User:Amel BENABBOU

AP Rhetorical Devices ListAnecdote A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literaturePerspective A character's view of the situation or events in the storyAphorism A concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief. Thewritings of Benjamin Franklin contain many aphorisms, such as "Early to bed and earlyto rise/Make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."Contradiction A direct opposition between things compared; inconsistencyApostrophe A figure of speech in which a person, thing, or abstract quality is addressed as if present;for example, the invocation to the muses usually found in epic poetry.Oxymoron A figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements, as in "jumboshrimp" or "deafening silence."Allusion —A figure of speech which makes brief, even casual reference to a historical or literaryfigure, event, or object to create a resonance in the reader or to apply a symbolic meaningto the character or object of which the allusion consists. For example, in John Steinbeck'sOf Mice and Men, the surname of the protagonist, George Milton, is an allusion to JohnMilton, author of Paradise Lost, since by the end of the novel, George has lost the dreamof having a little ranch of his own to share with his friend Lennie.Syllogism A form of deduction. An extremely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive argumentSatire A literary style used to make fun of or ridicule an idea or human vice or weaknessBildungsroman A novel or story whose theme is the moral or psychological growth of the main character.Devices A particular word pattern or combination of words used in a literary work to evoke adesired effect or arouse a desired reaction in the readerFoil A person or thing that makes another seem better by contrastEpistolary A piece of literature contained in or carried on by lettersEpitaph A piece of writing in praise of a deceased personParody A satirical imitation of a work of art for purpose of ridiculing its style or subject.Delayed sentence A sentence that withholds its main idea until the end. For example: Just as he bent to tiehis shoe, a car hit him.Sarcasm A sharp caustic remark. A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actuallybitterly or harshly critical. For example, a coach saying to a player who misses the ball,"Nice catch."Expletive A single word or short phrase intended to emphasize surrounding words. Commonly,expletives are set off by commas. Examples: in fact, of course, after all, certainlyIrony A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expectedor understood and what actually happens or is meant. Irony is frequently humorous, andcan be sarcastic when using words to imply the opposite of what they normally meanEulogy A speech or writing in praise of a person or thing; an oration in honor of a deceasedpersonParadox A statement that seems contradictory, but is actually true.Epiphany A sudden or intuitive insight or perception into the reality or essential meaning ofsomething usually brought on by a simple or common occurrence or experienceOnomatopoeia A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes, such as buzz or hiss.Diction An author's choice of words to convey a tone or effectUtopia An imaginary place of ideal perfection. The opposite of a dystopia. —An imaginary placewhere people live dehumanized, often fearful lives.Hyperbole An overstatement characterized by exaggerated languageDeus ex machina As in Greek theater, use of an artificial device or contrived solution to solve a difficultsituation, usually introduced suddenly and unexpectedlyAntagonist Character or force in a literary work that opposes the main character, or protagonistAnalogy Comparison of two things that are alike in some respects. Metaphors and similes are bothtypes of analogyInductive Conclusion or type of reasoning whereby observation or information about a part of aclass is applied to the class as a whole. Contrast with deductive.Nostalgia Desire to return in thought or fact to a former timeChiasmus Figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel clauses is reversedin the second. “Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church?”-- T.S. Eliot,Thesis Focus statement of an essay; premise statement upon which the point of view ordiscussion in the essay is based. Antithesis—The juxtaposition of sharply contrastingideas in balanced or parallel words or phrases.Litote Form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasisand intensity. For example, "She is not a bad cook." Or "No man ever followed his geniusuntil it misled him." ThoreauDoppelganger Ghostly counterpart of a living person or an alter egoZeugma Grammatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs or a verb with twoor more direct objects. The linking shows a relationship between ideas more clearly.Ethos In dramatic literature, the moral element that determines a character's actions, rather thanthought or emotion.Propaganda Information or rumor deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, or institutionDidactic Intended for teaching or to teach a moral lessonFormal Language Language that is lofty, dignified, or impersonalAllegory Narrative form in which characters and actions have meanings outside themselves;characters are usually personifications of abstract qualitiesAbstract Not related to the concrete properties of an object; pertaining to ideas, concepts, orqualities, as opposed to physical attributesIn medias res Opening a story in the middle of the action, requiring filling in past details by expositionor flashback.Colloquial Ordinary language; the vernacular. For example, depending on where in the United Statesyou live, a sandwich is called a sub, a grinder, or a hero.Isocolon Parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammaticalstructure, but also in length. For example, "An envious heart makes a treacherous ear"(Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston).Aesthetic Pertaining to the value of art for its own sake or for formJuxtaposition Placing of two items side by side to create a certain effect, reveal an attitude, oraccomplish some other purposeElegy Poem or prose lamenting the death of a particular person. Perhaps the most famous elegyis Thomas Grey's poem, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."Antihero Protagonist of a literary work who does not embody the traditional qualities of a hero(e.g., honor, bravery, kindness, intelligence); for example, the protagonists created byByron in Don Juan and Childe Harold, and the characters of Rosencrantz andGuildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are DeadCatharsis Purification or cleansing of the spirit through the emotions of pity and terror as a witnessto a tragedy.Epigraph Quote set at the beginning of a literary work or at its divisions to set the tone or suggest atheme.Motif Recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance ofa character or eventParallelism Recurrent syntactical similarity where several parts of a sentence or several sentences areexpressed alike to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences equal in importance. Italso adds balance, rhythm, and clarity to the sentence. For example, "I have alwayssearched for, but never found the perfect painting for that wall."Anaphora regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases orclauses. For example, "We shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight on the oceans. Weshall fight in the sky."Anadiplosis Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause. For example,"The crime was common, common be the pain." (Alexander Pope)Appeals to: authority, emotion, logic Rhetorical arguments in which the speaker: either claims to bean expert or relies on information provided by experts (appeal to authority), attempts toaffect the listener's personal feelings (appeal to emotion), or attempts to persuade thelistener through use of deductive reasoning (appeal to logic).Imagery Sensory details in a work; the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, call to mindan idea, or describe an object. Imagery involves any or all of the five sensesEuphemism Substitution of a milder or less direct expression for one that is harsh or blunt. Forexample, using "passed away" for "dead."Genre Term used to describe literary forms, such as tragedy, comedy, novel, or essayVoice The acknowledged or unacknowledged source of words of the story; the speaker, a"person" telling the story or poem.Tone The attitude a literary work takes towards its subject and theme. It reflects the narrator'sattitude.Theme The central or dominant idea or concern of a work; the main idea or meaningProtagonist The chief character in a work of literatureDenotation The dictionary definition of a word; the direct and specific meaningMood The feeling or ambience resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator'sattitude and point of view. The effect is created through descriptions of feelings orobjects that establish a particular feeling such as gloom, fear, or hopeRealism The literary practice of attempting to describe life and nature without idealization andwith attention to detailProse The ordinary of form of written language without metrical structure, as distinguishedfrom poetry or verseAudience The person(s) reached by a piece of writing.Asyndeton The practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list, itgives a more extemporaneous effect and suggests the list may be incomplete. Forexample, "He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing."Deductive The reasoning process by which a conclusion is drawn from set of premises and containsno more facts than these premisesAssonance The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximatewords.Alliteration The repetition of initial consonant sounds or any vowel sounds within a formal grouping,such as a poetic line or stanza, or in close proximity in proseConsonance The repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels, suchas pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack.Invective The use of angry and insulting language in satirical writingPoint of view The view the reader gets of the action and characters in a storyPersona The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or maynot share of the values of the actual author.Syntax The way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is sentencestructure and how it influences the way a reader perceives a piece of writing.Canon (canonical)— The works of an author that have been accepted as authentic.Foreshadow To hint at or present things to come in a story or playBegging the question To sidestep or evade the real problem.Personification Treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by giving it humanqualities.Anachronism Use of historically inaccurate details in a text; for example, depicting a 19th-centurycharacter using a computer. Some authors employ anachronisms for humorous effect, andsome genres, such as science fiction or fantasy, make extensive use of anachronismAmbiguity —Use of language in which multiple meanings are possible. Ambiguity can beunintentional through insufficient focus on the part of the writer; in good writing,ambiguity is frequently intentional in the form of multiple connotative meanings, orsituations in which either the connotative or the denotative meaning can be valid in areading.Connotation What is implied by a word. For example, the words sweet, gay, and awesome haveconnotations that are quite different from their actual definitions.Transition words Words and devices that bring unity and coherence to a piece of writing. Examples:however, in addition, and on the other hand.