Rhetorical and Literary Terms, Vocab, & Grammar:

Practice AP Test #1Multiple Choice

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PARALLELISM

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

PARALLELISM

is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the

ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity

to the sentence.

Rhetorical and Literary TermsPARALLELISM

(examples)

• Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness.

• These critics--who point out the beauties of style and ideas, who discover the faults of false constructions, and who discuss the application of the rules--usually help a lot in engendering an understanding of the writer's essay.

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PERIODIC SENTENCE

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

A periodic sentence has the main clause or predicate at the end.

This is used for emphasis and can be persuasive by putting reasons for something at the

beginning before the final point is made.

It can also create suspense or interest for the reader.

Rhetorical and Literary TermsPeriodic Sentences

(examples)

• In spite of heavy snow and cold temperatures, the game continued.

• With low taxes, beautiful views and a mild climate, this city is a great place to live.

• Positive thinking, by helping us stay focused and maintaining a good attitude, is important for a happy life.

• After shopping at the mall, walking the dogs and washing the car, I finally got to stay in and relax.

• If the price was good and the quality excellent, I might consider buying a designer dress.

• Renewable energy resources, like wind, solar, and geothermal, will be the answers to Earth’s energy problems.

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ANALOGY

Rhetorical and Literary TermsANALOGY

compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying

some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is

generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more

practical end of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete,

and may therefore be more extended.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

ANALOGY

(examples)

• Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. --Samuel Johnson

• The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (And so forth, to the end of the chapter.] --l Cor. 12:12 (NIV)

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PRONOUNS

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

Grammar Review: PRONOUNS

(I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each, few, many, who, whoever, whose, someone, everybody, etc.) is a word that

takes the place of a noun.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

Grammar Review: PRONOUNS

SINGULAR PLURAL

subjective objective possessive subjective objective possessive

1st person I me my, mine we us our, ours

2nd person you you your, yours you you your, yours

3rd person he

she

it

him

her

it

his

her, hers

its

they them their, theirs

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HYPERBOLE

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

HYPERBOLE

Is the counterpart of understatement, deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect.

Note: In formal writing the hyperbole must be clearly intended as an exaggeration, and should

be carefully restricted. That is, do not exaggerate everything, but treat hyperbole like an

exclamation point, to be used only once a year. Then it will be quite effective as an attention

grabber.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

HYPERBOLE

(examples)

• There are a thousand reasons why more research is needed on solar energy.

• I said "rare," not "raw." I've seen cows hurt worse than this get up and get well.

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IRONY

Rhetorical and Literary TermsIRONY

1. VERBAL (aka SARCASM): the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous

or emphatic effect.

“Don't go overboard with the gratitude,” he rejoined with heavy irony.

2. SITUATIONAL: a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing or surprising as a

result.

“The irony is that I thought he could help me."

"the irony of the situation"

3. DRAMATIC: a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are

clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

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PARADOX

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

PARADOX

1. a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained

may prove to be well founded or true.

"in a paradox, he has discovered that stepping back from his job has increased the rewards he gleans from it"

2. a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.

"the mingling of deciduous trees with elements of desert flora forms a fascinating ecological paradox"

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METAPHOR

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

METAPHOR

MIXED METAPHOR

DEAD METAPHOR

ETENDED METAPHOR

(See Power Point on METAPHOR)

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ALLEGORY

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

ALLEGORY

is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the

narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance,

and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.

Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.

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METAPHYSICAL

Rhetorical and Literary TermsMETAPHYSICAL

The word 'meta' means 'after,' so the literal translation of 'metaphysical' is 'after the physical.' Basically, metaphysics deals with questions that can't be explained by science. It

questions the nature of reality in a philosophical way.Here are some common metaphysical questions:

• Does God exist?• Is there a difference between the way things appear to us

and the way they really are?• Essentially, what is the difference between reality and

perception?• Is everything that happens already predetermined? If so,

then is free choice non-existent?• Is consciousness limited to the brain?

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

METAPHYSICAL cont’d

Metaphysics can cover a broad range of topics from religious to consciousness; however, all the questions about metaphysics ponder the nature of reality. And of course, there is no one correct

answer to any of these questions. Metaphysics is about exploration and philosophy, not about

science and math.

Rhetorical and Literary TermsMETAPHYSICAL cont’d

Metaphysical poetry also sought to shock the reader and wake him or her up from his or her

normal existence in order to question the unquestionable. The poetry often mixed ordinary

speech with paradoxes and puns. The results were strange, comparing unlikely things, such as lovers to a compass or the soul to a drop of dew. These weird comparisons were called conceits (aka a far-fetched

and often extended metaphor).

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OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE

SUBJECTIVE: a subject's personal perspective, feelings, beliefs, desires or discovery.

OBJECTIVE: not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts;

unbiased

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

Vocab: EFFUSIVE

expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner.

"an effusive welcome"

synonyms:gushing, gushy, unrestrained, extravagant, fulsome, demonstrative, lavish,

enthusiastic, lyrical;

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PARABLE

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

PARABLE

Is a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson; especially : one of the stories told by

Jesus Christ and recorded in the Bible.

It is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables

employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables

have human characters. A parable is a type of analogy.

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MELODRAMATIC

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

MELODRAMATIC

means characterized by a kind of performance or exaggeration of emotions.

A melodrama is a dramatic or literary work in which the plot, which is typically sensational

and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed

characterization. Characters are often simply drawn, and may appear stereotyped.

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PARODY

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

PARODY

A parody is a humorous or mocking imitation of something, using the same form as the original.

(Eg., To parody a poem, you have to write another poem.)

A parody is a form of humor that spoofs — or satirizes — something using the same form. For example, shows like "Saturday Night Live" and

"The Daily Show" have parodied real newscasts by doing fake newscasts that look like the real thing.

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DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUEa type of poetry written in the form of a speech of a

single imagined persona (NOT the poet)in a specific situation at a critical moment that

reveals the speaker's temperament and character. In this monologue, the speaker addresses and

interacts with one or more other people; but we know of the auditors' presence, and what they say

and do, only from clues in the discourse of the single speaker (we never actually hear/read what

the person being addressed says, hence MONO-logue, not DIA-logue)

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EXPOSE’

Rhetorical and Literary TermsEXPOSE’

(French past part., "revealed"): A journalistic or literary revelation or exposure--especially

of something discreditable or scandalous. Examples of non-fiction exposés include All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, which revealed

Nixon's involvement with the Watergate scandal, and Edwin Markham's Children in Bondage, which exposed the

evils of child labor. Fictional narratives can also reveal real-world scandals, such as Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, The Jungle, which

exposed consumers to the exploitation of meat-packing workers, and the poetry of William Wordsworth and

William Blake which also acted in many ways as exposes of child labor practices in London.

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EVOCATION

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

EVOCATION

Is the act of bringing something into the mind or memory : the act of evoking something;

a passage that calls to mind a particular experience or event, especially using highly

descriptive language.

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METONYM

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

METONYM

is another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche (and, in fact, some

rhetoricians do not distinguish between the two), in which the thing chosen for the

metaphorical image is closely associated with (but not an actual part of) the subject

with which it is to be compared.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

METONYM

(examples)

The orders came directly from the White House.

This land belongs to the crown.

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EXPRESSIONISM

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

EXPRESSIONISM

is a writing approach, process, or technique in which a writer depicts a character’s feelings about a subject (or the writer’s own feelings

about it) rather than the objective surface reality of the subject. A writer, in effect,

presents his interpretation of what he sees. Often, the depiction is a grotesque distortion or phantasmagoric representation of reality, for the

character or writer must reshape the objective image into his mind's image.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

EXPRESSIONISM

However, there is logic to this approach: Not everybody perceives the world in the same way. What one person may see as beautiful or good

another person may see as ugly or bad. Sometimes a writer or his character suffers from a mental debility, such as depression or paranoia, which alters his perception of reality. Expressionism

enables the writer to present this altered perception. An example of a character who sees reality through his mind's eye is Joseph K., the

protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

Vocab: STACCATO

with each sound or note sharply detached or separated from the others.

EG: Katie Perry sings, “You’re gonna hear me ROA – OAR – OAR- OAR – OAR – OAR”

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SYNTAX

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

SYNTAX

is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given

language.

The elements of syntax include sentence length, sentence type, the number of sentences, the

rhythm of sentences, voice (active or passive), and word order or arrangement.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

IMAGERY

is the use of highly descriptive language that appeals to any of the

five senses

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ANTECEDENT

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

ANTECEDENT

a word, phrase, or clause that is replaced by a pronoun in the same or in another, usually

subsequent, sentence.

Jane lost a glove and she can't find it.

Jane is the antecedent of she and

glove is the antecedent of it.

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ANACHRONISM

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

ANACHRONISM

is a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists,

especially a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned.

The sword is an anachronism in modern warfare.

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

Vocab: ANTHROPOLOGICAL

relating to the science of humans and their works.

Also, the science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological

characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind.

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SUBORDINATE or DEPENDENT

CLAUSES

Rhetorical and Literary Terms

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

AKA, a DEPENDENT CLAUSE

Is a clause, typically introduced by a conjunction, that forms part of and is dependent on a main

clause

(e.g., “when it rang” in

“she answered the phone when it rang”).