"The abusive ad hominem is not just a case of directing abusive language toward another person. . . . The fallacy is committed when one engages in a.

"The abusive ad hominem is not just a case of directing abusive language toward another person The fallacy is committed when one engages in a personal attack as a means of ignoring, discrediting, or blunting the force of another's argument "Although some faulty arguers may call attention to distasteful features of their opponents in order to manipulate the responses of their audience, most abusers apparently believe that such characteristics actually provide good reasons for ignoring or discrediting the arguments of those who have them. Logically, of course, the fact that any of these characteristics might fit an opponent provides no reason to ignore or discredit his or arguments or criticisms.“ (T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 4th ed., Wadsworth, 2001) "Do we live in an age of hatred? Or has the language of political insult simply become more extreme? Tap the words 'I hate Gordon Brown' into Google, and it comes up with 1,490,000 entries "Here is one sentence, culled from a recent national newspaper leader . . .: 'They [British voters] know their Premier to be a neurotic, dysfunctional mediocrity; an insecure Stalinist who worships power but cannot take a decision; a moral and political coward who tries to fill the vacuum at the heart of his leadership with blustering rhetoric and adolescent bullying.‘ "Lampooned figures in the past were, from time to time, enveloped in crises every bit as damaging as those that confront Mr Brown. But never were they subjected to such woundingly ad hominem attacks.“ (Magnus Linklater, "The Age of Personal Vitriolic Abuse," The Times, May 16, 2008) Ad Hominem Argument – Comes from the Latin meaning “to the man.” It refers to an argument that attacks the opposing speaker or another person rather than adressing the issues at hand. See also: tu quoque - type of ad hominem argument in which a person turns a charge back on his or her accuser: a logical fallacy From the Latin, "you too"

"And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision." (Plato, "Allegory of the Cave" from Book Seven of The Republic) allegory – The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. In some allegories, for example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope or freedom. The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence. From the Greek, "to speak so as to imply something other"

-"A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring meadow
-"A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring meadow.“ (Vladimir Nabokov, Conclusive Evidence) -"Guinness is good for you.“ (advertising slogan) -"Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky, crabbed, and cross.“ (Clement Freud) -"My style is public negotiations for parity, rather than private negotiations for position.“ (Jesse Jackson) -"The soul selects her own society." (Emily Dickinson) alliteration – The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (as in “she sells sea shells”). Although the term is not frequently in the multiple choice section, you can look for alliteration in any essay passage. The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, and/or echo the sense of the passage. -"You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife." (advertising slogan for Country Life butter) -"In a somer seson, whan soft was the sonne . . ." (William Langland, Piers Plowman, 14th century) -"The sibilant sermons of the snake as she discoursed upon the disposition of my sinner's soul seemed ceaseless.“ (Gregory Kirschling, The Gargoyle, 2008) -"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." (Henry David Thoreau, Walden) From the Latin, "putting letters together"

a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of allusion.
"I violated the Noah rule: predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does.“ (Warren Buffett) "Comic books have become reference points in the most popular and the most esoteric fiction and art. Everyone understands a Superman allusion or a Batman joke.“ (Gerard Jones, Men of Tomorrow, Basic Books, 2005) "I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth.“ (Senator Barack Obama, speech at a fund-raiser for Catholic charities, October 16, 2008) "Senator Obama's call to 'ask not just what our government can do for us, but what we can do for ourselves' had an even more direct connection to the inaugural address of the first G.I. Generation president of the United States.“ (Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, Millennial Makeover. Rutgers Univ. Press, 2008) allusion – A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Allusions can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. There are many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of allusion. From the Latin, "to play with"

- I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting your husband.
-"We saw her duck.“ (Zwicky and Sadock, "Ambiguity Tests," Syntax and Semantics, 1972) -Roy Rogers: More hay, Trigger? Trigger: No thanks, Roy, I'm stuffed! -Pentagon Plans Swell Deficit (newspaper headline) -I can't recommend this book too highly. -"Leahy Wants FBI to Help Corrupt Iraqi Police Force“ (headline at CNN.com, December 2006) -Prostitutes Appeal to Pope (newspaper headline) -Union Demands Increased Unemployment (newspaper headline) -"Thanks for dinner. I’ve never seen potatoes cooked like that before.“ (Jonah Baldwin in the film Sleepless in Seattle, 1993) ambiguity – The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. It is uncertain or indefinite and subject to more than one interpretation. From the Latin, "wandering about"

-"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo." (Don Marquis) -"Memory is to love what the saucer is to the cup." (Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris, 1949) -Glove is to hand as monitor is to computer -Surfs are to a king as earth is to the sun -"If I had not agreed to review this book, I would have stopped after five pages. After 600, I felt as if I were inside a bass drum banged on by a clown." (Richard Brookhiser, "Land Grab." The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2007) -"MTV is to music as KFC is to chicken." (Lewis Black) analogy – A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. Analogies can also make writing more vivid, imaginative, or intellectually engaging. From the Greek "proportion"

-What does the author want to say? -What is his/her main point?
-Why does the author want to say it? -What is his/her purpose? -What strategy or strategies does the author use? -Why and how does the author’s writing strategy suit both the subject and the purpose? -What is special about the way the author uses the strategy? -How effective is the essay? Why? Analytical Reading – Reading Analytically means reading actively, paying close attention to both the content and the structure of the text. Analytical reading often involves answering several basic questions about the piece of writing under consideration.

-A question from the 2001 AP test as an example follows: “But it is the grandeur of all truth which can occupy a very high place in human interests that it is never absolutely novel to the meanest of minds; it exists eternally, by way of germ of latent principle, in the lowest as in the highest, needing to be developed but never to be planted.” The antecedent of “it” (bolded) is...? [answer: “all truth”] -The critique of Plato's Republic was written from a contemporary point of view. It was an in-depth analysis of Plato's opinions about possible governmental forms. -"A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out.“ (Virginia Woolf) -"Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.“ (H. L. Mencken) antecedent – The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. The AP language exam occasionally asks for the antecedent of a given pronoun in a long, complex sentence or in a group of sentences.

antithesis – the opposition or contrast of ideas; the direct opposite.
-"Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.“ (Goethe) -"Hillary has soldiered on, damned if she does, damned if she doesn't, like most powerful women, expected to be tough as nails and warm as toast at the same time.“ (Anna Quindlen, "Say Goodbye to the Virago," Newsweek, June 16, 2003) -"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.“ (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities) -"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." (Jack London) -"Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee.“ (advertising slogan) -"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.“ (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964) antithesis – the opposition or contrast of ideas; the direct opposite. From the Greek, "opposition"

-"The word aphorism was first employed by Hippocrates to describe a collection of concise principles, primarily medical, beginning with the famous, 'Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimentation dangerous, reasoning difficult ' Eventually the term was applied to statements of principles in law and agriculture and extended to other areas.“ (G. A. Test, Satire: Spirit and Art. Univ. Press of Florida, 1991) -"Sits he on ever so high a throne, a man still sits on his bottom.“ (Montaigne) -"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.“ (often attributed to Voltaire, the words are in fact Tallentyre's summary of Voltaire's attitude toward Helvetius after the burning of the latter's writings in 1759) -"All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.“ (James Thurber) -"The first rule of Fight Club is--you do not talk about Fight Club.“ (Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Fight Club) -"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.“ (H.L. Mencken) -"Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.“ (Alice Walker) -"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.“ (Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night) aphorism – A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. (If the authorship is unknown, the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb.) An aphorism can be a memorable summation of the author’s point. From the Greek, "to delimit, define"

-"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art“ (John Keats)
-William Wordsworth addresses John Milton as he writes, “Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee.” – -Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” in which Keats addresses the urn itself: “Thou still unravished bride of quietness.” Many apostrophes imply a personification of the object addressed. -"O western wind, when wilt thou blow, That the small rain down can rain?“ (anonymous, 16th c.) -"Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again “ (Paul Simon, "The Sounds of Silence") -"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art“ (John Keats) -"Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.“ -(James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) apostrophe – A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot answer. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity. From the Greek, "turning away"

Elevation to the status of a god
Elevation to the status of a god. The term recognizes that some individuals cross the dividing line between human and divine. Ancient Greek religion was disposed to belief in heroes and demigods, and historical figures were sometimes worshiped as gods. Until the end of the republic the Romans accepted only one apotheosis, identifying the god Quirinus with Romulus. The emperor Augustus ordered Julius Caesar recognized as a god and thus began a tradition of deifying emperors. American presidents such as Washington and Lincoln have undergone apotheosis. Apotheosis – The word “apotheosis” is derived from the Greek word deify. Apotheosis occurs in literature when a character or a thing is elevated to such a high status that it appears godlike. Also known as: ipse dixit, ad verecundiam

Appeal to Authority A fallacy in which a rhetor seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for the famous. "Not every appeal to authority commits this fallacy, but every appeal to an authority with respect to matters outside his special province commits the fallacy. 'These pills must be safe and effective for reducing. They have been endorsed by Miss X, star of stage, screen, and television.'“ (W.L. Reese, Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion. Humanities Press, 1980) "We make an appeal to authority whenever we try to justify an idea by citing some source of expertise as a reason for holding that idea. Appeals to authority are often valid, as when we tell someone to use a certain medicine because the doctor has prescribed it. But appeals to authority can be fallacious, as when we cite those who have no special competence regarding the matter at hand. The fallacy of appeal to authority, therefore, is an argument that attempts to overawe an opponent into accepting a conclusion by playing on his or her reluctance to challenge famous people, time honored customs, or widely held beliefs. The fallacy appeals, at base, to our feelings of modesty, to our sense that others know better than we do.“ (S. Morris Engel, With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies, 3rd ed. St. Martin's Press, 1986) "Another common fallacy is the appeal to authority, which consists of arguing a point by invoking the opinion of an expert. However, experts may be wrong, they may be expressing an opinion outside their area of expertise or they may have been incapacitated or joking when making the point. It is the expert's reasons that are valuable, not the fact that they were announced by an expert.“ (Daniel Sokol, "The Right Way to Argue." BBC Magazine, December 20, 2006)

"The following two arguments attempt to shift the burden of proof:
1. There is intelligent life in outer space, for no one has been able to prove that there isn't. 2. I know that every action we perform is predetermined because no one has proved that we have free will. 3. Such fallacious arguments involve an appeal to the emotions in that one hopes to place opponents on the defensive, causing them to believe that the proposed conclusion must be true merely because they cannot prove otherwise. That belief would be irrational, resulting from the feeling of intimidation. In logical argument, it is always the obligation of those who propose conclusions to provide proof.“ (S. Morris Engel, With Good Reason, 3rd ed., St. Martin's Press, 1986) "In 1950, when Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin), was asked about the fortieth name on a list of 81 names of people he claimed were communists working for the United States Department of State, he responded that 'I do not have much information on this except the general statement of the agency that there is nothing in the files to disprove his communist connections.' "Many of McCarthy's followers took this absence of evidence as proof that the person in question was indeed a communist, a good example of the fallacy of appeal to ignorance. This example also illustrates the importance of not being taken in by this fallacy. No scrap of relevant evidence ever was presented against any of the people charged by Senator McCarthy, yet for several years he enjoyed great popularity and power; his 'witch hunt' ruined many innocent lives.“ (Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, 8th ed., Wadsworth, 1998) Appeal to Ignorance- A fallacy that uses an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness.

We visited the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
A dark wedge, the eagle hurtled earthward at nearly 200 miles per hour. Arizona Bill, "The Great Benefactor of Mankind," toured Oklahoma with herbal cures and a powerful liniment. Jimbo Gold, a professional magician, performed at my sister's birthday party. John-Boy's sister Mary Ellen became a nurse after their brother Ben took a job at a lumber mill. (restrictive) Line managers and production employees, rather than staff specialists, are primarily responsible for quality assurance. (negative) Saint Petersburg, a city of almost five-million people, Russia's second-largest and northernmost metropolis, was designed three centuries ago by Peter the Great. (multiple) Appositive - noun, noun phrase, or noun clause which follows a noun or pronoun and renames or describes the noun or pronoun. A simple appositive is an epithet like Alexander the Great. Appositives are often set off by commas. From the Latin, "to put near"

Debate, with participants on both sides trying to win.
"Argument, in its most basic form, can be described as a claim (the arguer's position on a controversial issue) which is supported by reasons and evidence to make the claim convincing to an audience. All of the forms of argument described below include these components. Debate, with participants on both sides trying to win. Courtroom argument, with lawyers pleading before a judge and jury. Dialectic, with people taking opposing views and finally resolving the conflict. Single-perspective argument, with one person arguing to convince a mass audience. One-on-one everyday argument, with one person trying to convince another. Academic inquiry, with one or more people examining a complicated issue. Negotiation, with two or more people working to reach consensus. Internal argument, or working to convince yourself. (Nancy C. Wood, Perspectives on Argument, Pearson, 2004) Argument A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood. From the Latin, "to make clear" See Toulmin Model

In argument, the thesis is called a proposition
In argument, the thesis is called a proposition. Your proposition should define your argument's scope by stating its situation or context and make clear what assertion you are going to debate. Although you may be presenting both sides of the argument to let your reader decide, you may "hook" your readers by stating your argument as a question. Because many questions lack a point of view, however, be sure a question you use as a hook leads to a proposition and that your proposition makes a claim that is open to debate. Your proposition should state something that your readers feel uncertain about and about which you find arguments for both sides of the issue. (UMUC.edu) Thesis lacks a claim. (Note the thesis merely poses a topic and an organizational plan for the paper; there is no assertion.) Weak thesis: "This paper will first suggest qualities essential to a good corporate manager and then discuss how those qualities contribute to overall management style." Force an assertion by completing one of these sentence frames: "In this paper, I assert that…." or "Though some people say ___, and others say ___, I notice that…." Stronger thesis: "Character qualities that make corporate managers successful often make their management styles ineffective." Assertion – The thesis, claim, or proposition that the writer puts forward in an argument.

Assonance - From the Latin, "sound
Assonance - From the Latin, "sound.” Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words "The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots.“ (Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm) "Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.“ (Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night") "The setting sun was licking the hard bright machine like some great invisible beast on its knees.“ (John Hawkes, Death, Sleep, and the Traveler) "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans.“ (Slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners) "I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless.“ (Thin Lizzy, "With Love") "A lanky, six-foot, pale boy with an active Adam's apple, ogling Lo and her orange-brown bare midriff, which I kissed five minutes later, Jack.“ (Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita) "Strips of tinfoil winking like people“ (Sylvia Plath, "The Bee Meeting")

"They dove, splashed, floated, splashed, swam, snorted. “ (James T
"They dove, splashed, floated, splashed, swam, snorted.“ (James T. Farrell, Young Lonigan) "Why, they've got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poisons, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by types of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from steamboats. But Mr. Norton, of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train.“ (Edward G. Robinson as insurance agent Barton Keyes in Double Indemnity) "He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac.“ (Jack Kerouac, On the Road) "I have found the warm caves in the woods, filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks, innumerable goods“ (Anne Sexton, "Her Kind") "In some ways, he was this town at its best--strong, hard-driving, working feverishly, pushing, building, driven by ambitions so big they seemed Texas- boastful.“ (Mike Royko, "A Tribute") "Anyway, like I was saying, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That--that's about it.“ (Bubba in Forrest Gump) Asyndeton The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of polysyndeton). A sentence style that employs many conjunctions From the Greek, "unconnected"

atmosphere – The emotional nod created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author’s choice of objects that are described. Even such elements as a description of the weather can contribute to the atmosphere. Frequently atmosphere foreshadows events. Perhaps it can create a mood. "Seize The Night" by Dean Koontz; Chapter1, pg. 1 "Elsewhere, night falls, but in Moonlight Bay, it steals upon us with barely a whisper, like a gentle dark-sapphire surf licking a beach." The Vision by Dean Koontz; Chapter 1, pg. 1"Gloves of blood." The woman raised her hands and stared at them; stared through them. Her voice was soft but tense. "Blood on his hands." Her own hands were clean and pale. “The friend travels on horseback to the House of Usher. It is the autumn of the year, and there is a sense of death and decay surrounding the Usher mansion. Although no portion of the masonry had fallen...there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual stones....The eye of a scrutinizing observer might have [noticed] a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn." (Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher)

Anastrophe -Departure from normal word order for the sake of emphasis
Anastrophe -Departure from normal word order for the sake of emphasis. Anastrophe is most often a synonym for hyperbaton, but is occasionally referred to as a more specific instance of hyperbaton: the changing of the position of only a single word. Anastrophe occurs whenever normal syntactical arrangement is violated for emphasis: The verb before the subject-noun (normal syntax follows the order subject-noun, verb): Glistens the dew upon the morning grass. (Normally: The dew glistens upon the morning grass) Adjective following the noun it modifies (normal syntax is adjective, noun): She looked at the sky dark and menacing. (Normally: She looked at the dark and menacing sky) The object preceding its verb (normal syntax is verb followed by its object): Troubles, everybody's got. (Normally: Everybody's got troubles) Preposition following the object of the preposition (normal syntax is preposition, object ["upon our lives"]): It only stands / Our lives upon, to use Our strongest hands — Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra from Greek “back again”

Contemporary examples often take the form of analogies, written to seem unintentionally funny:
Week 310: Washington Post (March 14, 1999), on humorous analogies, many exhibiting bathos, such as: The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant. (Jennifer Hart, Arlington) The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest features purple prose, at times exhibiting bathos: They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish- white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn't taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently. (Mariann Simms, Wetumpka, AL (2003 Winner) Bathos - Greek for meaning depth. strictly speaking, refers to the expression of humor in a phrase, though done through the use of an incongruous or ironic combination of ideas in order to deliberately make the humorous aspect seem unintended

caricature – a verbal description, the purpose of which is to exaggerate or distort, for comic effect, a person’s distinctive physical features or other characteristics. The set of four stages of a metamorphosis begins with an accurate portrait of King Louis-Philippe ( ) whose face Philipon gradually transformed into a pear. The pear immediately was taken as a symbol of the soft, overweight king. Louis- Philippe, the so-called "Citizen King" was a favorite target of republican caricaturists, including Honoré Daumier, until censorship was reinstated in September 1835.

"Nice to see you, to see you, nice
"Nice to see you, to see you, nice!“ (British TV entertainer Bruce Forsyth) "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.“ (Cormac McCarthy, The Road, Knopf, 2006) "I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me.“ (Ovid) "Fair is foul, and foul is fair.“ (William Shakespeare, Macbeth I.i) "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.“ (Samuel Johnson) "If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks.“ (Frederick Douglass, "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage") "The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults.“ (Peter De Vries) "Don't sweat the petty things--and don't pet the sweaty things.“ (anonymous) "You can take it out of the country, but you can't take the country out of it.“ (slogan for Salem cigarettes) "Friendly Americans win American friends.“ (United States Travel Service, 1963) "Never let a fool kiss you--or a kiss fool you.“ (anonymous) "My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.“ (Barack Obama) "I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me.“ (advertising jingle for Band-Aid bandages) Chiasmus A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. From the Greek, "to invert" or "mark with the letter X."

"Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan are banging at the doors, and the political establishment, consisting of both politicians and the media, seems determined not to let them in on the grounds that they have no public support. This is a circular argument; one of the reasons they have so little support is that they are generally ignored by the press and will most likely be barred from the presidential debates, which require a base support of 15 percent of the electorate.“ (Lars-Erik Nelson, "Party Going, The New York Review of Books, August 10, 2000) "The circular argument uses its own conclusion as one of its stated or unstated premises. Instead of offering proof, it simply asserts the conclusion in another form, thereby inviting the listener to accept it as settled when, in fact, it has not been settled. Because the premise is no different from and therefore as questionable as its conclusion, a circular argument violates the criterion of acceptability.“ (T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning, Wadsworth, 2001) "The meaning of the idiom [beg the question] is to assume as true the very point that is under discussion Frequently, but erroneously, the phrase is used as if it meant to evade a direct answer to a question.“ (Theodore Bernstein, Miss Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins, 1971) "Circular argument: A sentence or argument that restates rather than proves. Thus, it goes in a circle: 'President Reagan was a great communicator because he had the knack of talking effectively to the people.' The terms in the beginning of the sentence (great communicator) and the end of the sentence (talking effectively) are interchangeable.“ (Stephen Reid, The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers, 5th ed., 2000) Circular Argument An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove. Also Known As: petitio principii, arguing in a circle, begging the question.

Claim An arguable statement.
A claim expresses a specific position on some doubtful or controversial issue that the arguer wants the audience to accept. When confronting any message, especially a complex one, it is useful to begin by identifying the claims that are made. Claims can be obscured by complex sentence construction where claims and their support often are interwoven. Whereas a rhetorical performance (e.g., a speech, an essay) usually will have one dominant claim (e.g., the prosecuting attorney stating that 'the defendant is guilty,' the political advocate urging to 'vote no on Proposition 182'), most messages will consist of multiple supporting claims (e.g., the defendant had motive, was seen leaving the scene of the crime, and left fingerprints; Proposition 182 will hurt our economy and is unfair to people who have recently moved into the state).“ (James Jasinski, "Argument," Sourcebook on Rhetoric. Sage, 2001) "Claims worthy of arguing are those that are debatable: to say 'Ten degrees Fahrenheit is cold' is a claim, but it is probably not debatable--unless you decide that such a temperature in northern Alaska might seem balmy. To take another example, if a movie review you are reading has as its claim 'Loved this movie!' is that claim debatable? Almost certainly not, if the reviewer is basing the claim solely on personal taste. But if the reviewer goes on to offer good reasons to love the movie, along with strong evidence to support the reasons, he or she could present a debatable--and therefore arguable--claim.“ (Andrea A. Lunsford, The St. Martin's Handbook. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008) Claim An arguable statement. From the Latin, "to call" Rhetoricians commonly identify three general types of claims: claims of fact, claims of value, and claims of policy

clause – A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb
clause – A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent, or main, clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate clause, cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause. The point that you want to consider is the question of what or why the author subordinates one element should also become aware of making effective use of subordination in your own writing. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.“ (Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Note: "Life moves pretty fast" and "you could miss it" are independent clauses. "If you don't stop and look around once in awhile" is an adverb clause.) "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.“ (George Orwell, Animal Farm; Note: Orwell's sentence contains two independent clauses joined by the conjunction "and." This combination is called a compound sentence.) "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." (Virginia Woolf, "A Room of Her Own“; Note: Woolf's sentence begins with an independent clause--"A woman must have money and a room of her own"--and ends with an adverb clause. This combination is called a complex sentence.) "A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.“ (Martin Luther King, Jr.; Note: In King's sentence, the independent clause--"A man is not fit to live"--is interrupted by an adjective clause. This is another example of a complex sentence.) "I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.“ (Henry David Thoreau; Note: Thoreau's sentence contains two independent clauses joined by the conjunction "for"; the second independent clause is interrupted by an adjective clause--"which is a very crooked one." This combination is called a compound-complex sentence.) From the Latin, "the close of a sentence or formula"

-Live and learn. -Stay the course. -What goes around comes around. -Bald as an eagle -Love conquers all. -Pencil thin eyebrows -Take a load off your feet -Never up, never in -Wound up tighter than an eight day clock -About as exciting as watching paint dry -Worthy of his salt -Loved not wisely but too well -Mad as a hatter -Hell if I know -Free as a bird -Bide your time -Four letter word -The bee's knees -A fair shake -The light at the end of the tunnel Cliché – from the French, “a stereotype plate.” an expression that has become ineffective through overuse. A trite expression, often a figure of speech whose effectiveness has been worn out through overuse and excessive familiarity

"I came, I saw, I conquered.“ (Julius Caesar)
"I am the way, the truth, and the life.“ (St.John, The New Testament, Chapter 14, verse 4) "Nothing has been left undone to cripple their minds, debase their moral stature, obliterate all traces of their relationship to mankind.“ (Lloyd Garrison, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave) "Out of its vivid disorder comes order; from its rank smell rises the good aroma of courage and daring; out of its preliminary shabbiness comes the final splendor. And buried in the familiar boasts of its advance agents lies the modesty of most of its people.“ (E. B. White, "The Ring of Time") "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. "Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.“ (Edward M. Kennedy, Tribute to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, June 8, 1968) "When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.“ (Barack Obama, "The Audacity of Hope," 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address) Climax Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events. From the Greek, "ladder"

-"Friends of the chancellor revealed that he had described Labour MSPs as disappointing 'numpties,' a colloquialism meaning idiots." (Neil Rafferty, "Queen Opens a Pricey Piece of Scots History," The Sunday Times, October 10, 2004) -"I think country gets dumped on across the board by the Grammys.“ (Toby Keith) -"[O]ver the last generation or so writing has become more informal than it ever was before. The area of highly formal writing has shrunk considerably; it is now confined to state papers, articles in learned publications, commencement addresses (and by no means all of those), legal documents, court decisions, and prefaces to dictionaries. Other writing has become quite hospitable to so-called colloquialisms; it has become more informal, more relaxed, more familiar, more casual.“ (Theodore Bernstein, The Careful Writer, Simon & Schuster, 1995) "There are traces of cliche ('a tough nut to crack'), attempts at fey colloquialism ('Sometimes I like to sample the zeitgeist') and laboured bits of banter.“ (Alastair Sooke, "Self's Punishment," The Times, December 17, 2004) - "U.S. colloquialisms evolve slowly. 'Jag,' 'tops,' 'dude' stayed around for decades before they began to lose their freshness. But jazz lingo becomes obsolescent almost as fast as it reaches the public ear. A term of high approbation in the swing era was 'out of this world,' in the bop era it was 'gone,' and today it is 'the greatest' or 'the end.' Similarly, a daring performance was 'hot,' then 'cool,' and now is 'far out.'“ ("Far-Out Words for Cats," Time magazine, November 8, 1954) colloquial/colloquialism – The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects. From the Latin, "conversation"

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. William Shakespeare Oh stay! three lives in one flea spare Where we almost, yea more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage-bed and marriage-temple is. - metaphysical conceit example of the metaphor from John Donne's "The Flea," in which a flea that bites both the speaker and his lover becomes a conceit arguing that his lover has no reason to deny him sexually, although they are not married: Conceit - A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made.

"The audience gets the impression that the person capable of making frank confessions and generous concessions is not only a good person but a person so confident of the strength of his or her position that he or she can afford to concede points to the opposition." (Edward Corbett, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, Oxford Univ. Press, 1999) "I am not finding fault with this use of our flag; for in order not to seem eccentric I have swung around, now, and joined the nation in the conviction that nothing can sully a flag. I was not properly reared, and had the illusion that a flag was a thing which must be sacredly guarded against shameful uses and unclean contacts, lest it suffer pollution; and so when it was sent out to the Philippines to float over a wanton war and a robbing expedition I supposed it was polluted, and in an ignorant moment I said so. But I stand corrected. I concede and acknowledge that it was only the government that sent it on such an errand that was polluted. Let us compromise on that. I am glad to have it that way. For our flag could not well stand pollution, never having been used to it, but it is different with the administration." (Mark Twain) "I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if they produced an argument at all, that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words or constructions. So far as the general tone or spirit of language goes, this may be true, but it is not true in detail." (George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language") Concession An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer concedes a disputed point or leaves a disputed point to the audience or reader to decide. From the Latin, "to yield" Epitrope - from Gk. epi, "upon" and trope, "turn" ("to yield") - A figure in which one turns things over to one's hearers, either pathetically, ironically, or in such a way as to suggest a proof of something without having to state it. Paromologia - from Gk. para, "alongside" and homologia - Admitting a weaker point in order to make a stronger one.

Concrete: car, bread, building, book, Abraham Lincoln, Toronto, hiking, painting
Abstract: bravery, dedication, excellence, anxiety, stress, thinking, hatred Concrete/Abstract – A concrete word names a specific object, person, or action that can be directly perceived by the senses. An abstract word refers to general qualities, conditions, ideas, actions or relationships that cannot be directly perceived by the senses

"The few bright meteors in man's intellectual horizon could could well be matched by woman, were she allowed to occupy the same elevated position. There is no need of naming the De Staels, the Rolands, the Somervilles, the Wollstonecrafts, the Wrights, the Fullers, the Martineaus, the Hemanses, the Sigourneys, the Jagiellos, and the many more of modern as well as ancient times, to prove her mental powers, her patriotism, her heroism, her self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of humanity--the eloquence that gushes from her pen or from her tongue. These things are too well known to require repetition. And do you ask for fortitude of mind, energy, and perseverance? Then look at woman under suffering, reverse of fortune, and affliction, when the strength and power of man has sunk to the lowest ebb, when his mind is overwhelmed by the dark waters of despair. She, like the tender plant, bent but not broken by the storms of life, now only upholds her own hopeful courage, but, like the tender shoots of the ivy, clings around the tempest-fallen oak, to bind up the wounds, peak hope to his faltering spirit, and shelter him from the returning blast of the storm." (Ernestine Rose, "An Address on Women's Rights" 1851) "This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns; where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen." (Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal") Confirmation The main part of a text in which logical arguments in support of a position are elaborated. From the Latin, "strengthen"

"In the East the wilderness has no evil connotation; it is thought of as an expression of the unity and harmony of the universe.“ (William Orville Douglas) "'Stimulus is Washington talk,' said Rahm Emanuel, the coming White House chief of staff with a sandpapered-fingertip sensitivity to the familiar connotation of words. 'Economic recovery is how the American people think of it.'“ (William Safire, "Recovery," The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2008) "The name reservation has a negative connotation among Native Americans--an intern camp of sorts.“ (John Russell) "A group of synonyms cannot by definition be distinguished in terms of their denotation, but they usually display noticeable differences of connotation, as in the case of car, automobile, runabout, buggy, banger, bus, hot rod, jalopy, old crock, racer, and so on.“ (David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003) "Since 'tribe' has assumed a connotation of primitiveness or backwardness, it is suggested that the use of 'nation' or 'people' replace the term whenever possible in referring to Native American peoples.“ (Robert B. Moore, "Racism in the English Language," 1976; in The Production of Reality, ed. Jodi O'Brien, 2005) "[For many], socialism implies egalitarianism and that people are living for society, while capitalism has been given the connotation of materialism, 'greedy,' 'selfish,' 'self-serving,' and so on.“ (Milton Friedman) Connotation – The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. Connotations may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. From the Latin, "mark" Euphemism Dysphemism Orthophemism Choosing the Best Words I'm Firm, You're Obstinate . . .

Sherlock Holmes and Watson were on a camping trip
Sherlock Holmes and Watson were on a camping trip. They had gone to bed and were lying there looking up at the sky. Holmes said, "Watson, look up. What do you see?" "I see thousands of stars." "And what does that mean to you?" "I guess it means we will have another nice day tomorrow. What does it mean to you, Holmes?" "To me, it means someone has stolen our tent." "The fundamental property of a deductively valid argument is this: If all of its premises are true, then its conclusion must be true also, because the claim asserted by its conclusion already has been stated in its premises, although usually only implicitly. "Here is an example of a very simple deductively valid argument: Everything made of copper conducts electricity. (Premise) This wire is made of copper. (Premise) This wire will conduct electricity. (Conclusion) Taken alone, neither premise makes the claim that the wire will conduct electricity; but taken together, they do, although not explicitly.“ (H. Kahane and N. Cavender, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, 1998) "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? You've beaten my giant, which means you're exceptionally strong, so you could've put the poison in your own goblet, trusting on your strength to save you, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But, you've also bested my Spaniard, which means you must have studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal, so you would have put the poison as far from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.“ (Vizzini in The Princess Bride, 1987) Deduction A method of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises. From Latin, "leading"

"Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things they denote.“ (Samuel Johnson, Preface to Dictionary) The denotation of the word home is simply "a place where one lives"; the connotation of home is more complex. According to Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." "The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.“ (President John F. Kennedy) Vizzini: He didn't fall? Inconceivable. Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. (The Princess Bride, 1987) Wolly: I can't believe I fell for counterfeit Superbowl tickets. The guys will be crestfallen when they find out. Homer: Yes, if by "crestfallen" you mean they're going to kill us. ("Sunday, Cruddy Sunday," The Simpsons) "You know a phrase I never understood? King size. It's used to denote something larger, but most of the kings you see are short. You ever notice that? Usually a king is a short little fat guy.“ (George Carlin, Napalm & Silly Putty, 2001) "When you get just a complete sense of blackness or void ahead of you, that somehow the future looks an impossible place to be, and the direction you are going seems to have no purpose, there is this word despair which is a very awful thing to feel.“ (Stephen Fry) Denotation – The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. (Example: the denotation of a knife would be a utensil used to cut; the connotation of a knife might be fear, violence, anger, foreboding, etc.) From the Latin, "mark"

"It is sometimes thought that only a few people speak regional dialects. Many restrict the term to rural forms of speech--as when they say that 'dialects are dying out these days.' But dialects are not dying out. Country dialects are not as widespread as they once were, indeed, but urban dialects are now on the increase, as cities grow and large numbers of immigrants take up residence. . . "Some people think of dialects as sub-standard varieties of a language. spoken only by low-status groups--illustrated by such comments as 'He speaks correct English, without a trace of dialect.' Comments of this kind fail to recognize that standard English is as much a dialect as any other variety--though a dialect of a rather special kind, because it is one to which society has given extra prestige. Everyone speaks a dialect-- whether urban or rural, standard or non-standard, upper class or lower class." (D. Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2006) "The classic example of a dialect is the regional dialect: the distinct form of a language spoken in a certain geographical area. For example, we might speak of Ozark dialects or Appalachian dialects, on the grounds that inhabitants of these regions have certain distinct linguistic features that differentiate them from speakers of other forms of English. We can also speak of a social dialect: the distinct form of a language spoken by members of a specific socioeconomic class, such as the working-class dialects in England." (A. Akmajian, et al., Linguistics: An Introduction to Language. MIT, 2001) Dialect A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary. From the Greek, "speech"

"Diction will be effective only when the words you choose are appropriate for the audience and purpose, when they convey your message accurately and comfortably. The idea of comfort may seem out of place in connection with diction, but, in fact, words can sometimes cause the reader to feel uncomfortable. You've probably experienced such feelings yourself as a listener--hearing a speaker whose words for one reason or another strike you as inappropriate.“ (Martha Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar. Allyn and Bacon, 1999) "One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called 'weasel words.' When a weasel sucks eggs the meat is sucked out of the egg. If you use a 'weasel word' after another, there is nothing left of the other.“ (Theodore Roosevelt, 1916) "Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still.“ (T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton") "There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.“ (Dorothy Parker, 1956) "I'm very anxious not to fall into archaism or 'literary' diction. I want my vocabulary to have a very large range, but the words must be alive.“ (James Agee) "The principal meaning of diction is the selection and use of words or the manner of expression. But this fact does not rule out, as some purists would like to do, the companion meaning of mode of speaking or enunciation."(Theodore Bernstein, Miss Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins, 1971) Diction – Related to style, diction refers to the writer’s word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. For the AP exam, you should be able to describe an author’s diction (for example, formal or informal, ornate or plain) and understand the ways in which diction can complement the author’s purpose. Diction, combined with syntax, figurative language, literary devices, etc., creates an author’s style. From the Latin, "to say, speak"

especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.
Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along, O master of the poet and the song! And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends, To man's low passions, or their glorious ends, Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise, To fall with dignity, with temper rise: Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe; Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, Intent to reason, or polite to please. O! while along the stream of time thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame, Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale? When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose, Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes, Shall then this verse to future age pretend Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? That, urged by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart: For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light, Show'd erring pride, Whatever is, is right; That Reason, Passion, answer one great aim; That true Self-love and Social are the same; That Virtue only makes our bliss below, And all our knowledge, ourselves to know. (Alexander Pope, Essay on Man) Didactic – From the Greek, didactic literally means “teaching.” Didactic words have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.

"Mark Twain has been called the inventor of the American novel
"Mark Twain has been called the inventor of the American novel. It might even be fair to call him the inventor of the American short story. And he surely deserves an additional encomium: the man who popularized the sophisticated literary attack on racism.“ (Stephen L. Carter, "Getting Past Black and White," Time magazine, July 3, 2008) "I grew up in the South, and Rosa Parks was a hero to me long before I recognized and understood the power and impact that her life embodied. I remember my father telling me about this colored woman who had refused to give up her seat. And in my child's mind, I thought, 'She must be really big.' I thought she must be at least a hundred feet tall. I imagined her being stalwart and strong and carrying a shield to hold back the white folks. And then I grew up and had the esteemed honor of meeting her. And wasn't that a surprise. Here was this petite, almost delicate lady who was the personification of grace and goodness. And I thanked her then. I said, 'Thank you,' for myself and for every colored girl, every colored boy, who didn't have heroes who were celebrated. I thanked her then.“ (Oprah Winfrey, Eulogy for Rosa Parks, Oct. 31, 2005) "The greatest thing about this man [President George W. Bush] is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs never will.“ (Stephen Colbert, "The Colbert Report") Encomium - tribute or eulogy in prose or verse honoring people, objects, ideas, or events. The opposite of invective and one of the progymnasmata. Plural, encomia From the Greek, "praise"

"Mark'd ye his words. He would not take the crown
"Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown. Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.“ (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar III.ii) "If it's Borden's, it's got to be good.“ (advertising slogan) "One of the Soviet Georgia's senior citizens thought Dannon was an excellent yogurt. She ought to know. She's been eating yogurt for 137 years.“ (1970s television advertisement for Dannon Yogurt) "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?“ (The Partnership for a Drug-Free America) "In an enthymeme, the speaker builds an argument with one element removed, leading listeners to fill in the missing piece. On May 1, speaking from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush said, 'The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got.' This is classic enthymematic argumentation: We were attacked on Sept. 11, so we went to war against Iraq. The missing piece of the argument--'Saddam was involved in 9/11'--didn't have to be said aloud for those listening to assimilate its message.“ (Paul Waldman, Washington Post, Sep. 2003) Enthymeme - from the Greek, "piece of reasoning" An informally stated syllogism with an implied premise

"Success hasn’t changed Frank Sinatra
"Success hasn’t changed Frank Sinatra. When he was unappreciated and obscure, he was hot-tempered, egotistical, extravagant, and moody. Now that he is rich and famous, he is still hot-tempered, egotistical, extravagant, and moody." (Dorothy Kilgallen, 1959 newspaper column) "It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people!“ (Charlton Heston as Detective Thorn in Soylent Green, 1973) "Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends. You don't look at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends.“ (John Bender in The Breakfast Club) "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.“ (Bill Clinton) "I've gotta be your damn conscience. I'm tired of being your conscience. I don't enjoy being your conscience.“ (Dr. Wilson to Dr. House in House) "She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised." (Jack Sparrow, The Pirates of the Caribbean) "Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don’t give me the same idiot.” (Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, speaking about FEMA Chief Michael Brown, Sep. 6, 2005) Epiphora The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. From the Greek, "bringing to" Compare with anaphora

Dr. House: I'm busy. Thirteen: We need you to . . . Dr. House: Actually, as you can see, I'm not busy. It's just a euphemism for "get the hell out of here." ("Dying Changes Everything," House, M.D.) Dr. House: Who were you going to kill in Bolivia? My old housekeeper? Dr. Terzi: We don't kill anyone. Dr. House: I'm sorry--who were you going to marginalize? ("Whatever It Takes," House, M.D.) Pre-owned for used or second-hand; enhanced interrogation for torture; wind for belch or fart; convenience fee for surcharge Mr. Prince: We'll see you when you get back from image enhancement camp. Martin Prince: Spare me your euphemisms! It's fat camp, for Daddy's chubby little secret! ("Kamp Krusty," The Simpsons, 1992) Euphemism – From the Greek for “good speech,” euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. The euphemism may be used to adhere to standards of social or political correctness or to add humor or ironic understatement. Saying “earthly remains” rather than “corpse” is an example of euphemism. Dan Foreman: Guys, I feel very terrible about what I'm about to say. But I'm afraid you're both being let go. Lou: Let go? What does that mean? Dan Foreman: It means you're being fired, Louie. (In Good Company, 2004) "Euphemisms are not, as many young people think, useless verbiage for that which can and should be said bluntly; they are like secret agents on a delicate mission, they must airily pass by a stinking mess with barely so much as a nod of the head. Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne." (Quentin Crisp, Manners from Heaven, 1984) From the Greek, "use of good words"

"According to Aristotle, rhetors can invent a character suitable to an occasion- -this is invented ethos. However, if rhetors are fortunate enough to enjoy a good reputation in the community, they can use it as an ethical proof--this is situated ethos.“ (Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, Pearson, 2004) "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV.“ (1960s TV commercial for Excedrin) "If Aristotle's study of pathos is a psychology of emotion, then his treatment of ethos amounts to a sociology of character. It is not simply a how-to guide to establishing one's credibility with an audience, but rather it is a careful study of what Athenians consider to be the qualities of a trustworthy individual.“ (James A. Herrick, The History and Theory of Rhetoric, Allyn and Bacon, 2001) Ethos names the persuasive appeal of one's character, especially how this character is established by means of the speech or discourse. Aristotle claimed that one needs to appear both knowledgeable about one's subject and benevolent. Cicero said that in classical oratory the initial portion of a speech (its exordium or introduction) was the place to establish one's credibility with the audience In Cicero's speech defending the poet Archias, he begins his speech by referring to his own expertise in oratory, for which he was famous in Rome. While lacking modesty, this tactic still established his ethos because the audience was forced to acknowledge that Cicero's public service gave him a certain right to speak, and his success in oratory gave him special authority to speak about another author. In effect, his entire speech is an attempt to increase the respectability of the ethos of literature, largely accomplished by tying it to Cicero's own, already established, public character. (Silva Rhetoricae) Ethos A persuasive appeal based on the projected character of the speaker or narrator. From the Greek, "character"

Exposition A statement or type of composition intended to give information about (or an explanation of) an issue, subject, method, or idea. Types of exposition include: definition, division & classification, comparison & contrast, cause & effect analysis, process analysis and exemplification. Definition – a statement of the word; may be brief or extended; part of an essay or whole essay Division & classification – breaking down a single large unit into smaller subunits and/or arranges and sorts them into categories based on characteristics Comparison & contrast – points out the similarities and differences between 2 or more subjects in the same category; function is to clarify Cause & effect analysis - answers the question why? It explains the reasons for an occurrence or the consequences of an action Process analysis – answers the question how? Explains how something works or gives step-by-step directions for doing something. Exemplification – the writer uses examples—specific facts, opinions, samples, and anecdotes or stories to support a generalization and to make it more vivid, understandable and persuasive From the Latin, "to place"

"I graduated from the University of Life. All right
"I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his Teaching Assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nyun. That’s the kind of school I went to for real, okay?“ (Will Ferrell, Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2003) CROSSING THE BAR Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar. Alfred, Lord Tennyson Extended metaphor – A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.

Fallacy An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid.
Ad Hominem - From the Latin, "against the man“ An argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack Amphiboly - From the Greek, "irregular speech“ A fallacy that relies on an ambiguous word or grammatical structure to confuse or mislead an audience. Appeal to Authority - A fallacy in which a rhetor seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for the famous Appeal to Force - A fallacy that relies on force or intimidation (scare tactics) to persuade an audience to accept a proposition or take a particular course of action Appeal to Ignorance - A fallacy based on the assumption that a statement must be true if it cannot be proved false. Appeal to the People *- An argument based on widespread opinions, values, or prejudices and often delivered in an emotionally charged way. Also known as argumentum ad populum. Bandwagon - A fallacy based on the assumption that the opinion of the majority is always valid: everyone believes it, so you should too. Begging the Question - An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove. Also known as Circular Argument Complex Question - A fallacy in which the answer to a given question presupposes a prior answer to a prior question Either/or Question – The tendency to see an issue as having only two sides. Equivocation - A fallacy by which a key word or phrase in an argument is used with more than one meaning. False Analogy - A fallacy in which an argument is based on misleading, superficial, or implausible comparisons Fallacy An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. From the Latin, "deceive"

Fallacy - Continued False Dilemma - A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in reality more options are available. Gambler's Fallacy - A fallacy in which an inference is drawn on the assumption that a series of chance events will determine the outcome of a subsequent event Hasty Generalization - A fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. Name-Calling - A fallacy that uses emotionally loaded terms to influence an audience. Non Sequitur - A fallacy in which a conclusion does not follow logically from what preceded it. Oversimplification – The tendency to provide simple solutions to complex problems. Poisoning the Well - A logical fallacy (a type of ad hominem argument) in which a person attempts to place an opponent in a position from which he or she is unable to reply. Post Hoc - A fallacy in which one event is said to be the cause of a later event simply because it occurred earlier Predigested Thinking - The reduction of a complex idea to a slogan or simple formula "with all the qualifications, distinctions, and uncertainties left out" (R. H. Thouless). Red Herring - An observation that draws attention away from the central issue in an argument or discussion; informal Slippery Slope - A fallacy in which a course of action is objected to on the grounds that once taken it will lead to additional actions until some undesirable consequence results. Straw Man - A fallacy in which an opponent's argument is overstated or misrepresented in order to be attacked or refuted. Tu Quoque - A type of ad hominem argument in which a person turns a charge back on his or her accuser

"A false dilemma arises when we allow ourselves to be convinced that we have to choose between two and only two mutually exclusive options, when that is untrue. Generally, when this rhetorical strategy is used, one of the options is unacceptable and repulsive, while the other is the one the manipulator wants us to choose. Whoever succumbs to this trap has thus made a choice that is forced, and as such, of little value Here are a few examples of common false dilemmas: -Either medicine can explain how Ms. X was cured, or it is a miracle. Medicine can't explain how she was cured. Therefore it is a miracle. -If we don't reduce public spending, our economy will collapse. -America: Love it or leave it. -The universe could not have been created from nothing, so it must have been created by an intelligent life force. -Of course it is possible, using the same process, to create trilemmas, quadrilemmas, and so forth. Each time it is claimed (falsely) that the list of enumerated options is complete, and that one and only one acceptable option is hidden in that list.“ (Normand Baillargeon, A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense. Seven Stories Press, 2008) -"Proposed solutions frequently have an either/or fallacy: 'Either we ban boxing or hundreds of young men will be senselessly killed.' A third alternative is to change boxing's rules or equipment. 'If we don't provide farmers with low-interest loans, they will go bankrupt.' Increasing prices for farm products might be a better alternative.“ (Stephen Reid, The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers, 5th ed., 2000) False Dilemma A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in reality more options are available.

"Figures are as old as language
"Figures are as old as language. They lie buried in many words of current use. They occur constantly in both prose and poetry." (Joseph T. Shipley, Dictionary of World Literary Terms, 1970) "Traditionally, figurative language such as metaphors and idioms has been considered derivative from and more complex than ostensibly straightforward language. A contemporary view is that figurative language involves the same kinds of linguistic and pragmatic operations that are used for ordinary, literal language." (Sam Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language, Oxford University Press, 2001) "At no place in Book III [of the Rhetoric] does Aristotle claim that these devices [figures] serve an ornamental or emotional function or that they are in any way epiphenomenal. Instead, Aristotle's somewhat dispersed discussion suggests that certain devices are compelling because they map function onto form or perfectly epitomize certain patterns of thought or argument." (Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Figures in Science, Oxford University Press, 1999) Figurative language – Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid.

Figure of speech – A device used to produce figurative language
Figure of speech – A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. The vast pool of terms for verbal ornamentation has acted like a gene pool for the rhetorical imagination, stimulating us to look at language in another way The figures have worked historically to teach a way of seeing." (Richard Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, Univ. of California Press, 1991) "The most excellent ornaments, exornations, lightes, flowers, and formes of speech, commonly called the figures of rhetorike. By which the singular partes of mans mind, are most aptly expressed, and the sundrie affections of his heart most effectuallie uttered." (Henry Peacham, The Garden of Eloquence, 1593) "The figurings of speech reveal to us the apparently limitless plasticity of language itself. We are confronted, inescapably, with the intoxicating possibility that we can make language do for us almost anything we want. Or at least a Shakespeare can." (Arthur Quinn, Figures of Speech, 1982) "The Greeks called them 'schemes,' a better word than 'figures,' because they serve as persuasive tricks and rules of thumb. While Shakespeare had to memorize more than 200 of them in grammar school, the basic ones aren't hard to learn "Figures of speech change ordinary language through repetition, substitution, sound, and wordplay. They mess around with words--skipping them, swapping them, and making them sound different." (Jay Heinrichs, Thank You for Arguing, 2007)

"For a flashback to succeed as part of your beginning, it should meet three criteria.
First, it should follow a strong opening scene, one that roots us firmly in your character's present In addition, the second-scene flashback should bear some clear relation to the first scene we've just witnessed Finally, don't let your readers get lost in time. Indicate clearly how much earlier the flashback scene took place.“ (Nancy Kress, Beginnings, Middles & Ends, Writer's Digest Books, 1999) "Begin a flashback as close to the conclusion, the effect, as you can. Do not 'give the plot away' in the first paragraph, but end the paragraph with a question, with a comment that the remainder of the theme will pertain to the flashback. In a short theme, your flashback should be short, certainly no longer than about one-fourth of your theme.“ (John McCall, How to Write Themes and Essays, Peterson's, 2003) "In the example of Casablanca, the flashback sequence is positioned strategically in the plot to resolve a newly elaborated narrative enigma. The crucial characters of the flashback (Rick, Ilsa, and Sam) have been clearly introduced, and the film's plot has raised a question about the relationship of Rick and Ilsa-- What happened to them before the film proper has begun?-- that must be answered before the plot can proceed.“ (James Morrison, Passport to Hollywood, SUNY Press, 1998) Flashback A shift in a narrative to an earlier event that interrupts the normal chronological development of a story. From the Middle English "splash" + "back"

Genre is a flexible term; within these broad boundaries exist many subdivisions that are often called genres themselves. For example, prose can be divided into fiction (novels and short stories) or nonfiction (essays, biographies, autobiographies, etc.). Poetry can be divided into lyric, dramatic, narrative, epic, etc. Drama can be divided into tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce, etc. On the AP language exam, expect the majority of the passages to be from the following genres: autobiography, biography, diaries, criticism, essays, and journalistic, political, scientific, and nature writing. There may be fiction or poetry. Genre – The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama.

Western Rugged cowboys, six shooters, horses; set in the American West in the second half of the 19th century Science fiction Extrapolated or theoretical future science and technology. Often set on other planets, outer space, or future version of Earth Fantasy fiction Set in fanciful, invented or alternate worlds, or in a legendary, mythic past. Involve magic, mystical elements, or supernatural creatures Detective fiction Synonymous with mystery. Involve solving of a crime, usually one or more murders, by a protagonist who may or may not be a professional investigator. Generic conventions – This term describes traditions for each genre. These conventions help to define each genre; for example, they differentiate an essay and journalistic writing or an autobiography and political writing. On the AP language exam, try to distinguish the unique features of a writer’s work from those dictated by convention.

Hasty Generalization A fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. "It is not uncommon for an arguer to draw a conclusion or generalization based on only a few instances of a phenomenon. In fact, a generalization is often drawn from a single piece of supporting data, an act that might be described as committing the fallacy of the lonely fact "Some areas of inquiry have quite sophisticated guidelines for determining the sufficiency of a sample, such as in voter preference samples or television viewing samples. In many areas, however, there are no such guidelines to assist us in determining what would be sufficient grounds for the truth of a particular conclusion.“ (T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 4th ed. Wadsworth, 2001) "Next we take up a fallacy called Hasty Generalization. Listen carefully: You can't speak French. I can't speak French. Petey Burch can't speak French. I must therefore conclude that nobody at the University of Minnesota can speak French." "Really," said Polly, amazed. "Nobody?" I hid my exasperation. "Polly, it's a fallacy. The generalization is reached too hastily. There are too few instances to support such a conclusion." (Max Shulman, "Love Is a Fallacy") Robin: I guess you can never trust a woman. Batman: You've made a hasty generalization, Robin. It's a bad habit to get into. (Batman television series, 1966) Also Known As: insufficient sample, faulty generalization, secundum quid

moral or spiritual advice.
Excerpt of Homily of His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedictus XVI) delivered the following homily at the Funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II on the 8th of April, 2005 in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican. "Follow me." The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock. "Follow me" - this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the key to understanding the message which comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality - our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude. These are the sentiments that inspire us, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, present here in Saint Peter's Square, in neighboring streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome, where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to Heads of State, Heads of Government and the delegations from various countries. I greet the Authorities and official representatives of other Churches and Christian Communities, and likewise those of different religions. Next I greet the Archbishops, Bishops, priests, religious men and women and the faithful who have come here from every Continent; especially the young, whom John Paul II liked to call the future and the hope of the Church. My greeting is extended, moreover, to all those throughout the world who are united with us through radio and television in this solemn celebration of our beloved Holy Father's funeral. Homily – This term literally means “sermon,” but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. Greek homilia, meaning “converse or discourse.”

opposite of hyperbole is understatement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together." (Kent Brockman, The Simpsons) "Kingsley fell over. And this was no brisk trip or tumble. It was an act of colossal administration. First came a kind of slow-leak effect, giving me the immediate worry that Kingsley, when fully deflated, would spread out into the street on both sides of the island, where there were cars, trucks, sneezing buses. Next, as I grabbed and tugged, he felt like a great ship settling on its side: would it right itself, or go under? Then came an impression of overall dissolution and the loss of basic physical coherence. I groped around him, looking for places to shore him up, but every bit of him was falling, dropping, seeking the lowest level, like a mudslide." (Martin Amis, describing his father) "O for the gift of Rostand's Cyrano to invoke the vastness of that nose alone as it cleaves the giant screen from east to west, bisects it from north to south. It zigzags across our horizon like a bolt of fleshy lightning." (John Simon, review of Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born, 1976) Hyperbole – A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. (The literal Greek meaning is “overshoot.”) Hyperboles often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Often, hyperbole produces irony. The opposite of hyperbole is understatement. From the Greek, "excess"

A rose may present visual imagery while also representing the color in a woman’s cheeks and/or symbolizing some degree of perfection. An author may use complex imagery while simultaneously employing other figures of speech, especially metaphor and simile. In addition, this term can apply to the total of all the images in a work. On the AP language exam, pay attention to how an author creates imagery and to the effect of this imagery. "The artist's life nourishes itself on the particular, the concrete Start with the mat-green fungus in the pine woods yesterday: words about it, describing it, and a poem will come Write about the cow, Mrs. Spaulding's heavy eyelids, the smell of vanilla flavouring in a brown bottle. That's where the magic mountains begin.“ (Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, edited by Karen Kukil, Anchor, 2000) "At the next table a woman stuck her nose in a novel; a college kid pecked at a laptop. Overlaying all this, a soundtrack: choo-k-choo-k-choo-k-choo- k-choo-k--the metronomic rhythm of an Amtrak train rolling down the line to California, a sound that called to mind an old camera reel moving frames of images along a linear track, telling a story." (Andy Isaacson, "Riding the Rails," The New York Times, March 8, 2009) Imagery – The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. On a broader and deeper level, however, one image can represent more than one thing. From the Latin, "image"

"The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.“ (Stendhal) "Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint.“ (Don Marquis) "If natural language had been designed by a logician, idioms would not exist.“ (Philip Johnson-Laird, 1993) "Fads are the kiss of death. When the fad goes away, you go with it.“ (Conway Twitty) "I worked the graveyard shift with old people, which was really demoralizing, because the old people didn't have a chance in hell of ever getting out.“ (Kate Millett) Idiom - From the Latin, "own, personal, private" A set expression of two or more words that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words

Induction A method of reasoning by which a rhetor collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances. "Inductively valid, or correct, arguments, unlike deductively valid ones, have conclusions that go beyond what is contained in their premises. The idea behind valid induction is that of learning from experience. We often observe patterns, resemblances, and other kinds of regularities in our experiences, some quite simple (sugar sweetening coffee), some very complicated (objects moving according to Newton's laws--well, Newton noticed this, anyway) "Here is a simple example of an inductively valid argument of the kind sometimes called induction by enumeration: I loaned my friend $50 last November and he failed to pay me back. (Premise) I loaned him another $50 just before Christmas, which he hasn't paid back (Premise), and yet another $25 in January, which is still unpaid. (Premise) I suppose it's time to face facts: He's never going to pay me back. (Conclusion) "We use inductive reasoning so frequently in everyday life that its nature generally goes unnoticed." (H. Kahane and N. Cavender, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, 1998) From the Latin, "to lead in"

Inference/infer – To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. When a multiple choice question asks for an inference to be drawn from a passage, the most direct, most reasonable inference is the safest answer choice. If an inference is implausible, it’s unlikely to be the correct answer. Note that if the answer choice is directly stated, it is not inferred and it is wrong. You must be careful to note the connotation – negative or positive – of the choices. "People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false: a gift confers no rights.“ (Friedrich Nietzsche) "Deduction is typically distinguished from induction by the fact that only for the former is the truth of an inference guaranteed by the truth of the premises on which it is based (given that all men are mortal and that Socrates is a man, we can deduce with complete certainty that Socrates is mortal). The fact that an inference is a valid deduction, however, is no guarantee that it is of the slightest interest. For example, if we know that snow is white, we are free to apply a standard rule of deductive inference to conclude that either 'snow is white or lions wear argyle socks.' In most realistic contexts such deductions will be as worthless as they are valid.“ (John H. Holland, Keith J. Holyoak, Richard E. Nisbett, and Paul R. Thagard, Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery, MIT Press, 1996) From the Latin, "bring in"

(For example, in Henry IV, Part I, Prince Hal calls the large character of Falstaff “this sanguine coward, this bedpresser, this horseback breaker, this huge hill of flesh.”) "A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir to a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deni'st the least syllable of thy addition." (William Shakespeare, King Lear, II.2) "Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines, the slimy, the belly-wriggling invertebrates, the miserable sodding rotters, the flaming sods, the snivelling, dribbling, dithering, palsied pulse-less lot that make up England today God, how I hate them! God curse them, funkers. God blast them, wishwash. Extermine them, slime." (D.H. Lawrence, letter to editor Edward Garnett) "Well, of course, this is just the sort of blinkered philistine pig-ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage. You sit there on your loathsome spotty behinds squeezing blackheads, not caring a tinker's cuss for the struggling artist. You excrement, you whining hypocritical toadies with your colour TV sets and your Tony Jacklin golf clubs and your bleeding masonic secret handshakes. You wouldn't let me join, would you, you blackballing bastards. Well I wouldn't become a Freemason now if you went down on your lousy stinking knees and begged me." (John Cleese in Monty Python's "The Architect Sketch") Invective – an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. (For example, in Henry IV, Part I, Prince Hal calls the large character of Falstaff “this sanguine coward, this bedpresser, this horseback breaker, this huge hill of flesh.”) From the Latin, "to inveigh against"

there are three major types of irony used in language: (1) verbal irony – when the words literally state the opposite of the writer’s (or speaker’s) meaning (2) situational irony – when events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen (3) dramatic irony – when facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work. "It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, launder became a dirty word." (William Zinsser) "I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it." (Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons) "Irony has always been a primary tool the under-powered use to tear at the over-powered in our culture. But now irony has become the bait that media corporations use to appeal to educated consumers It's almost an ultimate irony that those who say they don't like TV will sit and watch TV as long as the hosts of their favorite shows act like they don't like TV, either. Somewhere in this swirl of droll poses and pseudo-insights, irony itself becomes a kind of mass therapy for a politically confused culture. It offers a comfortable space where complicity doesn't feel like complicity. It makes you feel like you are counter-cultural while never requiring you to leave the mainstream culture it has so much fun teasing. We are happy enough with this therapy that we feel no need to enact social change." (Dan French, review of The Daily Show, 2001) Irony/ironic – The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, or the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true. Irony is often used to create poignancy or humor. In general, there are three major types of irony used in language: (1) verbal irony – when the words literally state the opposite of the writer’s (or speaker’s) meaning (2) situational irony – when events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen (3) dramatic irony – when facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work. Verbal irony is a trope in which the intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express. Situational irony involves an incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs. Dramatic irony is an effect produced by a narrative in which the audience knows more about present or future circumstances than a character in the story From Greek, "feigned ignorance"

"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."
(Mark Twain) "It takes a licking, but it keeps on ticking!“ (advertising slogan of Timex watches) "Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the sufferer. Terror is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause.“ (James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.“ (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) Isocolon A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. From the Greek, "of equal members or clauses" From the Greek, "of equal members or clauses"

"Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon: instead of principles, slogans: and, instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas.“ (Eric Bentley) "Jargon is the verbal sleight of hand that makes the old hat seem newly fashionable; it gives an air of novelty and specious profundity to ideas that, if stated directly, would seem superficial, stale, frivolous, or false.“ (David Lehman) "'Hygienic treatment' is funeral jargon for the temporary preservation of a corpse.“ (Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death) "Should jargon be censored? Many people think it should. However, close examination of jargon shows that, although some of it is vacuous pretentiousness, and therefore dysphemistic, its proper use is both necessary and unobjectionable.“ (K. Allen and K. Burridge, Forbidden Words, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006) "Pigs in a blanket sixty-nine cents, Eggs--roll 'em over and a package of Kents, Adam and Eve on a log, you can sink 'em damn straight, Hash browns, hash browns, you know I can't be late.“ (Tom Waits, "Ghosts Of Saturday Night") "Generally, when people use jargon not to communicate but to impress their audiences with their importance or use it to announce membership in a group, communication suffers and the jargon can quickly degenerate into something close to the twittering of birds.“ (W. Lutz, "Jargon," Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992) Jargon The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders. From Old French, "the twittering of birds, meaningless talk"

Juxtaposition – When 2 contrasting things – ideas, words
Juxtaposition – When 2 contrasting things – ideas, words. Or sentence elements – are placed next to each other for comparison. It sheds light on both elements of the comparison. Most common form is an oxymoron. The coldness of the room shocked my skin, still warm from the heat of the kitchen hearth. As Faith’s virtue would rival that of Christ himself, Simon’s duplicity could only be equaled with that of Judas.

tiny little tumor on the brain” (Salinger, Catcher in the Rye).
"The grave's a fine a private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.“ (Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress") "We are not amused.“ (attributed to Queen Victoria) "'Not a bad day's work on the whole,' he muttered, as he quietly took off his mask, and his pale, fox-like eyes glittered in the red glow of the fire. 'Not a bad day's work.'" (Baroness Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1905) "for life's not a paragraph And death I think is no parenthesis" (e.e. cummings, "since feeling is first") "What we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter or eff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail.“ (Samuel Beckett) "We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.“ (Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address to the Nation, January 20, 1989) Litotes (pronounced almost like “little tee”) – a form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. Litote is the opposite of hyperbole. Examples: “Not a bad idea,” “Not many,” “It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain” (Salinger, Catcher in the Rye). From the Greek, "plainness, simplicity"

"A loose sentence makes its major point at the beginning and then adds subordinate phrases and clauses that develop or modify the point. A loose sentence could end at one or more points before it actually does, as the periods in brackets illustrate in the following example: It went up[.], a great ball of fire about a mile in diameter[.], an elemental force freed from its bonds[.] after being chained for billions of years. A periodic sentence delays its main idea until the end by presenting modifiers or subordinate ideas first, thus holding the readers' interest until the end." (Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu, The Business Writer's Companion. Macmillan, 2007) The number of ideas in loose sentences is easily increased by adding phrases and clauses, related either to the main constructions or to a preceding subordinate one: I found a large hall, obviously a former garage, dimly lit, and packed with cots. (Eric Hoffer) I knew I had found a friend in the woman, who herself was a lonely soul, never having known the love of man or child. (Emma Goldman) As the number of subordinate constructions increases, the loose sentence approaches the cumulative style." (Thomas S. Kane, The New Oxford Guide to Writing. Oxford Univ. Press, 1988) Loose sentence/non-periodic sentence – A type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses. If a period were placed at the end of the independent clause, the clause would be a complete sentence. A work containing many loose sentences often seems informal, relaxed, or conversational. Generally, loose sentences create loose style. The opposite of a loose sentence is the periodic sentence. Example: I arrived at the San Diego airport after a long, bumpy ride and multiple delays. Could stop at: I arrived at the San Diego airport.

metaphor – A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity. Metaphorical language makes writing more vivid, imaginative, thought provoking, and meaningful. "The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner." (Cynthia Ozick, "Rosa") "But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill." (William Sharp, "The Lonely Hunter") "Men's words are bullets, that their enemies take up and make use of against them." (George Savile, Maxims of State) "A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind." (Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors) "The rain came down in long knitting needles." (Enid Bagnold, National Velvet) Lenny: Hey, maybe there is no cabin. Maybe it's one of them metaphorical things. Carl: Oh yeah, yeah. Like maybe the cabin is the place inside each of us, created by our goodwill and teamwork. Lenny: Nah, they said there would be sandwiches. (The Simpsons) "Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food." (Austin O'Malley, Keystones of Thought) From the Greek, "carrying over"

-For example, a news release that claims “the White House declared” rather than “the President declared” is using metonymy; Shakespeare uses it to signify the male and female sexes in As You Like It: “doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat.” The substituted term generally carries a more potent emotional impact. -"Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood.“ (Conan O'Brien) -"I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn't do me any good. All they did was make me think of Silver Wig, and I never saw her again." (Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep) -"Many standard items of vocabulary are metonymic. A red-letter day is important, like the feast days marked in red on church calendars On the level of slang, a redneck is a stereotypical member of the white rural working class in the Southern U.S., originally a reference to necks sunburned from working in the fields.“ (Connie Eble, "Metonymy," The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992) -"Whitehall prepares for a hung parliament.“ (The Guardian, January 1, 2009) -The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our savings. -"The B.L.T. left without paying.“ (waitress referring to a customer) -"Metaphor creates the relation between its objects, while metonymy presupposes that relation.“ (Hugh Bredin, "Metonymy," Poetics Today, 1984) metonymy – (mĕtŏn′ ĭmē) A term from the Greek meaning “changed label” or “substitute name,” metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. From the Greek, "change of name"

Indicative mood "Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering--and it's all over much too soon." (Woody Allen) imperative mood "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." (President John F. Kennedy) subjunctive mood "If I were rich, I'd have the time that I lack To sit in the synagogue and pray." (from Fiddler on the Roof) The distinction between major and minor mood is not clear-cut, but intuitively minor moods (1) are highly restricted in their productivity, (2) are peripheral to communication, (3) are probably low in their relative frequency of occurrence, and (4) vary widely across languages." (A. Akmajian, R. Demers, A. Farmer, and R. Harnish, Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication. MIT Press, 2001) "The major moods of English are traditionally said to be declarative, imperative, and interrogative. . . But there are also minor moods, exemplified by the following examples: Tag declarative: You've been drinking again, haven't you. Tag imperative: Leave the room, will you! Pseudo-imperative: Move and I'll shoot! Move or I'll shoot! Alternative questions: Does John resemble his father or his mother? (with rising intonation on father and falling intonation on mother Exclamative: What a nice day! Optative: May he rest in peace. "One more" sentence: One more beer and I'll leave. Curse: You pig, bag of wind, . . .! Mood – The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect the mood. Mood is similar to tone and atmosphere. quality of a verb that conveys the writer's attitude toward a subject. In English, the indicative mood is used to make factual statements or pose questions, the imperative mood to express a request or command, and the (rarely used) subjunctive mood to show a wish, doubt, or anything else contrary to fact

"The barber was cutting our hair, and our eyes were closed--as they are so likely to be Deep in a world of our own, he heard, from far away, a voice saying goodbye. It was a customer of the shop, leaving. 'Goodbye,' he said to the barbers. 'Goodbye,' echoed the barbers. And without ever returning to consciousness, or opening our eyes, or thinking, we joined in. 'Goodbye,' we said, before we could catch ourself. Then, all at once, the sadness of the occasion struck us, the awful dolor of bidding farewell to someone we had never seen. We have since wondered what he looked like, and whether it was really goodbye." (E.B. White, "Sadness of Parting," The New Yorker, May 4, 1935) "In narrative writing, an author has a chance to make his or her mark on the world by relating a story that only he or she can tell. Whether it comes from a personal experience or is one that the writer has imagined, the point of a narrative is to bring one's subject to life. By using sensory details, the five Ws and H (who, what, where, when, why, and how), and basic story structure, any subject can be made exciting." (Lauren Spencer, A Step-by-Step Guide to Narrative Writing, Rosen, 2005) "Narrative tension or narrative 'pull' is just as important in creative nonfiction as it is in fiction [Y]ou need to think about when to withhold information and when to reveal it." (Kristen Iversen, Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, Pearson, 2004) Narrative – The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. From the Latin, "knowing

"Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot. Had they heard it
"Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear; Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear? (Alfred Noyes, "The Highwayman") "I'm getting married in the morning! Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime." (Lerner and Loewe, "Get Me to the Church on Time," My Fair Lady) "One of these days, Alice. Pow! Right in the kisser!“ (Jackie Gleason, The Honeymooners) "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.“ (slogan of Alka Seltzer, U.S.) "Plink, plink, fizz, fizz“ (Alka Seltzer, U.K.) "Klunk! Klick! Every trip“ (U.K. promotion for seat belts) "I have a new book, 'Batman: Cacophony.' Batman faces off against a character called Onomatopoeia. His shtick is that he doesn't speak; he just mimics the noises you can print in comic books." (Kevin Smith, Newsweek, Oct. 27, 2008) "[Aredelia] found Starling in the warm laundry room, dozing against the slow rump-rump of a washing machine." (Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs) Onomatopoeia – A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum, crack, whinny, and murmur. If you note examples of onomatopoeia in an essay passage, note the effect. From the Latin, "to make names"

note of the effect that the author achieves with the use of oxymoron.
"O brawling love! O loving hate! . . . O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this." (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) "A yawn may be defined as a silent yell." (G.K. Chesterton) "O miserable abundance, O beggarly riches!" (John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions) "'I want to move with all deliberate haste,' said President-elect Barack Obama at his first, brief press conference after his election, 'but I emphasize "deliberate" as well as "haste."' "The phrase 'domestic cat' is an oxymoron." (George Will) the expressions "act naturally," "original copy," "found missing," "alone together," "peace force," "definite possibility," "terribly pleased," "real phony," "ill health," "turn up missing," "jumbo shrimp," "alone together," "loose tights," "small crowd," and "clearly misunderstood" Oxymoron – From the Greek for “pointedly foolish,” an oxymoron is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox. Simple examples include “jumbo shrimp” and “cruel kindness.” This term does not usually appear in the multiple-choice questions, but there is a chance that you might find it in an essay. Take note of the effect that the author achieves with the use of oxymoron. From the Greek, "sharp-dull"

-"The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot
-"The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot.“ (Henry David Thoreau, Walden) -"If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness.“ (Alexander Smith) -"A dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tale when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased and wag my tale when I'm angry." (The Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) -"War is peace.“ "Freedom is slavery.“ "Ignorance is strength.“ (George Orwell, 1984) -"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.“ (Joseph Heller, Catch-22) -"Paradox of Success: the more successful a policy is in warding off some unwanted condition the less necessary it will be thought to maintain it. If a threat is successfully suppressed, people naturally wonder why we should any longer bother with it."(James Piereson, "On the Paradox of Success," Real Clear Politics, September 11, 2006) -"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.“ (C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) Paradox – A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. (Think of the beginning of Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....”) From the Greek, "incredible, contrary to opinion or expectation"

-"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.“ (T.S. Eliot)
-“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of believe, it was the epoch of incredulity....” Dickens, Tale of Two Cities "The more we do, the more we can do.“ (William Hazlitt) -"Voltaire could both lick boots and put the boot in. He was at once opportunist and courageous, cunning and sincere. He managed, with disconcerting ease, to reconcile love of freedom with love of hours.“ (Dominique Edde) -"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s precisely the opposite.“ (John Kenneth Galbraith) -"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.“ (Martin Luther King, Jr.) -"Our transportation crisis will be solved by a bigger plane or a wider road, mental illness with a pill, poverty with a law, slums with a bulldozer, urban conflict with a gas, racism with a goodwill gesture.“ (Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness) -"I don’t want to live on in my work. I want to live on in my apartment.“ (Woody Allen) -"Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of fun.“ (slogan of Kentucky Fried Chicken) -"The loss we felt was not the loss of ham but the loss of pig.“ (E. B. White, "Death of a Pig") -"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.“ (T.S. Eliot) -"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.“ (Tom Robbins) -"Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude.“ (Jesse Jackson) Parallelism – Also referred to as parallel construction or parallel structure, this term comes from Greek roots meaning “beside one another.” It refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. This can involve, but is not limited to, repetition of a grammatical element such as a preposition or verbal phrase. The effects of parallelism are numerous, but frequently they act as an organizing force to attract the reader’s attention, add emphasis and organization, or simply provide a musical rhythm. From the Greek, "beside one another"

"Look at me, I’m white and nerdy I wanna roll with The gangstas
"I rolled into Searchlight around midnight and walked into Rosie's beer joint to get a cold one after the ride over from Vegas. He was the first one I saw. I looked at him and he stared back at me with those flat blue eyes. He was giving me that kind of howdy wave with his good right arm while his left sleeve hung armless from the shoulder. He was dressed up like a cowboy." (Cactus Jack, "The One-Armed Bandit," 2006 "Bad Hemingway" competition) "Look at me, I’m white and nerdy I wanna roll with The gangstas But so far they all think I’m too white and nerdy "First in my class here at MIT Got skills, I’m a champion at D&D MC Escher--that’s my favorite MC Keep your 40, I’ll just have an Earl Grey tea. My rims never spin, to the contrary You’ll find that they’re quite stationary. All of my action figures are cherry Steven Hawking’s in my library. My MySpace page is all totally pimped out Got people beggin’ for my top eight spaces. Yo, I know pi to a thousand places Ain’t got no grills but I still wear braces." (Weird Al Yankovic, "White and Nerdy"--parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire) Parody – A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. It exploits peculiarities of an author’s expression (propensity to use too many parentheses, certain favorite words, etc.) Well-written parody offers enlightenment about the original, but poorly written parody offers only ineffectual imitation. Usually an audience must grasp literary allusion and understand the work being parodied in order to fully appreciate the nuances of the newer work. Occasionally, however, parodies take on a life of their own and don’t require knowledge of the original. From the Greek, "beside" or "counter" plus "song"

There once was a little brown dog named Spot
There once was a little brown dog named Spot. He was owned by two children named Dick and Jane. They liked to play fetch with him. Sometimes they could play fetch all day long. Or: Moons ago in a kingdom notably abstracted and extraneous, lived and breathed and existed a diminutive russet spaniel by the moniker of "Spot", christened so by its exponentially affectionate benefactors, Richard Hammond Quail III and his bloodsister Jane Queen of Scots. O how the siblings adulated and canonized the terrier, O how they capered and made merry in the fecund grasses of their evanescent youth, O how their myriad games of retriever o'er a sprightly gust of Mother Earth's wind delighted e'ry sense of their anatomies. O how they could frolic and retrieve all the hours and nanoseconds of the Earth's existence! Pedantic – An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish (language that might be described as “show-offy”; using big words for the sake of using big words).

bumpy flight and multiple delays, I arrived at the San Diego airport.)
"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (The King James Bible, I Corinthians 13) "Democracy is that system of government under which people, having 60,000,000 native-born adults to choose from, including thousands who are handsome and many who are wise, pick out a Coolidge to be head of state. It is as if a hungry man, set before a banquet prepared by master cooks and covering a table an acre in area, should turn his back upon the feast and stay his stomach by catching and eating flies." (H. L. Mencken, "The Comedian") "Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed." (Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales) "The proper place in the sentence for the word or group of words that the writer desires to make most prominent is usually the end." (William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, The Elements of Style) Periodic sentence – The opposite of loose sentence, a sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. This independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. The effect of a periodic sentence is to add emphasis and structural variety. It is also a much stronger sentence than the loose sentence. (Example: After a long, bumpy flight and multiple delays, I arrived at the San Diego airport.) From the Greek, "going around, circuit"

"Of the three appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos, it is the [last] that impels an audience to act. Emotions range from mild to intense; some, such as well-being, are gentle attitudes and outlooks, while others, such as sudden fury, are so intense that they overwhelm rational thought. Images are particularly effective in arousing emotions, whether those images are visual and direct as sensations, or cognitive and indirect as memory or imagination, and part of a rhetor's task is to associate the subject with such images." (L. D. Greene, "Pathos," Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, Oxford University Press, 2001) "[T]his is the lesson: Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated. Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer." (Winston Churchill, "To the Boys of Harrow School," October 29, 1941) Pathos The means of persuasion that appeals to the audience's emotions.

The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his fingers and
As personifications of their respective nations, England and the U.S., John Bull and Uncle Sam became popular during the 19th century. The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his fingers and Kicked the withered leaves about And thumped the branches with his hand "Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there." (proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos) "Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie." (slogan on a package of Oreo cookies) "Only the champion daisy trees were serene. After all, they were part of a rain forest already two thousand years old and scheduled for eternity, so they ignored the men and continued to rock the diamondbacks that slept in their arms. It took the river to persuade them that indeed the world was altered." (Toni Morrison, Tar Baby) personification – A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions. Personification is used to make these abstractions, animals, or objects appear more vivid to the reader.

point of view – In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. There are two general divisions of point of view, and many subdivisions within those. (1) first person narrator tells the story with the first person pronoun, “I,” and is a character in the story. This narrator can be the protagonist, a secondary character, or an observing character. (2) third person narrator relates the events with the third person pronouns, “he,” “she,” and “it.” There are two main subdivisions to be aware of: a. third person omniscient, in which the narrator, with godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters b. third person limited omniscient, in which the narrator presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all the remaining characters. In addition, be aware that the term point of view carries an additional meaning. When you are asked to analyze the author’s point of view, the appropriate point for you to address is the author’s attitude.

"I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry: that is, prose = words in their best order;-- poetry = the best words in the best order.“ (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk, July 12, 1827) Philosophy Teacher: All that is not prose is verse; and all that is not verse is prose. M. Jourdain: What? When I say: "Nicole, bring me my slippers, and give me my night-cap," is that prose? Philosophy Teacher: Yes, sir. M. Jourdain: Good heavens! For more than 40 years I have been speaking prose without knowing it. (Molière, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, 1671) "[O]ne can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a window pane." (George Orwell, "Why I Write," 1946) "For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of battle. It has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty.“ (John Cheever, on accepting the National Medal for Literature, 1982) "Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it.“ (Jeremy Bentham) "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.“ (Governor Mario Cuomo, New Republic, April 8, 1985) prose – one of the major divisions of genre, prose refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms. In prose the printer determines the length of the line; in poetry, the poet determines the length of the line. From the Latin, "forward" + "turn"

"When it rains, it pours.“ (advertising slogan for Morton Salt)
"What food these morsels be!“ (slogan of Heinz pickles, 1938) "American Home has an edifice complex.“ (slogan of American Home magazine) "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight“ (Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night") "Look deep into our ryes.“ (slogan of Wigler's Bakery) "Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.“ (Fred Allen) A vulture boards a plane, carrying two dead possums. The attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger." "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.“ (Groucho Marx) "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms.“ (Walter Redfern, Puns, 1974) Pun - A play on words, either on different senses of the same word or on the similar sense or sound of different words

We Americans are a charitable and humane people: we have institutions devoted to every good cause from rescuing homeless cats to preventing World War III. But what have we done to promote the art of thinking? Certainly we make no room for thought in our daily lives. Suppose a man were to say to his friends, "I'm not going to PTA tonight (or choir practice or the baseball game) because I need some time to myself, some time to think"? Such a man would be shunned by his neighbors; his family would be ashamed of him. What if a teenager were to say, "I'm not going to the dance tonight because I need some time to think"? His parents would immediately start looking in the Yellow Pages for a psychiatrist. We are all too much like Julius Caesar: we fear and distrust people who think too much. We believe that almost anything is more important than thinking. (Carolyn Kane, from "Thinking: A Neglected Art," in Newsweek, 14 December 1981) There are couples who dislike one another furiously for several hours at a time; there are couples who dislike one another permanently; and there are couples who never dislike one another; but these last are people who are incapable of disliking anybody. The question we writers are asked most often, the favorite question, is: Why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write. I write because I can’t do normal work as other people do. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake of real life only by changing it. I write because I want others, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all life’s beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but--as in a dream--can’t quite get to. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy. (The Nobel Lecture, 7 December Translated from the Turkish, by Maureen Freely. © THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2006) repetition – The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern.

Refutation The part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. "Refutation of Objections should generally be placed in the midst of the Argument; but nearer the beginning than the end. "If indeed very strong objections have obtained much currency, or have been just stated by an opponent, so that what is asserted is likely to be regarded as paradoxical, it may be advisable to begin with a Refutation." (Richard Whately, Elements of Rhetoric, 1846) "There will be those who say 'Go slow. Don't upset the status quo.' No doubt we will hear this from competitors who perceive that they have an advantage today and want regulation to protect their advantage. Or we will hear from those who are behind in the race to compete and want to slow down deployment for their own self interest. Or we will hear from those that just want to resist changing the status quo for no other reason than change brings less certainty than the status quo. They will resist change for that reason alone. "So we may well hear from a whole chorus of naysayers. And to all of them I have only one response: we cannot afford to wait. We cannot afford to let the homes and schools and businesses throughout America wait. Not when we have seen the future. We have seen what high capacity broadband can do for education and for our economy. We must act today to create an environment where all competitors have a fair shot at bringing high capacity bandwidth to consumers- -especially residential consumers. And especially residential consumers in rural and underserved areas." (William Kennard, Chairman of the FCC, July 27, 1998) part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. One of the progymnasmata From the Old English, "beat"

rhetorical modes – This flexible term describes the variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of writing. The four most common rhetorical modes (often referred to as “modes of discourse”) are as follows: (1) The purpose of exposition (or expository writing) is to explain and analyze information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence, and appropriate discussion. The AP language exam essay questions are frequently expository topics. (2) The purpose of argumentation is to prove the validity of an idea, or point of view, by presenting sound reasoning, discussion, and argument that thoroughly convince the reader. Persuasive writing is a type of argumentation having an additional aim of urging some form of action. (3) The purpose of description is to recreate, invent, or visually present a person, place, event or action so that the reader can picture that being described. Sometimes an author engages all five senses in description; good descriptive writing can be sensuous and picturesque. Descriptive writing may be straightforward and objective or highly emotional an subjective. (4) The purpose of narration is to tell a story or narrate an event or series of events. This writing mode frequently uses the tools of descriptive writing. rhetoric – From the Greek for “orator,” this term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively.

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? If you prick us, do we not bleed, if you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? (Shylock in William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice) "Can I ask a rhetorical question? Well, can I?“ (Ambrose Bierce) "Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?“ (H. L. Mencken) "Aren't you glad you use Dial? Don't you wish everybody did?"(1960s television advertisement for Dial soap) Grandma Simpson and Lisa are singing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" ("How many roads must a man walk down/Before you call him a man?"). Homer overhears and says, "Eight!" Lisa: "That was a rhetorical question!" Homer: "Oh. Then, seven!" Lisa: "Do you even know what 'rhetorical' means?" Homer: "Do I know what 'rhetorical' means?“ (The Simpsons, "When Grandma Simpson Returns") "If practice makes perfect, and no one's perfect, then why practice?“ (Billy Corgan) "Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice'?“ (George Carlin) Rhetorical Question A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.

"It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it." (Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep) "It's like I was making a prison break, you know. And I'm heading for the wall, and I trip and I twist my ankle, and they throw the light on you, you know. So, somehow I get through the crying and I keep running. Then the cursing started. She's firing at me from the guard tower: 'Son of a bang! Son of a boom!' I get to the top of the wall, the front door. I opened it up, I'm one foot away. I took one last look around the penitentiary, and I jumped!" (George Costanza, "The Ex-Girlfriend" episode of Seinfeld) "He could feel it under his feet. [The train] came boring out of the east like some ribald satellite of the coming sun howling and bellowing in the distance and the long light of the headlamp running through the tangled mesquite brakes and creating out of the night the endless fenceline down the dead straight right of way and sucking it back again wire and post mile on mile into the darkness after where the boilersmoke disbanded slowly along the faint new horizon and the sound came lagging and he stood still holding his hat in his hands in the passing groundshudder watching it till it was gone." (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses) Running Style Sentence style that appears to follow the mind as it worries a problem through, mimicking the "rambling, associative syntax of conversation"--the opposite of periodic sentence style. Sentence style that appears to follow the mind as it worries a problem through, mimicking the "rambling, associative syntax of conversation." (Richard Lanham, Analyzing Prose). Opposite of periodic sentence style

Dr. House: So you're treating professional sports injuries now?
"Oh, a sarcasm detector. That’s a really useful invention!“ (Comic Book Guy, The Simpsons) Dr. House: So you're treating professional sports injuries now? Patient: Oh, no, I'm not . . . Dr. House: familiar with the concept of sarcasm. Don't sweat it, it's new. ("Dying Changes Everything," House, M.D.) "Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.“ (Samuel Butler) Teen 1: Oh, here comes that cannonball guy. He's cool. Teen 2: Are you being sarcastic, dude? Teen 1: I don't even know anymore. ("Homerpalooza," The Simpsons) "Let it be first provided that this figure (sarcasmus) be not used without some great cause which may well deserve it, as arrogancie, insolent pride, wilfull folly, shamefull lecherie, ridiculous avarice, or such like, for it is both folly and rudenesse to use derision without cause: but to mocke silly people, innocents, or men in misery, or the poore in distresse, argueth both the pride of the mind, and the crueltie of the heart.“ (Henry Peachum, The Garden of Eloquence, 1593) "Whatever the reason, I was saddled with this strange name, which meant that I was constantly, constantly, being serenaded with the sometimes you feel like a nut Almond Joy/Mounds jingle, which I would have liked to quote in full, except that Hershey's legal staff denied me permission. I can certainly understand why. God only knows what ruin might befall Hershey's if this jingle--which hasn't been used in two decades--were suddenly brazenly resurrected by a young Jewish candyfreak. One shudders to consider the fallout for the entire fragile candy-trademark-jingle trademark ecosystem.“ (Steve Almond, Candyfreak, 2004) sarcasm – From the Greek meaning “to tear flesh,” sarcasm involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. It may use irony as a device, but not all ironic statements are sarcastic (that is, intended to ridicule). When well done, sarcasm can be witty and insightful; when poorly done, it is simply cruel. See also: Verbal Irony Antiphrasis Chleuasmos A mocking, often ironic or satirical remark intended to wound. Adjective: sarcastic

satire – A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule. Regardless of whether or not the work aims to reform human behavior, satire is best seen as a style of writing rather than a purpose for writing. It can be recognized by the many devices used effectively by the satirist: irony, wit, parody, caricature, hyperbole, understatement, and sarcasm. The effects of satire are varied, depending on the writer’s goal, but good satire, often humorous, is thought provoking and insightful about the human condition. "Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own, which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it." (Jonathan Swift, preface to The Battle of the Books, 1704) "Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. One kind makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity--like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule--that's what I do." (Molly Ivins) "Satire is a lesson, parody is a game." (Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions, 1973) "[S]atire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it." (Lenny Bruce, The Essential Lenny Bruce, edited by John Cohen, 1967) "[A]busive satire is a wit contest, a kind of game in which the participants do their worst for the pleasure of themselves and their spectators If the exchange of insults is serious on one side, playful on the other, the satiric element is reduced." (Dustin H. Griffin, Satire: A Critical Reintroduction, University Press of Kentucky, 1994) "Unruly, wayward, frolicsome, critical, parasitic, at times perverse, malicious, cynical, scornful, unstable--it is at once pervasive yet recalcitrant, base yet impenetrable. Satire is the stranger that lives in the basement." (George Austin Test, Satire: Spirit and Art, University Press of Florida, 1991) text or performance that uses irony, derision, or wit to expose or attack human vice, foolishness, or stupidity. Adjective: satiric or satirical From the Latin, "medley," "mishmash," or "a dish filled with mixed fruits" (offered to the gods)

(David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2006)
"Any scientific approach to semantics has to be clearly distinguished from a pejorative sense of the term that has developed in popular use, when people talk about the way that language can be manipulated in order to mislead the public. A newspaper headline might read. 'Tax increases reduced to semantics'--referring to the way a government was trying to hide a proposed increase behind some carefully chosen words. Or someone might say in an argument, 'That's just semantics,' implying that the point is purely a verbal quibble, bearing no relationship to anything in the real world. This kind of nuance is absent when we talk about semantics from the objective point of linguistic research. The linguistic approach studies the properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to as wide a range of utterances and languages as possible." (David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2006) "A perennial problem in semantics is the delineation of its subject matter. The term meaning can be used in a variety of ways, and only some of these correspond to the usual understanding of the scope of linguistic or computational semantics. We shall take the scope of semantics to be restricted to the literal interpretations of sentences in a context, ignoring phenomena like irony, metaphor, or conversational implicature." (Stephen G. Pulman, "Basic Notions of Semantics." SRI International, Cambridge, England) semantics – The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. From the Greek, "sign"

"Human speech is like a cracked cauldron on which we bang out tunes that make bears dance, when we want to move the stars to pity.“ (Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary) "Humanity, let us say, is like people packed in an automobile which is traveling downhill without lights at terrific speed and driven by a four-year-old child. The signposts along the way are all marked 'Progress.'“ (Lord Dunsany) "Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.“ (Carl Sandburg) "My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain.“ (W.H. Auden) "He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.“ (Raymond Chandler) "The simile sets two ideas side by side; in the metaphor they become superimposed.“ (F.L. Lucas) "She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat.“ (James Joyce, "The Boarding House") "She has a voice like a baritone sax issuing from an oil drum, and hams even with her silences.“ (John Simon, reviewing Kathleen Turner in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, April 2005) "Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong.“ (slogan of Pan-American Coffee Bureau) "Life is rather like a tin of sardines: we're all of us looking for the key.“ (Alan Bennett) "Matt Leinart slid into the draft like a bald tire on black ice.“ (Rob Oller, Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 25, 2007) Simile A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by "like" or "as." From Latin, "likeness" or "comparison"

style – The consideration of style has two purposes: (1) An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. Some authors’ styles are so idiosyncratic that we can quickly recognize works by the same author. We can analyze and describe an author’s personal style and make judgments on how appropriate it is to the author’s purpose. Styles can be called flowery, explicit, succinct, rambling, bombastic, commonplace, incisive, laconic, etc. (2) Classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors. By means of such classification and comparison, we can see how an author’s style reflects and helps to define a historical period, such as the Renaissance or the Victorian period, or a literary movement, such as the romantic, transcendental, or realist movement. Style - way in which something is spoken, written, or performed. Narrowly interpreted as those figures that ornament discourse; broadly, as representing a manifestation of the person speaking or writing. All figures of speech fall within the domain of style

subject complement – The word (with any accompanying phrases) or clause that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it (the predicate nominative) or (2) describing it (the predicate adjective). These are defined below: (1) the predicate nominative – a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that renames the subject. It, like the predicate adjective, follows a linking verb and is located in the predicate of the sentence. Example: Julia Roberts is a movie star. movie star = predicate nominative, as it renames the subject, Julia Roberts (2) the predicate adjective -- an adjective, a group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb. It is in the predicate of the sentence, and modifies, or describes, the subject. Example: Warren remained optimistic. optimistic = predicate adjective, as it modifies the subject, Warren

"When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." (Mark Twain) "When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better." (Mae West, I'm No Angel) "Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events." (Albert Einstein) "If you can't leave in a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. (Groucho Marx, Duck Soup) "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.“ (John F. Kennedy) "Man, when you lose your laugh, you lose your footing.“ (Ken Kesey) "Every book is a children's book if the kid can read.“ (Mitch Hedberg) subordinate clause – Like all clauses, this word group contains both a subject and a verb (plus any accompanying phrases or modifiers), but unlike the independent clause, the subordinate clause cannot stand alone; it does not express a complete thought. Also called a dependent clause, the subordinate clause depends on a main clause (or independent clause) to complete its meaning. Easily recognized key words and phrases usually begin these clauses. clauses are introduced by a subordinator, which serves to indicate the dependent status of the clause together with its circumstantial meaning. Formally, subordinating conjunctions can be grouped as follows: -simple conjunctions: when, whenever, where, wherever, because, if, unless, until, while, as, although -conjunctive groups: as if, as though, even if, even though, even when, soon after, no sooner -complex conjunctions:: there are three subclasses: (i) derived from verbs . . .: provided (that), granted (that), considering (that), seeing (that), suppose (that), supposing (that), so (that) (ii) containing a noun: in case, in the event that, to the extent that, in spite of the fact that, the day, the way (iii) adverbial: so/as long as, as soon as, so/as far as, much as, now (that)

A frequently cited example proceeds as follows: major premise: All men are mortal. minor premise: Socrates is a man. conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is a mortal. A syllogism’s conclusion is valid only if each of the two premises is valid. Syllogisms may also present the specific idea first (“Socrates”) and the general second (“all men”) "On Meet the Press, [Tim] Russert reminded [George W.] Bush, 'The Boston Globe and the Associated Press have gone through some of their records and said there's no evidence that you reported to duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972.' Bush replied, 'Yeah, they're just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged.' That's the Bush syllogism: The evidence says one thing; the conclusion says another; therefore, the evidence is false." (William Saletan, Slate, Feb. 2004) Dr. House: Words have set meanings for a reason. If you see an animal like Bill and you try to play fetch, Bill's going to eat you, because Bill's a bear. Little Girl: Bill has fur, four legs, and a collar. He's a dog. Dr. House: You see, that's what's called a faulty syllogism; just because you call Bill a dog doesn't mean that he is a dog. ("Merry Little Christmas, House, M.D.) "LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion--thus: Major Premise: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man. Minor Premise: One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds; therefore--Conclusion: Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second. This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.“ (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary) syllogism – From the Greek for “reckoning together,” a syllogism (or syllogistic reasoning or syllogistic logic) is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises (the first one called “major” and the second called “minor”) that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. From the Greek, "to infer, count, reckon" form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Adjective: syllogistic. Compare with enthymeme. See also: Toulmin model

However, symbols and symbolism can be much more complex
However, symbols and symbolism can be much more complex. One system classifies symbols into three categories: (1) natural symbols are objects and occurrences from nature to symbolize ideas commonly associated with them (dawn symbolizing hope or a new beginning, a rose symbolizing love, a tree symbolizing knowledge). (2) conventional symbols are those that have been invested with meaning by a group (religious symbols such as a cross or Star of David; national symbols, such as a flag or an eagle; or group symbols, such as a skull and crossbones for pirates or the scale of justice for lawyers). (3) literary symbols are sometimes also conventional in the sense that they are found in a variety of works and are more generally recognized. However, a work’s symbols may be more complicated, as is the jungle in Heart of Darkness. On the AP exam, try to determine what abstraction an object is a symbol for and to what extent it is successful in representing that abstraction. symbol/symbolism – Generally, anything that represents itself and stands for something else. Usually a symbol is something concrete -- such as an object, action, character, or scene – that represents something more abstract.

-General Motors announced cutbacks.
-"The sputtering economy could make the difference if you're trying to get a deal on a new set of wheels.“ (Al Vaughters, WIVB.com, 11/21/08) -All hands on deck. -General Motors announced cutbacks. -"Take thy face hence.“ (William Shakespeare, Macbeth) -9/11 -"And let us mind, faint heart n'er wan A lady fair.“ (Robert Burns, "To Dr. Blalock") -white-collar criminals -"In photographic and filmic media a close-up is a simple synecdoche--a part representing the whole Synecdoche invites or expects the viewer to 'fill in the gaps' and advertisements frequently employ this trope." (Daniel Chandler, Semiotics: The Basics, Routledge, 2002) -Give us this day our daily bread. -"The daily press, the immediate media, is superb at synecdoche, at giving us a small thing that stands for a much larger thing." (Bruce Jackson) synecdoche – a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole or, occasionally, the whole is used to represent a part. Examples: To refer to a boat as a “sail”; to refer to a car as “wheels”; to refer to the violins, violas, etc. in an orchestra as “the strings.” **Different than metonymy, in which one thing is represented by another thing that is commonly physically associated with it (but is not necessarily a part of it), i.e., referring to a monarch as “the crown” or the President as “The White House.” figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it. Considered by some to be a form of metonymy. Adjective: synecdochic or synecdochal From the Greek, "shared understanding"

"The scent of the rose rang like a bell through the garden."
In this resulting figure of speech, we end up talking about how a color sounds, or how a smell looks. When we say a musician hits a "blue note" while playing a sad song, we engage in synaesthesia. When we talk about a certain shade of color as a "cool green," we mix tactile or thermal imagery with visual imagery the same way. When we talk about a "heavy silence," we also use synaesthesia. Examples abound: "The scent of the rose rang like a bell through the garden." "I caressed the darkness with cool fingers." French poets, especially Baudelaire in Les fleurs du mal, have proven especially eager to use synaesthesia. The term itself is a fairly late addition to rhetoric and literary terminology, first coined in 1892, though examples of this figure of speech can be found in Homer, Aeschylus, Donne, Shelley, Crashaw, and scores of other writers and poets. Also known as tropes. "The scent of the rose rang like a bell through the garden." "I caressed the darkness with cool fingers." synesthesia – when one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another. Ex: The sight of red ants makes you itchy. In literature, synesthesia refers to the practice of associating two or more different senses in the same image. Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song title,“Taste the Pain,” is an example. Grk. "perceiving together"

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."
syntax – The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is similar to diction, but you can differentiate them by thinking of syntax as groups of words, while diction refers to the individual words. In the multiple choice section of the AP exam, expect to be asked some questions about how an author manipulates syntax. In the essay section, you will need to analyze how syntax produces effects. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." (Linguist Noam Chomsky created this sentence--which is grammatically correct but incomprehensible--to demonstrate that the rules governing syntax are distinct from the meanings words convey.) "Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis." (Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures, 1971) The study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences (and one of the major components of grammar). (2) The arrangement of words in a sentence. Adjective: syntactic

theme – The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually theme is unstated in fictional works, but in nonfiction, the theme may be directly state, especially in expository or argumentative writing. Anyway, the theme of Charlotte's Web is that a pig shall be saved, and I have an idea that somewhere deep inside me there was a wish to that effect.“ (E.B. White, quoted by Scott Elledge in E.B. White: A Biography, Norton, 1986) "'A Hanging' is [George] Orwell's first distinctive work. It gives an apparently objective account of a ritualistic execution--from fixed bayonets to a bag over the head of the condemned--in which the narrator officially and actively participates At this halfway point Orwell states his theme: 'till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.' Instead of invoking religion, he asserts a quasi- religious sense of life's sacredness--the first expression of the instinctive humanism that characterizes all his work.“ (Jeffrey Meyers, Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation, Norton, 2000) "Simply put, a story's theme is its idea or point (formulated as a generalization). The theme of a fable is its moral; the theme of a parable is its teaching; the theme of a short story is its implied view of life and conduct. Unlike the fable and parable, however, most fiction is not designed primarily to teach or preach. Its theme, thus, is more obliquely presented. In fact, theme in fiction is rarely presented at all; readers abstract it from the details of characters and action that compose the story.“ (Robert DiYanni, Literature, McGraw- Hill, 2002)

(thesis in Miss Brill's Fragile Fantasy)
"Through Mansfield's skillful handling of point of view, characterization, and plot development, Miss Brill comes across as a convincing character who evokes our sympathy." (thesis in Miss Brill's Fragile Fantasy) "Suppose there were no critics to tell us how to react to a picture, a play, or a new composition of music. Suppose we wandered innocent as the dawn into an art exhibition of unsigned paintings. By what standards, by what values would we decide whether they were good or bad, talented or untalented, success or failures? How can we ever know that what we think is right?" (Marya Mannes, "How Do You Know It's Good?") "I think people are disturbed by the discovery that no longer is a small town autonomous--it is a creature of the state and of the Federal Government. We have accepted money for our schools, our libraries, our hospitals, our winter roads. Now we face the inevitable consequence: the benefactor wants to call the turns." (E.B. White, "Letter from the East") "It is possible to stop most drug addiction in the United States within a very short time. Simply make all drugs available and sell them at cost." (Gore Vidal, "Drugs") thesis – In expository writing, the thesis statement is the sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author’s opinion, purpose, meaning, or position. Expository writing is usually judged by analyzing how accurately, effectively, and thoroughly a writer has proven the thesis. Etymology: From the Greek, "to put" The main idea of an essay or report, sometimes written as a single declarative sentence. A thesis may be implied rather than stated directly. In the progymnasmata, an exercise that requires a student to argue a case for one side or the other.

tone – Similar to mood, tone describes the author’s attitude toward his material, the audience, or both. Tone is easier to determine in spoken language than in written language. Considering how a work would sound if it were read aloud can help in identifying an author’s tone. Some words describing tone are playful, serious, businesslike, sarcastic, humorous, formal, ornate, sardonic, somber, etc. "Robert Frost believed sentence tones (which he called 'sound of sense') are 'already there--living in the cave of the mouth.' He considered them 'real cave things: they were before words were' (Thompson 191). To write a 'vital sentence,' he believed, 'we must write with the ear on the speaking voice' (Thompson 159). 'The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader. Eye readers miss the best part. The sentence sound often says more than the words' (Thompson 113). According to Frost: Only when we are making sentences so shaped [by spoken sentence tones] are we truly writing. A sentence must convey a meaning by tone of voice and it must be the particular meaning the writer intended. The reader must have no choice in the matter. The tone of voice and its meaning must be in black and white on the page. (Thompson 204) A writer's attitude toward the subject and audience. Tone is primarily conveyed through diction, point of view, syntax, and level of formality. From the Latin, "string, a stretching"

"What is it that makes arguments work. What makes arguments effective
"What is it that makes arguments work? What makes arguments effective? The British logician Stephen Toulmin made important contributions to argument theory that are useful for this line of inquiry. Toulmin found six components of arguments: Claim: A statement that something is so. Data: The backing for the claim. Warrant: The link between the claim and the grounds. Backing: Support for the warrant. Modality: The degree of certainty employed in offering the argument. Rebuttal: Exceptions to the initial claim. [T]he Toulmin model provides us with useful tools for analyzing the components of arguments.“ (J. Meany and K. Shuster, Art, Argument, and Advocacy. IDEA, 2002) "[Toulmin's] general model of 'data' leading to a 'claim,' mediated by a 'warrant' with any necessary 'backing,' has been very influential as a new standard of logical thinking, particularly among scholars of rhetoric and speech communication.“ (C. W. Tindale, Rhetorical Argumentation. Sage, 2004) "Toulmin's model actually boils down to a rhetorical expansion of the syllogism Although the reactions of others are anticipated, the model is primarily directed at representing the argumentation for the standpoint of the speaker or writer who advances the argumentation. The other party remains in fact passive: The acceptability of the claim is not made dependent on a systematic weighing up of arguments for and against the claim.“ (F. H. van Eemeren and R. Grootendorst, A Systematic Theory of Argumentation. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004) Toulmin Model - six-part model of argument (with similarities to the syllogism) introduced by British philosopher Stephen Toulmin in his book The Uses of Argument (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1958). The Toulmin model can be used as a tool for analyzing and categorizing arguments.

Transitional Words and Phrases:
"At first a toy, then a mode of transportation for the rich, the automobile was designed as man's mechanical servant. Later it became part of the pattern of living." Repetition: "The way I write is who I am, or have become, yet this is a case in which I wish I had instead of words and their rhythms a cutting room, equipped with an Avid, a digital editing system on which I could touch a key and collapse the sequence of time, show you simultaneously all the frames of memory that come to me now, let you pick the takes, the marginally different expressions, the variant readings of the same lines. This is a case in which I need more than words to find the meaning. This is a case in which I need whatever it is I think or believe to be penetrable, if only for myself." (Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking, 2006) Pronouns and Repeated Sentence Structures "Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death. We misconstrue the nature of even those few days or weeks. We might expect if the death is sudden to feel shock. We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind. We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss. We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return." transition – A word or phrase that links different ideas. Used especially, although not exclusively, in expository and argumentative writing, transitions effectively signal a shift from one idea to another. A few commonly used transitional words or phrases are furthermore, consequently, nevertheless, for example, in addition, likewise, similarly, on the contrary, etc. More sophisticated writers use more subtle means of transition. From the Latin, "to go across"

"The grave's a fine and private place,
understatement – the ironic minimalizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is. The effect can frequently be humorous and emphatic. Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole. Example: Jonathan Swift’s A Tale of a Tub: “Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse.” "It's just a flesh wound." (Black Knight, after having both of his arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail) "The grave's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace." (Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress") "I am just going outside and may be some time.“ (Captain Lawrence Oates, Antarctic explorer, before walking out into a blizzard to face certain death, 1912) "A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty." (Mark Twain) "This [double helix] structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest." (J. Watson and F. Crick) "I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain." (Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger)

1) Active Voice "America will never be destroyed from the outside
1) Active Voice "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves .” (Abraham Lincoln) Passive Voice "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” (Abraham Lincoln) Active and Passive Voice "I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. You know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways, say 'The bullet has been dodged.'" (George W. Bush) 2) "Voice is the sum of all strategies used by the author to create the illusion that the writer is speaking directly to the reader from the page.“ (Don Fry, quoted by Roy P. Clark, Writing Tools, 2006 Voice -From the Latin, "call" 1) The quality of a verb that indicates whether its subject acts (active voice) or is acted upon (passive voice). (2) The distinctive style or manner of expression of an author or narrator

(On the Difference Between Wit and Humor, by Charles S. Brooks)
Wit is a lean creature with sharp inquiring nose, whereas humor has a kindly eye and comfortable girth. Wit, if it be necessary, uses malice to score a point--like a cat it is quick to jump--but humor keeps the peace in an easy chair. Wit has a better voice in a solo, but humor comes into the chorus best. Wit is as sharp as a stroke of lightning, whereas humor is diffuse like sunlight. Wit keeps the season's fashions and is precise in the phrases and judgments of the day, but humor is concerned with homely eternal things. Wit wears silk, but humor in homespun endures the wind. Wit sets a snare, whereas humor goes off whistling without a victim in its mind. Wit is sharper company at table, but humor serves better in mischance and in the rain. When it tumbles, wit is sour, but humor goes uncomplaining without its dinner. Humor laughs at another's jest and holds its sides, while wit sits wrapped in study for a lively answer. But it is a workaday world in which we live, where we get mud upon our boots and come weary to the twilight--it is a world that grieves and suffers from many wounds in these years of war: and therefore as I think of my acquaintance, it is those who are humorous in its best and truest meaning rather than those who are witty who give the more profitable companionship. (On the Difference Between Wit and Humor, by Charles S. Brooks) wit -- in modern usage, intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. A witty statement is humorous, while suggesting the speaker’s verbal power in creating ingenious and perceptive remarks. Wit usually uses terse language that makes a pointed statement. Historically, wit originally meant basic understanding. Its meaning evolved to include speed of understanding, and finally, it grew to mean quick perception including creative fancy and a quick tongue to articulate an answer that demanded the same quick perception.

"Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, And now a bubble burst, and now a world." (Alexander Pope, Essay on Man) "Kill all the poys [boys] and luggage!" (Fluellen in William Shakespeare's Henry V) "The theme of the Egg Hunt is 'learning is delightful and delicious'--as, by the way, am I." (Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg in The West Wing) "You held your breath and the door for me." (Alanis Morissette, "Head over Feet") "He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men." (Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried) Zeugma Etymology: From the Greek, "a yoking, a bond.” The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one. (Edward Corbett offers this distinction between zeugma and syllepsis: in zeugma, unlike syllepsis, the single word does not fit grammatically or idiomatically with one member of the pair. Thus, in Corbett's view, the first example below would be syllepsis, the second zeugma.)

"The abusive ad hominem is not just a case of directing abusive language toward another person. . . . The fallacy is committed when one engages in a.

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: ""The abusive ad hominem is not just a case of directing abusive language toward another person. . . . The fallacy is committed when one engages in a."— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback

Log in

Auth with social network:

"The abusive ad hominem is not just a case of directing abusive language toward another person. . . . The fallacy is committed when one engages in a.

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: ""The abusive ad hominem is not just a case of directing abusive language toward another person. . . . The fallacy is committed when one engages in a."— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback