English Techniques Flashcards
Hyperbole
Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis
Erotema
A rhetorical question
Euphemism
Polite, indirect expressions used to describe unpleasant things
Parallelism
The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same
Camera angles
The positions from which the camcorder records shots
Caricatures
A representation of a person where certain features of that person are exaggerated or distorted
Stereotypes
A generalised belief about a group of people
Body language
Communication of information through body positions and gestures
Foreground/centre/background
How the picture is made up
Composition
The make up of something
Salience
The first part of an image that someone sees
Hypophora
Where the writer raises a question and then immediately answers it
Epithet
Where something is described as being more prominent than it actually is
Litotes
Where something is understated and the opposite is almost implied
Aphorism
A statement of truth or opinion in a concise and witty manner
Meiosis
A witty understatement that belittles or dismisses something or somebody
Pathos
A tool of persuasion that evokes emotions of pity, sympathy and sorrow
Logos
A literary device used to convince a responder by using reason or logic
Ethos
The credibility or ethical appeal of a speaker
Synecdoche
Where part of something represents a whole or vice versa
Amplification
Where a sentence is embellished by adding additional information
Anaphora
The deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence
Oxymoron
A figure of speech in which two words of opposite effect are joined to create an effect
Aporia
A figure of speech in which the speaker expresses doubt and asks the audience how to proceed
Asyndeton
Where conjunctions are eliminated between phrases and in the sentence, yet it is still grammatically correct
Antithesis
Juxtaposition of two ideas that are balanced
Eg. not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more
Apostrophe
When a character moves from addressing the audience to addressing a specific person, present or not
Irony
Verbal expression where the words mean the opposite of what is actually said
Metonymy
A reference to something of someone where only part of them is named
Paralypsis
Drawing attention to something by pretending to omit it
Paradox
A statement that at first seems incorrect, but after more thought is recognised to be true
Tautology
The repetition of one idea, reworded
Anthropomorphism
To give the characteristics of a human to an animal, object or God
Extended metaphor
A comparison between two things that is sustained for a period of time
Breaking the fourth wall
When characters or narrators ‘talk’ to the audience
‘Will you look at us by the river!’- Tim Winton/Cloudstreet
In media res
Means where the story starts in the middle of a story or event.
Often at a crucial point in the action
Idiomatic language
Has a meaning not deducible from the individual words
Eg. Skylarking
Compound neologisms
Words combined to create a new word
Eg. Chickenlegs
Elegiac imagery
Referring to the death of a person
Aural imagery
A technique that creates aural images
Eg. Onomatopoeia, belch
Omniscient narrator
The all-knowing narrator. Knows everything but doesn’t share all their knowledge with the responder. Filters knowledge
Personification
Giving human characteristics to something that isn’t human
Foreshadowing
A warning or indication of a future event
Vernacular
The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country or region
Eg. Tellya
Phonetic spelling
Spelling words the way they sound
Lexical chain
Lexical chains connect words or phrases in the text that are related.
When the nouns in several sentences are thematically related to one another or they refer to the same thing to help create links connecting ideas.
Free indirect speech
A special type of third person narration that allows the narrator to slip in and out of one or more character’s conscience/consciousness
Free direct speech
The actual spoken words, usually has quotation marks
Discursive text
Presents and discusses issues and opinions
Allegory
A text that has a hidden meaning which is different to the obvious one
ie. Animal farm
Disjunctive
lacking connection or consistency
Paratext
A text surrounded by another text
Olympics. Paralympics
Peritext
Text that surrounds the main text
Sauce on the chicken
Hypertext
Click on the source. Go to somewhere else
Digital text
Appropriation
The ghost of previous texts
Bricolage
Gathers different texts and reconstructs them into one text
An ensemble piece
Pastiche
Made up of fragments pieced together
Play with structure
Post structured text
Textual intervention
When you jump in and take over the text. You can add on to the end or change what’s already there
Eg. parody, pantomime
Absurdism
When people have a seemingly pointless conversation but it actually has meaning
Rapid fire conversation
Stream of conscious
No punctuation. No spaces
What’s the difference between plagiarism and appropriation?
One has the same purpose, the other changes the purpose
Anecdote
A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature
Perspective
A character’s view of the situation or events in the story
Syllogism
A form of deduction. An extremely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive argument
Satire
A literary style used to make fun of or ridicule an idea or human vice or weakness
Bildungsroman
A novel or story whose theme is the moral or psychological growth of the main character
Devices
A word pattern/combination of words that is used to influence or cause a reaction from a reader
Foil
A person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast eg. the antagonist?
Epistolary
A piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters
Epitaph
A piece of writing in praise of a deceased person
Parody
A satirical imitation of a work of art for purpose of ridiculing its style or subject
Delayed sentence
A sentence that withholds its main idea until the end. For example: Just as he bent to tie his shoe, a car hit him.
Sarcasm
A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is in fact harshly critical
Expletive
A single word or phrase intended to emphasise surrounding words. (usually set off by commas) Examples: in fact, of course, after all, certainly
Eulogy
Writing in praise of a person or thing
Epiphany
A sudden realisation or perception
Onomatopoeia
A word capturing the sound that it describes
Utopia
A land of perfection
Dystopia
A place where people live dehumanised, often fearful lives
Dues ex machina
As in Greek theatre, use of an artificial device or contrived solution to solve a difficult situation, usually introduced suddenly and unexpectedly
Analogy
Comparison of two things that are alike in some respects eg. metaphors
Inductive
Conclusion or type of reasoning whereby observation or information about a part of a class is applied to the class as a whole. Contrast with deductive
Nostalgia
Desire to return in thought or fact to a former time
Chiasmus
Where the order of the words in the first clause is reversed in the second - “Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church?”
Thesis
Focus statement of an essay
Doppelganger
Ghostly counterpart of a living person or an alter ego
Propaganda
Information or rumour deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, or institution
Didactic
Intended for teaching or to teach a moral lesson
Abstract
Not relating to the concrete properties of an object. Related to ideas, concepts or qualities instead.
Isocolon
Parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure, but also in length. For example, “An envious heart makes a treacherous ear”
Aesthetic
Pertaining to the value of art for its own sake or form
Elergy
Poem or prose lamenting the death of a particular person
Antihero
The protagonist who does not embody the traditional qualities of a hero
Catharsis
Purification or cleansing of the spirit through the emotions of pity and terror as a witness to a tragedy
Epigraph
A quote at the beginning of a work, or sections, to set the tone or a theme
Motif
Recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event
Anadiplosis
The repetition of one word at the end of one clause, at the start of the next
eg. “The crime was common, common be the pain.”
Denotation
The direct, specific, dictionary definition of a word
Realism
An attempt to describe life and nature without idealisation and with attention to detail
Deductive
The reasoning process by which a conclusion is drawn from set of premises and contains no more facts than these premises
Consonance
The repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels, such as pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack
Invective
The use of angry and insulting language in satirical writing
Syntax
The way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is sentence structure and how it influences the way a reader perceives a piece of writing.
Canon (canonical)
The works of an author that have been accepted as authentic
Begging the question
To sidestep or evade the real problem
Anachronism
Use of historically inaccurate details in a text; for example, depicting a 19th-century character using a computer. Some authors employ anachronisms for humorous effect, and some genres, such as science fiction or fantasy, make extensive use of anachronism
Ambiguity
Where multiple meanings are possible. A situation in which either the connotative or the denotative meaning can be valid
Connotation
What is implied by a word (different to dictionary definition)
Transition words
Words and devices that bring unity and coherence to writing eg. however, in addition
Authorial intrusion
Including them self in the picture/text
Sophistry
the use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving
Metatext
A text that reflects on a previous piece of writing
Enjambment
no punctuation at the end, turns it into a narrative. Quickens the pace
