Rhetorical Handbook (New)

Connotation

An idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing

Denotation

Literal definition of a word

Pedantic

Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for a book learning and formal rules

Simple

Pure, easy, plain, and basic

Monosyllabic

One syllable

Polysyllabic

More than one syllable

Euphonious

Pleasing or agreeable to the ear

Cacophonic

Unpleasant sounding

Literal

What you see

Figurative

What you get from language, tone, symbol, etc.

Active

The subject of the sentence is performing or causing the action rather than a state of being

Passive

Subject is the object of the action or the effect of the verb.

Overstated

Exaggerated

Understated

Expressed with restraint, lack of emphasis

Colloquial

Informal, conversational

Formal

Formal, Proper language

Non - Standard - Slang/ Jargon

Not using standard english, used by uneducated or socially disfavored

Alliteration

The recurrence of initial consonant sounds, the repetition is usually limited to two words.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose pronunciation suggests their meaning.

Basic

Subject + Verb + Object

Interrupted

A sentence that is interrupted by a parenthetical aside.

Inverted

Begin with a part of the speech other than the subject. These inverted sentence patterns are sometimes used to delay revealing what the sentence is about and create tension.

Listing

A sentence with multiple phrases that create a list

Cumulative/Loose

Begins with subject and verb and adds modifying elements at the end.

Periodic

Opens with modifiers and withholds subject and verb until the end.

Parallelism (Antithesis)

Establishing, a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining then together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure.

Parallelism (Chiasmus)

A crossing parallelism, where the second part of a grammatical construction is balanced or paralleled by first part, only in reverse order.

Parallelism (Balanced)

Expressing parallel or like ideas—often compound.

Declarative

Declares

Imperative

Commands, requests, or instructs. Most of the time, the subject is you.

Exclamatory

Expresses strong emotion

Interrogative

"Interrogates—it asks a question.

Compound

Has two or more independent causes

Complex

Contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

Compound-Complex

Contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

Ellipsis

A rhetorical figure in which one or more words are omitted

Asyndeton

The omission of a conjunction from a list In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account.

Anadiplosis

A rhetorical trope formed by repeating the last word of one phrase, clause or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next. It can be generate in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical progression.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Epistrophe

The repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. Counterpart to anaphora.

Polysyndeton

The use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause is thus structurally the opposite of asyndeton.

Parenthetical Aside

Consists of a word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted as an aside in the middle of another sentence

Colon

The punctuation mark (:) is used to divide distinct but related sentence components, such as clauses in which the second elaborates on the first, or to introduce a list, quotation, or speech.

Semi-Colon

a punctuation mark (;) which connects two independent parts of a sentence.

Dashes

A punctuation mark (—) used to indicate a sudden break in thought, to set off parenthetical material

Allegory

A form of extended metaphor in which objects and persons in a narrative, either in prose or verse, are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. Many works contain allegories or are allegorical in part, but not many are entirely allegorical.

Autobiography

The biography of a person written by that person.

Biography

An account of a person’s life as written or told by another.

Chronicle

An extended account of historical events without interpretation or comment

Diary

A daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations

Essay

A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author, is analytic or interpretive.

Fiction

A literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact.

Non-fiction

A work that draws its information from history or fact rather than the imagination

Parody

A literary form in which the style of an author or particular work is mocked in its style for the sake of comic effect.

Prose

Writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to the patterns of everyday speech.

Satire

A literary work which exposes and ridicules human vices or folly. Historically perceived as tending toward didacticism, it is usually intended as a moral criticism directed against the injustice of social wrongs.

Sermon

An oration by a prophet or member of the clergy.

Stream-OfConsciousness

A technique that records the multifarious thoughts and feelings of a character without regard to logical or narrative sequence. The writer attempts by the stream of consciousness to reflect all the forces, external and internal, influencing the psychology of a character at a single moment.

Allusion

An indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which are not explained by the writer but rely on the reader’s familiarity with what is thus mentioned.

Ambiguity

Something of doubtful meaning, an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context, may have more than one meaning

Anachronism

The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order

Aphorism

A brief statement that expresses an observation on life is usually intended as a wise observation.

Audience

The people the author is speaking to (listeners, readers, onlookers)

Invective

Abuse (tongue-lashing, diatribe, condemnation)

Juxtaposition

Placing two things side by side, usually to show contrast.

Malapropism

An incorrect usage of a word, usually with a comic effect.

Rhetorical Question

A question posed b y the speaker or writer not to seek an answer but instead to affirm or deny a point simply by asking a question about it.

Sensory Detail

An item used to appeal to the sense (sight, taste, touch, etc)

Shift

A general term in linguistics for any slight alteration in a word’s meaning, or the creation of entirely new words by changing the use of an expression

Tone

The writer’s attitude toward his reader and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic. While both Swift and Pope are satirizing much the same subjects, there is a profound difference in their tone.

Point of View

A way the events of a story are conveyed to the reader, it is the “vantage point” from which the narrative is passed from author to the reader. In the omniscient point of view, the person telling the story, or narrator, knows everything that’s going on in the story. In the first -person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story. Using the pronoun “I,” the narrator tells us his or her own experiences but cannot reveal with certainty any other character’s private thoughts. In the limited third -person point of view, the narrator is outside the story —like an omniscient narrator—but tells the story from the vantage point of one character.

Theme -Thesis

The message conveyed by a literary work

Voice

The textual features, such as diction and sentence structure, that convey a writer’s or speaker’s persona

Analogy

The comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one While simile and analogy often overlap, simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical purpose of explaining a thought process, a line of reasoning, or the abstract in terms of the concrete and may therefore be more extended.

Apostrophe

The direct address of a person or personified thing, either present or absent Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back.

Cliché

An expression so often used that its original power has been drained away.

Conceit

An elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or image, such as an analogy or metaphor in which, say a beloved is compared to a ship, planet, etc

Epithet

An adjective or adjective phrases appropriately qualify a subject (noun) by naming a key or important characteristic of the subject.

Euphemism

The expression of an unpleasant or embarrassing notion by a more inoffensive substitute

Hyperbole

Exaggeration is used for emphasis. Hyperbole can be used to heighten effect, to catalyze recognition, or to create a humorous perception.

Imagery

The collection of images within a literary work Used to evoke atmosphere, mood, and tension.

Verbal Irony

the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant.

Situational Irony

the result of an action is the reverse of what the actor expected.

Extended Metaphor

A metaphor is one that is drawn out beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout a stanza or an entire poem, usually by using multiple comparisons between, unlike objects or ideas.

Metonymy

Another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche, is in which the thing chosen for the metaphorical image is closely associated with (but not an actual part of) the subject with which it is to be compared.

Oxymoron

A paradox reduced to two words, usually in an adjective-noun (“eloquent silence”) or adverb - adjective (“inertly strong”) relationship, and is used for effect, to emphasize contrasts, incongruities, hypocrisy, or simply the complex nature of reality

Paradox

A statement that seems untrue on the surface but is true nevertheless

Personification

The metaphorical representation of an animal or inanimate object as having human attributes— attributes of form, character, feelings, behavior, and so on. As the name implies, a thing or idea is treated as a person.

Pun

A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words

Simile

A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by “like” or “as.”

Synaesthesia

A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color. A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus applied to another, as in referred pain. The descriptions of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole or the whole for a part

Understatement

Expressing an idea with less emphasis or to a lesser degree than is the actual case The opposite of hyperbole. Understatement is employed for ironic emphasis.

Argument

A way of reasoning where a subject is proved correct/incorrect

Ethos (ethical)

A rhetorical appeal to an audience based on the speaker/writer's credibility

Pathos (emotion)

The emotional appeal to an audience in an argument.

Logos (rational)

Rhetorical appeals based on logic or reasoning.

Claim

To make an assertion; to state as true

Deductive Reasoning (syllogism)

Reasoning that utilizes elements of persuasion by asserting a claim consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning that begins by citing a number of specific instances or examples and then shows how collectively they constitute a general principle.