AP Lang & Comp Boot Camp Terms

Vocabulary flashcards covering key rhetorical terms from the lecture notes.

Rhetoric

The art of effective or persuasive communication; the study of how authors use language to influence an audience.

A.T.P.

Audience, Topic, Purpose—the three elements of rhetorical analysis.

Rhetorical Situation

The combination of exigence, purpose, audience, writer, context, and message that surrounds a text.

Rhetorical Triangle

A diagram showing the interrelationship among the writer, audience, and subject of a text.

Rhetorical Appeals

Techniques used to persuade by appealing to the audience's values; includes Ethos, Logos, and Pathos.

Exigence

The aspects of the rhetorical situation that prompted the writer or speaker to create the text.

Context

The circumstances surrounding a text—the attitudes, events, and environment that influence meaning.

Analysis

Breaking something down into component parts to understand how each part functions and contributes to the whole.

Synthesis

Combining two or more ideas to create something more complex in support of a new idea.

Précis

A concise summary of an article, essay, book, or speech that preserves the essential argument, structure, and rhetorical elements.

Qualifier

A word or phrase that limits the strength of a claim; adds nuance and strengthens ethos.

Antithesis

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in balanced parallel phrases or clauses.

Rebuttal

A response to a counterargument that aims to contradict or weaken it by presenting evidence.

Induction

Inductive reasoning; moves from specific observations to general conclusions.

Syllogism

A deductive argument consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.

Concession

An acknowledgment of some validity in an opponent's point, even if you disagree with the overall argument.

Logical Fallacy

An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid or unsound.

Diction

The word choice used by a writer.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences.

Tone

The writer's attitude toward the subject, audience, or themselves, revealed through diction, syntax, and imagery.

Mood

The feeling or ambience created for the reader by the text.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'.

Personification

Giving human qualities or characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration for emphasis or effect.

Allusion

An indirect or passing reference to an event, person, place, or artistic work.

Analogy

A comparison between two different things, typically for explanation or clarification; unlike a metaphor, often extended to explain the unfamiliar by likening it to the familiar.

Irony

A contrast between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.