement in a story.
85016008	Onomatopoeia	the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as "hiss," "buzz," "slam," and "boom"
85016009	Oversimplification	When a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument
85016010	Oxymoron	a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool," bitter-sweet," "pretty ugly," "jumbo shrimp," "cold fire"
85016011	Pacing	the movement of a literary piece from one point or one section to another
85016012	Parable	a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory
85016013	Paradox	a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau; "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."
85016014	Parallelism	the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. Example (from Churchill): "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields."
85016015	Parody	a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements. . It can be utterly mocking or gently humorous. It depends on allusion and exaggerates and distorts the original style and content.
85016016	Pathos	an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion. . Over-emotionalism can be the result of an excess of pathos.
85016017	Pedantic	a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant
85016018	Personification	the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or an inanimate object
85016019	Persuasion	a form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion.
85016020	Point of View	the perspective from which a story is presented
85016021	Polysyndeton	Sentence which uses and or another conjunction (with no commas) to separate the items in a series.
85016022	Protagonist	the main character of a literary work
85016023	Red Herring	When a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue
85016024	Reductio ad Absurdum	the Latin for "to reduce to the absurd." This is a technique useful in creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique. It is considered a rhetorical fallacy because it reduces an argument to an either/or choice
85016025	Regionalism	an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot
85016026	Repetition	Word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity
85016027	Rhetoric	the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse; Rhetoric focuses on the interrelationship of invention, arrangement, and style in order to create felicitous and appropriate discourse.
85016028	Rhetorical modes	exposition, description, narration, argumentation
85016029	Rhetorical Question	one that does not expect an explicit answer. It is used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience.
85016030	Sarcasm	harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony
85016031	Satire	A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. It doesn't simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). It targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals.
85016032	Setting	Time and place of a literary work
85016033	Simile	a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities; for example, "The sky looked like an artist's canvas."
85016034	Speaker	the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious persona
85016035	Stereotype	a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality; a conventional patter, expression or idea.
85016036	Straw Man	When a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak. Setting up a straw man diverts attention from the real issues.
85016037	Style	an author's characteristic manner of expression - his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to style
85016038	Subjectivity	a personal presentation of evens and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions
85016039	Syllogism	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: Major Premise: All tragedies end unhappily. Minor Premise: Hamlet is a tragedy. Conclusion: Therefore, Hamlet ends unhappily.
85016040	Symbolism	the use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance
85016041	Synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "boards" to mean a stage or "wheels" to mean a car - or "All hands on deck."
85016042	Syntactic Fluency	Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length.
85016043	Syntactic Permutation	Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. They are often difficult for a reader to follow.
85016044	Syntax	the grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. It includes length of sentence, kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, or compound).
85016045	Theme	the central idea or "message" or a literary work
85016046	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.
85016047	Tone	the characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience (anger, sarcastic, loving, didactic, emotional, etc.)
85016048	Transition	a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph.
85016049	Tricolon	Sentence consisting of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses.
85016050	Understatement	the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.
85016051	Unity	quality of a piece of writing (also see coherence)
85016052	Voice	refers to two different areas of writing. One refers to the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active and passive voice). The second refers to the total "sound" of a writer's style.