AP Lang Rhetorical Choices

Allegory

A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of a one subject under the guise of another.

Alliteration

The repetition of a beginning consonant sound.

Allusion

An indirect reference to some piece of knowledge not actually mentioned in the text.

Analogy

A similarity between like features of two things on which a comparison may be based.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses (I have a dream…I have a dream..)

Antecedent

A word, phrase, or clause that is replaced by a pronoun or other substitute later; or occasionally earlier, in the same or in another, usually subsequent sentence.

Antithesis

The placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas ( "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)).

Aphorism

A terse saying embodying a general truth or astute observation ("If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got." ("Moms" Mabley)).

Apostrophe (not punctuation)

A digression in the form of an address to someone not present or to a personified idea or object.

Asyndeton

The omission of conjunctions.

Atmosphere

The dominant mood or emotional tone of writing.

Colloquial

Characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal.

Conceit

An elaborate metaphor or a strained or far-fetched nature (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Shakespeare).

Connotation

Denotation

The set of attributes constituting the meaning of a term.

The explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated or suggested by it.

Diction

An authors word choice