Exam Study Guide - American English 10 Adv.

Repetition

Literary device in which a word or phrase is used multiple times.

Anaphora

The depiction of a word of sequence of words at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases or sentences.

“Go big, or go home”, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.

Example of anaphora

Allusion

An implied or indirect reference to a person, event or thing to a part of another text.

“Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel”, “Then lead subsides to lead, So Eden sank to grief”.

Example of allusion

Enjambment

Poetic term for the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next.

Alliteration

Repetition of the same sound at te start of a series of words in succession whose purpose is to provide an audible pulse that gives a piece of writing a lulling, lyrical, and or emotive effect.

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickles peppers”.

Example of alliteration

Juxtaposition

Placing two things side by side so as to highlight their differences.

“That is hot ice, and wondrous stranger snow!”, “Night and Day”.

Example of Juxtaposition

Dialect

Use by characters in a narrative of distinct varieties of a language to indicate a person’s social or geographical status, used by authors to give an illusion of reality to fictional characters.

Character that says “Swimmin”, “All of em’”

Example of dialect

Regionalism

Indicates that a writer has chosen to focus on one of the areas outside the centers of power, and to organize the work around that region.

“The perceived difference between Southerners and New Englanders”.

Example of regionalism

Imagery

Literary device that uses vivid description that appeals to a readers’ senses to create an image or idea in their head.

“The salty-sweet caramel melted on her tongue”, “The grass was green, and the flowers were red”.

Example of imagery

Sensory Detail

Uses the five senses (sights, touch, sound, taste, and smell) to add depth of detail to writing.

“She felt her tongue tingle as she sipped the frosty glass of tart, sugary lemonade”. (Uses the character’s sensory)

Example of sensory detail

Speaker vs Author

The author is the person who wrote the work, the speaker is the narrator or who is telling the story to the audience.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds across a line of text or poetry.

“Hear the mellow wedding bells”, “Hear the lark and harken to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground”.

Example of assonance

Chiasmus

Rhetorical device in which two or or clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures. Writer puts emphasis on two words that swap places.

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going”.

Example of chiasmus

Parallelism

The repetition of grammatical elements in a piece of writing to create a harmonious effect.

“That’s one step for man, one giant leap or mankind”, “My dog not only likes to play fetch, but he also likes to chase cars”.

Example of parallelism

Motif

A repeated pattern— an image, sound, word, or symbol that comes back again and again within a particular story. The symbol is reoccurring throughout story.

Romeo and Juliet: light and dark - Romeo refers to Juliet as a powerful light source. The night is no match for her beauty. Juliet, too, says Romeo lights her.

Example of motif

Zeugma

Literary term for using one word to modify two other words, in two different ways.

“She broke his car and his heart”, “I left my heart, and my suitcase in San Francisco”.

Example of zeugma

Idiom

Kind of figurative language that are not meant to be taken literary but have a widely understood meaning in a given language or culture.

“It’s raining cats and dogs”, “Under the weather”, “Break a leg”.

Example of idiom

Ethos

Rhetorical device that includes any content in an argument that is meant to appeal to ethics. Showing ones credibility and ethical character.

“Many that wee very lately in the same miserable condition you are in are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him, who has loved him and washed them from their sins with his own blood”.

Example of ethos

Pathos

Appeal to emotion, means to persuade an audience by purposely evoking emotions to make them feel the way the author wants them to feel.

“The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your hear… the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood”.

Example of pathos

Logos

When a speaker cites scientific data, methodically walks through the line of reasoning behind their argument, or precisely recounts historical events relevant to their argument.

“So that thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God; over the pit of hell; they deserved the fiery pit and are already sentenced to to it”.

Example of logos

Asperity

Sharpness or harshness of maner

Imbue

To fill completely with a feeling or idea’ to inspire.

Unremitting

Not stopping or slowing down; constant.

Adjudicate

To hear and decide judicially; to judge.

Countenance

A person’s face; the expression on a person’s face.

Precedent

An act or statement that may serve as an example or justification for a later one.

Malign

To say negative or unfair things about; slander

Rancor

A deep, long-held feeling of hatred or bitterness.

Reparation

A mending or repair

Accolade

An expression of approval or respect for merit; an award.

Assiduous

Diligent and persistent.

Ingratiate

To gain the favor of someone through a deliberate effort.

Ambivalent

Having mixed, often opposing feeling about something or someone; indecisive.

Exacerbate

To make more severe, bitter, or violent.

Illicit

Not allowed, improper, or unlawful.

Ameliorate

To make better; to become; to improve.

Circumvent

To avoid through craftiness.

Compunction

A feeling of uneasiness or anxiety caused by guilt.

Euphemism

A polite term used to avoid directly naming something considered offensive or unpleasant.

Recompense

To pay or compensate.