AP LANG Rhetorical Devices (#1-20)

Thesis

The central claim and overall purpose of a work

Bias

A predisposition or subjective opinion

Antecdote

A short account of an interesting or humorous incident, intended to illustrate or support a point

Analogy

A comparison to a directly parallel case; the process of drawing a comparison between two things based on a partial similarity of like features

Idiom

An expression that means something other than the literal meaning of its individual words

Tone

The voice and attitude the writer has chosen to project

Mood

The overall atmosphere of a work and the mood is how that atmosphere makes a reader feel

Antithesis

A contrast in language to bring our a contrast in ideas

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, or place - real or fictitious - or to a work of art

Juxtaposition

Placing two ideas side by side or close together

Euphemism

Substitutions of an inoffensive, indirect, or agreeable expression for a word or phrase perceived as socially unacceptable or harsh

Paradox

A phrase or statement that while seeming contradictory or absurd may actually be well founded or true; used to attract attention or to secure emphasis

Motif

Recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work

Persona

The character that the speaker portrays

Cliche

A timeworn expression that through overuse has lost its power to evoke concrete images

Irony

The discrepancy between appearance and reality: verbal, situational, dramatic

Oxymoron

A self contradictory combination of words