| A | B |
|---|
| fable | a brief tale that illustrates a clear, often directly stated, moral or lesson in which the characters are usually animals |
| logical appeal (logos) | the use of reason and logic (facts, statistics, research) to persuade |
| ethical appeal (ethos) | the use of appeals to a spokesperson’s character or reputation in order to persuade |
| emotional appeal (pathos) | an appeal to emotion, values, and beliefs in order to persuade |
| tone | the author's attitude or perspective |
| loaded language | The use of "words with positive or negative connotations" to generative the desired positive or negative effect from an audience |
| metaphor | an implied or subtle comparison between two unlike things |
| simile | a figurative comparison between 2 unlike things, using the words "like" or "as" |
| personification | a figure of speech giving human characteristics to something not human |
| hyperbole | figure of speech that uses exaggeratioin for emphasis or humor |
| end rhyme | similar or identical sounds at the ends of lines of poetry |
| internal rhyme | similar or identical sounds within a line of poetry |
| near rhyme | an approximate rhyme, perhaps created by consonance or assonance but not the full ending sound or syllable of two words |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of end rhyme in a poem |
| repetition | the recurrence of words, phrases, or lines |
| meter | a regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables seen in a poem |
| iambic foot | two syllables with the first unaccented and the second accented |
| iambic pentameter | a definite meter in which a line of poetry has 10 syllables with accents on the even syllables |
| theme | the central idea of a story, usually expressed as an observation about life, people, or the world |
| rhyming couplet | two consecutive lines of poetry that share the same final sound(s) |
| archaic language | words that were once commonly used in the past but are now considered old-fashioned or out-of-date |
| inverted syntax | a reversal of the expected order of words |
| primary document | a document, such as a letter, diary, journal, or autobiography, that presents direct, firsthand knowledge of a subject |
| secondary document | a source that provides indirect (not 1st-hand) knowledge about a subject |
| autobiography | the story of a person's life written by that person in 1st person |
| slave narrative | an autobiographical account by someone who suffered the misery of slaery and lived to write about it |
| creation myth | a traditional story, passed down through generations, that explains how the universe, earth, and life began |
| tall tale | a story with wildly exaggerated elements |
| legend | a story passed down orally from generation to generation and popularly believed to have a historical basis |
| folk tale | a story handed down, usually by word of mouth, from generation to generation |
| trickster tale | a folk tale that features an animal or human character who engages in deceit, violence, and magic |
| persuasive writing | writing that is intended to convince a reader to adopt a particular opinion or to perform a certain action |
| rhetorical question | used in persuasive writing or speaking, a question to which no answer is expected because the answer is obvious; used to emphasize a point or create an emotional effect |
| persuasive rhetoric | reasoned arguments in favor of or against particular beliefs or courses of action |
| deductive reasoning | an argument that begins with a generalization or premise (conclusion) and then moves to examples and facts to support the premise |
| inductive reasoning | an argument that begins with examples and facts and proceeds to draw a conclusion from them |
| parallelism | the use of similar grammatical forms or sentence patterns to express ideas of equal importance |
| logical fallacies | logical errors; the use of faulty logic or reasoning to defend a conclusion |
| anaphora | the repetition of the same word or phrase for effect |
| allusion | the mention of an event, place, idea, or character from history, literature, religion, culture, or some other souce with which either the listener and the reader are assumed to be familiar |
| aphorism | a brief statement, usually one sentence long, that expresses a general principle or truth about life |
| rebuttal | providing defense against or contradiction of an opposing argument |
| irony | a contrast between appearance and reality, between what is expected to be true and what really is true |
| tragedy | a type of drama that unveils the downfall of the main character |
| tragic hero | a character whose basic goodness and superiority are marred by a flaw that brings about his/her downfall |
| fatal flaw (hamartia) | the fault or error that brings about a character's downfall |
| turning point | in a tragedy, this is the moment that the main character's downfall begins |
| catharsis | the feeling of pity and awe that the audience experiences as they identify with and are inspired by the resolution of a tragedy |
| protagonist | the central character of a play or story |
| antagonist | the character or force who opposes the main character |
| symbol | a person, place, or object that has a concrete meaning in itself and also stands for something beyond itself, such as an idea or feeling |
| Romanticism | a literary movement that glorified nature, celebrated individuality, emphasized the emotional, and drew upon the supernatural |
| historical narrative | accounts of real-life historical experiences, given either by a person who experienced those events or by someone who has studied or observed them |
