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tone the writer's attitude toward his or her subject, characters, or audience. A writer's tone may be formal or informal, friendly or distant, personal or pompous. EX: metaphor a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else. The identification suggests a comparison between the two things that are being identified, as in "death is a long sleep." A mixed metaphor occurs when two metaphors are jumbled together. For example, thorns and rain are illogically mixed in "the thorns of life rained down on him." A dead metaphor is one that has been overused and has become a common expression, such as "the arm of the chair" or "nightfall" EX: onomatopoeia the use of words that imitate sounds like buzz, hiss, murmur, and rustle EX: assonance the repetition of vowel sounds in conjunction with dissimilar consonant sounds. EX: Emily Dickinson uses assonance in the line "The mountain at a given distance" The i sound is repeated in given and distance, in the context of the dissimilar consonant sounds g-v and d-s EX: connotation an association that a word called to mind in addition to the dictionary meaning of the word. Many words that are similar in their dictionary meanings, or denotations, are quite different in their connotations. EX: alliteration the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or accented syllables EX: sibilance the form of alliteration with the initial s sound EX: plain style a type of writing in which uncomplicated sentences and ordinary words are used to make simple, direct statements. This style was favored by those Puritans who wanted to express themselves clearly, in accordance with their religious beliefs. EX: ornate style a type of writing in which there are many elaborate descriptions and other elements rather than simple and structured EX: setting the time and place of the action. A setting may serve any of a number of functions. It may provide a background for the action. It may be a crucial element in the plot or central conflict. It may also create a certain emotional atmosphere, or mood EX: romanticism a literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth century that arose in reaction against the eighteenth-century Neoclassicism and placed a premium on imagination, emotion, nature, individuality, and exotica. Romantic elements can be found in the works of American writers as diverse as Cooper, Poe, Thoreau, Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and Melville. Romanticism is particularly evident in the works of the Transcendentalists. EX: The House of the Seven Gables gothic the use of primitive, medieval, wild, or mysterious elements in literature. Gothic novels feature places like mysterious and gloomy castles, where horrifying, supernatural events take place EX: Edgar Allan Poe transcendentalism an American literary and philosophical movement of the nineteenth century. The Transcendentalists, who were based in New England, believed that intuition and the individual conscience "transcend" experience and thus are better guides to the truth than are the senses and logical reason. Influenced by Romanticism, Transcendentalists respected the individual spirit and the natural world, believing that divinity was present everywhere, in nature and in each person. EX: Emerson epistolary style written in a letter EX: Abigail Adams to her Daughter omniscient narrator all-knowing narrator EX: limited narrator knows only what the character does EX: reliable narrator a narrator without bias or another aspect that could cloud their understanding EX: third person narrator a narrator speaking in the third person as though they are looking onto the story EX: first person narrator a narrator speaking in the first person as though they themselves are in the story EX: point of view the perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. Three commonly used points of view are first person, omniscient third person, and limited third person EX: creation myth a myth about the creation of the world, or the human race, or something else EX: Native American stories logical appeal an appeal that addresses listeners' reasoning ability EX: emotional appeal an argument that appeals to the reader's emotions EX: aphorism a general truth or observation about life, usually stated concisely. Often witty and wise, aphorisms appear in many kinds of works. An essay writer may have an aphoristic style, making many such statements. EX: symbol anything that stands for or represents something else. A conventional symbol is one that is widely known and accepted, such as a voyage symbolizing life or a skull symbolizing death. A personal symbol is one developed for a particular work by a particular author. EX: Hawthorne's black veil metrical feet different groups separated by vertical lines EX: see "pyrrhic" persuasive writing writing that attempts to convince a reader to think or act in a particular way EX: Thomas Jefferson personification a figure of speech in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics EX: context the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed EX: verse writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme EX: Emily Dickinson stanza a group of lines in a poem that are considered to be a unit. Many poems are divided into stanzas that are separated by spaces. Stanzas often function just like paragraphs in a prose. Each stanza states and develops a single main idea. Couplet, tercet, quatrain, cinquain, sestet, heptastich, octave EX: Any poem slave narrative records the injustices of slavery and often tells how the writer escaped or was freed EX: historical narrative records major historical events that the writer may or may not have experienced firsthand EX: adventure narrative records information about the writer's own travels to an unfamiliar place EX: autobiographical narrative a form of nonfiction in which a person tells his or her own life story EX: Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass captivity narrative records events and personal feelings during the writer's captivity EX: Mary Rowlandson oxymoron a figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory ideas. EX: "freezing fire" Emily Dickinson hymn a religious song or poem, typically of praise to God or a god EX: alliteration the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or accented syllables EX: proverb a traditional wise saying that offers cultural wisdom in the form of a practical truth about life EX: elegy a poem of yearning for someone that has been lost with a yearning tone EX: synonym a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language EX: antonym a word opposite in meaning to another EX: