AP Lang Final Terms

speaker

identity

occasion

when/where

audience

reader/listener

context

circumstances

exigence

compel

purpose

goal (to + RAV + specifics from text)

sensory details

deliberate word choice that awakens the senses creates a mental picture for the reader

example: The gushing brook stole its way down the lush green mountains, dotted with tiny flowers in a riot of colors and trees coming alive with chirping birds.  

dialogue

direct speech

example:  As my sister slammed the door, she yelled, “Don’t ever come in this room again!”

expanded moment

snapshot in time lengthened with specific details

example:  Jared stared at the cards waiting for him on the table.  He extended his right hand to meet them, looked peripherally to the right, then to the left.  As he took a deep breath, he prayed for some royalty and then slowly peeked, along with the rest of the television viewers, at his two cards.

personification

giving human characteristics to inanimate objects/ideas

example: “To the fans in Chicago, St. Louis, and Atlanta, I wanna say ‘thank you’ for your support.  Your chanting of ‘B-r-u-u-u-c-e’ as I entered the game always gave me chills.  I wish I could trot out there and get that feeling again, but Father Time has caught up with me.  First he took my arm, then he took my hair, then he took the color from my beard.  But he cannot take the great friendships and memories I have from being a baseball player” (Bruce Sutter). 

alliteration

series of words that begin with the same consonant sound

example: Suzy sells seashells by the seashore

onomatopoeia

formation or use of words that imitate sounds

examples: buzz, murmur, clank, gurgle, hiss, bang

rhyme

Word that corresponds with another in sound especially end sound

examples: 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

simile

comparison of 2 unlike items using like or as

example:  “Once we stop regarding the Internet as a villain, stop presenting it as the enemy of history and literature and worldly knowledge, then our teenagers have the potential to become the next great voices of America” (Amy Goldwasser).

metaphor

comparison of 2 unlike items NOT using like or as

examples: 

“A good conscience is a continual Christmas” (Benjamin Franklin).

“Chaos is a friend of mine” (Bob Dylan).

allusion

reference to a person, event, text that the writer anticipates the reader will understand

example:  “Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.”  (Richard Cushing)

analogy

extended comparison that uses knowledge of one idea as a blueprint to understand another often more challenging concept

example:  “I didn’t have the vocabulary to say “paragraph,” but I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words.  The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose.  They had some specific reason for being inside that same fence.  This knowledge delighted me. I began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs.  Our reservation was a small paragraph within the United States” (Sherman Alexie).

antonomasia

substituting a descriptive phrase for a proper name

examples: His Airness, The Friendly Confines

irony

words convert meanings that are in tension with or even opposite to their literal meanings

oxymoron

word choice illustrates a paradox or contradiction

examples: jumbo shrimp, expressway gridlock, negative economic growth (323)

metonymy

particular object to stand for general concept

examples: the pen is mightier than the sword, Wall Street, the pentagon

hyphenated modifier

series of words connected with hyphens that act as an original modifier

example:  Right after I texted my friend, Mrs. Smith flashed me her don’t-you-dare-do-that-again look and continued her lecture on the Great Depression.

hyperbole

exaggeration

example: “So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt).

litote

understatement

example: “We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all” (Ronald Reagan).

rhetorical questions

question left unanswered because the answer isn’t obvious or obviously desired

example: “We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into being without it?  What does Nature hold dearer, or more proper to herself? Could you have a hot bath unless the firewood underwent some change?  Could you be nourished if the food suffered no change?  Do you not see, then, that change in yourself is the same order, and no less necessary to Nature?”  (Marcus Aurelius)

parallelism

use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning, or meter

example: “Hatred paralyses life; love releases it.  Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.  Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

anaphora

repeated word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, paragraphs, sections

example: “We shall not flag or fail.  We shall go on to the end.  We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.  We shall never surrender” (Winston Churchill).

epistrophe

repeated word or phrase at the end of successive sentences, paragraphs, sections

example:  “Should I be elected President, it would be my intention to ask the ablest men in the country to make whatever sacrifice is required to bring to the Government a ministry of the best talents available, men with a single-minded loyalty to the national interest, men who would regard public office as a public trust.  For no government is better than the men who compose it, and I want the best, and we need the best, and we deserve the best” (John F. Kennedy).

antithesis

parallel words or sentence structures to highlight contrasts/opposition

example:  “Those who kill people are called murderers; those who kill animals, sportsmen.”

inverted word order

rearrangement of the typical subject-verb-object sentence structure

examples: 

“Patience you must have, my young padawan” (Yoda, Star Wars).     

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” (Tolkein, The Hobbit).

intentional fragment

incomplete sentence used for emphasis

example:  

“Every Friday night on America's high school football fields,it's the same old story. Broken bones. Senseless violence. Clashing egos.

Not the players. The cheerleaders. According to a report by The Physician and Sportsmedicine, cheerleaders lose more time from their activity because of injury--28.8 days per injury--than any other group of athletes at the high school level” (Rick Reilly).

jargon

specialized language particular to a group of people

colloquial language

language of daily speech — informal, controversial

examples: “What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and it ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (Mark Twain).

connotation

emotional or cultural meaning of a word

examples:  

• house (cold)  versus home (warm)   

• riot (violent) versus protest (peaceful)

denotation

dictionary definition

example: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.  It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what” (Atticus, To Kill a Mockingbird).

pun

play on words (double-meaning)

punctuation

enhances meaning and style

examples:  

. finality

… tentativeness, hesitation

? uncertainty

! jolt, excitement

; + (join related items for a sense of balance, similarity, or contrast-grammatically functions as a period)  

: pointers (pay attention to this / list or illustration)

- add information / interrupt or emphasize ideas

CAPS anger/attention

logos

logic (facts, stats., surveys, polls)

ethos

credibility (education, experience, multiple perspectives)

Values in tension

• Security & Freedom

• Individual & Community

• Tradition & Change

Line of Reasoning

Game plan of text/essay (includes:thesis, claim, evidence, commentary)

Thesis

Overarching claim and MUST be debatable

Claim

Focused argument, defines a section of the larger argument (provides a reason why for the thesis)

Evidence

Facts & stats, personal, or observations that are accurate and relevant

Commentary

An elaboration of a specific point raised, analysis of the presented evidence, or interpretation of some idea presented

Reason

Answers question “why”

Counter argument

Opposing viewpoint

Qualifier

Places limit on the claim

Warrant

Belief, assumption, value that the argument rests on

Backing

Evidence for warrant

Scare tactics

Exaggeration to scare the reader

Either or choices

Giving the reader or someone 2 options to choose from

Slippery slope

An initial action which is followed by exaggerated consequences

Sentimental appeals

Emotional language used rather than pure logic

Bandwagon appeals

Going with the crowd over what you actually believe

Appeals to false authority

Not using a trusted source for evidence

Dogmatism

Personal opinions stated at facts in which can’t be changed

Ad hominem

Attacking character over statement

Hasty generalization

Attacking a group of people due to past actions

Faulty causality

a writer wrongly concludes that one event caused another simply because it happened first or at the same time, without sufficient evidence for a real causal link

Begging the question

Assuming that conclusion is true

Equivocation

using words or phrases with multiple meanings in a way that often misleads

Non sequitur

a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement

Straw man

logical fallacy where someone misrepresents, exaggerates, or distorts an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack, then refutes that weaker, fabricated version instead of the actual, stronger argument, creating the illusion of a victory

Faulty analogy

someone argues that because two things are similar in some ways, they must be similar in a crucial, unproven way, ignoring significant differences that make the comparison weak or misleading (like comparing "apples and oranges")