AP Lang and Comp Rhetorical Terms

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

Alliteration

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

Allusion

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

Ambiguity (Ambiguous)

A comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things.

Analogy

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

Anaphora

A brief story used to illustrate a point or claim

Anecdote

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

Aphorism

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

Argument

The listener, viewer, or reader of a text.

Audience

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. 

Claim

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

Colloquialism (Colloquial Speech)

Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation.

Connotation

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

Context

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

Denotation

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

Diction

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

Emphasis

Position, Proportion, Isolation, Repetition

List the types of Emphasis

 to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic.

Ethos

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.

Euphemism

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)

Figurative Language

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point. 

Hyperbole

A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds.

Imagery

 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.

Irony

Obscure and often pretentious language.

Jargon

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences.

Juxtaposition

appeal to reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up.

Logos

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

Metaphor

The feeling or atmosphere created by a text.

Mood

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.

Narration

A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words.

Oxymoron

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

Paradox

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

Parallelism

play on the audience’s values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.

Pathos

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

Persona

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

Personification

The goal the speaker wants to achieve.

Purpose

“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.

Rhetoric

Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling.

Rhetorical Appeals

Figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer.

Rhetorical Question

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

Satire

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.

Simile

A writer’s specific way of saying things. Arrangement of ideas, word choice, syntax, and figurative language.

Style

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.

Syntax

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.

Theme

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

Tone

 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.

Understatement

The speech patterns of a particular group of people or region.

Vernacular

The unique flavor of a piece based upon the author. Creating a tone with diction, syntax, imagery, etc.

Voice