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Rhetorical terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| allusion | a reference in a written work or spoken text to another text or to some particular body of knowledge to create resonance in the reader |
| analogy | a comparison of two seemingly different things; similes and metaphors are types of analogies |
| anaphora | the repetition of a word or a group of words at the beginning of successive clauses or phrases; anaphora is one way to create parallel sentence structure |
| anecdote | a brief narrative offered in a text to capture the audience's attention or to support a generalization or claim |
| antithesis | the juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas, often parallel, structure--for example: "Place your virtues on a pedestal; put your vices under a rock." |
| appeal | one of three strategies (ethos, pathos, logos) for persuading audiences |
| ethos | the appeal of a text to the credibility and/or character of the speaker, writer, or narrator (appeals to ethos occur within a text, and should not be taken from what is known about a speaker, writer, or narrator prior to reading the text) |
| pathos | the appeal of a text to the emotions or interests of the audience |
| logos | the appeal of a text based on the logical structure of its argument or central ideas; logos often comes in the form of data, reasons, definitions, and evidence to support a claim |
| chiasmus | a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel clauses is reversed in the second (A-B-B-A pattern) ex: "Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church?" - T.S. Eliot |
| claim | the point, backed up by support , of an argument (thesis=claim) |
| colloquialism | the use of informal words, phrases, or even slang in a piece of writing |
| concession | the acknowledgement of a point made by one's opponent; an inference with regard to what the opponent might argue |
| connotation | the implied meaning of a word, in contrast to its directly expressed "dictionary meaning" |
| denotation | the "dictionary" definition of a word, in contrast to its connotation or implied meaning |
| diction | an author's word choice, especially when purposeful |
| euphemism | polite, indirect expressions which replace words and phrases considered harsh and impolite or which suggest something unpleasant; a less offensive word |
| hyperbole | an exaggeration for effect |
| imagery | language that evokes particular sensations or emotionally rich experiences in a reader |
| inference | a conclusion that reader or listener reaches by means of their own thinking rather than being directly told by a text |
| irony | exists when there is a contrast between appearance and reality (the contrast between the way something seems - appearance - and the way something is - reality) |
| dramatic irony | when the reader of a work or one or more characters in a work knows something that one or more characters doesn't know |
| situational irony | when the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected |
| verbal irony | when a person says or writes one thing and means another or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning (when there is an intended contrast between denotation and connotation) |
| juxtaposition | the placement of two things side by side for the purpose of emphasis |
| metaphor | an implied comparison that doesn't use the words "like" or "as" |
| metonymy | when an entity is referred to by one of its attributes or associations |
| onomatopoeia | a word capturing the sound of what it describes |
| paradox | a statement that seems untrue on the surface, but is true nevertheless |
| parallelism | set of similarly structure words, phrases, or clauses that appears in a sentence or paragraph |
| persona | the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author (this is a character in the text) |
| rhetoric | the art of analyzing all the choices involving language that a writer or speaker might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective for the readers in a situation |
| rhetorical choices | the particular choices of a writer or speaker not to seek and answer but instead to affirm or deny a point simply by asking a question |
| rhetorical triangle | diagram showing the relations of a writer, reader, and the text in a rhetorical situation |
| satire | an ironic composition which ridicules some aspect of humanity or society |
| synecdoche | when the representative thing is actually a part of the larger thing it is representing ex: using threads to refer to clothes (clothes are more than just threads) |
| syntax | the order of words in a sentence; the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is sentence structure and how it influences the way a reader perceives a piece of writing |
| tone | the writer's attitude toward the subject matter |
| understatement | a figure of speech employed by writers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is; often reflects an ironic, humorous, or sarcastic tone |
| zeugma | a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas ex: I lost my coat and my temper |
| exigency | this is a topic that urgently needs to get attention right away |
| mood | how the audience perceives the emotions of the text and what emotions it reflects on them |
Created by:
zbw
Popular English Vocabulary sets