Rhetorical Strategies

Question 1

allusion

Answer 1

indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained but relies on the reader’s familiarity with what is thus mentioned

Question 2

ambiguity

Answer 2

something of doubtful meaning; an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context, may have more than one meaning

Question 3

anachronism

Answer 3

representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order

Question 4

aphorism

Answer 4

brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation

Question 5

invective

Answer 5

abuse (tongue-lashing, diatribe, condemnation)

Question 6

juxtaposition

Answer 6

placing two things side by side, usually to show contrast

Question 7

malapropism

Answer 7

an incorrect usage of a word, usually with comic effect

Question 8

rhetorical question

Answer 8

a question posed by the speaker or writer not to seek an answer but instead to affirm or deny a point simply by asking a question about it

Question 9

sensory detail

Answer 9

an item used to appeal to the sense (sight, taste, touch, etc)

Question 10

shift

Answer 10

general term in linguistics for any slight alteration in a word’s meaning, or the creation of an entirely new word by changing the use of an expression

Question 11

tone

Answer 11

writer’s attitude toward his reader and his subject; his mood or moral view; formal, informal, playful, ironic, optimistic, pessimistic

Question 12

point of view

Answer 12

way the events of a story are conveyed to the reader; “vantage point” from which the narrative is passed from author to the reader; first-person, omniscient, limited

Question 13

theme-thesis

Answer 13

message conveyed by a literary work

Question 14

voice

Answer 14

textual feature, such as diction and sentence structure, that convey a writer’s or speaker’s persona