AP Lang Rhetoric Vocab

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines:

Anecdote

A short, personal story

Antimetabole

\: Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order

Antithesis

Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, although not always, in parallel structure)

Asyndeton

a stylistic device used in literature and poetry to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence

Colloquialism

the use of informal words, phrases or even slang in a piece of writing

Diction

n: precise word choice--always use with a descriptor (adjective) before the word “__”

Epistrophe

Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words

Hyperbole

Rhetorical exaggeration; often accomplished via comparisons, similes, and metaphors

Irony

Speaking/writing in such a way as to imply the contrary of what one says, often for the purpose of derision, mockery, or jest

Juxtaposition

a technique in which two or more ideas, places, people, characters and/or their actions are placed side by side in a piece of writing for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts.

Maxim

One of several terms describing short, pithy sayings

Metonymy

Reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes

Oxymoron

Placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent to one another. A compressed paradox

Paradox

A statement that is self-contradictory on the surface, yet seems to evoke a truth nonetheless; longer and more complex than an oxymoron

Parallelism

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses; verb tenses are consistent

Parody

an imitation of a particular writer, artist or a genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a comic effect.

Polysyndeton

Employing many conjunctions between clauses, often slowing the tempo or rhythm

Satire

a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule

Syntax

a set of rules in a language; dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought. determines how the chosen words are used to form a sentence. NOT diction; refers to the structure within sentences within a piece of writing.

Tone

an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject.

Understatement

a figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is (also called meiosis)

vernacular

a literary genre that uses daily used language in writing and speaking.

voice

the form or a format through which narrators tell their stories

wit

a literary device used to make the readers laugh. has paradoxical and mocking quality, and evokes laughter through apt phrasing.

cumulative sentence

an independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions (phrases/clauses) that gather details about a person, place, event, or idea

hortative sentence

choice of words that encourage action

inverted sentence

a sentence in a normally subject-first language in which the predicate(verb) comes before the subject(noun)

periodic sentence

a sentence with the main clause or predicate at the end. used for emphasis and can be persuasive by putting reasons for something at the beginning before the final point is made. can also create suspense/interest for the reader

speaker

the voice that speaks behind the scene/writing

audience

the person for whom a writer writes or composer composes. a writer uses a particular style of language, tone, and content according to what they know about their ___

message

idea put across by author

ethos

represents credibility/ethical appeal which involves persuasion by the writer/speaker involved

pathos

appeal to emotion; a quality that evokes pity or sadness, or emotion

logos

appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason