AP Language Running Notes

Question 1

anecdote

Answer 1

short, simple narrative of an incident, often used for humorous effect or to make a point

Question 2

argumentation

Answer 2

writing that attempts to prove the validity of a point of view or an idea by presenting “reasoned” arguments: persuasive writing is a form of argumentation and is the focus of the AP Language and composition program

Question 3

Allegory

Answer 3

extended narrative of an incident in prose or verse in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface of the story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric

Question 4

annotation

Answer 4

explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographic data. In AP Language you will need to demonstrate detailed annotations on most of your readings

Question 5

antithesis

Answer 5

the presentation of 2 contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by a word or phrase, clause, or paragraphs. “To be or not to be…”, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Question 6

Rhetoric

Answer 6

the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other composition techniques. This is the CORE of the AP Language Program.

Question 7

Colloquialism

Answer 7

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, can’t, somethin’)

Question 8

connotation

Answer 8

words suggesting implied meaning because of it s association in a reader’s mind.

Question 9

consonance

Answer 9

repetition of identical consonant sounds switching two or more words in close proximity: boot/beat/best/brag or even compound words, full-fill, ping-pong

Question 10

caricature

Answer 10

descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person’s appearance or a facet of personality

Question 11

coherence

Answer 11

the “quality” of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea/theme or organizing principle

Question 12

aphorism

Answer 12

a short, often witty, statement of a principle or truth about life. Benjamin Franklin was somewhat famous for these in Poor Richard’s Almanac, e.g. “the early bird gets the worm”

Question 13

apostrophe

Answer 13

usually in poetry, but sometimes in prose: the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction

Question 14

cacophony

Answer 14

also referred to as a dissonance… hard, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony

Question 15

denotation

Answer 15

literal meaning of a word as stated in the dictionary

Question 16

enumeration

Answer 16

rhetorical device used for listing the details or a process of mentioning words or phrases step by step. In fact, it is a type of amplification or division in which a subject is further distributed into components or parts. Writers use this to clarify and detail understanding.

Question 17

analogy

Answer 17

a comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quoted different from it. It aims at explaining that idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar.

Question 18

parallelism

Answer 18

use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning, or meter.

Question 19

Allusion

Answer 19

brief indirect reference to a person place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance. It doesn’t describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text

Question 20

Metonymy

Answer 20

figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it closely associated.

Question 21

anaphora

Answer 21

in writing or speech, deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect

Question 22

Epistrophe

Answer 22

derived from Greek word that means turning upon, which indicates the same word returns at the end of each sentence. Can be defined as the repetition of phrases or words at the end of clauses or sentences.

Question 23

asyndeton

Answer 23

a stylistic device used in literature and poetry to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain the grammatical accuracy.

Question 24

polysyndeton

Answer 24

makes use of coordinating conjunctions like “and”, “or”, “but”, and “nor” (mostly and and or) which are used to join successive words, phrases, or clauses in such a way that these conjunctions are even used when they might have been omitted.

Question 25

synecdoche

Answer 25

literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent

Question 26

tone

Answer 26

in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. It is something important for the reader to “sense” to determine an argument.

Question 27

process analysis

Answer 27

step-by-step breakdown of the phrases of a process, used to convey the details of each phrase of thinking, an operation, etc.

Question 28

syntax

Answer 28

set of rules in a language. Dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.

Question 29

provocative diction

Answer 29

purposeful choice of words serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate a provocative question that will frame a rhetorical argument.

Question 30

classification

Answer 30

action or process of classifying something shared qualities or characteristics

Question 31

understatement

Answer 31

the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.

Question 32

colorful diction

Answer 32

conscious choice of words as a writer

Question 33

counterargument

Answer 33

argument or set of reasons put forward to oppose an idea or theory developed in another argument

Question 34

claim

Answer 34

if somebody gives an argument to support his/her position, it is called a claim

Question 35

evidence

Answer 35

type of literary device that appears in different categories of essays and theses in the form of paraphrase and quotations

Question 36

warrant

Answer 36

the glue that holds an argument together

Question 37

fallacy

Answer 37

an erroneous argument dependent upon an unsound or illogical contention

Question 38

logical fallacy

Answer 38

in argumentation, a form fallacy (also called deductive fallacy) a pattern of reasoning/thinking rendered invalid by a flaw in its logical structure that can neatly be expressed in a standard logical system.

Question 39

prophecy

Answer 39

tells the future, but doesn’t express time

Question 40

prediction

Answer 40

forecast made by those who calculate the parameters of the subject involved after evaluating the odds they can predict the future.

Question 41

prediction

Answer 41

a forecast made by those who calculate the parameters of the subject involved after the evaluating the odds they can predict the future

Question 42

adage

Answer 42

a short, pointed and memorable saying based on facts and is considered a veritable truth by the majority of people

Question 43

pedantic

Answer 43

to teach or to act as pedagogue. Someone who is concerned with precision, formalism, accuracy, minute details in order to make an arrogant and ostentatious show of learning

Question 44

flippant

Answer 44

lacking proper respect or seriousness

Question 45

evocative

Answer 45

use of language that “suggests” meaning other than the denotative

Question 46

syntactical inversion

Answer 46

inversion, also called anastrophe, in literary style and rhetoric, the syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, as in English, the placing of an adjective after the noun it modifies (“the form divine”), a verb before its subject (“came the dawn”)

Question 47

apposition

Answer 47

agrammantical construction in which 2 elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with 1 element serving to identify the other in a different way