Summer Reading Flashcards
Vocab
Alliteration
The repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables
Allusion
An indirect reference, often to another text or historic event.
Analogy
An extended comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things.
Anaphora
The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses.
Anecdote
A short account of an interesting event
Annotation
Explanatory or critical notes added to a text.
Antecendent
The noun to which a later pronoun refers.
Antimetabole
The repetition of words in an inverted order to sharpen contrast.
Antithesis
Parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas.
Aphorism
A short, astute statement of a general truth.
Appostive
A word or phrase that renames a nearby noun or pronoun
Aristotelian Triangle
A diagram that represents a rhetorical situation as the relationship among the speaker, the subject, and the audience (Also referred to as rhetorical triangle).
Assertation
An emphatic statement; declaration. An assertion supported by evidence becomes an argument.
Asyndeton
Leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, clauses. Attitude: The speaker’s position on a subject as revealed through his or her tone.
Claim
An assertion, usually supported by evidence.
Colloquialism
An informal or conversational use of language.
Complex sentence
A sentence the includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
Concession
A reluctant acknowledgement or yielding.
Connotation
That which is implied by a word, as opposed to the words literal meaning (see denotation).
Context
The circumstances that may have influenced a message.
Counterargument
A challenge to a position; an opposing argument.
Cumulative sentence
An independent clause followed by subordinate clauses or phrases that supply additional detail (also referred to as a loose sentence).
Declarative sentence
A sentence that makes a statement.
Denotation
The literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition. Diction: Word choice.
Elegiac
Mournful over what has passed or been lost; often used to describe tone.
Ethos
A Greek term referring to the character of a person or their credibility
Euphemism
Saying something harsh in a gentler way, or sugercoating something
Exigence
The specific reason a message was created; the situation that prompted the writer to speak out.
Hyperbole
Exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis.
Imperative sentence
A sentence that requests or commands.
Inversion
A sentence in which the verb precedes the subject.
Irony
A contradiction between what is said and what is meant in congruity between action and result.
Juxtaposition
Placement of two things side by side for emphasis.
Logos
A Greek term that means “word”; an appeal to logic
Metaphor
A figure of speech or trope through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, thus making in implicit comparison.
Metonymy
Use of an aspect of something to represent the whole.
Oxymoron
A figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms
Paradox
A statement that seems contradictory but is actually true.
Parallelism
The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns.
Parody
A piece that imitates and exaggerates the prominent features of another; used for comic effect or ridicule.
Pathos
A Green term that refers to suffering but has come to be associated with broader appeals to emotion.
Personification
Assigning lifelike characteristic to inanimate objects.
Polysyndeton
The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions
Premise
Major, minor Two parts of a syllogism. The concluding sentence of a syllogism takes its predicate from the major premise and its subject from the minor premise. Major premise: All mammals are warm-blooded. Minor premise: All horses are mammals. Conclusion: All horses are warm-blooded (see syllogism).
Propaganda
A negative term from writing designed to sway opinion rather the present information.
Refute
To discredit an argument, particularly a counterargument.
Rhetoric
The study of effective, persuasive language use; use of the “available means of persuasion.”
Rhetorical Question
A question asked more to produce an effect than to summon an answer.
Satire
An ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something, but actually argues against it.
Scheme
A category of figurative language that involves structure or patterns in sentences, specifically balance, word order, omission, and repetition.
Simile
A figure of speech that uses “like” or “as” to compare two things
Straw man
A logical fallacy that involves the creation of an easily refutable position; misrepresenting, than attacking an opponent’s position.
Subordinate Clause
created by a subordinating conjunction, a clause that modifies an independent clause.
Syntax
Sentence structure.
Synthesize
Combining or bringing together two or more elements to produce something more complex.
Thesis Statement
A defensible statement of the central idea in a work.
Tone
The speakers attitude toward the subject or audience.
Trope
A category of figurative language that includes elements which affect the meaning and which can be subdivided into reference, wordplay, substitution, overstatement, and understatement.
Understatement
Lack of emphasis in a statement or point; restraint in language often used for ironic effect.
Voice
In grammar, a term for the relationship between a verb and a noun (active or passive voice). In rhetoric, a distinctive quality on the style and tone of writing.
