final rhet terms

Allegory

The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning.

Alliteration

The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants or more neighboring words.

Allusion

A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art.

Analogy

A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.

Anecdote

A short, simple narrative of an incident; it is often used for humorous effect or to make a point.

Connotation

The nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning.

Denotation

The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion attitude, or color.

Diction

Related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout the work.

Figurative language

Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning to achieve a special effect or meaning.

Flashback

A device by which the writer presents scenes or incidents that occurred prior to the opening scene of the work.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.

Imagery

The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions.

Irony/ironic

The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant.

Metaphor

A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other.

Mood (atmosphere)

The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases.

Personification

A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions.

Point of view

In literature, the perspective from which a story is told.

Third Person Narrator

The narrator relates the events with the third person pronouns, 'he,' 'she,' and 'it.'

Third Person Omniscient

The point of view where the narrator, with godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters.

Third Person Limited Omniscient

The point of view that presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all remaining characters.

Point of View

In the essay portion of the exam, it refers to the author's attitude.

Pun

A play on words that either plays on multiple meanings of a word or replaces the word with another that is similar in sound but very different in meaning.

Repetition

The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in a sequence of words, usually occurring in the stressed syllables followed by different consonant sounds.

Consonance

The repetition of identical consonant sounds in close proximity, as in boost/best, linger/longer/later.

Symbol

The use of one object to represent or suggest another, standing for or meaning something else.

Tone

The characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience.

Ambiguity

The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage.

Anaphora

One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences.

Anastrophe

The reversal of word order for effect.

Antecedent

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

Antiphrasis

A form of verbal irony, where a word or phrase is used contrary to its normal meaning for ironic or humorous effect.

Antithesis

Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually through parallel structure.

Appeal

One of the three main persuasive strategies in classical rhetoric: the appeal to logic (logos), emotions (pathos), and character (ethos).

Aphorism

A short, often witty statement articulating a principle or truth about life.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction.

Intense Emotion

The effect is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back.

Asyndeton

Consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. This can give the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account.

Atmosphere

The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described.

Avant-garde

A term used since the late nineteenth century to suggest art or writing that challenges tradition, or that is innovative, experimental, revolutionary, or ahead of its time.

Bombast

Language that is overly rhetorical (pompous), especially when considered in context.

Chiasmus

A figure of speech in which two successive phrases or clauses are parallel in syntax, but reverse the order of the analogous words.

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent, or main, clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.

Colloquial/colloquialism

The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone.

Coherence

The quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle.

Conceit

A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.

Diacope

Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase: word/phrase X, . . ., word/phrase X.

Deduction

The process of logic in which a thinker takes a rule for a large, general category and assumes that specific individual examples fitting within that general category obey the same rule.

Dialect

The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons. The term dialect encompasses the sounds, spelling, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people.

Dystopia

An imaginary society in fictional writing that represents, as M. H. Abrams puts it, 'a very unpleasant imaginary world in which ominous tendencies of our present social, political, and technological order are projected in some disastrous future culmination.'

Eclipsis

A type of enallage in which an author or poet omits essential grammatical elements to create a poetic or artful effect.

Ellipsis

(1) In its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis refers to the artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause.

Enallage

The intentional misuse of grammar to characterize a speaker or to create a memorable phrase.

Boxing Manager Quote

Famous phrase by Joe Jacobs: 'We was robbed!'

Punch Magazine Quote

Saying: 'You pays your money, and you takes your chances.'

Shakespeare Quote

Line from Sonnet 72: 'And hang more praise upon deceased I.'

Subject-Verb Agreement Misuse

Falstaff's incorrect question: 'Is there not wars?'

Enumeration

Listing parts or details of a subject.

Euphemism

Milder term replacing an unpleasant word.

Epitaph

Inscription on a gravestone or final statement.

Exposition

Introductory material explaining characters and conflict.

Figure of Speech

Device producing figurative language.

Generalization

Claim based on isolated examples.

Genre

Major category of literary work.

Homily

Serious talk or sermon with moral advice.

Hypophora

Asking and answering one's own questions.

Inference

Drawing reasonable conclusions from presented information.

Induction

Reasoning from specifics to general rules.

Invective

Emotionally violent verbal denunciation.

Inversion

Reversal of customary word order in sentences.

Jargon

Specialized language of a profession or group.

Juxtaposition

Placing ideas side by side for comparison.

Litotes

Affirmation by negating the opposite.

Not uncommon

which implies that the act is frequent

Loose sentence

A type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.

Narrative

The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.

Oversimplification

A logical fallacy by which the reasoned obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument.

Paradox

A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity.

Parallelism

The grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity.

Parody

A work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements.

Pedantic

An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish.

Periodic sentence

A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end.

Phallic symbol

A sexualized representation of male potency, power, or domination--particularly through some object vaguely reminiscent of the penis.

Picaresque novel

A humorous novel in which the plot consists of a young knave's misadventures and escapades narrated in comic or satiric scenes.

Polysyndeton

Figure of addition and emphasis which intentionally employs a series of conjunctions not normally found in successive words, phrases or clauses.

Predicate adjective

An adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb.

Predicate nominative

A noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that names the subject.

Prose

One of the major divisions of genre, prose refers to fiction and non-fiction, including all its forms.

Regionalism

An element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale.

Rhetoric

The principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively.

Rhetorical modes

Describes the variety, the conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing.

Argumentation

The purpose of argumentation is to prove the validity of an idea, or point of view, by presenting sound reasoning.

Description

The purpose of description is to re-create, invent, or visually present a person, place, event or action.

Narration

The purpose of narration is to tell a story or narrate an event or series of events.

Descriptive writing

May be straightforward and objective or highly emotional and subjective.

Mode of discourse

These four modes are sometimes referred to as mode of discourse.

Rhetorical Question [erotesis]

A question that does not anticipate an explicit answer, used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience.