School House Books
Multiple-Choice Tests Classroom of English Instruction
Vocabulary: Glossary of Rhetorical and Stylistic Devices
Vocabulary: Glossary of Rhetorical and Stylistic Devices
Directions: Do the following four assignments to achieve mastery. Write your response in the space provided after each term.
Assignment 1: Use this list as a glossary to define each term. Each term is linked to a site with a definition. Just click on the term you need to define. A literary definintion of the term is also included in blue text following the name of the term.
Assignment 2: Analyze the author's effective use of this term as seen in the examples provided. The definition of the term implies the purpose for choosing that particular stylistic or rhetorical device. To analyze the langugae choice, embed parts of the quote to judge how well the purpose for the choice selected (as seen in the definition of the term) was accomplished.
Assignment 3: Write your own sentences as an example of each stylistic or rhetorical device. Eventually emulate some of those that better fit your own style of writing.
Assignment 4: Find more quotes. Write down examples of these terms as they appear in the literature assigned.absolute phrase A noun is immediately followed by a participle and a prepositional phrase or adjective phrase or two. example- "Actually, he wore a clown's tight rubber wig, painted white." Annie Dillard
abstraction A concept or value that can not be seen (love, honor, courage, death, etc.) which the writer usually tries to illustrate by comparing it metaphorically to a known, concrete object. Sometimes this knowledge is hidden or esoteric because it is only known by or meant for a select few. example- "I nod to death in passing, aware of the sound of my own feet upon my path." Peter Mathiesson
ad hominem argument Attacking another personís argument by attacking the person rather than the issue. In the political arena this is called "mudslinging." example- "I disliked going to see Dr. Hopper. In fact, I probably dislike Dr. Hopper. He has a sharp nose that points downward, seeming always to be calling attention to his shoes. He is a hard faced man who who makes much of small things." Anne F. Rosner "Prize Tomatoes" "Let me say, incidentally, my opponent, my opposite number for the vice-presidency on the democratic ticket, does have his wife on the payroll, and has had her on the payroll for the last ten years." Richard Nixon
adjectives Words that describe nouns. When asked to address the author's use of diction, look for any unusual adjectives used or any common adjectives used in uncommon ways. example- "The moth's enormous wings are velveted in a rich, warm brown, and edged in bands of blue and pink delicate as a watercolor wash." Annie Dillard "She is sitting on the stoop of a rickety, wooden, one-family house in Birmingham." Martin Luther King, Jr.
allegoryA story or description that has a second meaning. This is portrayed by creating characters, setting, and/or events which represent (symbolize) abstract ideas. example- " . . . on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.
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This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it,óor whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison-door,ówe shall not take upon us to determine. Finding it so directly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal, we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers and present it to the reader. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow." Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet LetteralliterationThe repetition of initial consonant sounds. example- "Freak of fancy in my friend." Edgar Allan Poe "Dazzled, delighted, and dumbfounded." Helen Keller "Fish, fowl, flesh, roasted in luscious stews, and seasoned, I trust, to all your tastes. Nathaniel Hawthorne
allusionReferences to literary, artistic, scientific, or historical people, places, or things. examples- "Even Sir Thomas Moore, so often praised for his enlightened approach to the education of his daughter Margaret Roper, shared the belief that women were frivolously loquacious by nature." Antonia Fraser "What can be more moving than a wise, high-strung woman begging a child's forgiveness, even as King Lear knelt to Cordelia for Pardon." Helen Keller "The lessening of greatness in the music of modern times can be traced to Darwin, Marx, Einstein, and Freud. . . . " Lewis Thomas "Bears simply brought out the Hyde in my Jeckyll-headed dog." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly ". . . the younger crowd for who I now felt a contempt such as only a disillusioned dreamer feels for those still unaware that they dream--the business students from southern colleges for whom business was vague, an abstract games with rules as obsolete as Noah's Ark, but who yet were drunk on finance." Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man
ambiguity (or ambiguous references) The expression of an idea in such a way that more than one meaning is suggested. All AP essay passages have some ambiguity. To get the highest scores, students have to make reference to the multiple meanings seen in the passages. example- "It was like dodging back and forth from one dimension to another, a silent explosion of breaking through the sound barrier, a curious experience, like a dip into a known but alien water."
analogyA comparison of two things usually made by an author to show how something unfamiliar is like something widely known. example- "The dominant race is to be deprived of its superiority; nor is a tigress robbed of its cubs more furious than is the Boer at this prospect." Winston Churchill
anaphoraThe repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism. Anaphora can be used with questions, negations, hypotheses, conclusions, and subordinating conjunctions, although care must be taken not to become affected or to sound rhetorical and bombastic. Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs and/or prepositions can be used for anaphora, too. Double click on John F. Kennedy's inaugural address and read the entire speech listing some of the various examples of anaphora:
anecdote A brief story used in an essay to illustrate a point. example- "I remember there came into our neighborhood one of this class who was in search of a school to teach, and the question arose while he was there as to the shape of the earth and how he would teach the children concerning the subject. He explained his position in the matter by saying that he was prepared to teach that the earth was either flat or round, according to the preference of a majority of his patrons." Booker T. Washington Up From Slavery
antagonist The force or person working against the protagonist. The villain is an antagonist. example- "I had shut the door to. Then I turned around. and there he was. I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I reckoned I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken ? that is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being so unexpected; but right away after I see I warn't scared of him worth bothring about.
He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers. There warn't no color in his face, where his face showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawl ? a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white. As for his clothes ? just rags, that was all. He had one ankle resting on t'other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then. His hat was laying on the floor ? an old black slouch with the top caved in, like a lid. " Huck's description of his Pap in Mark Twain"s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
antithesis A statement in which direct opposites are contrasted in the same sentence. A contrast of ideas expressed in a grammatically balanced statement. example- "If I stand on the bridge and look downstream, I get dizzy; but if I look downstream, I feel as though I am looking up the business end of an avalanche." Annie Dillard "A man desires the satisfaction of his desires; a woman desires the condition of desiring." Pam Houston To err is human, to forgive divine." Alexander Pope
antecedent The word for which the pronoun stands. example- What is the antecedent of "it" in the line "Answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it." Aristotle
aphorism A brief, sometimes clever saying that expresses a principle, truth or observation about life (see assertion). example- "A man is God in ruins." Ralph Waldo Emerson "Sometimes indolence can be exhausting." Peter Cameron "Departing"
apostrophe A literary device in which the speaker directly addresses someone dead, someone missing, an abstract quality, or something non human as if he/she/it were present. example- "Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the deep stillness of a summer's Sabbath, stood all alone upon the lofty banks of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour out my soul's complaint, in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the moving multitude of ships:--
"You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom's swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting wing! Alas! betwixt me and you, the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute. The glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught, or get clear, I'll try it. I had as well die with ague as the fever. I have only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing. Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! Try it? Yes! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. The steamboats steered in a north-east course from North Point. I will do the same; and when I get to the head of the bay, I will turn my canoe adrift, and walk straight through Delaware into Pennsylvania. When I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass; I can travel without being disturbed. Let but the first opportunity offer, and, come what will, I am off. Meanwhile, I will try to bear up under the yoke. I am not the only slave in the world. Why should I fret? I can bear as much as any of them. Besides, I am but a boy, and all boys are bound to some one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming." Frederick Douglass A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
arguments Assertions made based on facts, statistics, logical or objective reasoning, hard evidence, etc. example- "I am a member of a party of one, and I live in an age of fear. Nothing lately has unsettled my party and raised my fears so much as your editorial, on Thanksgiving Day, suggesting that employees should be required to state their beliefs in order to hold their jobs. The idea is inconsistent with our Constitutional theory and has been stubbornly opposed by watchful men since the early days of the Republic." E. B. White
aside
assertion A categorical statement made by the author, speaker, narrator, or character which generalizes an opinion usually about human nature. A "for or against" stance taken by the writer of a personal essay (also called a proposition). Also, an assertion may be made in the form of an aphorism. example- "Racists and segregationists use the press skillfully to project an image of the Black man as criminal." Malcolm X "Trust is a fundamental requirement for our kind of existence, and without it our linkages would begin to snap loose." Lewis Thomas "The honest book-keeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly "Everything in the world must have design or the human mind rejects it." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly
assonanceA repetition of vowel sounds.
attitude, tone, or point of view The author's state of mind or point of view toward himself/herself or another person, place, or thing. example- "Though we have been wise enough to shut a lock a door against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the crown in possession of the key." Thomas Paine "It was my teacherís genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact, which made my first years of education so beautiful." Helen Keller "I have to laugh when I think about the sheer inconsistency of the Southern attitude about color . . . " E. B.. White " think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure to grasp your one necessity and not let go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you." Annie Dillard "I think Americans, perhaps more than other people, are impressed by what they don't understand, and poets take advantage of this." E. B. White "War is an act of unwanted violence; unwanted violence is unethical." Norman Mailer "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it." Martin Luther King, Jr.
assumption An inference or conclusion, possibly based on evidence. example- "She is a successful Americanówhich is to say, an American." Joyce Carol Oates
authorial aside Also called editorializing. It is a written digression, a time in a novel, when the author steps outside the story, speaking directly to the reader. example- "The silence of the forest was more oppressive than the heat, and at this hour of day there was not even the whine of insects." William Golding Lord of the Flies "Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledgeóbroad, deep knowledgeóis to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low." Helen Keller
balanced sentence Helps to characterize a writerís style, usually accompanied with a semicolon with a balanced number of words on each side. example- "The corners heap up with poetry; whole unfilled systems litter the ice." Annie Dillard
begging the question A persuasive fallacy in which the writer assumes the reader will automatically accept an assertion without proper support. example- "Lying is universalówe all do it; we all must do it. Therefore, the wise thing is for us to diligently train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously." Mark Twain
cacophony A grouping of harsh, discordant sounds.
cause and effect reasoning A dominant technique (also called rhetorical device) in which the author analyzes reasons for a chain of events. This causal analysis can also be the writer's main method of organization, or it can be one paragraph used to support a point in an essay developed through another pattern. example- "The lynching record for a quarter of a century merits the thoughtful study of the American people. It presents three salient facts: First, lynching is color line murder. Second, crimes against (white women) is the excuse, not the cause. Third, it is a national crime and requires a national remedy." Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) teacher, journalist and activist "Our country outing on the shores of the Rappahannock River had had an unintended result, and although I was taken completely by surprise, the news did not upset me." Lewis B. Puller Fortunate Son
characterization The process by which the writer reveals the personalities of the people of the work.
1. Characterization can be revealed by direct author/poet statement: The author may use such direct diction as "cruel, conservative, deceitful, long-suffering," or "self-absorbed." examples- "My fatherís bitterness grew out of this kind of atmosphere, which made him into an object instead of a man, and always dared him, under the penalty of being killed, to do anything about it." Martin Luther King, Jr. "He was delicate and in a frail way; good looking, too, except for the droop of his lower lip." Joseph Conrad "He was a passionate and articulate young man with anxiety and fierceness just below the surface." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly2. Characterization can be revealed through motivations: Some examples could include misguided altruisms, self-destructive ambition, self-conscious insecurity, financial considerations, or hypocritical tendencies. example- "The passionate noise of agreement from the assembly hit him like a wave and he lost his thread. . . . The weight of Ralph's new authority, brought light and happiness." William Golding Lord of the Flies
3. Characterization can be revealed through physical description. example- "He had long gray sideburns and a drooping mustache in the style of the Cossacks." Joseph Epstein "The Count and the Princess" "He was dressed in olive drab trousers and a leather jacket, and he wore a cowboy hat but with a flat crown and the brim curled and held to a peak by the chin strap." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly
4. Characterization can be revealed through dialogue. example- "The women singing the joys of being in the work force, they can have it." John Updike "The City"
5. Characterization can be revealed through thoughts and feelings. example- "I loved them. They needed me, I thought, not reading them very well." Peter Meinke "The Ponces"
6. Characterization can be revealed through actions. example- "He moved with a strange gait reminiscent to me of something I couldn't place." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly
7. Characterization can be revealed by the character's effect(s) on others. example- "He made everyone happy in a beautiful, unobtrusive way." Helen Keller
chiasmus A crossing parallelism, where the second part of a grammatical construction is balanced or paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order. example- "We must remember that the peoples do not belong to the governments, but that the governments belong to the peoples." Bernard Barusch (Speech to the United Nations of controlling atomic energy, june 14, 1946)
chronology Placing the events in the order of occurrence. example- "They have gills as larvae; as they grow they turn a luminescent red, lose their gills, and walk out of the water to spend a few years paddling around in damp places on the forest floor." Annie Dillard "The victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. This to the practical Sam is not difficult. He has built in a garden of reasons to choose from. Next he must plan his trip in tim and space, choose a direction and a destination. And last he must implement the journey." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly
circular reasoning An error in persuasion which involves repeating the assertion endlessly without support. example- "Gregory always votes wisely." "But how do you know?" "Because he always votes Libertarian."
citations from well-known authorities Persuasive device in which the speaker cites famous people to lend more credence to an assertion made. example- "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the Earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free. The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights." Those are undeniable truths.
Nevertheless, for more than 80 years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice. In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.
They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up three distinct political regimes in the North, the Center and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our national unity and prevent our people from being united." Ho Chi Minh
coherence Having a clear connection among all the parts. This is achieved by using a clear organizational format and by providing appropriate connecting devices (transitions, bridging sentences, repeated words, synonyms, and conjunctions). example- Note how President Lincoln's short speech has great coherence:
"The Gettysburg Address" Nov. 19, 1863 "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before usóthat from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotionóthat we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth.
comic relief Something said or done that provides a break from the seriousness of the story, poem, or play. example- "The hair was yellow like that of a circus kewpie doll, the face heavily powdered and rouged, as though to form an abstract mask, the eyes hollow and smeared a cool blue, the color of a baboon's butt." Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man
comparison and contrast Showing similarities and/or differences. The AP question usually asks for differences. The student is asked to make a judgment about the relative merits of the two passages. Which one is more effective? example- The linked sites below, although from two completely different authors, share an enchantment with The Galapagos Islands. First click on Galapagos Archipelago by Charles Darwin. Make a bookmark for this site. Then click on The Encantadas (Enchanted Isles) by Herman Melville. Make a book mark for this site also so you can go back and forth between the two sites for a close reading of each. Read each carefully. Then write a well organized essay that analyzes how the distinctive style of each passage reveals the purpose of its writer.
conceit A juxtaposition that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly different things. An elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or image, such as an analogy or metaphor in which, say a beloved is compared to a ship, planet, etc. The comparison may be brief or extended. A Petrarchan Conceit was used by Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch and popular in Renaissance English
sonnets. example- Eyes like stars or the sun, hair like golden wires, lips like cherries, etc. are common examples. Oxymorons are also common, such as freezing fire, burning ice, etc.conciseness An example of writing that says a lot with few words. example- "They are the luxury of princesses." Henry David Thoreau "Yearning for everything, understanding nothing." Harvey Swados "A Story for Teddy"
conclusion Usually written to reaffirm or finally state the thesis. Other strategies used in the conclusion include expressing a final thought about a subject, summarizing main points, using a quotation, predicting an outcome, making an evaluation, or recommending a course of action. example- "Biology is precise . . . a vast array of hard facts to be learned as fundamentals, followed by a reading of the texts." Lewis Thomas
conflict The tension created in the story by the struggle or outcome of the struggleóone of the narrative devices to address when analyzing the tone of the passage. Look for internal, as well as external conflict. example- "Maycomb's Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin. No economic fluctuations changed their statusópeople like the Ewells lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well as in the depths of depression. No truant officers could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings." Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird It was the first, last, and only discussion I had with either of them abiut the possibility of my early death and seemed to tap a wellspring of emotion whose power overwhelmed all three of us." Lewis B. Puller Fortunate Son
connotative language Words which have implied meaning, emphasizing the feelings or subjectivity that surrounds the word. Denotative language, emphasizing the literal, dictionary meaning, is used to create an objective tone. Consider these aspects of words when analyzing how diction creates attitude, effect, or purpose. example- "Hence, though I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have I ever suffered to invade my peace." Herman Melville "Bartleby, the Scrivner"
contrast A literary technique in which the author examines two opposites example- the energy of youth and the infirmity of age, worldly possessions and democratic idealism, academic success and extracurricular activities, a speaker's sophistication and the student's naiveté, or a group's smug views and the speaker's implied disapproval of them) to create an attitude.
Also, a rhetorical strategy which juxtaposes two unlike words together. example- homologous and analogous, meaningful and meaningless, intrinsic and superficial, inheritance and convergence, intuition and imagination, etc. (See antithesis)
chronology Placing events in the order of occurrence. example- "They have gills as larvae; as they grow they turn a luminescent red, lose their gills, and walk out of the water to spend a few year padding around damp places on the forest floor." Annie Dillard
conceit
cumulative sentence A cumulative sentence is one in which the emendations are added after the main clause is completed. In the following example, the main sentence comes first, and is followed by a number of descriptive phrases. example- "I could live two days in a den, curled, leaning on mouse fur, sniffing bird bones, blinking, licking, breathing musk, my hair tangled in the roots of grasses." Annie Dillard "The planet is characterized by its very jaggedness, its random heaps of mountains, its frayed fringes or shores." Annie Dillard
dash A punctuation device used to denote an abrupt break, pause in a sentence, or hesitation in an utterance. example- "This holds for forms of behavior, as well as designóthe mantis munching her mate, the frog wintering in the mud, the spider wrapping a humming bird, the pine professionally straddling a thread." Annie Dillard "I tried to stop himótried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect time." Mark Twain "My Watch" "You have always loved Charlotte better than me, and Iótoo raw, too naked in my desire to lie to her ó said nothing." Anne F. Rosner "Prize Tomatoes"
defend, challenge, or qualify A form of writing in AP English Language and Composition classes in which the student is asked to develop a personal stance based on an agreement, a modification, or a disagreement with a given assertion. example- "I have always tended to agree with those who criticize the government for legislating funds for individual diseases at cost to the country's border. . . ." Lewis Thomas
deductive reasoning A form of logical thinking to analyze when one is asked to evaluate the persuasive devices used by the author. In deductive reasoning, general statements (major premises) believed to be true are applied to specific situations (minor premises). The result of deduction is a conclusion about a specific situation. This three step pattern is called a syllogism. example- "All hard and green apples are sour, this apple is hard and green, therefore this apple is sour." Thomas Huxley "The Method of Scientific Experiment"
denotative language Denotative words have literal, dictionary meaning, emphasizing an objective tone. Connotative language has implied meaning, emphasizing the feelings or subjectivity that surrounds the word. Consider these aspects of words when analyzing how diction creates attitude, effect or purpose. example- The word "linen" denotes bed sheets, but the phrase "unruffled sheets" connotes that no one has slept in the bed all night.
diction Word choice used by the author to persuade or to convey tone, purpose, or effect. This could be described as technical and abstruse, lofty and learned, pedestrian, colloquial, scientific, etc. example- "Thus it is that when we walk in the valley of two-fold solitude, we know little of the tender affections that grow out of endearing words and actions and championship." Helen Keller "The two ideas are irreconcilable, completely and utterly inverse, obverse and contradictory!" F. Scott Fitzgerald "quixotic" or "palletized" E. B. White "obtuse" or "livid" Edgar Allan Poe "I hadn't so much forgot as I couldn't bring myself to remember." Maya Angelou "No car had such obsequious treatment." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly
didactic A type of writing that is preachy or bossy. example- "We must prepare ourselves to submit, to obey, to endure." Winston Churchill "Jack London used to live right over there, but he died of alcohol poisoning; let that be a lesson to you!" Raymond Carver "Where I'm Calling From" Inaccuracies in spelling will simplify nothing." Virginia C. Morison
dilemma A type of conflict in which both choices have some negative connotations. example- "Shouldn't I tell Frankie to run? Somehow the alternatives seemed impossible, I was committed to the Murphy brothers." Peter Meinke "The Ponces"
economy A style of writing characterized by conciseness and brevity. example- Bartleby, the scrivner, uses economy to describe his new job: "It was not a very arduous office, but very pleasantly remunerative." Herman Melville
editorializing The author's way of stepping outside the story to make an assertion. example- "It is my opinion that we enclose to celebrate the freaks of our nation." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly
effect The influence or result of something, using such rhetorical strategies as arguments, assumptions, attitudes, contrast, diction, imagery, pacing, or repetition. This effect could include such results as to intensify the speaker's sense of the ridiculous, reveal the speaker's____ attitude, emphasize the cynicism of ___, reduce___ to the level of low comic characters, or to glamorize a character. Also, an impression created by the authorís language choices which could be described as familiar reality imposed on an unfamiliar setting, sudden color in a former monochromatic scene, miraculous isolation in a hostile environment, ominous fragility in a threatening episode, supernatural inspiration of creative thought. example- " The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child." The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
either - or fallacy Arguing that a complex situation can be simply explained in one of two ways. example-
ellipsis
epigram A brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. example- "We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow, Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so." Alexander Pope
euphemism The substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one. The basic psychology of euphemistic language is the desire to put something bad or embarrassing in a positive (or at least neutral light). Thus many terms referring to death, sex, crime, and excremental functions are euphemisms. Since the euphemism is often chosen to disguise something horrifying, it can be exploited by the satirist through the use of irony and exaggeration. example- Instead of describing Jim Baker as a crazy old hermit, Mark Twain says, "He was a middle-aged, simple-hearted miner who had lived in a lonely corner of California, among the birds and the mountains, a good many years, and he studied the ways of his only neighbors, the beasts and the birds, until he believed he could accurately translate any remark which they made." from "Baker's Bluejay Yarn" by Mark Twain
experience Evidence from your personal life that can be used to support a defend, challenge or qualify question. example- "I went to Africa in 1959 and didnít see any jungle. . . . I didnít see any mud huts until I got back to Harlem in New York." Malcolm X "I owned cars and never dented them up, and a couple of years ago, I bought a sedan in the low price group, and two years after conservative driving it looks as though it was dropped from a high building." E. B. White
foreshadowing A literary technique in which the author gives hints about future events. example- ". . . constant apprehension of the life-and-death struggle between the two which he knew must take place sooner or later." Jack London "I wish that after the intoxicating tide of delight that swept over her when the operation made it possible for her to read with her eyes, she might have found a child responsive to her touch." Helen Keller
hyperbole A figure of speech in which the author over exaggerates to accomplish some purpose. example- " I sat mindless and eternal on the kitchen floor, stony of head, and solemn." Annie Dillard "A murder so mysterious, and so perplexing in all its particulars, was never before e committed at all. The police are entirely at faultóan unusual occurrence in affairs of this nature." Edgar Allan Poe
"The dust bin used to be crammed full by midday, and the floor was normally an inch deep in a compost of trampled food." George Orwell
"The garret windows and tops of houses were so crowded with spectators that I thought in all my travels I had not seen a more populous place." Jonathan Swift "This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make."imagery Diction that describes the five senses (tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and emotional). example- "The King of the jungle was sleeping, the spotted and black panthers were pacing their stinky cages like mad doctors. The rhino was bathing in lukewarm mud, and the elephant and giant turtle were doing nothing." Gary Soto "One of the villageís Jesuit Priests began playing an alto recorder, playing a wordless song, lyric, in a minor key, that twined over the village creaning, that caught in the big treesí canopies, muted our talk on the bankside, and wandered over the river, dissolving downstream." Annie Dillard "The country round appeared like a continued garden, and the enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many beds of flowers." Jonathan Swift "Honeysuckle and purple wisteria hung from the trees and white magnolias mixed with their scents in the bee-humming air." Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man
impact sentence A statement made to end a train of thought, that gets the reader thinking. example- "She was upset. She stood up and said, 'It can never be the same again, you do realize that don't you?" Louisa May Alcott "He looks at her, a tear falls down, and says 'Thus with a kiss I die'." William Shakespeare
inductive reasoning
invective
inverted sentence Reversing the normal subject - verb - complement order. Poets do this sometimes to conform to normal rhyme and rhythm patterns. Prose writers sometimes do this for emphasis. example- "Still grows the vivacious lilac a generation after the door . . . and sill are gone, unfolding its sweet-scented flowers each spring, to be plucked by the musing traveler." Henry David Thoreau
irony P example-
juxtaposition Placing two items side by side to create a certain effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish a purpose. example- "Wealth and poverty, guilt and grief, orange and apple, God and Satan; let us settle ourselves and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and the slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance. . . ." Henry David Thoreau
maxim
metaphor A direct comparison in which an unknown item is understood by directly comparing it to a known item. example- " Time is but a stream that I go aífishing in." Henry David Thoreau "It is a government of wolves over sheep." Thomas Jefferson "That was a dismal revelation for me; for my memory was never loaded with anything but blank cartridges." Mark Twain "Mutual fear is the principle link in the chain of mutual love." Thomas Paine "A journey is a person in itself, no two are alike." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly "M. Torre said that his life was a house of glass, anyone was welcome to look inside." Maris Gallant "Across the Bridge" "Returning, he looked at me sharply, his withered face an animated walnut with shrewd, reddish eyes." Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man
metaphysical conceit
meter
noun phrase A group of nouns listed together to add detail or ambiguity. example- ". . . a whippoorwill on the ridge pole, a blue jay screaming beneath the window, a hare or woodchuck under the house, a screech-owl or a cat-owl behind it, a flock of wild geese or a laughing loon on the pond. . . ." Henry David Thoreau "A casual or inadvertent word; the accidental dropping of turning of a card, with the accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its concealment; the counting of the tricks, with the order of their arrangement; embarrassment, hesitation, eagerness, or trepidationóall afford, to his apparently intuitive perception, indications of the true state of affairs." Edgar Allen Poe
oxymoron A juxtaposition of two unlike things to create ambiguity through contradiction. example- "sensuous coldness" Helen Keller
"They cried beautifully." Joyce Carol Oates ". . . blue eyes were sternly merry." John Steinbeck " I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves . . . ." Jonathan Swift They only know that they don't know anything." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly "Her hair was carefully messed up . . . ." Charles Baxter "Kiss Away" "A flash of cold-edged heat enclosed me." Ralph Ellison The Invisible Manonomatopoeia Using a word that emits the sound of the word. example- "He did not steal for the joy of it, but because of the clamor of his stomach" Jack London " . . . growled apologetically" Dashiell Hammett
opposition
parable
parody
pathos An appeal to emotions. example- "(King George III of England) has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." Thomas Jefferson
paradox A statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd. example- "The smileóagain radiant, blatantly artificialóconvincing." F. Scott Fitzgerald
parallelism Recurrent syntactical similarity. In this structural arrangement several parts of a sentence or several sentences are developed and phrased similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence. example - "However our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears dazzled with sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say it is right." Thomas Paine "They were stiff in their pain; their muscles ached, their bones ached, their very hearts ached; and because of this came the sharpness of speech." Jack London "Together we saw life in all its different aspects and were often in the society of the great, the gifted, the influential, among whom were women beautiful in mind and body." Helen Keller "I hope we may not be too overwhelmed one day by peoples too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat." John Steinbeck Travels with Charly
parenthesis Used by the writer to whisper a witty aside to the reader. example - ". . . in order that they might live, (That is, to keep comfortably warm) and die in New England at last" Henry David Thoreau "His grandfather went out to work a few mornings a week (he was a janitor for the high school) and his uncle Fritz slept in a kind of perpetual sleep in the back room." Joyce Carol Oates "Twice has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked too) on the subject!" Jane Austen
personification Metaphorically represents an animal or inanimate object as having human attributesóattributes of form, character feelings, behavior, and so on. Ideas and abstractions can also be personified. example - Describing Buck, the dog: "He had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was ever a trifle egotistical." Jack London "If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for pain." Henry David Thoreau "My first and greatest love affair was with this thing they call freedom." E. B. White "Diesels turned slowly onto Brady Street, their shadows square and full of dust, their gears grinding dry toothed, their heavy brakes sighing." Gary Soto "He told his friends that worry was killing him." John Steinbeck "The treetops in the wind talked huskily, told fortunes and foretold death." John Steinbeck "To him who in the love of Nature hold Communion/with her visible forms, she speaks a various language." Thanatopsis William Cullen Bryant "Reality began its tedious crawl back into their reasoning." Maya Angelou "The whispered roar of wind in the tops of trees . . . ." James Ferry "Dancing Ducks and Talking Animals"
pun A play upon words based upon the multiple meanings of words. example - "Men have become the tools of their tools." Henry David Thoreau After buying a hot-buttered yam from a vendor, the narrator replied, "I yam what I yam." Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man
reminiscence
repartee
repetition A device used by a writer to emphasize an important character trait, to reinforce a theme, to create parallel structure, to highlight the speaker's attitude, to provide a transition between paragraphs, to maintain an idea of persistence, or to focus the reader's attention on a person, place, thing, or idea. example - "A soul washed and saved is a soul doubly in danger, for everything in the world conspires against such a soul." John Steinbeck
rhetorical question A literary device in which a question is asked that actually requires no answer. example - "How impious is the title of scared majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust." Thomas Paine
rhyme
sarcasm
setting The time and location of the story. The setting may be used by the writer to create conflict, atmosphere, mood, or character. example - "It was a hard dayís run, up the canyon, past the scales and the timberline, across glaciers and snowdrifts hundreds of feet deep, and over the Chilicot Divide which stands between the salt water and the fresh, and guards forbiddingly the sad and lonely North." Jack London
short and simple sentence A series of short sentences connected together by commas. example - "Like Dave, he asked nothing. gave nothing, expected nothing. . . ." Jack London "Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give up the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act." Thomas Jefferson
simile An indirect comparison using like or as. example - "There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roared in its forlorness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none." Charles Dickens
stereotypes Anything that represents something in a typical way. example - "Our American youngsters spend all their time at the movies; they're a mess." E. B. White "The other Chinese girls did not talk either, so I knew the silence had to do with being a Chinese girl." Maxine Hong Kingston
strung-a-long sentence A sentence in which the emendations are added in the middle, separating the main clause into two parts. These emendations can come in the form of absolute clauses, participle phrases, prepositions, gerunds, etc., and can be punctuated with a colon, a dash, a comma, etc. example - "By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in the old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal." Henry David Thoreau
subordinate clause A dependent clause beginning with a subordinating conjunction . example - "If it is boyish to believe that a human being should live free, then Iíll gladly arrest my development and let the rest of the world grow up." E. B. White
syllogism (syllogistic reasoning)
symbolism
understatement (litotes) A statement that says less than what it means. example - "This is a novel type of warfare that produces no destruction, except to life." E. B. White "We know that poverty is unpleasant." George Orwell "Last week I saw a woman flayed and you would hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse." Jonathan Swift "A Treatise on Good Manners"
variety Make your essay more varied by beginning each sentence with more than the subject first.
1. Begin with an adjective- example - "Drowsy men were sweeping the pavements . . . ." George Orwell "Pale anguish keeps the heavey gate." Oscar Wilde The Ballad of Reading Gaol
2. Begin with an adverb - example - "Simple politeness was part of it." Tim O'Brien "On the Rainy River"
3. Begin with an infinitive - example -
4. Begin with a subordinate clause - example - "As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a crossroads post office." Booker T. Washington Up From Slavery
5. Begin with a gerund - example -
6. Begin with a participle phrase - example - "Hiking the tree-lined streets of our St. Louis borough en route to school, I felt common names spring up in my mouth, waving their leafy syllables." Naomi Shihab Nye
7. Begin with a noun phrase - example -
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