Writers Style Vocabulary

Question 1

Diction

Answer 1

The choice of words a writer uses, especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.

Question 2

Tone

Answer 2

The characteristic emotion that pervades a work

Question 3

Syntax

Answer 3

The manner in which words are poor together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Question 4

Colloquial

Answer 4

Everyday, conversational language

Question 5

Formal

Answer 5

Adhering to a high standard of form semicol one absent of cliche’s, slang, colloquial language, and abbreviated forms of expression.

Question 6

Allusion

Answer 6

Direct or indirect reference to personal, contemporary, historical, literary, or Biblical knowledge.

Question 7

Imagery

Answer 7

The creation of pictures that are conjured through exacting words that engage the readers’ senses.

Question 8

Exposition

Answer 8

A type of writing that explains.

Question 9

Objectivity

Answer 9

The ability of a person to remain neutral toward a subject.

Question 10

Antithesis

Answer 10

The contrast of ideas; negation

Question 11

Style

Answer 11

The overall effect of an author’s craft, derived from the sum total of literary techniques and devices used by that writer.

Question 12

Genre

Answer 12

A french word meaning category or type: tragedy, short story, essay, novella, e.g. (applies to media also)

Question 13

Rhetoric

Answer 13

The art of using words effectively in speaking or writing

Question 14

Pedantic

Answer 14

Tediously learned; scholarly in a dull and narrow way

Question 15

Sardonic

Answer 15

Disdainfully or bitterly sneering or sarcastic

Question 16

Denotation

Answer 16

Literal, dictionary meaning of a word

Question 17

Connotation

Answer 17

Feelings are emotions associated with the word; implied meaning.

Question 18

Abstract language

Answer 18

Language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things people or places.

Ex. Honor or love

Question 19

Concrete language

Answer 19

Language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places.

Ex. Car or house

Question 20

Didactic

Answer 20

Morally instructive; term used to describe fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral.

Question 21

Trope

Answer 21

Artful, conscious diction: metaphor, simile, personification, oxymoron.

Question 22

Scheme

Answer 22

Artful syntax or structure of words

Ex. Parallelism, juxtaposition, or paradox

Question 23

Context

Answer 23

The situation, time and place when something was written or spoken

Question 24

Purpose.

Answer 24

Writers goal: to inform, to tell story, to describe, to argue.

Question 25

Thesis

Answer 25

A clear statement revealing the writer’s purpose; also called a claim or assertion.

Question 26

Ethos

Answer 26

Appeal to expertise, knowledge, experience, or training

Question 27

Logos

Answer 27

Appeal to logic and reason

Question 28

Pathos

Answer 28

Appeal to emotion

Question 29

Bias

Answer 29

Prejudice toward one side in an argument

Question 30

Conventions

Answer 30

Standards or rules

Question 31

Close Reading

Answer 31

Engaging with the text through analysis, annotation in order to gain a deeper perception of the author’s purpose and ideas.

Question 32

Visual text

Answer 32

Pictures, graphs, logos that speak without words

Question 33

Archaic

Answer 33

Old-fashioned (usually used to describe language)