Rhetorical Terms Flashcards
Appeals: ethos, pathos, logos
Ethos: the credibility of an author or their statement
Pathos: the appeal to the reader’s emotion
Logos: the appeal to logic
Anaphora
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses
Periodic Sentences
A sentence deliberately placed at the end of a sentence to really get the main idea across
Ex. “yesterday while I was walking down the street, I saw him”
Cumulative Sentences
A sentence in which the main idea comes first, and then details follow
Ex. We reached Edmonton that morning after a turbulent flight and some exciting…
Tone
The writer’s attitude or feeling about the subject
Parallelism/ Parallel Structure
The repetition of a chosen grammatical form within a sentence
Ex. I forgave you when you lost my cat, I forgave you when you left me at the airport, and I forgave you when you threw out my favorite stuffed animal
Figurative Language
A way of expressing something without using the words’ strict or realistic meaning
Ex. simile, metaphor, personification
Allegory
A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
Argumentation
The action or process of reasoning systematically in support of an idea, action, or theory
Ex. stating opinions and using facts to back them up
Claim
An assertion one makes, usually at the beginning of a paragraph
Development
How a reader can watch a character grow throughout a story or book
Aphorism
A short statement or catch phrase containing a well-known or general truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner
Ex. The early bird gets the worm
Didactic
Designed or intended to teach people something
Ex. a teacher presenting a lecture directly to their students
Emotional Appeal
An emotional manipulation that is often used to win an argument using feelings and emotion rather than logic
Ex. ethos, pathos, logos
Imagery
Visually descriptive language
Irony
A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result
Ex. if it were a cold, rainy gray day, you might say, “What a beautiful day!”
Allusions
An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference
Ex. Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel
Invective
Insulting and highly critical language
Ex. you dirty rotten scoundrel
Narrative
First-person stories involving real or imagined events, characters, and settings
Ex. essays, fairy tales, autobiographies and news stories
Juxtaposition
Placing two things side by side to highlight their differences
Ex. You can see the light of the stars at night only because of the darkness of space
Metonymy
Figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original
Ex. “crown” to mean “king”
Point of View
What the character or narrator telling the story can see, his or her perspective
Repetition
The recurrence of an action, event, or phrase
Syntax
The set of rules that helps readers and writers make sense of sentences
Ex. if a sentence has a verb, direct object, and subject, the proper order is subject → verb → direct object
Diction
The word choice of an author
