AP Language and Composition Glossary

Flashcards of literary and rhetorical devices

Active Voice

The subject of the sentence performs the action; a more direct style of writing.

Passive Voice

The subject of the sentence receives the action; often overused, resulting in lifeless writing.

Allusion

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

Alter-ego

A character used by the author to speak the author’s own thoughts; the author speaks directly to the audience through a character.

Anecdote

A brief recounting of a relevant episode; often inserted into texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor.

Antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.

Classicism

Art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people and the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures.

Comic relief

When a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story to lighten the mood.

Diction

Word choice, particularly as an element of style; Different types of words have significant effects on meaning.

Colloquial

Ordinary or familiar type of conversation; a common or familiar type of saying, similar to an adage or an aphorism.

Connotation

The associations suggested by a word; implied meaning rather than literal meaning.

Denotation

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

Jargon

The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity.

Vernacular

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

Didactic

Fiction, nonfiction, or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.

Adage

A folk saying with a lesson; similar to aphorism and colloquialism.

Allegory

A story, fictional or non fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts; meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth.

Aphorism

A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle; can be a memorable summation of the author's point.

Ellipsis

Deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author.

Euphemism

A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.

Figurative Language

Writing that is not meant to be taken literally.

Analogy

A comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables; argues that the relationship between the first pair of variables is the same as the relationship between the second pair of variables.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration.

Idiom

A common, often used expression that doesn’t make sense if you take it literally.

Metaphor

Making an implied comparison, not using “like,” “as,” or other such words.

Metonymy

Replacing an actual word or idea with a related word or concept.

Synecdoche

A kind of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa.

Simile

Using words such as “like” or “as” to make a direct comparison between two very different things.

Synesthesia

A description involving a “crossing of the senses.”

Personification

Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human.

Foreshadowing

When an author gives hints about what will occur later in a story.

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits; basic divisions are prose, poetry, and drama.

Gothic

Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death.

Imagery

Word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind; usually involves the five senses.

Invective

A long, emotionally violent attack using strong, abusive language.

Irony

When the opposite of what you expect to happen does.

Verbal irony

When you say something and mean the opposite/something different.

Dramatic irony

When the audience of a drama, play, movie, etc. knows something that the character doesn't and would be surprised to find out.

Situational irony

Found in the plot (or story line) of a book, story, or movie.

Juxtaposition

Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison; often used to make a point.

Mood

The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice (diction).

Motif

A recurring idea in a piece of literature.

Oxymoron

When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox.

Pacing

The speed or tempo of an author’s writing.

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true.

Parallelism

Sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row.

Chiasmus

When the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed.

Antithesis

Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure.

Zuegma (Syllepsis)

When a single word governs or modifies two or more other words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies.

Parenthetical Idea

Parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence.

Parody

An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes; borrows words or phrases from an original, and pokes fun at it.

Persona

The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story.

Poetic device

Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Onomatopoeia, Internal rhyme, Slant rhyme, End rhyme, Rhyme Scheme, Stressed and unstressed syllables, Meter, Free verse, Iambic pentameter, Sonnet

Polysyndeton

When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions.

Pun

When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way.

Rhetoric

The art of effective communication.

Rhetorical Question

Question not asked for information but for effect.

Romanticism

Art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people and the world, and an emphasis on nature; does not rely on traditional themes and structures.

Sarcasm

A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded.

Satire

A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect; targets human vices and follies, or social institutions and conventions.

Sentence

A group of words (including subject and verb) that expresses a complete thought.

Appositive

A word or group of words placed beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its meaning.

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.

Balanced sentence

A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale; both parts are parallel grammatically.

Compound sentence

Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses.

Complex sentence

Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Cumulative sentence

When the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements.

Periodic sentence

When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence; begins with subordinate elements and postpones the main clause.

Simple sentence

Contains only one independent clause.

Declarative sentence

States an idea; does not give a command or request, nor does it ask a question.

Imperative sentence

Issues a command.

Interrogative sentence

Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns (what, which, who, whom, and whose).

Style

The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes; may be conscious or unconscious.

Symbol

Anything that represents or stands for something else; usually something concrete that represents something more abstract.

Syntax/sentence variety

Grammatical arrangement of words.

Theme

The central idea or message of a work; may be directly stated in nonfiction works, although not necessarily; rarely stated directly in fiction.

Thesis

The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition; should be short and clear.

Tone

A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization.

Understatement

The ironic minimizing of fact; presents something as less significant than it is.

Litotes

A particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used.

Argument

A piece of reasoning with one or more premises and a conclusion.

Premises

Statements offered as reasons to support a conclusion are premises.

Conclusion

The end result of the argument – the main point being made.

Ethos (credibility)

Means being convinced by the credibility of the author.

Pathos (emotional)

Means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions.

Logos (logical)

Means persuading by the use of reasoning, using true premises and valid arguments.

Concession

Accepting at least part or all of an opposing viewpoint.

Conditional Statement

An if-then statement and consists of two parts, an antecedent and a consequent.

Contradiction

Occurs when one asserts two mutually exclusive propositions.

Counterexample

An example that runs counter to (opposes) a generalization, thus falsifying it.

Deductive argument

An argument in which it is thought that the premises provide a guarantee of the truth of the conclusion.

Fallacy

An attractive but unreliable piece of reasoning.

Ad hominem

Personally attacking your opponents instead of their arguments.

Appeal to authority

The claim that because somebody famous supports an idea, the idea must be right.

Appeal to the bandwagon

The claim, as evidence for an idea, that many people believe it, or used to believe it, or do it.

Appeal to emotion

An attempt to replace a logical argument with an appeal to the audience’s emotions.

Bad analogy

Claiming that two situations are highly similar, when they aren't.

Cliche thinking

Using as evidence a well-known saying, as if it is proven, or as if it has no exceptions.

False cause

Assuming that because two things happened, the first one caused the second one.