| A | B |
|---|
| Close reading | a careful analysis of a text that is attentive to organization, figurative language, sentence structure, vocabulary, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other literary and structural elements of a text |
| Colloquialism | an informal or conversational use of language |
| Style | the distinctive quality of speech or writing created by the selection and arrangement of words and figures of speech |
| Diction | word choice |
| Syntax | sentence structure |
| Trope | artful diction; the use of language in a nonliteral way way; also called a figure of speech |
| Simile | a figure of speech that uses "like" or "as" to compare two things; a less intense comparison than metaphor |
| Hyperbole | exaggeration |
| Scheme | a pattern of words or sentences construction used for artful effect |
| Figures of speech | an expression that strives for literary effect rather than conveying a literal meaning |
| Annotation | explanatory or critical notes added to a text |
| Imagery | vivid use of language that evokes a reader's senses |
| Complex sentence | a sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause |
| Declarative sentence | A sentence that makes a statement |
| Alliteration | the repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables |
| Allusion | An indirect reference, often to another text or an historic event |
| Anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines) |
| Antimetabole | The repetition of words in an inverted order to sharpen a contrast |
| Antithesis | Parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas. |
| Archaic diction | old-fashioned language |
| Asyndeton | leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, and clauses |
| Cumulative sentence | an independent clause followed by subordinate clauses or phrases that supply additional detail |
| Hortative sentence | urging or strongly encouraging sentence; language that calls to action |
| Imperative sentence | a sentence that requests or commands |
| Inversion | a sentence in which the the verb precedes the subject. |
| Juxtaposition | placement of two things side by side for emphasis |
| Metaphor | a figure of speech or trope through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, thus making an implicit or direct comparison |
| Metonymy | use of an aspect of something to represent the whole ("all hands on deck") |
| Oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms |
| Parallelism | the repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns |
| Periodic sentence | A sentence that builds toward and ends with the main clause. |
| Personification | Assigning lifelike characteristics to inanimate objects |
| Rhetorical question | a question asked more to produce an effect than to summon an answer |
| zeugma | construction in which one word (usually a verb) modifies or governs -- often in different, sometimes incongruent ways -- two or more words in a sentence. |
