Unit 1 AP LANG

Rhetoric

The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, particularly through the use of figures of speech and strategic compositional techniques.

Text

Any written, spoken, or visual communication that can be analyzed and interpreted for its meaning, audience, and rhetorical strategy.

Rhetorical Situation

The context of a rhetorical act, comprised of a communicator, an audience, a text, a purpose, and an exigence.

Context

The time, place, historical background, and social or cultural circumstances surrounding a text and its creation or reception.

Exigence

An issue, problem, or situation that prompts or motivates a communicator to create a text.

Occasion

the specific circumstances the events that necessitate the text

Purpose

The reason or intent behind a text, which guides the author's choices in content and structure.

Writer or Speaker

The individual or group who constructs a text, shaping its content and style to convey their intended message.

Persona

the voice or character assumed by the writer or speaker in a text, which influences how the audience perceives the message.

Audience

The specific group of readers or listeners for whom a text is intended, influencing its tone, style, and subject matter.

Message

The main idea or argument that a writer or speaker intends to communicate to the audience through a text.

Subject

The topic, theme, or central focus of a text that shapes its content and the writer's approach to communicating with the audience.

Rhetorical Appeals

Methods used to persuade an audience, typically including ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos

Appeal to a person’s expertise, knowledge, experience, sincerity, shared values. or a combination of these factors

Logos

Appeal to logic, reasoning, and rationality

Counterargument

objections or opposing views to your argument

Concede

agree

Refute

Deny

Rebut

present a contrasting perspective on an argument

Pathos

appeal to emotions, values, desires, and hopes

Style

the word choice, syntactical patterns, and conventions of grammar and mechanics they use

Diction

A writer’s choice of words

denotation

dictionary definition

Connotation

an emotional or cultural idea that a word suggests beyond its strict literal dictionary definition

Modifiers

words, phrases, or clauses that add description or qualification

Formal Diction

diction that sticks to grammatical rules and avoids colloquial or slang expressions

Informal Diction

diction that may include more casual expressions that your audience themselves may use

Figurative Language

involves words or phrases that are not meant to be taken literally and usually involve comparisons

Metaphor

a comparison using like or as

Simile

a comparison that doesn’t use like or as

Analogy

a comparison between two different things to show how they are similar, usually to help explain a complex or unfamiliar idea

personification

giving an inanimate object human like characteristics/actions

Allusion

a brief, indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, work of art, or story

Syntax

How words are combined to form sentences

Compound sentence

a sentence that joins two or more independent clauses (complete thoughts with a subject and a verb) using a comma and a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon

Complex Sentence

a sentence that contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause

Coordination

Joining clauses with for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so

Subordination

joining clauses with when, because, until, if

Periodic Sentence

a longer sentence with a series of clauses or modifiers, holding the main clause until the end

Cumulative sentence

a longer sentence with a series of clauses or modifiers, with the main clause at the beginning

Parallel Structure

repeating the same word, phrase, or clause for emphasis

Parenthetical

extra information that is added to a sentence, but is not needed to keep the main core meaning

Antithesis

contrary ideas using a similar grammatical structure

Tone

the writer’s attitude toward the subject, which is conveyed through the writer’s style.

Shift

a sudden or noticeable change in an author's tone, point of view, focus, style, or structure

Irony

an incongruity between expectation and reality

Verbal Irony

a difference between what the writer says and what they mean

Situational Irony

a discrepancy between what seems fitting and what actually happens

Dramatic Irony

a contrast between what a character or writer say or thinks and what the audience knows to be true