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APEL/APUSH TERMS
These terms should be part of your vernacular as a historian and rhetorician
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| APEL | Advanced Placement English Language and Composition |
| APUSH | Advanced Placement United States History |
| Hyperbole | Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. "I've got a ton of homework." |
| Symbolism | Movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. Ex: Colors such as red that symbolize blood, passion, anger, and danger. |
| Parallelism | The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc. "What you see is what you get." |
| Colloquialism | A word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically used in ordinary or familiar conversation. “You look a little blue today.” |
| Apostrophe | A figure of speech that refers to an exclamatory sentence, it usually addresses a nonexistent character. "Oh food, how I love you!" |
| Onomatopoeia | The formation of a word that imitates a sound associated with its referent. Ex. Bang! The sound of her locker being slammed echoed down the hall... The onomatopoeia being "bang" |
| Extended Metaphor | A metaphor introduced and further developed throughout all or part of a literary work. "All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.” |
| Euphemism | A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. (ex) Saying "he passed away" instead of "he died". |
| Utilitarian (H) | Those who believe that a morally good action is one that helps the greatest number of people. Ex. The armed forces volunteers their lives to keep our country free, in which the country as a whole benefits from. |
| Analogy | a comparison between two things without literal meaning used to explain or clarify an idea.....ex: "I feel like a fish out of water" |
| Parody | An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. Ex. Saturday Night Live; The comedians joking around with particularly humorous qualities of a person or event. |
| Paradox | a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory. Ex. "This sentence is false." |
| Mood | A literary element that evokes certain feelings in readers through words and descriptions. Ex. In The Great Gatsby the general mood of the story is dark and pessimistic. |
| Totalitarian (H) | Of or relating to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life. Ex. In Animal Farm, Napoleon's strict rule over the other animals reflects Totalitarianism. |
| Bias | Prejudice in favor of or against a thing, person, or group, that is usually considered to be unfair... Ex. "History is more interesting than Math." |
| Syntax | The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. Ex. "I cannot go out" and "Go out I cannot" have the same meaning but different sentence structures. |
| Diffusion (H) | The spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group to another. Ex. The spread of Christianity throughout the world. |
| Allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. Ex. Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. |
| Secular (H) | Denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis. |
| Urban/Rural (H) | An urban area is one typically filled tightly with a large amount of people in a small area of land (a large city). Rural refers to a more open/spacious setting with fewer people in that designated area. Ex: Minneapolis (Urban) vs. Lindstrom (Rural) |
| Non-secular (H) | Relating to or involving religious or spiritual matters. |
| Irony | A method/technique of arranging and using words or actions to convey a message that is opposite to the literal meaning of the said words or actions.There are three main types of irony. Example: The changed commandments of animalism in Animal Farm. |
| Semantics | logic and meaning with language |
| Diplomacy (H) | art of dealing with people in a sensitive way |
| Connotation | the feelings or emotions attached to words; context shows whether it is positive or negative Ex. Red: Love or War/bloodshed |
| Didactic | Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive. Ex. "Animal Farm" is a moral story that uses animals to describe the Russian Revolution. |
| Style | The literary element that describes the way an author uses words. It can be established through diction, syntax, and tone. For example: Steinbeck's style in of Mice and Men is very straightforward, honest, and simple yet compelling, |
| Liberal (H) | Open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values For example: Mr. Pieper is not very liberal in expressing his political views with the class. |
| Allusion | An reference to something from history, literature, or religion in a text; an expression designed to call something to mind without meaning it explicitly |
| Capitalism (H) | Economic and political system where private owners control trade and industry rather than the state For example: The US is the most relevant example of capitalism in the world, and its trade and industry are controlled by the people. |
| Juxtaposition | The fact of two things being seen or placed closely together with a contrasting effect. For example: The ideas of peace and war were juxtaposed in the piece of literature. |
| Alliteration | The occurrence of the same consonant or consonant sound at the beginning of words in close connection with one another throughout a sentence. For example: Stellar students synthesize sweet sentences. |
| Pragmatic | A logical way of thinking and doing things; very practical and based of ideas, not theories For example: Everyone took a pragmatic path when discussing the presidential debate last night. |
| Understatement | A figure of speech used by a writer or speaker to make a situation seem less important or serious than it actually is. For example: Hitler really wasn't a very nice person. |
| Reactionary (H) | A person or set of views opposing political or social reform For example: The elderly group at the event were reactionary because they refused to use technology, |
| Conjuncture | A combination of circumstances or events usually producing a crisis After a morning of freshmen, correcting papers, and spilling coffee, Mr. Watson was ill-prepared to find out his dog had been hit by a car, which then led him to assigning a huge paper. |
| Social Stratification (H) | A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy For Example: The social stratification of daycare had now become clear to George -- the taller you were, the higher you ranked. From then on, he vowed to eat his greens. |
| Synthesis | The process of combining objects or ideas into a complex whole For example: While reading our essay excerpt during the exam, we must synthesize its ideas in order to write our response. |
| Rhetorical Question | A question that is asked to make a point rather than elicit an answer. Classically stated as a proper question, it could also be an implied question without a question mark. If you're sick, but you're on a plane, are you still under the weather? |
| Imagery | To use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in a way that appeals to our physical senses "The dark and windy weather had an ominous effect on me" |
| Causality (H) | The concept of cause and effect; connecting one process to another and implying that the first plays a role in the second When I examined the causality of WWII, I found it to be quite complex. |
| Diaspora (H) | Any religious or cultural group living as a minority among people of the prevailing religion/culture. For example, the Jewish diaspora in New Jersey has begun to spread out over time. |
| Socialism (H) | A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates the community owning and regulating the means of production, distribution, and exchange. "Vietnam's economy is largely state-run and tends to follow socialist policies." |
| Personification | A figure of speech which gives human characteristics to non human entities. For example: The trees danced in the wind, or, The Earth hath swallowed all my hopes. |
| Utopian (H) | Modeled or aiming for a state in which everything is perfect Karl Marx believed that communism was the way to create a perfect, utopian society. |
| Dystopian (H) | A place or state in which everything is bad, typically a totalitarian or an economically degrading one The animals on Manor Farm lived in a state of dystopia after Napoleon came to power. |
| Authoritarian (H) | Favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom Examples: Dictatorship, tyrannical |
| Homogenous (H) | A very uniform and structured society; all aspects of people's lives are very similar |
| Antithesis | The contrast of ideas by parallel arrangements of clauses or sentences Love is an ideal thing, marriage is a real thing. Money is the root of all evils, poverty is the fruit of all goodness. |
| Antiquity (H) | Ancient times, of very great age The Egyptian periods date from antiquity, |
| Theme | A subject of a talk or piece of writing; the central, universal idea or message When no one in the group would stop talking about the AP tests, I decided that was going to be recurring theme. |
| Bureaucracy (H) | The collective organization structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government The health organization's bureaucracy was structured around values that reflected peace. |
| Primary/Secondary Source (H) | Primary sources are the origin, something that came right from an event (birth certificate); secondary sources are second-hand accounts of events (biography) |
| Metaphor | Comparing two things without like or as; saying one thing is another for example: The test was a breeze. |
| Repetition | The action of repeating something that has already been written or said Repetitious phrases such as "Are we there yet?" can become annoying when you are continually saying it. |
| Matriarchy (H) | A social system in which females are recognized as the head of the family or of a tribe |
| Patriarchy (H) | A system of government in which the males have ruling over others |
| Denotation | The literal or primary meaning of a word in contrast the feelings or ideas the word suggests (that would be connotation) |
| Sovereignty (H) | Understood in jurisprudence as the full right and power of a governing body to govern itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies. In political theory, sovereignty is a term designating supreme authority. |
| Genre | a type of literature, film, music etc in which certain characteristics/ perspectives make it different from other forms. |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Example: act naturally, seriously funny, jumbo shrimp. |
| Satire | the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. |
| Tone | The general character or attitude of a piece of writing. I watched the rain pour down on my dreary house as I sat motionless filled with grief. (The tone here is mournful) |
| Nomadic (H) | Moving from place to place aimlessly, without a set pattern; The hunter-gather tribes of the early Americas were nomadic |
| Sedentary (H) | Someone who spends too much time seated; At school, I feel like a very sedentary person. A group of people who tends to stay in one place |
| Moderate (H) | An individual who is not extreme, partisan, nor radical. |
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