Rhetorical Terms (master)

Diction

The choice of words used in speech or writing.

Tone/Register

The style the author choices to use to convey his or her message.

Syntax

The arrangement of words in a sentence.

Figures of Speech

The various uses of language that depart from customary construction, order, or significance.

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 usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables.

Allusion

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.

Analogy

Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases.

Anaphora

A type of parallel structure that involves the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

Anecdote

A short story that makes a point.

Antithesis

The rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences.

Assonance

The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.

Asyndeton

Omission of the conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses.

Audience

For whom a text is written, or who is being addressed.

Chiasmus

An inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases.

Climax

Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction.

Colloquial/Colloquialism

Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language.

Connotation

The emotional implications and associations a word may carry.

Consonance

Typically used to refer to the repetition of ending sounds that are consonant sounds within the word.

Denotation

The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings.

Dialect

A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary.

Dialogue

A conversation between two or more characters.

Didactic

Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively.

Ellipsis

(1) Three dots that indicate words have been left out of a quotation; they also can be used to create suspense. (2) The omission of words in a phrase or sentence.

Epiphany

The moment when there is a sudden realization that leads to a new perspective that clarifies a problem or situation.

Epistrophe

A type of parallel structure that involves the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses.

Ethos

An appeal to credibility, ethics, or moral principles.

Euphemism

The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

Extended Metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

Figurative Language

Language in which figures of speech (such as metaphors, similes, and hyperbole) freely occur.

Flashback

A writing technique used to alter time in order to convey a past event or significant occurrence.

Foreshadowing

A writing technique used to subtly suggest or indicate something ahead of time in a text.

Genre

A category of artistic composition, as in film or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content.

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Idiom

An expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words but must be learned as a whole

Imagery

Writing about objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our five physical senses.

Irony

The use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning.

Jargon

The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders.

Juxtaposition

A writer's side by side placement of two descriptions, ideas, characters, actions, or events in a text.

Logos

An appeal to logic or reason.

Meiosis/Understatement

The presentation of a thing with underemphasis especially in order to achieve a greater effect; understatement.

Metaphor

A word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar.

Metonymy

A figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated

Mood

The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect the mood.

Narrative Writing

A type of composition that tells a story, the elements of which may be fiction or nonfiction.

Onomatopoeia

The forming of a word (as "buzz" or "hiss") in imitation of a natural sound.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.

Paradox

A statement that appears to contradict itself but actually contains a degree of truth.

Parallelism/Parallel Structure

The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. Involves the repetition of verb forms, parts of speech, phrases, clauses, etc.

Parody

A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule.

Pathos

An appeal to emotion.

Personification

Representing a thing or idea as a person in art, literature.

Perspective

The view of a text and/or its elements, as created by a writer.

Polysyndeton

Literary technique in which conjunctions (e.g. and, but, or) are used repeatedly in quick succession, often with no commas, even when the conjunctions could be removed.

Purpose

The reason why an author decides to write a text. Some common examples of author's purpose include 'to inform,' 'to entertain,' and 'to persuade.'

Point of View

The perspective from which a speaker or writer tells a story or presents information. The most common forms are 1st and 3rd person.

Prose

Ordinary writing (both fiction and nonfiction) as distinguished from verse.

Pun

A word employed in two senses, or a word used in a context that suggests a second term sounding like it. usually used for comic effect.

Refutation

The part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. (Also referred to as a counterargument or counterclaim)

Repetition

An instance of using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage--dwelling on a point.

Rhetoric

The study and practice of effective persuasion in speaking or writing.

Rhetorical Question

A statement made in the form of a question with no expectation of an answer.

Sarcasm

A mocking, often ironic or satirical remark.The literal meaning of a remark differs from its intended meaning.

Satire

A text or performance that uses irony, derision, or wit to expose or attack human vice, foolishness, or stupidity.

Simile

A comparison of two unlike things, often introduced by like or as.

Style

Narrowly interpreted as those figures that ornament speech or writing; broadly, as representing a manifestation of the person speaking or writing.

Symbol

A person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole.

Thesis

A statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.

Voice

The distinctive tone or style of a literary work or author.

Zeugma

The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one.

Dramatic Irony

 the character is unaware of actions or words, but the audience knows.

Situational Irony

the irony of something happening that is very different to what was expected

Verbal Irony

a statement in which the speaker's words are incongruous with the speaker's intent.