CHHS Rhetorical Terms Master List
About this set
Created by:
Wevodau on April 20, 2012
Description:
This is Mr. Wevodau's recommended list of rhetorical terms to know prior to the AP English Language exam. This is also the set to be used for testing in the classroom.
Classes:
what, Colleyville Heritage AP English Language Terms
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95 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Abstract Language | Language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places. |
| Ad Baculum | A rhetorical tactic that uses unlikely but frightening illustrations to move an audience. (Scare tactics) |
| Ad hominem argument | Replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking a characteristic of the person making the claim. |
| Allegory | A work that functions on more than one level: both concrete and symbolic. |
| Allusion | An indirect reference, often to another text or historical event. |
| Ambiguity | Capable of being interpreted in more than one way. |
| Analogy | A literary device employed to serve as a basis for comparison. It is the comparison between two different items. |
| Anaphora | The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses. |
| Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point. |
| Annotation | Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. |
| Antecedent | The noun to which a later pronoun refers. |
| Antithesis | The presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by phrase, clause, or paragraph. |
| Aphorism | A short, astute statement of a general truth. |
| Apostrophe | The speaker or author breaking off and speaking to an imaginary person. |
| Appeal to Pity | A rhetorical tactic that uses sympathy in order to move an audience. |
| Argument from Outrage | A rhetorical tactic when one tries to use loaded language and emotion to get people as angry as possible about an issue without giving a good reason to be angry. |
| Argumentation | A statement put forth and supported by evidence. |
| Argumentum Ad Populum | A fallacy in which the appeal to the popularity of a claim is presented as a reason for accepting it. (The number of people who believe a claim is irrelevant to its truth.) |
| Assonance | Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity. |
| Asyndeton | Leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. |
| Asyndeton | Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are thus emphasized equally. |
| Cacophony | Harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony. |
| Colloquial/Colloquialism | An informal or conversational use of language. |
| Connotation | That which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning. |
| Consonance | Repetition of a consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity. |
| Deduction | The process of moving from a general rule to a specific examples. |
| Denotation | The literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition. |
| Diction | Word choice |
| Didactic | Intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure an entertainment. |
| Downplayers | The use of qualifier words or phrases to make someone or something look less important or significant. ("So-called skeptics." "She got her 'degree' from a correspondence school." "Passed only two bills while in office.") |
| Either/Or Logical Fallacy | A fallacy in which only two choices or options are given, such that one appears as clearly the best choice. The fallacy is that there are OTHER alternative choices that might offer a better solution; however, they are intentionally ignored or kept hidden. |
| Epigraph | The use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. |
| Ethos | The distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution. |
| Euphemism | The substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. |
| Euphony | The pleasant, mellifluous presentation of sounds in a literary work. |
| Explication | The act or interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text using close reading and attention to figurative language. |
| Exposition | A setting forth of the meaning or purpose (as of a writing). |
| False analogy | When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them. |
| Figurative language | Language not meant to be taken literally; language that uses figures of speech |
| Figures of speech | Language than contains figures of speech, often creating associations that are imaginative rather than literal. |
| Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic division of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. |
| Hasty Generalization | To draw a broad conclusion from only a few specific examples. This occurs when the conclusion is not necessarily true because the sample size is too small. |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis. |
| Hyperbole | The use of extravagant overstatement or exaggeration. ("Barack Obama is a Socialist!") |
| Imagery | Vivid use of language that evokes a reader's senses. |
| Induction | The process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization. |
| Inference/Infer | The act or process of deriving a conclusion based solely on what one already knows. |
| Innuendo | The use of language to imply that a particular inference is justified, as if saying "go ahead and read between the lines!" In this way, the speaker doesn't have to actually make a claim that can't be supported; instead, the audience is led to make the leap on their own. |
| Invective | An abusive expression or speech. |
| Inversion (anastrophe) | Changing the customary order of words grammatically. |
| Irony | A situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected. |
| Juxtaposition | Placement of two things side by side for emphasis. |
| Labeling (euphemism and dysphemism) | The use of a highly connotative word or phrase to name or describe a subject or action, a technique also called using loaded language. For example: freedom fighter vs. guerrilla fighter. |
| Logical fallacy | A mistake in reasoning. |
| Logos | An appeal to logic. |
| Metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated. |
| Mood | Similar to tone, it is the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere0. Syntax is also a determiner of this term because sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing. |
| Motif | Main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea. |
| Narrative | Retelling an event or series of events. |
| Non sequitur | A statement that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said. |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of words that sound like what they mean, such as "hiss". |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms. |
| Pacing | The relative speed with which a story is told. |
| Paradox | A statement that seems contradictory but is actually true. |
| Parallelism | The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns. |
| Parody | A work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements. |
| Pathos | An appeal to human emotion, the quality in a work or a portion thereof that makes the reader experience pity, sorrow, or tenderness. |
| Pedantic | Narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned. |
| Periodic Sentence | A sentence that begins with dependent phrases and ends with a main clause containing the central meaning. |
| Point of View | In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. |
| Polysyndeton | The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions. |
| Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (or sometimes just Post Hoc) | Latin for "after this, therefore because of this," is a logical fallacy (of the questionable cause variety) that states, "Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one." It is also sometimes referred to as false cause, coincidental correlation, or correlation not causation. |
| Red Herring | A rhetorical diversion: Distracting the audience from the main argument by tossing out something unrelated but yet interesting. |
| Repetition | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| Rhetoric | The study of effective, persuasive language use. |
| Rhetorical analogy | The use of a figurative comparison (sometimes a simile or a metaphor) to convey a positive or negative feeling towards a subject. |
| Rhetorical definition | The use of emotively charged language to express or elicit an attitude about something. A classic example is defining capital punishment as "government-sanctioned murder." A rhetorical definition stacks the deck either for or against the position it implies. |
| Rhetorical explanation | Expressing an opinion as if it were fact, and doing so in biased language. For example, you might say someone "didn't have the guts to fight back," when taunted by another person. This paints the person as motivated by cowardice. |
| Ridicule/Sarcasm | The use of language that suggests the subject is worthy of scorn. The language seeks to evoke a laugh or sarcastically mock the subject. |
| Sarcasm | A mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual. |
| Satire | A literary device which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit for the purpose of improving human institutions or humanity |
| Shift | To change place, position, or direction of something. |
| Slippery Slope Fallacy | A tricky precarious situation, especially one that leads gradually but inexorably to disaster. A fallacy in which a course of action is objected to on the grounds that once taken it will lead to additional actions until some undesirable consequence results. |
| Straw Man | An argument or opponent set up so as to be easily refuted or defeated. |
| Style | A distinctive manner of expression. |
| Syllogism | A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. A syllogism is the format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Example: |
| Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "wheels" to mean a car. |
| Syntax | The arrangement-the ordering, grouping, and placement-of words within a sentence. |
| Thesis | The main idea of a piece of writing. It presents the author's assertion or claim. The effectiveness of a presentation is often based on how well the writer presents, develops, and supports this. |
| Tone | The speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience. |
| Truth Surrogates | Hinting that proof exists to support a claim without actually citing that proof. For example: Ads often say that "studies show," and tabloids often say "according to an insider." |
| Understatement | Lack of emphasis in a statement or point. |
| Unity (Coherence) | Quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle. |
| Wit | Reasoning power, clever expression whether aggressive or harmless. |
| Begging the Question | Often called circular reasoning, __ occurs when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim. Or, in other words, when an argument is build on a premise or fact that other doubt or question--when in effect negates the entire argument. |
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