Rhetorical Terms- Writing Material

Question 1

Aesthetic Reading

Answer 1

Reading to experience the world of the text.

Ex: One often reads John Steinbeck’s novels, like The Grapes of Wrath, to experience his detailed settings.

Question 2

Aim

Answer 2

The goal a writer or speaker hopes to achieve with the text – for example, to clarify difficult material, to inform, to convince, to persuade. Also called intention and purpose.
Ex: In Pride, Dagoberto Gilb’s aim is to define pride and what it means to him.

Question 3

Anglo-Saxon diction

Answer 3

Word choice characterized by simple, often one- or two- syllable nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.
Ex: Words include “thinking,” “kingly,” “bridge,” “stone,” and “early.”

Question 4

Apposition

Answer 4

Two nouns that are adjacent to each other and reference the same thing.
Ex: I know the dog Toto.

Question 5

Arrangement

Answer 5

In a spoken or written text, the placement of ideas for effect.
Ex: In essays, writers often strategically arrange their essays into paragraphs and order their points from most convincing to least.

Question 6

Assonance

Answer 6

The repetition of vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of two or more adjacent words.
Ex: “Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies” (John Keats)

Question 7

Assumption

Answer 7

An opinion, a perspective, or a belief that a writer or speaker thinks the audience holds.
Ex: “We think a problem is weakness, mental laziness, intellectual inflation, but an issue is deep-rooted, interior, and personal.” (Allison Amend)

Question 8

Attitude

Answer 8

In an adapted dramatistic pentad created by a speaker or writer in order to invent materials, the manner in which an action is carried out.
Ex: “Truth be told, we have replaced problem with issue in our vocabulary. And issue is a euphemism.” (Allison Amend)

Question 9

Auxesis

Answer 9

Magnifying the importance or gravity of something by referring it with a disproportionate name.
Ex: Calling a scratch on an arm a wound

Question 10

Begging of the question

Answer 10

The situation that results when a writer or speaker constructs an argument on an assumption that the audience does not accept.
Ex: This painting is horrible because it is obviously worthless.

Question 11

Causal relationship

Answer 11

The relationship expressing, “If X is the cause, then Y is the effect,” or, “If Y is the effect, then X caused it.”
Ex: If the dog runs away, then the boy will be sad.

Question 12

character

Answer 12

A personage in a narrative.

Ex: Romeo was a character in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

Question 13

Complex sentences

Answer 13

A sentence with one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
Ex: As long as it isn’t cold, it doesn’t matter if it rains.

Question 14

Compound-complex sentences

Answer 14

A sentence with two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Ex: The package arrived in the morning, but the courier left before I could check the contents.

Question 15

Context

Answer 15

The convergence of time, place, audience, and motivating factors in which a piece of writing or a speech is situated.
Ex: Kate Chopin lived in the late 1800s in Southern America as a feminist. This background formed the foundation of The Awakening.

Question 16

Contradiction

Answer 16

One of the types of rhetorical invention included under the common topic of relationships. Contradiction urges the speaker or writer to invent an example or a proof that is counter to the main idea or argument.
Ex: “If war is the cause of our misery, peace is the way to promote our happiness.”

Question 17

Denotation

Answer 17

The “dictionary definition” of a word, in contrast to its connotation, or implied meaning.
Ex: A house is literally a dwelling usually for a family

Question 18

Descriptive writing

Answer 18

Writing that relies on sensory images to characterize a person or place.
Ex: “so much depends/ upon/ the red wheel/ barrow/ glazed with rain/ water/ beside the white/ chickens” (William Carlos Williams)

Question 19

Dialect

Answer 19

The describable patterns of language–grammar and vocabulary–used by a particular cultural or ethnic population.
Ex: A Caribbean dialect is often “sing-songish” and leaves out words from sentences.

Question 20

Dialogue

Answer 20

Conversation between and among characters.

Ex: “Jim, I don’t get it,” Blair said.
Jim raised an eyebrow. “Don’t get what?”

Question 21

Diction

Answer 21

Word choice, which is viewed on scales of formality/informality, concreteness/abstraction, Latinate derivation/Anglo-Saxon derivation, and denotative value/connotative value.
Ex: Using “issue” instead of “problem.”

Question 22

Double entrance

Answer 22

The double meanings of a group of words that the speaker or writer has purposely left ambiguous.
Ex 1: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” (Shelley).
Ex 2: “West Egg especially still figures into my more fantastic dreams” (Fitzgerald 185).

Question 23

Drafting

Answer 23

The process by which writers get something written on paper or in a computer file so that they can develop their ideas and begin moving toward an end, a start-to-finish product; the raw material for what will become the final product.
Ex: For the research paper, we will have to revise and draft many times to perfect our papers.

Question 24

Dramatic Monologue

Answer 24

A type of poem, popular primarily in the nineteenth century, in which the speaker is delivering a monologue to an assumed group of listeners.
Ex: In “My Last Duchess,” by Robert Browning, shows off a painting of his late wife and reveals his cruelty to her.

Question 25

Epistrophe

Answer 25

The repetition of a group of words at the end of successive clauses. Ex: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us" (Emerson).

Question 26

Erotema

Answer 26

Asking a question to assert or deny something obliquely not for an answer. Ex: "How much longer must our people endure this injustice?"

Question 27

Ethos

Answer 27

The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator. Ex: If you don't graduate from high school, you will always be poor.

Question 28

Exaggeration

Answer 28

An overstatement. | Ex: The Matrix is the best movie ever made.

Question 29

Example

Answer 29

An anecdote or a narrative offered in support of a generalization, claim, or point. Ex: Animals have more intelligence than imagined. "On human IQ tests, she [a gorilla named Koko] scores between 70 and 95" (Rifkin).

Question 30

Exordium

Answer 30

In ancient roman oratory, the introduction of a speech; literally, the "web" meant to draw the audience in the speech. Ex: Julius Caesar's speech begins with an exordium.

Question 31

Extended analogy

Answer 31

An extended passage arguing that if two things are similar in one or two ways, they are probably similar in other ways as well. Ex: In "Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts," Catton argues some similarities between Grant and Lee.

Question 32

Extended example

Answer 32

An example that is carried through several sentences or paragraphs. Ex: In "Pride," Dagoberto Gilb extends an Ex of pride in the form of an anecdote through two paragraphs.

Question 33

Fable

Answer 33

A narrative in which fictional characters, often animals, take actions that have ethical or moral significance. Ex: Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is a fable.

Question 34

Figures of rhetoric

Answer 34

Schemes--that is, variations from typical word or sentence formation--and tropes, which are variations from typical patterns of thought. Ex: "When I first saw her, my soul began to quiver."

Question 35

Flash-forward

Answer 35

A part of the plot that jumps ahead in time and returns to the present. Ex: Oedipus is told he will sleep with his mother and kill his father by a prophet.

Question 36

Heuristic

Answer 36

A systematic strategy or method for solving problems. Ex: Lawrence Lessig has argued that patents in different industries should be given different amounts of time, using this strategy.

Question 37

House analogy

Answer 37

In ancient Roman oratory, the method that speakers used to memorize their speeches, connecting the introduction to the porch of a house, the narration and partition to the front foyer, the confirmation and refutation to rooms connected to the foyer, and the conclusion to the back door. Ex: Julius Caesar most likely used this method to memorize his speeches.

Question 38

Hyperbaton

Answer 38

Unusual or inverted word order. | Ex: "Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?" (Yoda).

Question 39

Imagery

Answer 39

Language that evokes particular sensations or emotionally rich experiences in a reader. Ex 1: Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery in The Fall of the House of the Usher. Ex 2: "…ran for a huge black knotted trees whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain…" (Fitzgerald 93).

Question 40

Implied metaphor

Answer 40

A metaphor embedded in a sentence rather than expressed directly as a sentence. Ex 1: "John swelled and rustled his plumage." (John was a peacock.) Ex 2: "Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart" (Fitzgerald 25).

Question 41

Inductive reasoning

Answer 41

Reasoning the begins by citing a number of specific instances or examples and then shows how collectively they constitute a general principle. Ex: This ice is cold. Thus, all ice is cold.

Question 42

Intention

Answer 42

The goal a writer or speaker hopes to achieve with the text. | Ex: One of John Steinbeck's intentions in The Grapes of Wrath was to end humans' inhumanity to fellow humans.

Question 43

Jargon

Answer 43

The specialized vocabulary of a particular group. | Ex: Bilateral periorbital hematoma (a black eye).

Question 44

Konnoi topoi

Answer 44

People's topics; ordinary patterns of reasoning; also called basic topics. Ex: Topics include justice, peace, rights, and movie theaters.

Question 45

Latinate diction

Answer 45

Vocabulary characterized by the choice of elaborate, often complicated words from Latin roots. Ex: Words like "deviate," "aqueduct," and "insulate".

Question 46

Limited narration

Answer 46

A narrative in which the reader or viewer has access to the unspoken thoughts of one character or partial thinking of more than one character. Ex: "Murgatroyd met Madeline on New Year's Eve in 2002. He attended a party and she opened the door. Her hair! Only a goddess could have hair so fine."

Question 47

Litotes

Answer 47

Understatement. Ex 1: "This is no ordinary city" rather than "this is an impressive city". Ex 2: "I lived at West Egg, the--well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag…" (Fitzgerald 9).

Question 48

Logic

Answer 48

The art of reasoning. | Ex: All humans are mortal. Socrates is human. Thus, Socrates is mortal.

Question 49

logos

Answer 49

The appeal of a text based on the logical structure of its argument or central ideas. Ex: "If there really were such strong evidence of racial bias in the justice system it would be newsworthy. . ." (Taylor 6).

Question 50

Mood

Answer 50

The feeling that a text is intended to produce in the audience. Ex: In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the mood is mostly dark and gloomy.

Question 51

Narrative

Answer 51

An anecdote or a story offered in support of a generalization, claim, or point. Also, a function in texts accomplished when the speaker or writer tells a story. Ex: "A good man, gray on the edges, an assistant manager in a brown starched and ironed uniform, is washing the glass windows of the store...Good night, m'ijo! he tells a young boy coming out after playing the video game..." (Dagoberto Gilb)

Question 52

Omniscient narration

Answer 52

A narrative in which the reader or viewer has access to the unspoken thoughts of all the characters. Ex: Our Town by Thornton Wilder.

Question 53

Parable

Answer 53

A usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle. Ex: Ignacy Krasicki's "The Blind Man and the Lame."

Question 54

Paradox

Answer 54

A statement that seems untrue on the surface but is true nevertheless. Ex: "Not having a fashion is a fashion."

Question 55

Paronomasia

Answer 55

To call with a slight change of name; a play on words. | Ex: "Independence is what a boy wants from his father when he wants to be let a loan

Question 56

Partition

Answer 56

In ancient Roman oratory, the part of a speech where the speaker would divide the main topic into parts. Ex: Julius Caesar used partitions to better communicate his argument.

Question 57

Pathos

Answer 57

The appeal of a text to the emotions or interests of the audience. Ex: ". . . Helped feed a wave of national breast-beating over the unfairness of the juvenile justice system" (Taylor 1).

Question 58

Peer review

Answer 58

A system calling for writers to read or listen to one another's work and suggest ways to improve it. Ex: In AP US History, we peer reviewed each other's take-home DBQs.

Question 59

Pentad

Answer 59

Kenneth Burke's system for analyzing motives and actions in communication. The five points of the pentad are act, agent, agency, scene, and purpose.

Question 60

Periphrasis

Answer 60

The substitution of an attributive word or phrase for a proper name, or the use of a proper name to suggest a personality characteristic. Ex 1: "He was no Romeo; but then again, she was no Juliet." Ex 2: "…I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple…" (Fitzgerald 93).

Question 61

Persona

Answer 61

The character that a writer or speaker conveys to the audience; the plural is personae. Ex: In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway is a persona.

Question 62

Personification

Answer 62

The giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects. | Ex: The fall season has been personified as "sitting on a granary floor" (Keats).

Question 63

Persuasion

Answer 63

The changing of people's minds or actions by language. | Ex: Protect the environment, for it is what the lives of your children and the future of the world will depend on.

Question 64

Petitio Principi

Answer 64

Begging of the question; disagreeing with premises or reasoning. Ex: "The bible says god exists and the bible must be right since it is the revealed word of god, so god exists."

Question 65

planning

Answer 65

Determining appropriateness of information for audience and for purpose. Ex: I am in the planning and drafting stages of my research paper.

Question 66

Plot

Answer 66

Arrangement of events in a story. Ex: In The Grapes of Wrath, Joe and his family meet up, go to California, search for jobs, and live in various camps. In the end, the only benefit the gain is unity.

Question 67

plot devices

Answer 67

Elements of plot that operate to cause or resolve conflicts and to provide information. Ex: Foreshadowing.

Question 68

poem

Answer 68

Louise Rosenblatt's term for the interpretive moment when reader and text connect. Ex: In The Grapes of Wrath, this occurs when Steinbeck first describes the surrounding setting with figurative language.

Question 69

polyptoton

Answer 69

Repetition of words derived from the same root. | Ex: Repeating words like "strong," "skillful," and "strength."

Question 70

Polysyndeton

Answer 70

Repetition of conjunctions in close succession. | Ex: "We have ships and men and money and stores."

Question 71

Premise, major

Answer 71

The first premise in a syllogism. The major premise states an irrefutable generalization. Ex: All men are mortal.

Question 72

Premise, minor

Answer 72

The second premise in a syllogism. The minor premise offers a particular instance of generalization stated in the major premise. Ex: Some philosophers are men.

Question 73

pun

Answer 73

A play on words. Types of puns include anataclasis, words that sound alike but have different meanings; paranomasia, words alike in sound but different in meaning; and syllepsis, a word used differently in relation to two other words it governs or modifies. Ex: "I moss say I'm taking a lichen to that fungi."

Question 74

purpose

Answer 74

The goal a writer or speaker hopes to achieve with the text. Also called aim and intention. In a dramatistic pentad created by a speaker or writer in order in invent material, the words the speaker or writer uses to describe the reason something happened or happens in a particular situation. Ex: In Pride, Dagoberto Gilb's aim is to define pride and what it means to him.

Question 75

reader's repertoire

Answer 75

The collection of predictions and revisions a person employs when reading a text.

Question 76

Recursive

Answer 76

Referring to the moving back and forth from invention to revision in the process of writing. Ex: In writing my research paper, I invent material and revise previously invented material.

Question 77

Refutation

Answer 77

In ancient Roman oratory, the part of a speech in which the speaker would anticipate objections to the points being raised and counter them. Ex: Julius Caesar used this method in his speeches to better argue his point.

Question 78

Reliable narrator

Answer 78

A believable, trustworthy commentator on events and characters in a story. Ex: In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway is a reliable narrator, though somewhat secretive.

Question 79

Repetition

Answer 79

In a text, repeated use of sounds, words, phrases, or clauses to emphasize meaning or achieve effect. Ex 1: The dog ran, the dog jumped, and the dog whimpered. Ex 2:"'Hot!' said the conductor to familiar faces. 'Some Weather! … Hot! … Hot! … Hot! … Is it hot enough … '" (Fitzgerald 121).

Question 80

Rhetor

Answer 80

The speaker who uses elements of rhetoric effectively in oral or written text. Ex: F. Scott Fitzgerald is the rhetor in The Great Gatsby.

Question 81

Rhetoric

Answer 81

The art of analyzing all the choices involving language that a writer, speaker, reader, or listener might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective; the specific features of texts, written or spoken, that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners in a situation. Ex: Diction, scheme, trope, argument, and syntax.

Question 82

Rhetorical intention

Answer 82

Involvement and investment in and ownership of a piece of writing. Ex: F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby has rhetorical intention.

Question 83

Rhetorical question

Answer 83

A question posed by the speaker or writer not to seek an answer but instead to affirm or deny a point simply by asking a question about it. Ex: "Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?" (Shakespeare).

Question 84

Rhetorical situation

Answer 84

The convergence in a situation of exigency (the need to write), audience, and purpose. Ex: Before drafting my research paper, I had to analyze my purpose and how much background information to provide for my audience.

Question 85

Rhetorical triangle

Answer 85

A diagram showing the relations of writer or speaker, reader or listener, and text in a rhetorical situation.

Question 86

Romance language

Answer 86

A language that is derived from Latin. | Ex: French, Italian.

Question 87

Round character

Answer 87

A figure with complexity in action and personality, | Ex: Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Question 88

Sarcasm

Answer 88

The use of mockery or bitter irony. | Ex: "That's so funny I forgot to laugh!"

Question 89

Scenic narration

Answer 89

Narration in which an event or a moment of a plot is stretched out for dramatic effect. Ex: In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the scene in which Myrtle is accidentally killed.

Question 90

Six-part oration

Answer 90

In classical rhetoric, a speech consisting of exordium, narration, partition, confirmation, refutation, and peroration. Ex: Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address follows this structure.

Question 91

Slang

Answer 91

Informal language, often considered inappropriate for formal occasions and text. Ex: "This is sick."

Question 92

Soliloquy

Answer 92

Dialogue in which a character speaks aloud to himself or herself. Ex: "To be or not to be, that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them" (Shakespeare)

Question 93

speaker

Answer 93

The person delivering a speech, or the character assumed to be speaking a poem. Ex: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Question 94

Stance

Answer 94

A writer's or speaker's apparent attitude toward the audience. Ex: Franklin D. Roosevelt embraced the audience in his First Inaugural Address.

Question 95

Static character

Answer 95

A figure who remains the same from the beginning to the end of a narrative. Ex: Nick Carraway is essentially a static character in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Question 96

Style

Answer 96

The choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect. Ex: Part of John Steinbeck's style is to focus on the setting in novels like The Grapes of Wrath.

Question 97

Subject

Answer 97

One of the points on the Aristotelian or rhetorical triangle; the subject matter a writer or speaker is writing or speaking about. Ex: John Steinbeck was writing about the Dust Bowl in The Grapes of Wrath.

Question 98

Subordinate clause

Answer 98

A group of words that includes a subject and verb but that cannot stand on its own as a sentence; also called dependent clause. Ex: After the dog slept, the dog ran.

Question 99

Summary narration

Answer 99

Narration in which a brief statement of events moves the plot quickly. Ex: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon includes many summary narrations when they jump years in time.

Question 100

support

Answer 100

In a test, the material offered to make concrete or to back up a generalization, conclusion, or claim. Ex: "Recent studies in the brain chemistry of rats show that when they play, their brains release large amounts of dopamine . . ." (Rifkin).