APLang Quiz 1 Rhetorical Terms

An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text, although it can be other things commonly known, such as plays, songs, historical events) with which the reader is supposed to be familiar.

Allusion

A brief recounting of a relevant sometimes humorous episode. Anecdotes are often inserted into fictional or non fictional texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor.

Anecdote

When authors use their position, areas of expertise, authority, or experience to try to persuade the audience, they are establishing their own character and credibility.

Ethos

Word choice, particularly as an element of style. Different types of words have significant effects on meaning. An essay written in academic diction would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise than street slang. You should be able to describe an author's diction. You SHOULD NOT write in your thesis, "The author uses diction…". This is essentially saying, "The author uses words to write." (Duh.) Instead, describe the type of diction (for example, formal or informal, condemning or patriotic).

Diction

Ordinary or familiar type of conversation. A “colloquialism” is a common or familiar type of saying, similar to an adage or an aphorism.

Colloquial

Rather than the dictionary definition (denotation), the associations suggested by a word. Implied meaning rather than literal meaning.

Connotation

The literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations.

Denotation

The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity. Lawyers speak using particular jargon, as do soccer players.

Jargon

Language or dialect of a particular country, regional clan or group. 2. Plain everyday speech

Vernacular

A term used to describe fiction, nonfiction or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.

Didactic

Persuading the audience by attempting to elicit emotional responses (from the Greek root of Path meaning suffering --empathy or sympathy)

Pathos

A comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables. When a writer uses an analogy, he or she argues that the relationship between the first pair of variables is the same as the relationship between the second pair of variables. “America is to the world as the hippo is to the jungle.” Similes and metaphors are other types of comparisons.

Analogy

Exaggeration. “My mother will kill me if I am late.”

Hyperbole

Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”

Antithesis

Appealing to the audience’s sense of logic or reasoning. Use of facts, statistics, and logical argument to persuade an audience

Logos

Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison. Authors often use juxtaposition of ideas or examples in order to make a point.(For example, an author may juxtapose the average day of a typical American with that of someone in the third world in order to make a point of social commentary).

Juxtaposition