Key Literary Devices and Rhetorical Terms for English Literature

alliteration

The repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables.

allusion

An indirect reference, often to another text or a historic event.

analogy

An extended comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things.

anaphora

The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses.

anecdote

A short account of an interesting event.

annotation

Explanatory or critical notes added to a text.

antecedent

The noun to which a later pronoun refers.

antimetabole

The repetition of words in an inverted order to sharpen a contrast.

antithesis

Parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas.

aphorism

A short, astute statement of a general truth.

appositive

A word or phrase that renames a nearby noun or pronoun.

archaic diction

The use of words common to an earlier time period; antiquated language.

argument

A statement put forth and supported by evidence.

Aristotelian triangle

A diagram that represents a rhetorical situation as the relationship among the speaker, the subject, and the audience.

assertion

An emphatic statement or declaration. An assertion supported by evidence becomes an argument.

assumption

A belief or statement taken for granted without proof.

asyndeton

Leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.

attitude

The speaker's position on a subject as revealed through his or her tone.

audience

One's listener or readership; those to whom a speech or piece of writing is addressed.

authority

A reliable, respected source; someone with knowledge.

bias

Prejudice or predisposition toward one side of a subject or issue.

cite

Identifying a part of a piece of writing as being derived from a source.

claim

An assertion, usually supported by evidence.

close reading

A careful reading that is attentive to organization, figurative language, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other elements of a text.

colloquialism

An informal or conversational use of language.

common ground

Shared beliefs, values, or positions.

complex sentence

A sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

concession

A reluctant acknowledgment or yielding.

connotation

That which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning.

context

Words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning.

coordination

Grammatical equivalence between parts of a sentence, often through a coordinating conjunction such as and, or, or but.

counterargument

A challenge to a position; an opposing argument.

credible

Worthy of belief; trustworthy.

cumulative sentence

An independent clause followed by subordinate clauses or phrases that supply additional detail.

declarative sentence

A sentence that makes a statement.

deduction

Reasoning from general to specific.

denotation

The literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition.

dialectal journal

A double-column journal in which one writes a quotation in one column and reflections on that quotation in the other column.

diction

Word choice.

documentation

Bibliographic information about the sources used in a piece of writing.

elegiac

Mournful over what has passed or been lost; often used to describe tone.

epigram

A brief witty statement.

ethos

A Greek term referring to the character of a person; one of Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals.

explication of text

Explanation of a text's meaning through an analysis of all of its constituent parts, including the literary devices used; also called close reading.

facts

Information that is true or demonstrable.

figurative language

The use of tropes or figures of speech; going beyond literal meaning to achieve literary effect.

figure of speech

An expression that strives for literary effect rather than conveying a literal meaning.

fragment

A word, phrase, or clause that does not form a full sentence.

hortatory

Urging or strongly encouraging.

hyperbole

Exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis.

imagery

Vivid use of language that evokes a reader's senses.

imperative sentence

A sentence that requests or commands.

induction

Reasoning from specific to general.

inversion

A sentence in which the verb precedes the subject.

irony

A contradiction between what is said and what is meant; incongruity between action and result.

juxtaposition

Placement of two things side by side for emphasis.

logos

A Greek term that means "word"; an appeal to logic; one of Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals.

metaphor

A figure of speech through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, making an implicit comparison.

metonymy

Use of an aspect of something to represent the whole.

modifier

A word, phrase, or clause that qualifies or describes another word, phrase, or clause.

narration

Retelling an event or series of events.

nominalization

Turning a verb or adjective into a noun.

occasion

An aspect of context; the cause or reason for writing.

omniscient narrator

An all-knowing, usually third-person narrator.

oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms.

pacing

The relative speed or slowness with which a story is told or an idea is presented.

paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but is actually true.

parallelism

The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns.

parody

A piece that imitates and exaggerates the prominent features of another; used for comic effect or ridicule.

pathos

A Greek term that refers to suffering but has come to be associated with broader appeals to emotion; one of Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals.

periodic sentence

A sentence that builds toward and ends with the main clause.

persona

The speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing.

personification

Assigning lifelike characteristics to inanimate objects.

polemic

An argument against an idea, usually regarding philosophy, politics, or religion.

polysyndeton

The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions.

premise: major, minor

Two parts of a syllogism. The major premise is the general statement, and the minor premise applies it to a specific case.

pronoun

A word used to replace a noun or noun phrase.

propaganda

A negative term for writing designed to sway opinion rather than present information.

purpose

One's intention or objective in a speech or piece of writing.

refute

To discredit an argument, particularly a counterargument.

rhetoric

The study of effective, persuasive language use.

rhetorical modes

Patterns of organization developed to achieve a specific purpose, including narration, description, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, definition, exemplification, classification and division, process analysis, and argumentation.

rhetorical question

A question asked more to produce an effect than to summon an answer.

rhetorical triangle

A diagram that represents a rhetorical situation as the relationship among the speaker, the subject, and the audience.

satire

An ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something but actually argues against it.

scheme

A pattern of words or sentence construction used for rhetorical effect.

sentence patterns

The arrangement of independent and dependent clauses into known sentence constructions such as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex.

sentence variety

Using a variety of sentence patterns to create a desired effect.

simile

A figure of speech that uses "like" or "as" to compare two things.

simple sentence

A statement containing a subject and predicate; an independent clause.

source

A book, article, person, or other resource consulted for information.

speaker

A term used for the author, speaker, or the person whose perspective is being advanced in a speech or piece of writing.

straw man

A logical fallacy that involves creating an easily refutable position by misrepresenting and then attacking an opponent's position.

style

The distinctive quality of speech or writing created by the selection and arrangement of words and figures of speech.

subject

In rhetoric, the topic addressed in a piece of writing.

subordinate clause

A clause created by a subordinating conjunction that modifies an independent clause.

subordination

The dependence of one syntactical element on another in a sentence.

syllogism

A form of deductive reasoning in which the conclusion is supported by a major and minor premise.

syntax

Sentence structure.

synthesize

Combining or bringing together two or more elements to produce something more complex.