NOTE: These NOTES will have all the vocab from AP Lang, so they will be updated throughout the year! Towards the AP exam, I’ll make an attached FLASHCARD set to go along with these notes!

rhetoric the art of persuasion

speaker the person or group who creates a text

purpose the goal the speaker wants to achieve

audience the listener, viewer, or reader of a text

context the circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text

exigence the spark or catalyst that moves the speaker to create a text

ethos Greek for “character”.

Speaker’s appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy on a given topic

pathos Greek for “suffering” or “experience”

Speaker’s appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience

logos Greek for “embodied thought”

Speaker’s appeal to logos (reason) by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, stats, or expert testimony to back them up.

diction an author’s word choice; why an author selects one word (or one type of word) over another

syntax the structure of sentences and/or phrases

tone the use of stylistic devices that reveal an author’s attitude about a subject

analogy a comparison that aims to explain a thing or idea by likening/comparing it to something else

juxtaposition when an author places 2 things (an image, a word, a character, an idea) side by side as a way of highlighting their differences

allusion an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text (literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas)

anecdote a very short story that is significant to the topic at hand, usually adding personal knowledge or experience to the topic