Ap English Terms 1-34

Front 1

Employs logical reasoning, combining a clear idea (or multiple ideas) with well-thought-out and appropriate example and details. These supports are logically presented and rationally reach the author's conclusion.

Back 1

logos

Front 2

Establishes credibility in the speaker. This appeal sets up believability in the writer. He/she is perceived as someone who can be trusted and is concerned with the reader's best interests.

Back 2

ethos

Front 3

Plays on the reader's emotions and interests. A sympathetic audience is more likely to accept a writer's assertions, so this appeal draws up that understanding and uses it to the writer's advantage.

Back 3

pathos

Front 4

_____ writing explains and analyzes information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence, and appropriate discussion.

Back 4

expository

Front 5

Proves the validity of an idea, or point of view, by presenting sound reasoning, thoughtful discussion, and insightful argument that thoroughly convinces the reader. Persuasive writing is a type of _______ having the additional aim of urging some form of action.

Back 5

argumentation

Front 6

Recreates, invents, or visually presents a person, place, event, or action so that the reader can picture that being described. Sometimes an author engages in all five senses of _______; good ______ writing can be sensuous and picturesque. _____ may be straightforward and objective or highly emotional and subjective.

Back 6

description

Front 7

Tells a story or narrates an event or series of events. This writing mode frequently uses the tools of descriptive writing.

Back 7

narration

Front 8

A comparison of seemingly unlike things or substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity. (Whether something *is* something else.)

Back 8

metaphor

Hint 8

direct: uses a form of the verb to be to make comparison:
This is your brain on drugs.
implied: suggest the comparison:
The fog comes on little cat feet.

Front 9

A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.

Back 9

extended metaphor

Front 10

An explicit comparison of unlike things using "like" or "as". (When something is *like* something else.)

Back 10

simile

Hint 10

"O, my love is lake a red, red rose/That's newly sprung in June./O, my love is like a melody,/That's sweetly played in tune."

Front 11

A term from the Greek meaning "changed label" or "substitute name", ______ is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.

Back 11

metonymy

Hint 11

"The White House declared..."
"The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our savings."

Front 12

Using part of a physical object to represent the whole object of the whole object to represent part.

Back 12

synedoche

Hint 12

"All hands on deck!"
"Leigh won the game."

Front 13

A ___ twists the meaning of works, often to create a humorous effect.

Back 13

pun

Hint 13

homonymic: "Johnny B. Goode" "Ima Goodkidd"
sound similarities: "It's not bad as a hole." "Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man."

Front 14

Artfully using one verb with two or more objects. If this changes the verb's initial meaning, the ____ is sometime called a syllepsis.

Back 14

zeugma

Hint 14

"If we don't hang together, we shall hang separately."
"She exhausted both her audience and her repertoire."
"He lost his train of thought and his heart when she walked across the room."

Front 15

The author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions.

Back 15

personification

Hint 15

The wind whispered under the door.

Front 16

Personification in which an object gains the ability to speak and the story is told from its point of view.

Back 16

prosopopeia

Front 17

Addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction, such as freedom or love.

Back 17

apostrophe

Hint 17

"Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour; England hath need of thee."
"Oh, Death, be not proud."

Front 18

Words that sound like what they mean.

Back 18

onomatopoeia

Hint 18

"Snap"
"Crackle"
"Pop"

Front 19

A deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. ______ often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Often, ______ produces irony at the same time.

Back 19

hyperbole

Hint 19

"Yo mama's so fat..."
"It's a million degrees outside."

Front 20

Understatement (opposite of hyperbole).

Back 20

meiosis

Hint 20

"I was somewhat worried when I saw my wheel exit the freeway before I did."

Front 21

A type of meiosis in which the writer uses a statement in a negative to create the effect.

Back 21

litotes

Hint 21

"Shakespeare is not a bad writer."

Front 22

Using a different part of speech to act as another, such as verb for a noun, or a noun for a verb.

Back 22

anthimeria

Hint 22

"Gift him with Sports Illustrated this holiday."
"He sang his didn't, he danced his did."

Front 23

A completely impossible figure of speech.

Back 23

catachresis

Hint 23

"The tears falling from her eyes were so sad that they too began to cry with her."
"Clarence will have a cow when hears this."

Front 24

Mixing one type of sensory input with another in an impossible way, such as describing how a color sounds or how a smell looks.

Back 24

synesthesia

Hint 24

"I caressed the darkness with cool fingers."
"The scent of the rose rang through the garden."

Front 25

Talking about not being able to talk about something.

Back 25

aporia

Hint 25

"It is impossible for me to describe the carnage of the accident."
"I can't tell you how many times I've heard that excuse before."

Front 26

Breaking off as if unable to continue.

Back 26

aposiopesis

Hint 26

"The Slithergadee has crawled out of the sea
He may catch all the others, but he won't catch me.
No you won't catch me, old Slithergadee,
You may catch all the others, but won-"

Front 27

A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense, but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity.

Back 27

paradox

Hint 27

"Fair is foul, foul is fair..."

Front 28

From the Greek for "pointedly foolish", an ______ is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox.

Back 28

oxymoron

Hint 28

"jumbo shrimp"
"cruel kindness"

Front 29

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

Back 29

ambiguity

Hint 29

"I'll give you a ring tomorrow."

Front 30

The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning.

Back 30

allegory

Hint 30

Animal Farm

Front 31

A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. An _____ can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with, or pointing out its similarity to, something more familiar.

Back 31

analogy

Hint 31

"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo."

Front 32

A representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subjects' distinctive features or peculiarities deliberately exaggerated to create a comic or grotesque imitation or representation. Synonymous words include burlesque, travesty, satire, and lampoon.

Back 32

caricature

Front 33

A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar object. A _____ displays intellectual cleverness due to the unusual comparison being made.

Back 33

conceit

Hint 33

John Donne's comparison of two souls with two bullets in "The Dissolution"

Front 34

A question that is asked merely for effect and does not expect a reply. The answer is assumed.

Back 34

rhetorical question

Hint 34

Is the Pope Catholic? Do bears live in the woods?

Front 35

A direct or indirect reference to something that is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art.

Back 35

allusion

Hint 35

"Blanche was moulded like a Diana."