| Term | Definition |
|---|
| active voice | the action is performed by the subject of the sentence, not the object... the dog jumped on her |
| abstract | thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances |
| adjectives | The part of speech that modifies a noun or other substantive |
| ambiguity | The expression of an idea in such a way that more than one meaning is suggested |
| anecdote | A brief story used in an essay to illustrate a point |
| antecedent | The word for which the pronoun stands |
| antithesis | the second sentence or part thus set in opposition .. To err is human; to forgive, divine. --Alexander Pope |
| atmosphere | the prevailing mood created by a piece of writing |
| conceit | an elaborate, extended, and sometimes surprising comparison between things that, at first sight, do not have much in common... Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, |
| didactic | a type of writing that is preachy or bossy |
| figurative language | speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning |
| imperative sentence | A sentence that gives advice or instructions or that expresses a request or a command |
| invective | the act or process of inferring...Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or vituperates against... I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth. -- |
| inversion | Reversing the normal subject - verb - complement order.. Yet know I how the heather looks |
| juxtaposition | the positioning of ideas or images side by side for emphasis on contrast |
| litotes | understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in "not a bad singer" or "not unhappy") |
| loose sentence | This sentence is a basic statement with a string of details added to it. |
| parallelism/parallel structure | Recurrent syntactical similarity. In this structural arrangement several parts of a sentence or several sentences are developed and phrased similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. |
| pronouns | The part of speech that substitutes for nouns or noun phrases |
| requiem | a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person |
| rhetoric | the undue use of exaggeration or display,The art of effective expression and the persuasive use of language |
| soliloquy | an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself |
| theme | a controlling idea or a subject for philosophical reflection in a literary work |
| understatement | A statement that says less than what it means |
| universality | A statement that says less than what it means |
Combine with other sets
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