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| An argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack. |
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| Extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text |
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| A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional. |
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| The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage. |
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| Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases. Ex: Entering the Iraq War is like Vietnam. |
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| The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses. |
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| A word, phrase, or clause that is replaced by a pronoun. |
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| The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases. |
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| A rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing. |
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| A fallacy in which a rhetor seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for the famous. |
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| A fallacy that uses an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness. |
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| A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood. |
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| The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of "polysyndeton.) |
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| A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. |
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| An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove. |
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| A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate. |
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| Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events. |
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| Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English. |
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| A rhetorical strategy in which a writer examines similarities and/or differences between two people, places, ideas, or objects. |
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| An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer concedes a disputed point of leaves a disputed point to the audience or reader to decide. |
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| The main part of a text in which logical arguments in support of a position are elaborated. |
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| A method of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises. |
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Definition
1. The choice and use of words in speech or writing
2. A way of speaking, usually assessed in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocution. |
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| A persuasive appeal based on the projected character of the speaker or narrator. |
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| The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit. |
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| A statement or type of composition intended to give information about (or an explanation of) an issue, subject, method, or idea. |
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| A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem. |
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| An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. |
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| A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in reality more options are available. |
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| Language in which figures of speech (such as metaphors, similes, and hyperbole) freely occur. |
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| The various uses of language that depart from customary construction, order, or significance. |
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| A fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. |
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| A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement. |
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| Vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses. |
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| A method of reasoning by which a rhetor collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances. |
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| Denunciatory or abusive language; discourse that casts blame on somebody or something. |
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| The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. |
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| The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders. |
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| A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. |
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| A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. |
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| A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty") |
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| The quality of a verb that conveys the writer's attitude toward a subject. |
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| A rhetorical strategy that recounts a sequence of events, usually in chronological order. |
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| The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. |
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| A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side. |
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| A statement that appears to contradict itself. |
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| The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. |
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| A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule. |
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| The means of persuasion that appeals to the audience's emotions. |
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| A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word--usually with an emphatic climax |
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| A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities. |
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| The perspective from which a speaker or writer tells a story or presents information. |
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| Ordinary writing (both fiction and nonfiction) as distinguished from verse. |
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| The part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. |
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| The study and practice of effective communication |
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| A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected. |
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| A mocking, often ironic or satirical remark. |
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| A text or performance that uses irony, derision, or wit to expose or attack human vice, foolishness, or stupidity. |
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| A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by "like" or "as." |
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| Narrowly interpreted as those figures that ornament speech or writing; broadly, as representing a manifestation of the person speaking or writing. |
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| A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. |
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| A person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself. |
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| A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it. |
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Definition
1. The study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.
2. The arrangement of words in a sentence. |
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| The main idea of an essay or report, often written as a single declarative sentence. |
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| A writer's attitude toward the subject and audience. Tone is primarily conveyed through diction, point of view, syntax, and level of formality. |
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| The connection between two parts of a piece of writing, contributing to coherence. |
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| A figure of speech in which a writer deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it actually is. |
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| The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one. |
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