Ap Language And Composition Rhetorical Terms & Glossary

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Latin for "it does not follow." When one statement isn't logically connected to another

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Non-sequitar

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an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement in a story.

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Objectivity

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the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as "hiss," "buzz," "slam," and "boom"

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Onomatopoeia

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When a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument

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Oversimplification

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a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool," "bitter-sweet," "pretty ugly," "jumbo shrimp," and "cold fire"

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Oxymoron

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the movement of a literary piece from one point or one section to another

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Pacing

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a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory

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Parable

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a statement that seems to condradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning,as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau; "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."

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Paradox

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the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. It may be as simple as listing two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or verb; it may take the from of two or more of the same types of phrases that modify the same noun or verb; it may also take the form of two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Or it may be a complex bend of singe-word, phrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence.

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Parallelism

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a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements.. It can be utterly mocking or gently humorous. It depends on allusion and exaggerates and distorts the original style and content.

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Parody