AP Lang Rhetorical Terms

Alliteration

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

Allusion

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

Ambiguity

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

Analogy

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

Anaphora

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

Anecdote

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, states the argument’s main idea or position, differs from a topic or subject in that this has to be arguable.

Colloquialism

Words or phrases that have a conversational feel and are not generally used in formal written English.

Connotation

Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation, often positive or negative, and they often greatly affect the author’s tone.

Context

The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text.

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 this 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 this. The ideas that the author emphasizes create meaning in the piece

Ethos

Greek for “character.” Speakers appeal to this to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Established by both who you are and what you say.

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 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.

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.

Jargon

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

Juxtaposition

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

Logos

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

Metaphor

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

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.

Paradox

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

Parallelism

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

Pathos

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

Persona

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

Personification

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

Purpose

The goal the speaker wants to achieve.

Rhetoric

Aristotle defined it 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.

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.

Style

A writer’s specific way of saying things, includes arrangement of ideas, word choice, syntax, and figurative language

Syntax

The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences

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 their version of this to a piece by creating a tone with diction, syntax, imagery, etc. This is what makes his or her writing personal and unique.