| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allusion | references to literary, artistic, scientific, or historical people, places, or things by the author to convey tone, purpose, or effect |
| Arguments | Assertions made based on facts, statistics, and logical reasoning |
| Assumption | an inference or conclusion, possibly based on evidence |
| Assertion | A "for" or "against" stance taken by an author in a persuasive essay |
| Attitude | The author's state of mind or point of view toward himself/herself or another person, place, or thing |
| Begging the Question | A persuasive fallacy in which the writer assumes the reader will automatically accept an assertion without proper support. Be aware of this with writers who use syllogisms or deductive reasoning to reach a conclusion. |
| Coherence | Having a clear connection among all the parts of the essay. Coherence is achieved in two ways: by using a clear orgainzational format and by providing appropriate connecting devices (transitions, bridging sentences, repeated words, synonyms, and pronouns) |
| Comparison - Contrast | Showing similarities and / or differences |
| Conclusion | Usually written to reaffirm or finally state the thesis. |
| Conflict | The tension created in the story by the struggle or outcome of the struggle (useful when analyzing tone) |
| Connotation | The implied meanings of words. These words, they may be positive or negative. |
| Description | Using vivid words to paint a picture of what the five senses are experiencing. The purpose of this is to create a dominant impression with the details. |
| Diction | Word choice used by the author to persuade or to convey tone, purpose, or effect. |
| Deductive Reasoning | A form of logical thinking in which major premises are applied to minor premises to reach a conclusion or prediction about the future |
| Effect | The influence or result of something, using such rhetorical strategies as arguments, assumptions, attitudes, contrast, dictions, imagery, pacing, or repetition. |
| Either or Fallacy | Arguing that a complex situation can be simply explained in one of two ways |
| Ethos | Appealing to emotion |
| Pathos | Appealing to pity or trying to encourage pity |
| Logos | Appealing to logical thinking |
| False Analogy | Makes the error of assuming that since two things are alike in some ways they are alike in all ways |
| Non Sequiturs | Faulty conclusions about causal relationships |
| One-side-at-a-time method | An organization technique for compare and contrast essays where all points of one passage are discussed first and then the second |
| Pacing | The story's tempo |
| Point-by-point method | The method where an author discusses each point one at a time in a compare and contrast essay |
| Post Hoc Fallacy | Erroneously concluding that one event cause another just because it came furst |
| Red Herring Arguments | Deliberate attempts to focus on a minor issue rather than addressing the main point |
| Ambiguous references | references that have multiple meanings |
| Ad hominem argument | attacks another person's argument by attacking the person rather than the issue also known as mudslinging |
| Analogy | a type of metaphor that compares two things |
| anecdote | a short story that is told to prove a point |
| antecedent | the noun for which a pronoun stands |
| antithesis | a statement in which direct opposites are contrasted in the same sentence "Give me liberty or give me death" |
| authorial aside | when an author reveals his purpose or attitude |
| balanced sentence | Helps to characterize a writer's style, usually accompanied with a semicolon with a balanced number of words on each side |
| Circular reasoning | an error in persuasion which involves repeating the assertion endlessly with out support |
| compound sentence | two independent clauses connected by a conjunction |
| denotation | dictionary definition of a word |
| dramatic incident | a method of organization shows a concept in a ction |
| euphemism | involves using a nicer word for a person place or thing |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement |
| inductive reasoning | a form of logical reasoning which examines evidence to draw a conclusion |
| loose sentence | more than two clauses or phases connected by conjunctions - makes essays seem less formal |
| paradox | a statement which appears contradictory |
| periodic sentence | a sentence with a number of qualifying phrases placed in emphatic order |
| spatial organization | method of organization used mainly in descriptions addresses everything in a certain area before going on to another area |
| subordinate clause | a dependent clause beginning with a subordinate conjunction |
| syllogisms | a method of developing the argument of a paragraph in three steps: if a major premise is ture and a minor premise is true then a conclusion or prediction about the future can be made |
| synonymous | a word or phrase means the same as another |
Combine with other sets
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