AP Notes 1-20

Question 1

anecdote

Answer 1

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

an extended narrative of an incident in prose or verse 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 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 annotation on most of your readings

Question 5

antithesis

Answer 5

presentation of two contrasting images the ideas are balanced out by word, 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 compositional techniques this is the CORE of the AP language

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, aint, cant, somethin’)

Question 8

connotation

Answer 8

words suggesting implied meaning because of its association in a readers mind this is the opposite of “denotation”

Question 9

consonance

Answer 9

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

Question 10

caricature

Answer 10

descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a persons 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 richards 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

cocophony

Answer 14

also referred to as dissonance hard awkward or dissonant sounds used diliberatley in poetry or prose the oppisite of euphony.

Question 15

connotation

Answer 15

the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning.

Question 16

denotation

Answer 16

the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it; the association or set of associations that a word usually elicits for most speakers of a language, as distinguished from those elicited for any individual speaker because of personal experience.

Question 17

enumeration

Answer 17

a 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 18

analogy

Answer 18

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

Question 19

parallelism

Answer 19

the use of compnents in a sentence that are gramatically the same or similar in their construction sound meaning or meter. parallelism examples are found in lierary works as well as in ordinary conversations.

Question 20

allusion

Answer 20

brief and indirect refernce to a person, place, thing or idea of historical culture lieracy or political significance it does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers it is just a passing comment and the writer expects.

Question 21

metomymy

Answer 21

figure of speech that replces the name of something else with which it is closley associated we can come across examples both from literature and everyday life.