| A | B |
|---|
| Parable | a short tale that teaches a moral |
| Paradox | a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau; “I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” |
| Parallelism | the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. Parallel structure may be as simple as listing two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or verb; it may take the form of two or more of the same type of phrases (prepositional, participial, gerund, appositive) that modify the same noun or verb; it may also take the form of two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Or, parallel structure may be a complex bend of singe-word, phrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence.Example (from Churchill): “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields.” |
| Parody | a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements. . It can be utterly mocking or gently humorous. It depends on allusion and exaggerates and distorts the original style and content. |
| Pathos | an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion which is intended to excite and involve the audience in the argument. Also known as emotional appeal. Over-emotionalism can be the result of an excess of pathos. |
| Pedantic | a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant |
| Persuasion | a form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion. |
| Periodic Sentence | a type of sentence which presents the main clause at the end of the sentence for emphasis and sentence variety |
| Polysyndeton | Sentence which uses and or another conjunction (with no commas) to separate the items in a series. Polysyndeton appear in the form of X and Y and Z, stressing equally each member of a series. It makes the sentence slower and the items more emphatic than in the asyndeton. |
| Red Herring | When a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue |
