AP Language Rhetorical Terms

Alliteration

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

  • Let us go forth to lead the land we love…  -- John F. Kennedy 

Allusion

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

• Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah… -- John F. Kennedy

Ambiguity

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

Analogy

• A comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things. Often, a ———— uses something simple or familiar to explain something unfamiliar or complex. 

  • As birds have flight, our special gift is reason. -- Bill McKibben

Anaphora

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

  • … not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are… -- John F. Kennedy

Ancedote

• A brief story used to illustrate a point or claim. 

Aphorism

A terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth and moral principle.

Argument

•  A process of reasoned inquiry. A persuasive discourse resulting in a coherent and consideration movement from a claim to a conclusion. 

Audience

• The listener, viewer, or reader of a text.

Claim

• Also called an assertion or proposition, a ————— states the argument’s main idea or position. A ————- differs from a topic or subject in that a claim has to be arguable.

Colloquialism

• Words or phrases that have a conversational feel and are not generally used in formal written English.
  Complex Sentence - A sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. 

  • If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -- John F. Kennedy

Connotation

• Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. ———— are often positive or negative, and they often greatly affect the author’s tone. Consider the connotations of the words below, all of which means “overweight.”

  • That cat is plump. That cat is fat. That cat is obese. 

Context

• he circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text. 

  • The ——— for Lou Gehrig’s speech is the recent announcement of his illness and his subsequent retirement, but also the poignant contrast between his potent career and his debilitating disease.

Denotation

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

Diction

• A speaker’s choice of words. Analysis of diction looks at these choices and what they add to the speaker’s message. 

Emphasis

—- allows the writer to place importance on a particular idea. By positioning an idea in a certain place structurally, by proportioning a greater amount of words, by isolating a key word or phrase, or by repeating the wording, the writer creates ————. The ideas that the author creates meaning in the piece. (types include Position,
Proportion, Isolation, Repetition).

Ethos

• Greek for “character.” Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say. 

  • Lou Gehrig brings the ethos of being a legendary athlete to his speech, yet in it he establishes a different kind of ethos — that of a regular guy and a good sport who shares the audience’s love of baseball and family. And like them, he has known good luck and bad breaks.

Euphemism

• Greek for “good speech,” ————— are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts. May be used to adhere to political correctness or to add humor or ironic understatement.

Figurative Language

• Nonliteral language, sometimes referred to as tropes or metaphorical language, often evoking strong imagery, figures of speech often compare one thing to another either explicitly (simile) implicitly (metaphor). Other forms of figurative language include personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. 

Hyperbole

• Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point. 

  • My first and last name together generally served the same purpose as a high brick wall. — Firoozeh Dumas 

Imagery

 A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds. ——— may use literal or figurative language to appeal to the senses.

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. 

  • Nature has become simply a visual form of entertainment, and it had better look snappy. — Joy Williams

Jargon

• Specialized terminology used by a particular group of people. Obscure and often pretentious language.

Juxaposition

• Placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences. 

  • The nations of Asia and Africa are moving at jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. — Martin Luther King 

Logos

• Greek for “embodied thought.” Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up. 

  • Gehrig starts with the thesis that he is “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” and supports it with two points: (1) the love and kindness he’s received in his seventeen years of playing baseball, and (2) a list of great people who have been his friends, family, and teammates.

Metaphor

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

  • And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion . . . — John F. Kennedy 

Mood

• The feeling or atmosphere created by a text. 

Narration

• In classical oration, the factual and background information, establishing why a subject or problem needs addressing; it precedes the confirmation, or laying out of evidence to support claims made in the argument. 

Oxymoron

• A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words. 

  • But this peaceful revolution . . . — John F. Kennedy 

Paradox

• A statement or situation that is seemingly contradictory on the surface, but delivers an ironic truth. 

  • There is that scattereth, yet increaseth. — The Bible 

    • To live outside the law you must be honest. — Bob Dylan 

Parallelism

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

  • Let both sides explore. . . . Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals. . . . Let both sides seek to invoke. . . . Let both sides unite to heed . . . — John F. Kennedy 

Pathos

• Greek for “suffering” or “experience.” Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience’s values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other. 

  • The most striking appeal to pathos is the poignant contrast between Gehrig’s horrible diagnosis and his public display of courage. 

Persona

• Greek for “mask.” The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience. 

  • Lou Gehrig is a famous baseball hero, but in his speech he presents himself as a common man who is modest and thankful for the opportunities he’s had. 

Personification

• Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea. 

  • . . . with history the final judge of our deeds . . . — John F. Kennedy 

Purpose

• The goal the speaker wants to achieve. 

  • One of Gehrig’s chief purposes in delivering his Farewell Address is to thank his fans and his teammates, but he also wants to demonstrate that he remains positive: he emphasizes his past luck and present optimism and downplays his illness.

Rhetoric

• Aristotle defined ——— as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” In other words, it is the art of finding ways of persuading an audience.

Rhetorical Appeals

• Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are to ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion).

Rhetorical Question

• Figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer. Will you join in that historic effort? — John F. Kennedy

Satire

• The use of irony or sarcasm to critique society or an individual. 

Simile

• A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by comparing it explicitly to something else, using the words like, as, or as though. 

  • Zoos are pretty, contained, and accessible. . . . Sort of like a biological Crabtree & Evelyn basket selected with you in mind. — Joy Williams

Style

• A writer’s specific way of saying things. ——- includes arrangement of ideas, word choice, syntax, and figurative language. We can analyze and describe an author’s personal ——— and make judgments on how appropriate it is to the author’s purpose. 

Syntax

• The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. This includes word order (subject-verb-object, for instance, or an inverted structure); the length and structure of sentences (simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex); and such schemes as parallelism, juxtaposition, antithesis, and antimetabole.

Theme

• A writer’s thoughts on a topic. It is not JUST the topic, but what the author develops in terms of what he believes about the topic.

Tone

• A speaker’s attitude toward the subject conveyed by the speaker’s stylistic and rhetorical choices. 

Understatement

• A figure of speech in which something is presented as less important, dire, urgent, good, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect. Also called litotes, it is the opposite of hyperbole. 

Vernacular

• The speech patterns of a particular group of people or region.

Voice

The unique flavor of a piece based upon the author. An author adds his or her ——— to a piece by creating a tone with diction, syntax, imagery, etc. The author’s ———- is what makes his or her writing personal and unique.