Ap Language And Composition

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Allegory

Back 1

a narrative in which the characters, behavior, and setting demonstrate multiple levels of meaning or significace.

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Alliteration

Back 2

the repetition of sounds at the onset of proximate words.

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Allusion

Back 3

a literary, historical, religious, or mythological reference.

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Anaphora

Back 4

the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginnin of successive clauses ("It takes skill; it takes smarts; it takes luck...")

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Antithesis

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the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in parallel structure ("To err is human; to forgive is divine."

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Aphorism

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a concise statement that makes a point or illustrates a commonly held belief ("Spare the rod, spoil the child.")

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Appeals to...authority, emotion, or logic

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rhetorical arguments in which the speaker claims to be an authority in a field, or attempts to play on emotion, or appeals to the use of reason and logic (refered to as ethos, pathos, and logos)

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Assonance

Back 8

the repetition of vowel sounds in successive or proximate words

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Asyndeton

Back 9

a syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted for rhetorical purposes ("I came, I saw, I conquered")

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Attitude

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the sense expressed by the tone of voice or the mood of a piece of writing (AP exams often require students to respond to some aspect of the writer's attitude)

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Begging the Question

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an argumentative ploy where the arguer evades conflict or sidesteps and ignores the real question

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Canon

Back 12

that which has been accepted as authentic

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Chiasmus

Back 13

a figure of speech and generally a syntactical structure wherein the order of the terms in the first half of a clause is reversed in the second ("He thinks I am dumb. Dumb, perhaps, I am.")

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Claim

Back 14

an assertion of something as fact

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Colloquial

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a term identifying common, ordinary diction of specific groups of people ("Jimmies" is a New England colloquial term for sprinkles)