AP Lang. & Comp. Vocabulary Flashcards

Accuracy

How true or correct the information in a source is.

Alliteration

Repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in sequence.

Allusion

Brief reference to a person, an event, or a place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.

Annotate

The act of noting observations directly on a text, especially anything striking or confusing, to record ideas and impressions for later analysis.

Antithesis

Contradictory ideas that are juxtaposed, often using parallel grammatical construction.

Archaic Diction

Old-Fashioned or outdated choice of words.

Archetype

A cultural symbol that has become universally understood and recognized.

Argument

A persuasive discourse resulting in a coherent and considered movement from a claim to a conclusion.

Assertion

A statement that presents a claim or thesis.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words.

Authority

The status of information in a text.

Bias

A prejudice or preconceived notion that prevents a person from approaching a topic in a neutral or an objective way.

Brackets ([])

Brackets signal that the word in brackets has been changed and is not part of the original.

Claim

Also called an assertion or proposition, a claim states the argument's main idea or position.

Claim of Fact

A claim of fact asserts that something is true or not true.

Claim of Policy

Proposes a change.

Claim of Vote

Argues that something is good or bad, right or wrong.

Classical Oration (Classical Argument)

Five-Part argument structure used by classical rhetoricians.

Introduction (Exordium)

Introduces the reader to the subject under discussion.

Narration (Narratio)

Also known as exposition, it provides factual information and background material on the subject at hand or establishes why the subject is a problem that needs addressing.

Confirmation (Confirmatio)

Usually, the major part of the text, the confirmation, develops the proof through evidence to support the writer's claims.

Refutation (Refutatio)

Address the counterargument.

Conclusion (Peroratio)

Brings the essay to a satisfying close.

Coherence

The quality of a paragraph where the ideas flow logically, one thought leading to the next.

Colloquial Language/ Colloquialism

An expression or language construction appropriate for casual, informal speaking or writing.

Commentary

An explanation of why the evidence and/or quotations are important to the development of a line of reasoning and how they support the thesis.

Concession

An acknowledgement that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable.

Concrete

A concrete term is one that refers to a specific particular thing, as opposed to a term that refers to a broad concept, opposite of abstract.

Connotation

Meanings or associations that readers bring towards beyond their dictionary definitions or denotations.

Counterargument

An opposing argument to the one writer is putting forward.

Credibility

The believability of a source.

Dash (-)

A form of punctuation that adds another thought to a sentence - like a bridge.

Deduction

lA logical process that reaches a conclusion by starting with a general principle or universal truth (a major premise) and applying it to a specific case (a minor premise). This process of deduction is usually demonstrated in the form of a syllogism.

Denotation

The literal definition of a word, often referred to as the "dictionary definition."

Diction

A writer's choice of words.

Ellipses (...)

A series of dots that can signal something is missing from a quote from a source.

Evidence

Support for a claim or argument.

Analogies

Evidence that makes comparisons between 2 unrelated things as a way to clarify one of them.

Anecdotes

Evidence drawn from stories about other people that the writer has either observed, been told about, or researched.

Current Events

Evidence drawn from what is happening logically, nationally, and globally.

Expert Opinion

Evidence based on the knowledge of experts whose jobs and/or experiences give them specialized, credible knowledge.

Historical Information

Verifiable facts that a writer knows from research.

Personal Experience

Evidence drawn from the writer's own experience.

Personal Observations

Evidence the writer has seen but not necessarily experienced.

Qualitative Evidence

Evidence supported by reason, tradition, or precedent.

Quantitative Evidence

Includes things that can be measured, cited, counted, or otherwise represented in numbers.

Testimony

An expression of how the writer, or someone the writer is citing, feels about a personal experience or personal observation.

Firsthand Experience

Evidence based on something the writer knows, whether from personal experience, observation, or general knowledge of events.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or an iconic effect, an overstatement to make a point.

Hyphen (-)

A hyphen connects words together, making them into one combo-word cluster.

Imagery

A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds.

Induction

From the Latin inducere, "to lead into," a logical process of reasoning from particulars to universals, using specific cases in order to draw a conclusion, which is also called a generalization.

Inversion

Inverted order of words in a sentence, usually a variation of the subject-verb-object order.

Irony

An incongruity between expectation and reality.

Dramatic Irony

Tension created by the contrast between what a character or writer says or thinks and what the audience knows to be true.

Situational Irony

A pointed discrepancy between what seems fitting or expected and what actually happens.

Verbal Irony

A figure of speech that occurs when a speaker or character says one thing but means something else, or when what is said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity.

Juxtaposition

Placing two things side by side for the sake of comparison or contrast.

Line of Reasoning

The connections between the claims in the writer's argument and the evidence presented to support them.

Logical Fallacies

Are potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses in an argument.

Ad hominem

Latin for "to the man," this fallacy refers to the specific diversionary tactic of switching the argument from the issue at hand to the character of the other speaker.

Ad populum fallacy (bandwagon appeal)

This fallacy occurs when evidence boils down to 'everybody's doing it, so it must be a good thing to do."

Appeal to false Authority

This fallacy occurs when someone who has no expertise to speak on an issue is cited as an authority.

Begging the Question

A fallacy in which a claim is based on evidence or support that is in doubt.

Circular Reasoning

A fallacy in which the argument repeats the claim as a way to provide evidence.

Either - or (false dilemma)

The speaker presents two extreme options as the only possible choices.

Equivocation

A fallacy that uses a term with two or more meanings in an attempt to misrepresent or deceive.

Faulty Analogy

A fallacy that occurs when an analogy compares two things that are not comparable.

Hasty Generalization

A fallacy in which a faulty conclusion is reached because of inadequate evidence.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc (Post hoc fallacy)

This fallacy is Latin for "after which, therefore because of which," meaning that it is incorrect to always claim that something is a cause just because it happened earlier.

Red Herring

Logical Fallacy where the speaker relies on distraction to derail an argument, usually by skipping to a new or irrelevant topic.

Straw Man

A fallacy that occurs when a speaker chooses a deliberately poor or oversimplified example in order to ridicule and refute an idea.

Metaphor

Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as.

Methods of Development

Modes of expression that writers use to achieve their purposes.

Cause and Effect

A method of development that relies on an analysis of the causes that lead to a certain effect, or conversely, the effects that result from a cause.

Comparison and Contrast

Juxtaposing two things to highlight their similarities and differences.

Definition

A method of development that conveys details about a concept, an event, or an object to advance an argument.

Description

A method of development that evokes the senses by painting a picture of how something looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels.

Narration

A method of development that tells a story or recounts a series of real-life events.

Mood

The feeling or atmosphere created by a text.

Oxymoron

A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words.

Paradox

A statement or situation that seems contradictory but actually reveals a surprising, hidden, or ironic truth.

Parallel Structure

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

Parenthetical

A clause or phrase interrupting a sentence to provide information that is typically not essential to understanding the writer's main point but still help writer's achieve their purpose or speak to the audience's needs.

Passive Voice

A sentence employs when the subject doesn't act but rather is acted on.

Persona

Greek for "mask." The face or character that a speaker or writer shows to the audience.

Personification

Attribution of a life-like quality to an inanimate object or an idea.

Perspective

A writer's view of a topic is based on that writer's background, interests, and expertise.

Polemic

Greek for "hostile." An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion over all others.

Position

A statement of a writer's perspective on a topic that articulates an arguable claim.

Propaganda

The spread of ideas and information to further a cause using rumors, lies, disinformation, and scare tactics in order to damage or promote a cause.

Pun

A play on words that derives its humor from the replacement of one word with another that has a similar pronunciation or spelling but a different meaning.

Qualified Argument

An argument that is not absolute.

Qualifier

Qualifiers are words like usually, probably, maybe, in most cases, and most likely that are used to temper claims, making them less absolute.

Rebuttal

Presents a contrasting perspective on an argument or its evidence, proposing that some or all of a competing position is unfounded.

Refutation

A denial of the validity of an opposing argument.

Rhetoric

Aristotle defined rhetoric as "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion."

Rhetoric Appeals

Rhetorical techniques are used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling.

Ethos

Greek for "character." Writers and speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic.