LITERARY AND RHETORICAL TERMS

A

Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another; for example, “beautiful blossoms blooming between the bushes.” (often found in speeches)

Allusion: a reference to another work or famous figure that is assumed to be well-known enough to be recognized by the reader.

Analogy: a comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship, such as comparing the work of a heart to that of a pump

Anaphora: (uh naf er uh) specific type of repetition; word, phrase, or clause repeated at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row (often found in speeches)

Anecdote: a short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point

Annotation: explanatory or critical notes added to a text

Antimetabole: the repetition of words in an inverted order to sharpen a contrast (ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.)

Antithesis: parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas

Aphorism: a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life

Appeal to Authority (Ethos): rhetorical persuasive argument in which the speaker or a representative of the speaker claims to be an authority or expert in the field. Sometimes is a logical fallacy.

Appeal to Emotion (Pathos): rhetorical persuasive argument in which the speaker attempts to play upon the emotions of the audience

Appeal to Logic (Logos): rhetorical persuasive argument in which the speaker appeals to the audience’s reason by providing facts or other evidence

Argumentation: To write by argumentation means to persuade an audience about an issue that is debatable or at least not universally accepted as true. The classical appeals of logos (an appeal to the audiences’ reasoning), pathos (an appeal to the audience’s feelings or emotion), and ethos (an appeal to the communicator’s moral and upright standing) are critical in writing an argumentation response. To argue is to defend one’s position. Effective argumentation writing is rational (even when the classical appeal of pathos is used), well organized, and convincing (i.e., persuasive) supported by evidence. Each mode of writing typically includes other modes of writing, but one mode typically dominates in a particular text. (Dr. Bell)

Assertion: an emphatic statement; declaration. An assertion supported by evidence becomes an argument.

Assumption: a belief or statement taken for granted without proof

Asyndeton: (uh sin di ton) leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, clauses

Atmosphere: the emotional feeling inspired by a work created by diction, dialogue, setting, and description; also called mood

Attitude: the speaker’s position on a subject as revealed through his or her tone.

Attribution: the ascribing (referring) of a work to a particular author or artist

Audience: one’s listener or readership; those to whom a speech or piece of writing is addressed.

B

Bias: prejudice or predisposition toward one side of a subject or issue.

Biblical allusion: a reference to a person, place, or stories in the Bible that is assumed to be well-known enough to be recognized by the reader

C

Caricature: descriptive writing that seizes upon certain individual qualities of a person or a stereotype and through exaggeration or distortion produces a ridiculous effect

Characterization: the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character revealed through direct characterization or indirect characterization

• Direct Characterization tells the audience what the personality of the character is

• Indirect Characterization shows things that reveal the personality of the character through the methods of speech, thoughts, actions, looks, and effects of others toward the character

Cite: identifying a part of a piece of writing as being derived from a source.

Claim: an assertion usually supported by evidence.

Claim of Fact: A claim of fact asserts that something is true or not true.

Claim of Policy: A claim of policy proposes a change.

Claim of Value: A claim of value argues that something is good or bad, right or wrong.

Close reading: a careful reading that is attentive to organization, figurative language, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other literary and structural elements of text.

Closed thesis: A statement of the main idea of the argument that also previews the major points the writer intends to discuss

Colloquialism: a word or phrase used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing.

Common ground: shared beliefs, values or positions.

Complex Sentence: (grammar) a sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Concession: a reluctant acknowledgment or yielding.

Connotation: implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader’s mind.

Context: words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning.

Conundrum: a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem

Counterargument: a challenge to a position; an opposing argument.

Credible: worthy of belief; trustworthy.

Cumulative sentence: an independent clause followed by subordinate clauses or phrases that supply additional detail.

Cynicism: the attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others

D

Declaration Sentence: a sentence that makes a statement

Deductive Reasoning: the method of argument in which specific statements and conclusions are drawn from established, general principles

Denotation: the literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition

Dialect: the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, region, or group

Diction: the specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect

Discourse: spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of discourse are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion

Documentation: bibliographic information about the sources used in a piece of writing

E

Ellipsis: a mark or marks as . . . to indicate an omission or suppression of letters or words

Epistrope: (eh piss truh fee) figure of repetition that occurs when the last word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is repeated on roe more times at the end of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases (often used in speeches)

Ethos: a Greek term referring to the character of a person; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (see logos and pathos)

Euphemism: the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt (“to pass away” is a euphemism for “to die”)

Exposition: The immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot; also, explanation; one of the four modes of discourse.

Extended metaphor: a comparison that extends over several lines or an entire poem

F

Figurative Language: the use of tropes or figures of speech; going beyond literal meaning to achieve literary effect

Figure of Speech: expressions such as similes, metaphors, and personifications that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or associations

Flashback: a device in the narrative of a novel, etc. by which an event or scene taking place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work

Foreshadowing: the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs later in the work

Fragment: (grammar) a word, phrase, or clause that does not form a full sentence

G

Genre: a type of literary work, such as a novel or poem; there are also subgenres, such as science fiction or sonnet, within the larger genres

H

Hortative Sentence: sentence that exhorts, advises, calls to action

Hubris: the excessive pride or ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impending doom, eventually causing his or her downfall

Humor: anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end of the Renaissance, humor meant a person’s temperament

Hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis

I

Imperative Sentence: a sentence that requests or commands

Inductive Reasoning: the method of reasoning or argument in which general statements and conclusions are drawn from specific principles and data – movement from specific to general. In other words, a general conclusion is made after investigating several specific instances.

Inference: a conclusion or proposition arrived at by considering facts, observations, or some other specific data, and moving towards a general conclusion

Invective Satire: harsh, abusive language directed against a person or cause

Inversion: (grammar) reversing the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase; it is used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question: “Are you going to the store?” Often, it is used ineffectively in poetry, making it sound artificial and stilted: “TO the hounds she rode, with her flags behind her streaming”.

Irony: 1) a type of verbal irony in which he/she uses words of praise to blame and words of blame to praise 2) a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected

• Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows more about circumstances or events in a story than the characters with it.

• Verbal irony occurs when a speaker or narrator says one thing while meaning the opposite.

• Situational irony occurs when an event contradicts the expectations of the characters or the reader.

J

Jargon: specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group

Juxtaposition: placement of two things side by side for emphasis

L

Logical Fallacies: The ability to identify logical fallacies in the arguments of others, and to avoid them in one’s own arguments, is both valuable and increasingly rare. Fallacious reasoning keeps us from knowing the truth, and the inability to think critically makes us vulnerable to manipulation by those skilled in the art of rhetoric. When readers detect them, these logical fallacies backfire by making the audience think the writer is (a) unintelligent or (b) deceptive. It is important to avoid them in your arguments, and it is also important to be able to spot them in others’ arguments so a false line of reasoning won’t fool you. Use this list of logical fallacies to identify them in your writing and the writing of others.

• Ad Hominem (attacking the character of the opponent, personal attack; also called “Poisoning the Well” or “Genetic Fallacy”) arguments limit themselves not to the issues, but to the opposition itself. Writers who fall into this fallacy attempt to refute the claims of the opposition by bringing the opposition’s character into question. This practice if fallacious because the personal character of an individual is logically irrelevant to the truth or falseness of the argument itself.

Example: Candidate A claims that Candidate B cannot possibly be an advocate for the working people because he enjoys the opera more than professional wrestling. Candidate B’s personal entertainment preferences probably have little, if anything, to do with this stance on labor laws.

• Appeal to Emotion (Ad Misericordiam literally means “argument from pity”) While pathos generally works to reinforce a reader’s sense of duty or outrage at some abuse, if a writer tries to use emotion merely for the sake of getting the reader to accept what should be a logical conclusion, the argument is a fallacy.

Example: In the 1880s, prosecutors in a Virginia court presented overwhelming proof that a boy was guilty of murdering his parents with an ax. The defense presented a “non-guilty” plea on the grounds that the boy was now an orphan, who no one to look after his interests if the court was not lenient. This appeal to emotion obviously seems misplaced, and the argument is irrelevant to the question of whether or not he committed the crime.

• Appeal to Force (Ad Baculum, Scare Tactics, or the “Might-Makes-Right” Fallacy) This argument uses force, the threat of force, or some other unpleasant backlash to make the audience accept a conclusion. It commonly appears as a last resort when evidence or rational arguments fail to convince a reader. It is not limited to threats of violence, however. The fallacy includes threats of any unpleasant backlash – financial, professional, and so on.

Example: “Superintendent, you should cut the school budget by $16,000. I need not remind you that past boards have fired superintendents who cannot keep down costs.” While intimidation may force the superintendent to conform, it does not convince him that the choice to cut the budget was the most beneficial for the school or community.

• Bandwagon ( Ad Populum, literally means “argument to the people”) appeals tries to get everyone on board. “Everybody is doing it.” The writer asserts that since the majority of the people believes an argument or chooses a particular course of action, the argument must be true. Popular acceptance of any argument does not prove it to be valid, nor does popular use of any product necessarily prove it is the best one.

Example: “Fifty million Elvin fans can’t be wrong!” Of course, they can. The merit of Elvis is not related to how many people do or do not like him or his music. Thang ya, thang ya very much!

• Begging the Question (or circular reasoning) happens when the writer presents an

arguable point as a fact that supports the argument. This error leads to an argument that goes around and around, with evidence making the same claim as the proposition. Because it is much easier to make a claim than to support it, many writers fall into this trap.

Example: “These movies are popular because they make so much money. They make a lot of money because people like them. People like them because they are so popular.” The argument continues around in the logical circle because the support assumes that the claim is true rather than proving its truth.

• Either/Or Fallacy (also called “The Black and White Fallacy” and “False Dilemma”) occurs when a writer builds an argument upon the assumption that there are only two choices or possible outcomes when actually there are several. Outcomes are seldom so simple. This fallacy most frequently appears in connection to sweep generalizations.

Example: “Either we must ban X or the American way of life will collapse.” “We go to war with Canada, or else Canada will eventually grow in population and overwhelm the United States.” “Either you drink Burpsy Cola, or you will have no friends and no social life. “ Either you must avoid either/or fallacies, or everyone will think you are foolish.

• Hasty Generalization (Dicto Simpliciter, also called “Jumping to Conclusions” and “Converse Accident”) arguments are based on insufficient evidence. Withers may draw conclusions too quickly, not considering the whole issue. They may look only at a small group as representation of the whole or may look only at a small piece of the issue.

Example: Fraternities are party houses. I have seen three parties at one fraternity. All fraternities are party houses. The evidence is too limited to draw an adequate conclusion.

• Non Sequitur (literally means “it does not follow”) arguments do not follow from the previous statements. Usually what happens is that the writer leaps from A to B and then jumps to D, leaving out step C.

Example: “Giving up our nuclear arsenal in the 1980s weakened the United States’ military. Giving up nuclear weaponry also weakened China in the 1990s. For this reason, it is wrong to try to outlaw pistols and rifles in the United States today.” A nuclear arsenal and outlawing pistols and rifles have nothing to do with one another.

There’s obviously a step or two missing here.

• Post Hoc (Ergo Propter Hoc , literally means “after this, therefore because of this) arguments assume a faulty, casual relationship. One event following another in time does not mean that the first event cause the later event. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn’t. It is the honest writer’s job to prove that connection rather than merely assert it exists.

Example: “A black cat crossed my path at noon. An hour later, my uncle had a heart attack. Because the first event occurred earlier, it must have caused the bad luck later.” This is how superstitions begin.

• Red Herrings have little relevance to the argument at hand. It is a deliberate attempt to change the subject or divert the argument from the real question at hand to some side point. The new subject may be related to the original argument, but does little to resolve it.

Example: “I should not pay a fine for reckless driving. There are many other people on the street who are dangerous criminals and rapists, and the police should be chasing them, not harassing a decent tax-paying citizen like me.” Certainly worse criminals do exist, but that is another issue! The questions at hand are (a) did the speaker drive recklessly and (2) should he pay a fine for it?

• Slippery Slope (also called “The Camel’s Nose Fallacy”) fallacies are ones which the speaker argues that, once the first step is undertaken, a second or third step will inevitably follow, much like the way one step on a slippery incline will cause a person to fall and slide all the way to the bottom. It is also called “The Camel’s Nose Fallacy” because of the image of a sheik who let his camel stick its nose into his tent on a cold night. The idea is that the sheik is afraid to let the camel stick its nose into the tent because once the best sticks in its nose, it will inevitably stick in its head, and then its

neck, and eventually its whole body. However, this sort of thinking does not allow for any possibility of stopping the process. It simply assumes that, once the nose is in, the rest must follow – that the sheik can’t stop the progression once it has begun – and thus the argument is a logical fallacy.

Example: “If we allow the government to infringe upon our right to privacy on the Internet, it will then feel free to infringe upon our privacy on the telephone. After that FBI agents will be reading our mail. Then they will be placing cameras in our houses. We must not let any governmental agency interfere with our Internet communications, or privacy will completely vanish in the United States.” No logical proof has been provided yet that infringement in one area will necessarily lead to infringement in another, no more than a person buying a single can of Coca-Cola in a grocery store would indicate the person will inevitably go on to buy every item available in the store, helpless to stop herself. So remember to avoid the Slippery Slope Fallacy.

• Stacking the Deck arguments is when the speaker “stacks the deck” in her favor by ignoring examples that disprove the point, and listing only those examples that support her case. This fallacy is closely related to hasty generalization, but the term usually implies deliberate deception rather than an accidental logical error. It contrasts sharply with the Straw Man argument.

Example: When I went to buy a used car, the salesperson spoke only about how wonderful the car was. After I purchased the car, another man tried to sell me an extended warranty by pointing out all the things that typically break on the car.”

• Straw Man (a subtype of Red Herring) arguments includes any lame attempt to “prove” an argument by overstating, exaggerating, or over-simplifying the arguments of the opposing side. Such an approach is building a straw man argument. The name comes from the idea of a boxer or fight that meticulously fashions a false opponent out of straw, like a scarecrow, and then easily knocks it over in the ring before his admiring audience. His “victory” is a hollow mockery, of course, because the straw-stuffed opponent is incapable of fighting back. When a writer makes a cartoon-like caricature of the opposing argument, ignoring the real or subtle points of contention, and then proceeds to know down each “fake” point one by one, he has created a straw man argument.

Example: One speaker might be engaged in a debate concerning welfare. The opponent argues, “Tennessee should increase funding to unemployed single mothers during the first year after childbirth because they need sufficient money to provide medical care for their newborn children.” The second speaker retorts, “My opponent believes that some parasites who don’t work should get a free ride from the tax money of hard-working honest citizens. I’ll show you why he’s wrong . . .” In this example, the second speaker is engaging in a straw man strategy, distorting the opposition’s statement about medical care for newborn children into an oversimplified form so he can more easily appear to “win.” However, the second speaker is only defeating a dummy-argument rather than honestly engaging in the real nuances of the debate.

Logos: A Greek term that means “word.” An appeal to logic. One of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (see ethos and pathos).

Loose Sentence: a long sentence that starts with its main clause and is followed by dependent clauses or modifying phrases

M

Malapropism: misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound He is the very pineapple of politeness. (pinnacle)

Metaphor: a figure of speech or trope through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, thus making an implicit comparison (My love is a like a fragile flower.)

Metonymy: (mi ton uh mee) a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using “the crown” to refer to a monarch

Modes of discourse: in composition studies, the four traditional categories of written texts

• Narration – recounts an event or a series of related events

• Description – uses sensory details to portray a person, place, or thing

• Exposition – intended to give information about (or explanation of) an issue, subject, method, or idea

• Argument – a course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood

Mood: similar to tone, mood is the primary emotional attitude of a work

Motif: main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea

N

Nominalization: turning a verb or adjective into a noun

O

Occasion: the time and place a speech is given or a piece is written

Objectivity: an impersonal presentation of events and characters

Open thesis: a statement that does not list all the points the writer intends to discuss but implies the direction of the argument

Onomatopoeia: the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as hiss and boom

Oxymoron: a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as “wise fool”

P

Paradox: a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau; “I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”

Parallelism: the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form In prose, recurrent grammatical similarity where several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed alike to show that their ideas are equal in importance.

Parody: a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements or by being overly serious about an original piece of work or an author; used for comic effect or ridicule

Pathos: A Greek term that refers to suffering but has come to be associated with broader appeals to emotion; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (see ethos and logos)

Periodic Sentence: A sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end (To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support.)

Persona: a fictional voice that a writer adopts to tell a story, determined by subject matter and audience (Example: Mark Twain)

Personification: assigning human qualities to a nonhuman or an inanimate object

Point of View: the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters; the perspective from which a story is presented; common points of view include the following:

Polemic: an argument against an idea, usually regarding philosophy, politics, or religion

Persuasion: a form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion

Polysyndeton: (pol ee sin di ton) the deliberate use of a series of conjunctions

Premise; major, minor: Two parts of a syllogism. The concluding sentence of a syllogism takes its predicate from the major premise and its subject from the minor premise.

Major premise: All mammals are warm-blooded.

Minor Premise: All horses are mammals.

Conclusion: All horses are warm-blooded.

Propaganda: a negative term for writing designed to sway opinion rather than present information

Purpose: One’s intention or objective in a speech or piece of writing

Q

Qualifier: A word used to temper a claim, making it less absolute. Ex: probably, usually

R

Rebuttal/Refutation: an argument technique wherein opposing arguments are anticipated and countered; to discredit an argument, particularly a counterargument

Regionalism: an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot

Repetition: using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage – dwelling point --This technique can help to hold sentences together and focus the reader’s attention on a central idea.

Rhetoric: the art of using language effectively; involves (1) writer’s purpose, (2) his or her consideration of the audience, (3) the exploration of the subject, (4) arrangement and organization of the ideas, (5) style and tone of expression, and (6) form

Rhetorical Modes: Patterns of organization developed to achieve a specific purpose; modes include but are not limited to narration, description, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, definition, exemplification, classification and division, process analysis, and argumentation

Rhetorical Question: a question that is asked simply for the sake of stylistic effect and is not expected to be answered

Rhetorical Triangle: a diagram that represents a rhetorical situation as the relationship among the speaker, the subject, and the audience (Aristotelian triangle)

S

Satire: an ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something, but actually argues against it. Satire may be found in drama, short stories, novels, newspaper editorials, cartoons, art, film, and conversation. Satire is a blend of criticism and humor for purposes of correction or improvement. Satire inevitably causes discomfort because it is so harsh in its portrayal and evaluation of humankind; its criticism is generally intolerant and unsympathetic.

Sentence Patterns: the arrangement of independent and dependent clauses into known sentence constructions – such as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex

Sentence Variety: using a variety of sentence patterns to create a desired effect

Simile: a figure of speech that uses like, as ,or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities (The sky looked like an artist’s canvas.)

Simple Sentence: a statement containing a subject and predicate; an independent clause

Speaker: the voice of the work (author, speaker, or the person with the perspective – real or imagined)

Style: an author’s characteristic manner of expression (arrangement of words, selection, figures of speech, shapes ideas, and utilized syntax and structure)

Subjectivity: a personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author’s feelings and opinions

Subordinate Clause: created by a subordinating conjunction, a clause that modifies an independent clause

Syllogism: a form of deductive reasoning in which the conclusion is supported by a major and minor premise (see premise; major, minor)

Symbolism: use of a person, place, thing, event, or pattern that figuratively represents or “stands for” something else.

Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using “boards” to mean a stage of “wheels” to mean a car

Syntax: sentence structure

Synthesize: combining or bringing together two or more elements to produce something more complex

T

Text: while this term generally means the written word, in humanities it has come to mean any cultural product that can be “read”

Theme: the central idea or “message” of a literary work

Thesis: the central idea in a work to which all parts of work refer

Thesis Statement: a statement of the central idea in a work, may be explicit or implicit

Tone: the speaker’s emotion or attitude toward the subject, characters, or audience

Topic Sentence: a sentence, most often appearing at the beginning of a paragraph that announces the paragraph’s idea and often unites it with the work’s thesis

Travesty: a mockingly undignified or trivializing treatment of a dignified subject, usually as a kind of parody. Travesty may be distinguished from the mock epic in that it treats a solemn (serious) subject frivolously, while they treat frivolous subjects with mock solemnity.

U

Understatement: lack of emphasis in a statement or point; restraint in language often used for ironic effect

Z

Zeugma: (zoog ma) use of two different words in a grammatically similar way but producing different, often incongruous meanings

(Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need – not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden.)