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| A fictional work in which the characters represent ideas or concepts. Expanded metaphor. |
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| The repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words. |
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| A literary reference to another thing, idea, person, or other literary work. |
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| Uncertainty or indefiniteness, state of something being subject to more than one interpretation. |
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| Asks a reader to think about the correspondence or resemblance between two things that are essentially different. If the pond is "smooth as a mirror," you ask your audience to understand the two things as being similar in some way. |
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| The repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning or two or more sentences in a row. This deliberate form of repetition helps make the writer's point more coherent. "I have a dream..." |
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| A short tale told to demonstrate or illustrate something. |
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| Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. An annotated bibliography provides not only author/publishing houses and so forth; it also discusses the sources in brief. |
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| Every pronoun refers back to a precious noun or pronoun- the antecedent. It is the noun or pronoun from which another pronoun derives its meaning. |
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| An opposition or contrast of ideas that is often expressed in balanced phrases or clauses. For example, "Whereas she was boisterous, I was reserved." This is a balance of two antithetical observations. |
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| A word that has the opposite meaning of another word. |
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| A saying or truism. "A stitch in time saves nine." |
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| A figure of speech in which an absent person or personified object is addressed by a speaker. For example, "love" is personified and addressed as though present in the sentence, "Oh, Love, where have you gone?" |
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| A word or phrase that follows a noun or pronoun for emphasis or clarity. Appositives are usually set off by commas. "The luxury train, The Orient Express, crosses Europe in just 26 hours." Take out the middle, and we still have a sentence. |
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| Assonance is a type of internal rhyming in which vowel sounds are repeated. "The pot's rocky, pocked surface." Consonance is a type of internal rhyming in which consonant sounds are repeated. |
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| Opposite of polysyndeton. This happens when the conjunctions (such as "and" or "but") that would normally connect a string of words, phrases, or clauses are omitted from a sentence. For example, the sentence, "I came, I saw, I conquered" employs asyndeton (also an example of tricolon) |
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| Literary technique in which the author steps outside the story, speaking directly to the reader to reveal his/her attitude, purpose or meaning. |
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| A sentence consisting of two or more clauses that are parallel in structure. |
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| A discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds. Hars discordance of sounds-dissonance. |
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| A local or regional dialect expression. Casual conversation. |
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| A sentence with an independent clause and at least one dependent clause. |
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| A sentence of two or more coordinate independent clauses, often joined by a conjunction(s). |
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| Language that describes specific, observable things, people or places, rather than ideas or qualities. |
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| A word's emotional content. Connotation can vary depending on the experience of the interpreter of the word. |
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| Writers use contrasts, or oppositions, to elaborate on ideas. They help writers expand on ideas by allowing them to show both what a thing IS and what it is NOT. For instance, a reader may better appreciate what it means to have light by considering its absences, darkness. |
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| The dictionary definition of the word. |
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| The author's choice of words. Contributes to tone. |
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| Literature or a work designed to instruct. |
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| When the reader is aware of an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfictional character's perception of a situation and the truth of that situation. Can be amusing or heartbreaking or anything in between. Example: Audience knows that Juliet is not dead, but Romeo does not. |
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| A mild or pleasant-sounding expression that substitutes for a harsh, indelicate, or simply less pleasant idea. A euphemism softens the impact of what is being discussed. Example: Big boned |
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| A piece of writing or a speech that is organized to explain something. |
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| A brief tale designed to illustrate a moral lesson. |
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| A comedy in which the reader/audience is entertained by means of extravagant/unlikely/ridiculous plot situations. typically includes exaggerated characters, sexual innuendo, physical comedy, mistaken identity, etc. Also refers to a mockery of something: "the election was a farce..." |
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| Figurative language is an umbrella term for all uses of language that imply an imaginative comparison. "You've earned your wings" is a figurative way to say, "you've succeeded." Similes, metaphors and symbols are all examples of figurative language. |
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| A character who sets off the main character or other characters by comparison. A slow, deliberate character's foil could be another character who acts rudely and rashly. |
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| A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used to achieve emphasis. It is the opposite of understatement. Obvious exaggeration. |
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| Mental pictures conjured by specific words and associations. There can be auditory and sensory components to imagery as well. Nearly all writing depends on imagery to be effective and interesting. Metaphors, similes, symbols and personification all use imagery. |
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| Variation of synactical order. "Yoda"-ish. |
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| Opposite of what is expected. This occurs when a situation produces an outcome that is the opposite of what is expected. |
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| When two contrasting things-ideas, words or sentence elements-are placed next to each other for comparison It sheds light on both parts of the comparison. |
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| A sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by subordinate phrases and clauses. Contrast with periodic sentence. |
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| The accidental use of a word which resembles the one intended, but has a different, often contradictory meaning. |
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| A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared directly, usually for emphasis or dramatic effect. In an extended metaphor, the properties of a single comparison are used throughout a poem or prose work. |
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| A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it. For example, a "crown" which is associated with roylty, is used as a metonym for royal authority. |
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| A dominant theme or central idea in a text. |
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| The prevailing or dominant feeling or a work, scene, or event. The opening scene of Macbeth sets a mood of doom and tragedy for the first act of the play. It is similar to atmosphere but very different from tone. |
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| An effect created by words that have sounds that reinforce their meaning. "Boom" sounds like what it describes, the loud sound of, say, a cannon going off. |
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| It combines two contradictory words in one expression. The results of this combination are often unusual or thought-provoking. |
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| The speed of a story's action, dialogue or narration. Events happen quickly or are dragged out according to the narrator's purpose. When the fast action slows, for instance, we know something is being given special emphasis. |
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| A brief story, told or written, in order to teach a moral lesson. |
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| A seeming contraction that in fact reveals some truth, such as, "The more you find out, the less you know." It doesn't make sense on the surface, but there is underlying truth. "A spy doesn't look like a spy." |
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| Parallel Sentence Structure |
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| A literary technique that relies on the use of the same syntactical structures (phrases, clauses, sentences) in a series in order to develop an argument or emphasize an idea. "We will be loyal to the very end...at sea, on land, in the air." The parallel phrases emphasize the loyalty and determination of this group of people |
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| Parody is an effort to ridicule or make of a literary work or an author by writing an imitation of the work or of the author's style. Not as "deep" of a purpose as a satire. Think Tim Hawkins. |
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| The character created by the voice and narration of the speaker of a text. It implies a fictional representation or an act of disguise (that the speaker is not the author, but a created character) |
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| Opposite of asyndeton. The use of "and" or another conjunction (with no commas) to separate the items in a series. Doing so stresses each member of the series equally and slows the sentence down to provide each item with more emphasis. |
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| A play on words created by using a word that has two different meanings, or using two different words with similar meanings, for a playful effect. Emphasize a different meaning of a word. |
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| Th reiteration of a word or phrase for emphasis |
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| The art and logic of a written or spoken argument |
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| Specific language tools that na author uses to carry out the rhetorical strategy, thus achieving a rhetorical purpose. |
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| The aim of a piece of rhetoric...to, for instance, persuade or analyze or expose or inform. |
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| The way an author organizes words, sentences, and overall arguments-his/her rhetorical devices-in order to achieve a particular rhetorical purpose. |
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| Typically, stating something to mean the opposite. Sarcasm can be hard to detect in written for, as it relies heavily on vocal tone, non-verbals. |
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| The ridicule or mocking of ideas, persons, events or doctrines. Or making fun of human weaknesses. "Deeper" purpose than parody, whose purpose is merely to mock a particular style or text through mimicry. Colbert Report, The Onion |
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| A commonly used figure of speech that compares two things using"like" or "as". Less direct than a metaphor. |
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| In drama, a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud. |
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| The speaker is the narrator of a story, poem or drama. This is not necessarily the AUTHOR, who creates the voice of the speaker. The speaker is fictional persona. |
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| A special mode of narration that undertakes to capture the full spectrum and the continuous flow of a character's mental process |
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| The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes. In combination they create a work's manner of expression. Style may be altered to suit different situations. |
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| Something that stands for something else. In some circles, the American flag is a symbol of freedom. In others, it is a symbol of capitalism and/or colonialism |
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| Using a part to represent a whole. "Lend me your ears" or "several hands on the ranch." SAVE MY NECK |
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| A word that has the same, or nearly the same, meaning as another word. |
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| The way words are arranged in a sentence. An author will mess with syntax to create slightly different shades of meaning. Syntax tells us about tone. Manipulation of words to create different tones and meaning. Syntax = Sentence Structure |
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| A feeling of excitement and expectation the reader or audience feels because of the conflict, mood, or atmosphere of the work. |
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| The central idea of a work. There could be several themes in a single work. |
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| Attitude. The way an author presents a subject. Misreading a tone/attitude can lead you to miss the whole point of a particular work. |
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| A sentence consisting of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses. "I cam, I saw, I conquered." Also, asyndeton |
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| The opposite of hyperbole, this occurs when an author assigns less significances to an event or thing that it deserves. Describing a monsoon as a "bit of wind" is an understatement. The effect can be comical. |
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| All ideas connect one main idea. Random = BAD Unity= GOOD |
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| How the speaker of a work presents himself or herself to the reader. Loud, soft, personal, cold, strident, gentle, authoritative, hesitant, or any combination. Passive or active depending on whether the subject acts or is acted upon. |
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| A particular breech of sense in a sentence. Occurs when a word is used with two adjacent words in the same construction, but only makes sense with one of them. "She carried a grocery bag and the key to my heart." One is literal. One is figurative. |
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| Appealing to the audience's emotions |
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| Appealing to the nature of the writer or speaker. |
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| Appealing to the structure of the argument |
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