Rhetorical Terms- Theme

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning or in the middle of two or more adjacent words.
Ex: “To make a man to meet the moral need/ A man to match the mountains and the sea” (Edwin Markham)

Question 2

Anadiplosis

Answer 2

The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.
Ex: “Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business.” (Francis Bacon)

Question 3

Anaphora

Answer 3

The repetition of a group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.
Ex: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence…” (Winston Churchill)

Question 4

Antecedent-consequence relationship

Answer 4

The relationship expressed by “if…then” reasoning.

Ex: If industries poison rivers with pollutants, then many fish will die.

Question 5

Anthimeria

Answer 5

The substitution of one part of speech for another.

Ex: “The thunder would not peace at my bidding.” (William Shakespeare)

Question 6

Appeal

Answer 6

One of three strategies for persuading audiences–logos, appeal to reason; pathos, appeal to emotion; and ethos, appeal to ethics.
Ex: “I elicited the anger of some of the most aggressive teenagers in my high school. A couple of nights later, a car pulled up in front of my house, and the angry teenagers in the car dumped garbage on the lawn of my house as an act of revenge and intimidation.” (James Garbarino)

Question 7

Appositive

Answer 7

A noun or noun phrase that follows another noun immediately or defines or amplifies its meaning.
Ex: Orion, my orange cat, is sitting on the couch.

Question 8

Argument

Answer 8

A carefully constructed, well-supported representation of how a writer sees an issue, problem, or subject.
Ex: The Patriots prevailed over the Loyalists, who they violently persecuted due to their conflicting position; both betrayed the African slaves to temporarily bolster their military.

Question 9

Aristotelian triangle

Answer 9

A diagram showing the relations of writer or speaker, audience (reader or listener), and text in a rhetorical situation.

Question 10

Canon

Answer 10

One of the traditional elements of rhetorical composition – invention, arrangement, style, memory, or delivery.
Ex: Frederick Douglass’s style (one aspect of canon) is both objective and subjective.

Question 11

casuistry

Answer 11

A mental exercise to discover possibilities for analysis of communication.

Question 12

Dramatic Narration

Answer 12

A narrative in which the reader or viewer does not have access to the unspoken thoughts of any character.

Question 13

Dynamic Character

Answer 13

One who changes during the course of the narrative.

Ex: Romeo is a dramatic character in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare.

Question 14

Evidence

Answer 14

The facts, statistics, anecdotes, and examples that a speaker or writer offers in support of a claim, generalization, or conclusion.
Ex: “Recent studies in the brain chemistry of rats show that when they play, their brains release large amounts of dopamine . . .” (Rifkin).

Question 15

Metonymy

Answer 15

An entity referred to by one of its attributes or associations.
Ex: “The press” for the news media.

Question 16

symbol

Answer 16

In a text, an element that stands for more than itself and, therefore, helps to convey a theme of the text.
Ex: Purple symbolizes royalty.

Question 17

Tautology

Answer 17

A group of words that merely repeats the meaning already conveyed.
Ex: “If you don’t get any better, then you’ll never improve.”

Question 18

Thesis

Answer 18

The main idea in a text, often the main generalization, conclusion, or claim.
Ex: The corruption of America’s rich in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Question 19

Thesis Statement

Answer 19

A single sentence that states a text’s thesis, usually somewhere near the beginning.
Ex: “Sweatt v. Painter advanced equality by ultimately improving African American educational rights, thus transforming American democracy for a better today.”

Question 20

Topic

Answer 20

A place where writers go to discover methods for proof and strategies for presentation of ideas.
Ex: Gun control laws, the environment, or communism.

Question 21

trope

Answer 21

An artful variation from expected modes of expression of thoughts and ideas.
Ex: Pun or metonymy.

Question 22

Voice

Answer 22

The textual features, such as diction and sentence structure, that convey a writer’s or speaker’s persona.
Ex: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s voice is made up of mystery.

Question 23

Writing Process

Answer 23

The acts a writer goes through, often recursively, to complete a piece of writing: inventing, investigating, planning, drafting, consulting, revising, and editing.
Ex: I used this to write my research paper.