AP Language & Composition – Comprehensive Rhetorical Term Notes

Alliteration

• Repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in sequence. 

Let us go forth to lead the land we love…  -- John F. Kennedy

Allusion

• Brief reference to a person, event, or place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art. 

  • Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah… -- John F. Kennedy

Ambiguity (Ambiguous)

• The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence or passage.

Analogy

• A comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things. Often, an analogy uses something simple or familiar to explain something unfamiliar or complex. 

  • As birds have flight, our special gift is reason. -- Bill McKibben

  • If I have unjustly wrestled a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself… But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall lose it. This people must cease to hold slaves and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people. -- Henry David Thoreau

Anecdote

A brief story used to illustrate a point or claim.

Aphorism

• A terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth and moral principle.

Argument

A process of reasoned inquiry. A persuasive discourse resulting in a coherent and consideration movement from a claim to a conclusion

Audience

• he listener, viewer, or reader of a text. Most texts are likely to have multiple audiences. 

  • Gehrig’s audience was his teammates and fans in the stadium that day, but it was also the teams he played against, the fans listening on the radio, and posterity -- us.

Claim

 Also called an assertion or proposition, a claim states the argument’s main idea or position. A claim differs from a topic or subject in that a claim has to be arguable.

Colloquialism

Words or phrases that have a conversational feel and are not generally used in formal written English.

Connotation

• Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. Connotations are often positive or negative, and they often greatly affect the author’s tone. Consider the connotations of the words below, all of which means “overweight.”

That cat is plump. That cat is fat. That cat is obese.

Context

• The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text. 

  • The context for Lou Gehrig’s speech is the recent announcement of his illness and his subsequent retirement, but also the poignant contrast between his potent career and his debilitating disease.

Denotation

The strict, literal dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude or color.

Diction

A speaker’s choice of words. Analysis of diction looks at these choices and what they add to the speaker’s message.

Emphasis

Emphasis allows the writer to place importance on a particular idea. By positioning an idea in a certain place structurally, by proportioning a greater amount of words, by isolating a key word or phrase, or by repeating the wording, the writer creates emphasis. The ideas that the author emphasizes creates meaning in the piece. (types include Position,
Proportion, Isolation, Repetition).

Ethos

• Greek for “character.” Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say. 

  • Lou Gehrig brings the ethos of being a legendary athlete to his speech, yet in it he establishes a different kind of ethos — that of a regular guy and a good sport who shares the audience’s love of baseball and family. And like them, he has known good luck and bad breaks.

Euphemism

Greek for “good speech,” euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts. May be used to adhere to political correctness or to add humor or ironic understatement.

Figurative Language (figure of speech)

Nonliteral language, sometimes referred to as tropes or metaphorical language, often evoking strong imagery, figures of speech often compare one thing to another either explicitly (simile) implicitly (metaphor). Other forms of figurative language include personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point.My first and last name together generally served the same purpose as a high brick wall. — Firoozeh Dumas 

Imagery

• A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds. Imagery may use literal or figurative language to appeal to the senses. 

Your eyes glaze as you travel life’s highway past all the crushed animals and the Big Gulp cups. — Joy Williams

Irony

 A figure of speech that occurs when a speaker or character says one thing but means something else, or when what is said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity.

Jargon

Specialized terminology used by a particular group of people. Obscure and often pretentious language.

Juxtaposition

• lacement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences. 

The nations of Asia and Africa are moving at jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. — Martin Luther King

Logos

• Greek for “embodied thought.” Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up. 

  • Gehrig starts with the thesis that he is “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” and supports it with two points: (1) the love and kindness he’s received in his seventeen years of playing baseball, and (2) a list of great people who have been his friends, family, and teammates

Metaphor

• Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as. 

  • And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion . . . — John F. Kennedy 

Mood

The feeling or atmosphere created by a text

Narration

In classical oration, the factual and background information, establishing why a subject or problem needs addressing; it precedes the confirmation, or laying out of evidence to support claims made in the argument.

Oxymoron

• A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words. 

  • But this peaceful revolution . . . — John F. Kennedy 

Paradox

• A statement or situation that is seemingly contradictory on the surface, but delivers an ironic truth. 

  • There is that scattereth, yet increaseth. — The Bible 

  • To live outside the law you must be honest. — Bob Dylan

Parallelism

• Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. 

  • Let both sides explore. . . . Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals. . . . Let both sides seek to invoke. . . . Let both sides unite to heed . . . — John F. Kennedy

Pathos

• Greek for “suffering” or “experience.” Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience’s values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other. 

  • The most striking appeal to pathos is the poignant contrast between Gehrig’s horrible diagnosis and his public display of courage.

Persona

• Greek for “mask.” The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience. 

Lou Gehrig is a famous baseball hero, but in his speech he presents himself as a common man who is modest and thankful for the opportunities he’s had.

Personification

• Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea. 

. . . with history the final judge of our deeds . . . — John F. Kennedy

Purpose

• The goal the speaker wants to achieve. 

  • One of Gehrig’s chief purposes in delivering his Farewell Address is to thank his fans and his teammates, but he also wants to demonstrate that he remains positive: he emphasizes his past luck and present optimism and downplays his illness.

Rhetoric

 Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” In other words, it is the art of finding ways of persuading an audience.

Rhetorical Appeals

Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are to ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion)

Rhetorical Question

Figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer. Will you join in that historic effort? — John F. Kennedy

Satire

he use of irony or sarcasm to critique society or an individual.

Simile

A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by comparing it explicitly to something else, using the words like, as, or as though

Style

 A writer’s specific way of saying things. Style includes arrangement of ideas, word choice, syntax, and figurative language. We can analyze and describe an author’s personal style and make judgments on how appropriate it is to the author’s purpose

Syntax

The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. This includes word order (subject-verb-object, for instance, or an inverted structure); the length and structure of sentences (simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex); and such schemes as parallelism, juxtaposition, antithesis, and antimetabole.

Theme

A writer’s thoughts on a topic. It is not JUST the topic, but what the author develops in terms of what he believes about the topic.

Tone

A speaker’s attitude toward the subject conveyed by the speaker’s stylistic and rhetorical choices

Understatement

• A figure of speech in which something is presented as less important, dire, urgent, good, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect. Also called litotes, it is the opposite of hyperbole. 

  • You might want to write clearly and cogently in your English class. The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. — Henry David Thoreau

Vernacular

The speech patterns of a particular group of people or region

Voice

The unique flavor of a piece based upon the author. An author adds his or her voice to a piece by creating a tone with diction, syntax, imagery, etc. The author’s voice is what makes his or her writing personal and unique.