Rhetorical Terms- Trope

Question 1

Allegory

Answer 1

An extended metaphor.
Ex 1: “During the time I have voyaged on this ship, I have avoided the cabin; rather, I have remained on deck, battered by wind and rain, but able to see moonlight…”
Ex 2: “This is a valley of ashes–a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take forms of houses and…of men…” (Fitzgerald 27).

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

A reference in a written or spoken text to another text or to some particular body of knowledge.
Ex 1: “I doubt if Phaethon feared more – that time/ he dropped the sun-reins of his father’s chariot/ and burned the streak of sky we see today” (Dante’s Inferno).
Ex 2: “Have you read ‘The rise of the Coloured Empires’ by this man Goddard?” (Fitzgerald 17).

Question 3

Anastrophe

Answer 3

Inversion or reversal of the usual order of words.

Ex: Echoed the hills.

Question 4

Anthimeria

Answer 4

The substitution of one part of speech for another.

Ex: The thunder would not peace at my bidding

Question 5

Antithesis

Answer 5

The juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas, often in parallel structure.
Ex 1: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” (Barry Goldwater)
Ex 2: “…found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress–and as drunk as a monkey” (Fitzgerald 81).

Question 6

Flat Character

Answer 6

A figure readily identifiable by memorable traits but not fully developed.
Ex: Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.

Question 7

Format

Answer 7

The structural elements that constitute the presentation of a written text.
Ex: The Modern Language Association (MLA) has created a format for research papers.

Question 8

Free-writing

Answer 8

Intuitive writing strategy for generation of ideas by writing without stopping.
Ex: In English 1, I performed freewriting for two short pieces.

Question 9

Functional part

Answer 9

A part of a text classified according to its function.

Ex: The introduction.

Question 10

Hyperbole

Answer 10

An exaggeration for effect.
Ex 1: “I told you a billion times not to exaggerate.”
Ex 2: “…we scattered light through half Astoria…” (Fitzgerald 72).

Question 11

Invention

Answer 11

The art of generating material for a text; the first of the five traditional canons of rhetoric.
Ex: I use brainstorming before an essay as invention.

Question 12

Journal

Answer 12

A text in which writers produce informal compositions that help them “think on paper” about topics and writing projects.
Ex: I had a journal last year for Honors English in which I recorded my thoughts on various novels I read.

Question 13

Journaling

Answer 13

The process of writing in a journal.

Ex: I wrote a journal last year for Honors English on the books I read.

Question 14

loose sentances

Answer 14

A sentence that adds modifying elements after the subject, verb, and complement.
Ex: “Bells rang, filling the air with their clangor, startling pigeons into flight from every belfry, bringing people into the streets to hear the news.”

Question 15

Meiosis

Answer 15

Representation of a thing as less than it really is to compel greater esteem for it.
Ex: Calling an act of arson a prank.

Question 16

Metaphor

Answer 16

An implied comparison that does not use the word like or as.

Ex: “No man is an island” (Donne).

Question 17

Oxymoron

Answer 17

Juxtaposed words with seemingly contradictory meanings.

Ex: “O miserable abundance! O beggarly riches!” (Donne).

Question 18

Paralipsis

Answer 18

Irony in which one proposes to pass over a matter, but subtly reveals it.
Ex: “She is talented, not to mention rich.”

Question 19

Peroration

Answer 19

In ancient Roman oratory, the part of a speech in which the speaker would draw together the entire argument and include material designed to compel the audience to think or act in a way consonant with the central argument.
Ex: In Julius Caesar’s speech, the peroration came at the end.

Question 20

Protagonist

Answer 20

The major character in a piece of literature; the figure in the narrative whose interests the reader is most concerned about and sympathetic toward.
Ex: Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath.

Question 21

Repertoire

Answer 21

A set of assumptions, skills, facts, and experience that a reader brings to a text to make meaning.

Question 22

setting

Answer 22

The context–including time and place–of a narrative.

Ex: The area surround New York City in the 1920s is the setting of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Question 23

Sharing

Answer 23

A system calling for writers to read or listen to one another’s work and suggest ways to improve it.
Ex: In AP US History, we peer reviewed each other’s take-home DBQs.

Question 24

Simile

Answer 24

A type of comparison that uses the word like or as.
Ex: “There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away” (Fitzgerald 2).

Question 25

Syllogism

Answer 25

Logical reasoning from inarguable premises.

Ex: All mortals die. All humans are mortal. All humans die.

Question 26

Synecdoche

Answer 26

A part of something used to refer to the whole.

Ex: “The hired hands are not doing their jobs.”

Question 27

Syntax

Answer 27

The order of words in a sentence.

Ex: “The dog ran” not “The ran dog.”

Question 28

Theme

Answer 28

The message conveyed by a literary work.

Ex: The decline of the American dream in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Question 29

Tone

Answer 29

The writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject matter.
Ex: Light-hearted in the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.

Question 30

Understatement

Answer 30

Deliberate playing down of a situation in order to make a point.
Ex: “I think there’s a problem between Shias and Sunnis.”

Question 31

Unity

Answer 31

The sense that a text is, appropriately, about only one subject and achieves one major purpose or effect.
Ex: Pride by Dagoberto Gilb

Question 32

Unreliable narrator

Answer 32

n untrustworthy or naïve commentator on events and characters in a story.
Ex: The people at Gatsby’s parties like Jordan who spread rumors about Gatsby’s past in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Question 33

Verisimilitude

Answer 33

The quality of a text that reflects the truth of actual experience.
Ex: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon has medium verisimilitude.

Question 34

Zeugma

Answer 34

A trope in which one word, usually a noun or the main verb, governs two other words not related in meaning.
Ex: He governs his will and his kingdom.