SLO Vocabulary Terms

Question 1

Evaluate

Answer 1

Examine and judge carefully. To judge or determine the significance, worth, or quality of something: to asses.

Question 2

Analysis

Answer 2

The process or result of identifying the parts of a whole and their relationships to one another.

Question 3

Explicit

Answer 3

Clearly expressed or fully stated in actual text.

Question 4

Connotation

Answer 4

The range of associations that a word or phrase suggests in addition to its dictionary meaning.

Question 5

Irony

Answer 5

Incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the expected result.

Question 6

Inference

Answer 6

A judgement based on reasoning rather than on a direct or explicit statement. A conclusion based on facts or circumstances.

Question 7

Tone

Answer 7

The attitude of the author toward the audience, characters, subject or the work itself.

Question 8

Refutation

Answer 8

Countering of anticipated arguments.

Question 9

Juxtaposition

Answer 9

Placing one thing adjacent to another, especially for comparison and contrast.

Question 10

Rhetoric

Answer 10

The art and study of effective writing and speech.

Question 11

Diction

Answer 11

Specific word choices an author makes to persuade or to convey tone; ex. “She began imitating his careful diction.”

Question 12

Clause

Answer 12

A group of words containing at least one paired subject and predicate.

Question 13

Phrase

Answer 13

A group of words that do not contain at least one paired subject and predicate.

Question 14

Ethos

Answer 14

Mode of persuasion requiring speakers to establish their credibility, skill, or morality on a given subjects to an intended audience.

Question 15

Pathos

Answer 15

Mode of persuasion speakers use when appealing to the various emotions of the audience, including fear, inspiration, intimidation, idealism, anger, nostalgia, despair, optimism, etc.

Question 16

Logos

Answer 16

Mode of persuasion speakers use when appealing to the audience’s ability to distinguish, through discourse, the difference between what is reasonable or unreasonable.

Question 17

Evidence

Answer 17

Proof coming from sources, fieldwork, and research that validates any logical support of an argument.

Question 18

Reasons

Answer 18

Statements of logic that offer support for an argument.

Question 19

Comma Splice

Answer 19

A type of Run-On sentence in which the writer has erroneously placed only a comma between two independent clauses, resulting in a failure to link the two according to grammatical convention.

Question 20

Claims

Answer 20

Any statements of belief that can be contested; argument.

Question 21

Claims of Value

Answer 21

A statement made to show that something is moral or immoral.

Question 22

Fallacy

Answer 22

Rationales for claims that might seem reasonable, but are actually unsound – and usually false.

Question 23

Claims of Policy

Answer 23

A statement made to endorse specific courses of action.

Question 24

Fused Sentence

Answer 24

A type of Run-On sentence in which the writer has failed to make any attempt either to link or separate two independent clauses, utilizing neither punctuation, nor conjunctions.

Question 25

Loose Sentence

Answer 25

A sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by subordinate phrases and clauses.

Question 26

Parallelism

Answer 26

The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

Question 27

Periodic Sentence

Answer 27

A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word.

Question 28

Claims of Fact

Answer 28

A statement made to verify the authenticity of something.

Question 29

Ambiguity

Answer 29

The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage.

Question 30

Concession

Answer 30

An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponent’s point.