AP Lang & Comp: Term 1 Final

rebuttal

Contrasting perspective on argument and its evidence

does NOT provide alternative evidence

The rhetorical situation

speaker, purpose, audience, context, exigence

Speaker (SPACE)

Self explanatory: the author, writer, speaker, etc

Includes:

Biases, motives, background credibility, etc

Context

- What's going on in the time and place it was written

- Significant historical details

Exigence

- More specific context

- What was the CATALYST / REASON that prompted the speaker to write?

concession

an acknowledgement that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable, usually accompanied by a refutation

building your own credibility

refutation

denial of the validity of an opposing argument in part or in whole, usually accompanied by a concession in order to sound more reasonable.

has EVIDENCE

qualify (a claim)

- claim about qualities, what something is about, what it's caused by, what it affects, nature / properties of a thing

- provides insights into a problem --> develop ideas or hypotheses or provide the conditions under which a claim is true

Purpose

What is the writer / speaker hoping to achieve

Argument / goal

Audience

Demographics, biases, values

Aristotelian Triangle

a diagram that illustrates the relationships between speaker, subject, and audience in a rhetorical situation

ethos

- appeals to CREDIBILITY / SHARED VALUES

- builds trust / authority

logos

- appeals REASON / LOGIC

- details, facts, stats, testimony

pathos

- appeals to EMOTIONS

- e.g. fears, desires, hopes, prejudice

what is dicton

vocab + word choice

connotation

- word's implied meaning

- "she's feeling blue" --> she's feeling sad

denotation

- direct meaning

- "she's feeling melancholy" --> she's feeling sad

repetition

- use of the same word or phrase multiple times

vocabulary

- specific word choice

- e.g. simple vs. complex, formal vs. informal

jargon

- "field specific" vocab -> business, scientific

- overlaps w/ colloquial language

vernacular

- language of a specific place

colloquialisms

- convo language

- using lang. that reflects the way people actually speak

- overlaps w/ jargon

archaic

- using language that is old fashioned

alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

what is syntax

- word order

- sentence structure

- sentence arrangement

- how words are put together

periodic (sentence type)

- builds up to main idea at the end of a sentence

- creates suspense / emphasis on final point

cumulative (sentence type)

- starts w/ main clause at beginning, more is added

- best for descriptions

hortative sentence

- calls to action, urges, implores

imperative sentence

- command (usually w/o a subject / object)

anaphora

repetition of words / phrases at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, lines

parallelism

similar of structure in a pair of a series of related words, phrases, clauses

anthithesis

opposition or contrast of ideas/words in a parallel construction

anti-metabole / chiasmus

repetition of words in reverse order

asyndeton

omission of connections between phrases (speeds up)

syndeton (polysyndeton)

repetition of conjunctions between words (slows down)

inversion

inverted word order in a sentence, variation on subject-verb order

juxtaposition

placement of two disparate things closely together in a text to emphasis their differences to make a point

simile

comparing two things using like or as

metaphor

comparing two things w/o like or as

imagery

painting a vivid picture

personification

describing inanimate objects as if they were a person

symbol

object used to represent an idea or theme

motif

recurring symbol throughout a text

assonance

repeating VOWEL sounds

consonance

repeating CONSONANT sounds

extended metaphor

a comparison between 2 unlike things that continues through a series of sentences

epithet

- a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in a place of name

- also: a disparaging / abusive word / phrase

euphemism

nice way of saying something harsh

allusion

reference to another source

hyperbole

deliberate exaggeration

oxymoron

two contradictory words next to each other

metonymy

using the name of one thing to represent another thing related to it

synechdoche

using ONE PART to represent a WHOLE

paradox

a statement that seems contradictory or opposed to common sense, might be true

rhetorical question

posing a question for effect rather than to get an answer

zeugma

using two different meanings of the same word within a sentence

symbol

object used to represent an idea / theme

tone

author's attitude towards a subject and/or character

claim of fact

- whether something is true or false

- arguable on basis of fact

claim of value

- based in judgement, is good/bad, right/wrong

- morality, subjective

claim of policy

- proposes a change, says what should happen

first-hand evidence

based on something writer knows from personal experience, observations, or gen. knowledge of events

second-hand evidence

accessed through research, reading, investigation, interviews, polls, etc

open thesis

- does not list all the points the writer intends to include

- usually inductive in its claim, suggests a more abstract or universal claim of value

closed thesis

makes a more specific, limited claim of value, includes a list of the main points to follow

counter-arguments

- usually starts with summary of primary counterargument

- preceded by "but" or "although"

- usually followed by the writer's primary claim

fallacies of relevance

using evidence that is irrelevant to the claim

fallacies of accuracy

using evidence that is intentionally or unintentionally inaccurate

fallacies of insufficiency

using evidence that is insufficient to prove the claim

ad hominem

attacking a person's CHARACTER rather than the ARGUMENT they are making

faulty analogy

- connection btwn two or more things, claiming that they are SIMILAR

- disregards KEY DETAILS

red herring

- logical misdirection of an irrelevant topic

- distract + divert from actual argument points

appeal to false authority

argument is presented as true --> supported by an unqualified individual

straw man

- changing an opponents argument to deliberately weaken it

- distorting / misrepresenting / exaggeration of opponent's argument

either / or

oversimplifying down a complex topic into only two choices

post hoc ergo proctor hoc

correlation != causation

slippery slope

- assumption that one small thing will create a chain reaction towards extreme undesirable events

- usually with no evidence

hasty generalization

- drawing conclusions from an insufficient sample set

- related: cherry picking data

circular reasoning

- presenting a claim as if it's evidence, causes argument to circle back to starting point

- "it's true cause it's true"

bandwagon appeal

something is true simply because it's popular / many people believe in it

stack the deck

contradictory evidence is not acknowledged, only focuses on the positives

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