Writing Material Part 2 Flashcards
Flashforward
A part of the plot that jumps ahead in time and returns to the present.
Ex: Oedipus is told he will sleep with his mother and kill his father by a prophet.
Figures of Rhetoric
Schemes–that is, variations from typical word or sentence formation–and tropes, which are variations from typical patterns of thought. Figures of speech.
Ex: “When I first saw her, my soul began to quiver.”
Heuristic
A systematic strategy or method for solving problems. It is a strategy involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error and is relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilize self-educating techniques to improve performance.
Ex: Lawrence Lessig has argued that patents in different industries should be given different amounts of time, using this strategy.
House Analogy
In ancient Roman oratory, the method that speakers used to memorize their speeches, connecting the introduction to the porch of a house, the narration and partition to the front foyer, the confirmation and refutation to rooms connected to the foyer, and the conclusion to the back door.
Ex: Julius Caesar most likely used this method to memorize his speeches.
Hyperbaton
Unusual or inverted word order.
Ex: “Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?” (Yoda).
Imagery
Language that evokes particular sensations or emotionally rich experiences in a reader.
Ex 1: Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery in The Fall of the House of the Usher.
Ex 2: “…ran for a huge black knotted trees whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain…” (Fitzgerald 93).
Implied Metaphor
A metaphor embedded in a sentence rather than expressed directly as a sentence.
Ex 1: “John swelled and rustled his plumage.” (John was a peacock.)
Ex 2: “Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart” (Fitzgerald 25).
Inductive Reasoning
Reasoning that begins by citing a number of specific instances or examples and then shows how collectively they constitute a general principle.
Ex: This ice is cold. Thus, all ice is cold.
Intention
The goal a writer or speaker hopes to achieve with the text.
Ex: One of John Steinbeck’s intentions in The Grapes of Wrath was to end humans’ inhumanity to fellow humans.
Jargon
The specialized vocabulary of a particular group.
Ex: Bilateral periorbital hematoma (a black eye).
This is an example of jargon doctors use.
Konnoi Topoi
People’s topics; ordinary patterns of reasoning; also called basic topics.
Ex: Topics include justice, peace, rights, and movie theaters.
Latinate Diction
Vocabulary characterized by the choice of elaborate, often complicated words from Latin roots.
Ex: Words like “deviate,” “aqueduct,” and “insulate”.
Limited Narration
A narrative in which the reader or viewer has access to the unspoken thoughts of one character or partial thinking of more than one character.
Ex: “Murgatroyd met Madeline on New Year’s Eve in 2002. He attended a party and she opened the door. Her hair! Only a goddess could have hair so fine.”
Litotes
Ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary
Ex 1: You won’t be sorry, meaning you’ll be glad.
Ex 2: “This is no ordinary city” rather than “this is an impressive city”.
Ex 3: “I lived at West Egg, the–well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag…” (Fitzgerald 9).
Ex: Not unattractive
Logic
The art of reasoning.
Ex: All humans are mortal. Socrates is human. Thus, Socrates is mortal.
