APL Rhetorical Terms

Question 1

Abstract

Answer 1

refers to language that describes concepts rather than concrete images (ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places). The observant or “physical” is usually described in concrete language.

Question 2

Allegory

Answer 2

an extended narrative 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 3

Anecdote

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Annotation

Answer 4

explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data.

Question 5

Antithesis

Answer 5

the presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced 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

Aphorism

Answer 6

a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life. “Early bird gets the worm.”

Question 7

Apostrophe

Answer 7

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 object.

Question 8

Argumentation

Answer 8

writing that attempts to prove the validity of a pov or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments; persuasive writing is a form of argumentation.

Question 9

Cacophony; Dissonance

Answer 9

harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony.

Question 10

Cariacture

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Colloqualism

Answer 11

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).

Question 12

Coherence; Unity

Answer 12

quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle.

Question 13

Concrete Language

Answer 13

language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places, rather than ideas or qualities.

Question 14

Connotation

Answer 14

implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader’s mind.

Question 15

Consonance

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

Conundrum

Answer 16

a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem.

Question 17

Deduction

Answer 17

the process of moving from a general rule to a specific example.

Question 18

Denotation

Answer 18

literal meaning of a word as defined.

Question 19

Description

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Diction

Answer 20

word choice, an element of style; diction creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning. An essay written in academic diction would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise than street slang.

Question 21

Didactic

Answer 21

writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. A didactic work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. Didactic writing may be fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.

Question 22

Discourse

Answer 22

spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of discourse are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion.

Question 23

Emotional Appeal; Pathos

Answer 23

when a writer appeals to a reader’ emotions (often through pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument

Question 24

Epigraph

Answer 24

the use of quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. Hemingway begins The Sun Also Rises with two epigrams. One of them is “You are all a lost generation” by Gertrude Stein.

Question 25

Emotional Appeal-Ethos

Answer 25

when a writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him or her based on the presentation of image of self through the text. Reputation is sometimes a factor in ethical appeal, but in all cases the aim is to gain the audience’s confidence.

Question 26

Euphemism

Answer 26

a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable. “He went to his final reward” is a common euphemism for “he died”. Euphemisms are also often used to obscure the reality of a situation. The military used “collateral damage” to indicate deaths in a military operation.

Question 27

Euphony

Answer 27

a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony

Question 28

Example

Answer 28

an individual instance taken to be representative of a general pattern. Arguing by example is considered reliable if examples are demonstrable true or factual as well as relevant.

Question 29

Explication

Answer 29

the art of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. Explication usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.

Question 30

Exposition

Answer 30

the immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot; also, explanation; one of the four modes of discourse.

Question 31

Generalization

Answer 31

when a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable. Sweeping generalizations occur when a writer asserts that a claim applies to all instances instead of some.

Question 32

Genre

Answer 32

a type of literacy work, such as a novel or poem; there are also sub genres, such as science fiction or sonnet, within the larger genres.

Question 33

Humor

Answer 33

anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end of the Renaissance, humor meant a person’s temprant.

Question 34

Hyperbole

Answer 34

deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis (Example: He was so hungry he could have eaten a horse.)

Question 35

Image

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

Imagery

Answer 36

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.

Question 37

Induction

Answer 37

the process that moves from a given series of specifies to a generalization.

Question 38

Inference

Answer 38

a conclusion one can draw from the presented details.

Question 39

Invective

Answer 39

a verbally abusive attack

Question 40

Inversion

Answer 40

reversing the customary (subject first, then verb, then complement) order of elements in a sentence or phrase; it is used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question: “Are you going to the store?” Usually, the element that appears first is emphasized more than the subject.

Question 41

Jargon

Answer 41

The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon usually has pejorative associations with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders. The writings of the lawyer and the literacy critic are both susceptible to jargon.

Question 42

Logical Appeal: Logos

Answer 42

when a writer tries to persuade the audience based on statistics, facts, and reasons. The process of reasoning.

Question 43

Lyrical

Answer 43

song like; characterized by emotions, subjectivity, and imagination.

Question 44

Mode

Answer 44

the method or form of a literacy work; the manner in which a work of literature is written.

Question 45

Mood

Answer 45

similar to tone, mood is the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere). Syntax is also a determinator of mood because sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing.

Question 46

Narration

Answer 46

the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse.

Question 47

Objectivity

Answer 47

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. Hard news journalism is frequently prized fir its objectivity, although even fictional stories can be told without rendering personal judgement.

Question 48

Paradox

Answer 48

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 that comparison that was so companionable as solitude.”

Question 49

Parallelism

Answer 49

the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them sided by side and making them similar in form. Parallel structure may be as simple as listing two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or very; it may take the form of two or more of the same type of phrases )prepositional, participial, gerund, appositive) that modify the same noun or verb; it may also take the form of two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Or, parallel structure may be a complex bend of singe-word, phrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence.

Question 50

Parody

Answer 50

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.

Question 51

Pathetic Appeal; Pathos

Answer 51

When a writer tries to persuade the audience by appealing to their emotion. The aspects of a literary work that elicit sorrow or pity from the audience. An appeal to emotion that can be used as a means to persuade. Over-emotionalism can be the result of an excess of pathos.

Question 52

Pedantic

Answer 52

a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant.

Question 53

Persuasion

Answer 53

form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion.

Question 54

Regionalism

Answer 54

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.

Question 55

Repetition

Answer 55

word or phrase used two or more times in a close proximity.

Question 56

Rhetorical Modes

Answer 56

exposition, description, narration, argumentation.

Question 57

Rhetorical Question

Answer 57

one that does not expect an explicit answer. It is used to pose and idea to be considered by the speaker or audience.

Question 58

Sarcasm

Answer 58

Harsh,caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony.

Question 59

Satire

Answer 59

A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. Satire doesn’t simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). Satire targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals.

Question 60

Speaker

Answer 60

The voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious personna.

Question 61

Stereotype

Answer 61

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.

Question 62

Style

Answer 62

An author’s characteristic manner of expression- his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to style

Question 63

Subjectivity

Answer 63

A personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author’s feelings and opinions.

Question 64

Syllogism

Answer 64

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 if 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.

Question 65

Synecdoche

Answer 65

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.”

Question 66

Syntactic Fluency

Answer 66

Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length.

Question 67

Syntactic Permutation

Answer 67

Sentence structures that are extraordinary complex and involved. They are after difficult for the novice reader to follow.

Question 68

Syntax

Answer 68

The grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. Syntax includes length of sentence, kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, or compound).

Question 69

Theme

Answer 69

The central idea or “message” of a literary work.

Question 70

Thesis

Answer 70

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 the thesis.

Question 71

Tone

Answer 71

The characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience (anger, sarcastic, loving, didactic, emotional, etc.)

Question 72

Transition

Answer 72

A word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carried the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph.

Question 73

Understatement

Answer 73

The opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.

Question 74

Voice

Answer 74

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’a style.

Question 75

Missing the point

Answer 75

The premises of one argument do support a particular conclusion- but not the conclusion that the arguer actually draws.

Question 76

Post hoc (also called false cause)

Answer 76

This fallacy gets it’s name from the Latin phrase “post hoc, ergo propter hoc”, which translates as “after this, therefore because of this.”; assuming that because B comes after A, A caused B. Of course, sometimes one event really does cause another one that comes later- for example, if I register for a class, and my name later appears in the roll, it’s true that the first event caused the one that came later. But sometimes two events that seem related in time aren’t really related as cause and event. That is, correlation isn’t the same thing as causation.

Question 77

Slippery slope

Answer 77

The arguer claims that a sort if chain reaction, usually ending in some are sure consequence, will take place, but there’s really not enough evidence for that assumption. The arguer asserts that if we take even one step onto the “slippery slope”, we will end up sliding all the way to the bottom; he or she assumes we can’t stop parkway down the hill.

Question 78

Weak analogy

Answer 78

Many arguments rely on an analogy between two or more objects, ideas, or situations. If the two thins that are being compared aren’t really alike in the relevant respects, the analogy is a weak one, and the argument that relies on it commits the fallacy of weak analogy.

Question 79

Appeal to authority

Answer 79

Often we add strength to our arguments by referring to respected sources or authorities and explaining their positions on the issues we’re discussing. If, however, we try to get readers to agree with us simply by impressing them with a famous name or by appealing to a supposed authority who really isn’t much of an expert, we commit the fallacy of appeal to authority.

Question 80

Ad populum

Answer 80

The Latin name of this fallacy means “to the people.” There are several versions of the ad populum fallacy, but what they all have in common is that in them, the arguer takes advantage of the desire most people have to be like and to fit in with others and uses that desire to try to get the audience to accept his or her argument. One of the most common versions is the bandwagon fallacy, in which the arguer tries to convince the audience to do or believe something because everyone else (supposedly) does.

Question 81

Ad hominem and tu quoque

Answer 81

Like the appeal to authority and ad populum fallacies, the ad hominem (“against the person”) and tu quoque (“you, too!”) fallacies focus our attention on people rather than on arguments or evidence. In bother of these arguments, the conclusion is usually “You shouldn’t believe So-and-So’s argument.” The reason for not believing So-and-So is that So-and-So is either a bad person (ad hominem) or a hypocrite (tu quoque). In an ad hominem argument, the arguer attacks his or her opponent instead of the opponent’s argument.

Question 82

Appeal to pity

Answer 82

The appeal to pity takes place when an arguer tries to get people to accept a conclusion by making them feel sorry for someone.

Question 83

Appeal to ignorance

Answer 83

In the appeal to ignorance, the arguer basically says “Look, there’s no conclusive evidence on the issue at hand. Therefore, you should accept my conclusion on the issue.”

Question 84

Straw man

Answer 84

One way of making our own arguments stronger is to anticipate and respond in advance to the arguments that an opponent might make. In the straw man fallacy, the arguer sets up a weak version of the opponent’s position and tries to score points by knocking it down. But just as being able to knock down a straw man (like a scarecrow) isn’t very impressive, defeating a watered-down version of your opponent’s argument isn’t very impressive either.

Question 85

Red herring

Answer 85

Partway through an argument, the arguer goes off on a tangent, raising a side issue that distracts the audience from what’s really at stake. Often, the arguer never returns to the original issue.

Question 86

Allegory

Answer 86

device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning

Question 87

Alliteration

Answer 87

the repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (e.g. “she sells sea shells”)

Question 88

Allusion

Answer 88

a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumable commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art

Question 89

Ambiguity

Answer 89

the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage

Question 90

Analogy

Answer 90

a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them

Question 91

Antecedent

Answer 91

the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun

Question 92

Aphorism

Answer 92

a terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or moral principle

Question 93

Apostrophe

Answer 93

a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love