Terms+to+Learn

=** Terms you should know as they come up in AP "Passages" and discussions: **= []
 * ( Many are from the following site:) **

==the absolute phrase-- An absolute phrase combines a [|noun] and a [|participle] with any accompanying [|modifiers] or objects. The pattern looks like this: ==

=
noun + participle + optional modifier(s) and/or object(s) =====

=
Arms = noun; folded = participle; her, across her chest = modifiers. =====

=
Fingers = noun; scraping = participle; frosting = direct object; our, the , leftover ,<span class="special_02" style="color: #1d4f92;">off the plates = modifiers. =====

=
<span style="font-family: Verdana,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="special_02" style="color: #1d4f92;">Her arms folded across her chest, Professor Hill warned the class about the penalties of plagiarism. =====

=
<span style="font-family: Verdana,serif; font-size: 12pt;">We devoured Aunt Lenora's carrot cake, <span class="special_02" style="color: #1d4f92;">our fingers scraping the leftover frosting off the plates. =====

Absolutes--
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">constant <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">endless <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">eternal <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">perpetual <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">undying <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">unremitting, always, all, unrestricted, unlimited, every, never; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">extreme <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|confirmed] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|habitual] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|hopeless] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|inveterate] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|extraordinary] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|frightful] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|horrible] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|huge] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|main] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|superlative] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|supreme] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|surpassing] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|terrible] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|terrific] ; [|faultless] , [|flawless] , [|ideal] , [|immaculate] , [|impeccable] , [|indefectible] , [|irreproachable] , [|letter-perfect] , [|picture-book] , [|picture-perfect] , [|seamless] , [|unblemished]

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Related** [|consummate], [|expert] , [|masterly] ; [|classic] , [|dandy] , [|excellent] , [|fabulous] , [|fine] , [|first-class] , [|first-rate] , [|grand] , [|great] , [|marvelous] , [|prime] , [|superb] , [|superior] , [|superlative] , [|terrific] , [|top] , [|top-notch] , [|unsurpassed] ; [|completed] , [|finished] , [|perfected] , [|polished] ; [|complete] , [|entire] , [|intact] , [|whole] ; [|mint] , [|unbruised] , [|undamaged] , [|unimpaired] , [|uninjured] , [|unmarred] , [|unspoiled] ; exceptional ; [|airtight] , [|bulletproof] ; [|accurate] , [|correct] , [|exact] , [|precise] ; infallible , unerring , unfailing (Merriam-Webster online)

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ad hominem--See "Logical Fallacies" below. Marked by or being an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to the contentions/arguments made ==


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">allegory - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> An extended metaphor.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 1:__ "This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take forms of houses and...of men..." (**Fitzgerald** 27). //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 2:__ "During the time I have voyaged on this ship, I have avoided the cabin; rather, I have remained on deck, battered by wind and rain, but able to see moonlight…" // === If we wish to be more exact, an allegory is an act of interpretation, a way of understanding, rather than a **//genre//** in and of itself. Poems, novels, or plays can all be allegorical, in whole or in part. These allegories can be as short as a single sentence or as long as a ten volume book. The label "allegory" comes from an interaction between symbols that creates a coherent meaning beyond that of the literal level of interpretation. Probably the most famous allegory in English literature is John Bunyan's //Pilgrim's Progress// (1678), in which the hero named Christian flees the City of Destruction and travels through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair, Doubting Castle, and finally arrives at the Celestial City. The entire narrative is a representation of the human soul's pilgrimage through temptation and doubt to reach salvation in heaven. Medieval works were frequently allegorical, such as the plays //Mankind// and //Everyman//. Other important allegorical works include mythological allegories like Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche in //The Golden Ass// and Prudentius' //Psychomachiae//. More recent non-mythological allegories include Spenser's //The Faerie Queene//, Swift's //Gulliver's Travels//, Butler's //Erewhon//, and George Orwell's //Animal Farm//. === === The following illustrative passage comes from J. A. Cuddon's //Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory//, 3rd edition (Penguin Books, 1991). I have Americanized the British spelling and punctuation: === ===<span style="color: #4618c6; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To distinguish more clearly we can take the old Arab fable of the frog and the scorpion, who met one day on the bank of the River Nile, which they both wanted to cross. The frog offered to ferry the scorpion over on his back provided the scorpion promised not to sting him. The scorpion agreed so long as the frog would promise not to drown him. The mutual promises exchanged, they crossed the river. On the far bank the scorpion stung the frog mortally. === > ===<span style="color: #4618c6; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Why did you do that?" croaked the frog, as it lay dying. === > ===<span style="color: #4618c6; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Why?" replied the scorpion, "We're both Arabs, aren't we?" === > ===<span style="color: #4618c6; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If we substitute for a frog a "Mr. Goodwill" or a "Mr. Prudence," and for the scorpion "Mr. Treachery" or "Mr. Two-Face," and make the river any river and substitute for "We're both Arabs . . ." "We're both men . . ." we turn the fable [which illustrates human tendencies by using animals as illustrative examples] into an allegory [a narrative in which each character and action has symbolic meaning]. On the other hand, if we turn the frog into a father and the scorpion into a son (boatman and passenger) and we have the son say "We're both sons of God, aren't we?", then we have a parable (if a rather cynical one) about the wickedness of human nature and the sin of parricide. (22) === == __Alliteration__ is the repetition of the initial (first) consonant sound. In Beowulf we read, "__D__own in the __d__arkness __d__welt a __d__emon..." A classic example is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's description of the sacred river Alph in his poem, Kubla Khan: "Five __m__iles __m__eandering with a __m__azy __m__otion.") ==
 * ALLEGORY ** **:The word derives from the Greek** // **allegoria** // **("speaking otherwise"). The term loosely describes any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning. This narrative acts as an extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level, but they also stand for something else on the symbolic level. An allegorical reading usually involves moral or spiritual concepts that may be more significant than the actual, literal events described in a narrative. Typically, an allegory involves the interaction of multiple symbols, which together create a moral, spiritual, or even political meaning. The act of interpreting a story as if each object in it had an allegorical meaning is called** ** allegoresis ** **.**


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">allusion - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> A reference in a written or spoken text to another text or to some particular body of knowledge.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 1:__ "Have you read 'The Rise of the Coloured Empires' by this man Goddard?" (**Fitzgerald** 17). //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 2:__ "I doubt if Phaethon feared more -- that time/ he dropped the sun-reins of his father's chariot/ and burned the streak of sky we see today" (Dante's Inferno). //

=== An __ **allusion** __ is a casual reference to a person, place, thing, event, or another passage of literature. Allusions can be made to biblical references, historical events, legends, geography, mythology, or earlier literary works. When these references are made, the speaker or author assumes the audience or readers will recognize the source and relate it to the new context. For instance, if someone called a young lady a "plain Jane," my classes might consider the girl to be like Jane Eyre, not particularly attractive, yet independent minded and talented in many ways. This literary allusion assumes a certain level of education and awareness, so the statement can be taken as a compliment rather than an insult. ===

<span style="font-family: georgia,arial,verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 22px;">anal·o·gy
<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
 * a comparison of two things based on their being alike in some way
 * the act of comparing two things that are alike in some way (Merriam-Webster Dictionary online)


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">anaphora - ** The repetition of a group of words at the beginning <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> of successive clauses.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence…" (Winston Churchill) // ** ANAPHORA ** (Greek, "carried again," also called //epanaphora//): The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect. For instance, Churchill declared, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost shall be." The repetition of "We shall. . ." creates a rhetorical effect of solidarity and determination. A well-known example is the Beatitudes in the Bible, where nine statements in a row begin with "Blessed are." ("Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.") Anaphora is the opposite of **epistrophe**, in which the poet or rhetorician repeats the concluding phrase over and over for effects. Often the two can be combined effectively as well. For instance, Saint Paul writes to the church at Corinth, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they the ministers of Christ? I am more." Here, artful use of anaphora and epistrophe combined help Paul make his point more emphatically. Both anaphora and epistrophe are examples of rhetorical schemes. They serve to lend weight and emphasis. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ Echoed the hills. //
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">anastrophe - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> Inversion or reversal of the usual order of words.

"When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.” (Jedi master Yoda in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, 1983). (Chesnot/Getty Images)

= ** An __anecdote__ is an account of an amusing, unusual, or interesting event that helps demonstrate a point in an essay or argument being made. The anecdotal story briefly makes a point and may include setting, dialogue and characters. ** =

1 a substantive word, phrase, or clause whose denotation is referred to by a pronoun (as //John// in ** “ Mary saw John and called to him ” ** ); **The antecedent for "him" is "John."** //broadly//**:** a word or phrase replaced by a substitute "Antecedent." //Merriam-Webster.com//. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/antecedent>. ** Antithesis-- ** ** n. pl. an·tith·e·ses (-sz) Direct contrast; opposition. **
 * //ANTECEDENT//**
 * The direct or exact opposite: Hope is the antithesis of despair. **
 * A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure, as in "Hee for God only, shee for God in him" (John Milton). **

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 1:__ "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." (Barry Goldwater) // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 2:__ "…found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress--and as drunk as a monkey" (**Fitzgerald** 81). //
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">antithesis - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> The juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas, often in parallel structure.

=== Aphorism--an often stated observation regarding something from common experience--What does the aphorism “Hindsight is 20/20” mean? Here's another one-- "No one said life is fair." (adjective- aphoristic statements) []===

=== **APOSTROPHE**: Not to be confused with the punctuation mark, apostrophe is the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present: For instance, John Donne commands, "<span style="color: #9900cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Death, be not proud. " King Lear proclaims, "<span style="color: #9900cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, / More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child / Than the sea-monster. " Death, of course, is a phenomenon rather than a proud person, and ingratitude is an abstraction that hardly cares about Lear's opinion, but the act of addressing the abstract has its own rhetorical power. An apostrophe is an example of a rhetorical trope. ===


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">appeal - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> One of three strategies for persuading audiences--
 * 1) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5;">logos, appeal to reason;
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5;">pathos, appeal to emotion;
 * 3) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5;">and ethos, appeal to ethics.

= An __archetype__ is a recurring pattern of character, symbol, and situation. One such pattern is a life cycle in which dawn, morning and Spring represent the beginning of a life, noon, afternoon, summer, and fall can represent adult years, and twilight, evening, and winter represent the last stage of life. When, in literature, flowers bud, bloom, wilt, fade, wither and die, these moments are compared to a character's life cycle, as well. = = An aside in drama is a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other characters on stage pretend they do not hear the lines spoken. . =
 * || == **Asyndeton** -- using no conjunctions to create an effect of speed or simplicity: //Veni. Vidi. Vici//. "I came. I saw. I conquered." (As opposed to "I came, and then I saw, and then I conquered.") Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt. == ||

__Bildungsroman__: See Coming-of-Age.
= = = Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter ... See "iambic pentameter." = = = = __Caesura__: (Latin: "a cutting") A break or pause in a line of poetry, dictated, usually, by the natural rhythm of the language … In [Old English] verse the caesura was used … to indicate the half line. =

== CHARACTER: Any representation of an individual being presented in a dramatic or narrative work through extended dramatic or verbal representation. The reader can interpret characters as endowed with moral and dispositional qualities expressed in what == == they say (dialogue) and what they do (action). E. M. Forster describes characters as "flat" (i.e., built around a single idea or quality and unchanging over the course of the narrative) or "round" (complex in temperament and motivation; drawn with subtlety; capable of growth and change during the course of the narrative). The main character == == of a work of a fiction is typically called the protagonist; the character against whom the protagonist struggles or contends (if there is one), is the antagonist. If a single secondary character aids the protagonist throughout the narrative, that character is the deuteragonist (the hero's "side-kick"). A character of tertiary importance is a tritagonist. These terms originate in classical Greek drama, in which a tenor would be assigned the role of protagonist, a baritone the role of deuteragonist, and a bass would play the tritagonist. ==

|| **CHIASMUS** (from Greek, "cross" or "x"): A literary [|**scheme**] in which the author introduces words or concepts in a particular order, then later repeats those terms or similar ones in reversed or backwards order. It involves taking parallelism and deliberately turning it inside out, creating a "crisscross" pattern. For example, consider the chiasmus that follows: "<span style="color: #9900cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By day the frolic, and the dance by night ." If we draw the words as a chart, the words form an "x" (hence the word's Greek etymology, from//chi// meaning "x"): The sequence is typically // a b b a // or //a// // b c c b a //. "I lead the life I love ; I love the life I lead ." " Naked I rose from the earth ; to the grave I fall clothed ." Biblical examples in the Greek can be found in Philippians 1:15-17 and Colossians 3:11, though the artistry is often lost in English translation. ||

Circular Reasoning-- See "Logical Fallacies" below.
== //__Coming-of-Age__. Jane Eyre// is a "__coming-of-age__" (Bildungsroman) story which means an adolescent protagonist comes to adulthood by a process of experience and disillusionment. This character loses innocence and discovers that previous preconceptions are false, or has the security of childhood torn away, but usually matures and strengths by this process. ==

= __Connotations__ of words can be __literal__ and __figurative__. The word 'maelstrom' literally means a whirlpool. Figuratively, a maelstrom can be any violent situation when the person feels swept up in an inescapable force dragging him or her down. =

__ Deductive Reasoning- __
<span style="background-color: #ffffee; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific.-- socialresearchmethods.net

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Example 1- "Every time I've walked by that dog, he hasn't tried to bite me. So, the next time I walk by that dog he won't try to bite me." --Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Example 2- "<span class="oneClick-link" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">All <span class="oneClick-link oneClick-available" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">dogs <span class="oneClick-link" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">are <span class="oneClick-link oneClick-available" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">animals; <span class="oneClick-link" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">this is a dog; <span class="oneClick-link oneClick-available" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">therefore, <span class="oneClick-link" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">this is an <span class="oneClick-link oneClick-available" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">animal." -- Dictionary.com

__** Detail **__ includes facts, observations, and incidents used to develop a subject and impart voice. Specific details refer to fewer things than general descriptions, thereby creating a precise mental picture. Detail brings life and color to description, focusing the reader’s attention and bringing the reader into the scene. Because detail encourages readers to participate in the text, use of detail influences reader’s views of the topic, the settings, the narrator, and the author. Detail shapes reader attitude by focusing attention: the more specific the detail, the greater the focus on the object described.

Detail makes an abstraction concrete, particular, and unmistakable, giving the abstraction form. For example, when Orwell describes an elephant attack, the attack comes alive through the elephant’s specific violent actions. By directing readers’ attention to particulars, detail connects abstraction to their lives: to specifics they can imagine, have participated in, or understand vicariously. Detail focuses description and prepares readers to join the action. As a result, readers can respond with conviction to the impact of the writer’s voice.

Detail can also state by understatement, by a //lack// of detail. The absence of specific details, for example, may be in sharp contrast to the intensity of a character’s pain. In this case, elaborate, descriptive detail could turn the pain into sentimentality. Good writers choose detail with care, selecting those details which add meaning and avoiding those that trivialize or detract.


 * Diction //refers to the author's choice of words.//** Words are the writer's basic tools: they create the color and texture of the written work; they both reflect and determine the level of formality; they shape the reader’s perceptions. When studying serious literature, students should rarely skip words they don’t know. That is tantamount to wearing earplugs to a symphony. To understand voice, students must both “hear” the words and “feel” their effects. Diction reflects the writer’s vision and steers the reader’s thought.

Effective voice is shaped by words that are clear, concrete, and exact. Good writers eschew words like //pretty, nice,// and //bad//. Instead they employ words that invoke a specific effect. A coat isn’t //torn//; it is //tattered//. The United States Army doesn’t //want// revenge; it is //thirsting// for revenge. A door does not //shut//; it //thuds//. Specific diction brings the reader into the scene, enabling full participation in the writer’s world.


 * Diction depends on topic, purpose, and occasion.** The **topic often determines the specificity and sophistication of the diction. For example, articles on computers are filled with specialized language: e-mail, web, link.** Many topics generate special vocabularies as a nexus to meaning.

The writer’s purpose – whether to convince, entertain, amuse, inform, or plead – partly determines diction. Words chosen to impart a particular effect on the reader reflect and sustain the writer’s purpose. For example, if an author’s purpose is to **inform, the reader should expect straightforward diction.** On the other hand, if the author’s purpose is to entertain, the reader will likely encounter words used in ironic, playful, or unexpected ways.


 * Diction also depends on the occasion. As with clothes, level of formality influences appropriate choices. Formal diction is largely reserved for scholarly writing and serious prose or poetry.** Informal diction is the norm in expository essays, newspaper editorials, and words of fiction. **Colloquial diction and slang borrow from informal speech and are typically used to create a mood or capture a particular historic or regional dialect.** Appropriateness of diction is determined by the norms of society.

When studying diction, students must understand both connotation (the meaning suggested by a word) and denotation (the literal meaning). When a writer calls a character **//slender//, the word evokes a different feeling from calling the character //gaunt//.** A word’s power to produce a strong reaction in the reader lies mainly in its connotative meaning.

Finally, diction can impart freshness and originality to writing. Words used in surprising or unusual ways make us rethink what is known and re-examine meaning. Good writers often opt for complexity rather than simplicity, for multiple meanings rather than precision. Thus diction, the foundation of voice, shapes a reader’s thinking while guiding reader insight into the author’s idiosyncratic expression of thought: the writer’s voice. ===**Didactic rhetoric-** Didactic means writing that is "preachy" or seeks overtly to convince a reader of a particular point or lesson, like john Milton's Paradise Lost is meant "to justify the ways of God to man." ** Rhetoric is t ** he art of __persuasive argument__ through writing or speech--the art of eloquence and charismatic language. ===

==an Elegy or elegaic-- In classical Greco-Roman literature, "elegy" refers to any poem written in elegiac meter (alternating hexameter and pentameter lines). More broadly, elegy came to mean any poem dealing with the subject-matter common to the early Greco-Roman elegies--complaints about love, sustained formal lamentation, or somber meditations. Typically, elegies are marked by several **conventions** of **//genre//**: ==

> (1) The elegy, much like the classical epic, typically begins with an **invocation of the muse**, and then continues with **allusions** to classical mythology.

> (2) The poem usually contains a **poetic speaker** who uses the first person. > (3) The speaker raises questions about justice, fate, or providence. > (4) The poet digresses about the conditions of his own time or his own situation. > (5) The digression allows the speaker to move beyond his original emotion or thinking to a higher level of understanding. > (6) The conclusion of the poem provides consolation or insight into the speaker's situation. In Christian elegies, the lyric reversal often moves from despair and grief to joy when the speaker realizes that death or misfortune is but a temporary barrier separating one from the bliss of eternity. > (7) The poem tends to be longer than a **lyric** but not as long as an **epic**. > (8) The poem is not plot-driven. In the case of **pastoral elegies** in the 1600s, 1700s, and early 1800s, there are several other common conventions: > (1) The speaker mourns the death of a close friend; the friend is eulogized in the highest possible terms, but represented as if he were a shepherd. > (2) The mourner charges with negligence the nymphs or guardians of the shepherd who failed to preserve him from death. > (3) Appropriate mourners appear to lament the shepherd's death. > (4) Post-Renaissance poets often include an elaborate passage in which flowers appear to deck the hearse or grave, with various flowers having symbolic meaning appropriate to the scene.

Famous elegies include Milton's "Lycidas," Shelley's "Adonais," and Arnold's "Thyrsis." Closely related to the pastoral elegy, the **dirge** or **threnody** is shorter than the elegy and often represented as a text meant to be sung aloud. The term **monody** refers to any dirge or elegy presented as the utterance of a single speaker. Various Anglo-Saxon poems such as "The Wife's Lament" and "The Wanderer" are also considered elegies, though the term might not be perfectly applicable since the influence of the Greek elegy was never pervasive in Anglo-Saxon literature, making it unlikely the anonymous authors were familiar with the //genre per se//.

**ELLIPSIS (1)** (plural, **ellipses**): (1) In its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, //ellipsis// refers to the artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause. For instance, an author might write, "The American soldiers killed eight civilians, and the French eight." The writer of the sentence has left out the word //soldiers// after French, and the word //civilians// after //eight//. However, both words are implied by the previous clause, so a reader has no trouble following the author's thought.

have been omitted.
= = =euphemism--Using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one. For instance, saying "Grandfather has gone to a better place" is a euphemism for "Grandfather has died." The idea is to put something bad, disturbing, or embarrassing in an inoffensive or neutral light. Examples from the Elizabethan period include the exclamation //zounds//! as a euphemism for the curse, "God's wounds!" Similarly, we use euphemisms such as "Gosh darn!" instead of curses"God da--!" or "Gee whiz!" instead of "Jesus!" In modern times, we make everyone's occupation sound important. For instance, calling a garbage man the sanitation engineer gives a person pride. Gender neutrality is achieved by changing the mail man to the postal worker, and the chairman becomes the chairperson.=

is parallelism.

 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">flat character - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> A figure readily identifiable by memorable traits but not fully developed.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ Blanche Ingram in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Ex: Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Ex: Klipspringer in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald //

= A __foil__ is a character who serves as a contrast to another,more primary character, so as to point out specific traits of the primary character. An example in //Jane Eyre// is the character of Blanche Ingram. Blanche's purpose is to present a contrast to Jane who is neither beautiful nor wealthy. However, Blanche is superficial and arrogant compared with Jane. The comparison is written so the reader can recognize that Jane's qualities are more admirable even though her state in life is lower. = = = == FORESHADOWING: Suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative. Foreshadowing often provides hints about what will happen next. For instance, a movie director might show a clip in which two parents discuss their son's leukemia. The camera briefly changes shots to do an extended close-up of a dying plant in the garden outside, or one of the parents might mention that another relative died on the same date. The perceptive audience sees the dying plant, or hears the reference to the date of death, and realizes this detail foreshadows the child's death later in the movie. Often this foreshadowing takes the form of a noteworthy coincidence or appears in a verbal echo of dialogue. Other examples of foreshadowing include the conversation and action of the three witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth, or the various prophecies that Oedipus hears during Oedipus Rex. == = = = __Genres__ are categories of literature that share common features or conventions. Three broad genres are poetry, drama, and fiction. These general categories are divided further into standards like sonnets & free verse, tragedies & comedies, murder mysteries & westerns. = = = = The __Gothic Romance__ novel was popular between 1760 through the 1840s. Readers expect mystery, supernatural occurrences, wild and desolate landscapes, an atmosphere of gloom, ancient buildings, secret doors, winding stairways, a powerful male figure who threatens a virtuous female character, and some fainting and screaming by distraught ladies. The heroine may face off with aristocrats. =

HYPERBOLE: exaggeration or overstatement.
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">An exaggeration for effect.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 1:__ "I told you a billion times not to exaggerate." //

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex 2:__ "…we scattered light through half Astoria…" (**Fitzgerald** 72). //

__** Imagery **__ is the **verbal representation of sensory experience.** In literature all five senses may be represented: sight (visual imagery), sound (auditory imagery), touch (tactile imagery), taste (gustatory imagery), and smell (olfactory imagery). Visual imagery is most common, but good writers experiment with a variety of images and even purposefully intermingle the senses (giving smells a color, for example.) Imagery depends on both diction and detail: an image’s success in producing a sensory experience results from the specificity of the author’s diction and the choice of detail. Imagery contributes to voice by evoking vivid experience, conveying specific emotion, and suggesting a particular idea.

Imagery itself is not figurative, but **may be used to impart figurative or symbolic meaning**. **For example, the parched earth can be a metaphor for a character’s despair, or a bird’s flight a metaphor for hope.** Traditional imagery typically has a history. A river, for example, is usually associated with a life’s journey. Traditional images are rarely disassociated with their historic meaning. Students should be encouraged to examine the traditional meaning of images, the departure from tradition, and the effect of both of meaning. They should also learn to recognize and analyze nontraditional and nonfigurative imagery used to influence and sharpen reader perception.

|| **INDUCTION**: Inductive Reasoning--The logical assumption or process of assuming that what is true for a single specimen or example is also true for other specimens or examples of the same type. For instance, if a geologist found a type of stone called adamantium, and he discovered that it was very hard and durable, he could assume through induction that other stones of adamantium are also very hard and durable. The danger in such an assertion is the risk of hasty generalization. This process is the opposite of deduction. Induction fashions a large, general rule from a specific example. Deduction determines the truth about specific examples using a large general rule. ||



Inversion- Changing standard //word// order is called "//inversion.//"
"Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. . . . This one a long time have I watched. . . . Never his mind on where he was." (Yoda in //Star Wars: Episode V--The Empire Strikes//

=== **IRONY**: Cicero referred to irony as "saying one thing and meaning another." Irony comes in many forms. **Verbal irony** (also called **sarcasm**) is a trope in which a speaker makes a statement in which its actual meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express. Often this sort of irony is plainly sarcastic in the eyes of the reader, but the characters listening in the story may not realize the speaker's sarcasm as quickly as the readers do. **Dramatic irony** (the most important type for literature) involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know. In that situation, the character acts in a way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate to the actual circumstances, or the character expects the opposite of what the reader knows that fate holds in store, or the character anticipates a particular outcome that unfolds itself in an unintentional way. Probably the most famous example of dramatic irony is the situation facing Oedipus in the play //Oedipus Rex//. **Situational irony** (also called **cosmic irony**) is a trope in which accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate, such as the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting his own pocket picked. However, both the victim and the audience are simultaneously aware of the situation in situational irony--which is not the case in dramatic irony. Probably the most famous example of situational irony is Jonathan Swift's //A Modest Proposal//, in which Swift "recommends" that English landlords take up the habit of eating Irish babies as a food staple. See also **Socratic irony**. ===

== __Kenning__: The term derives from the use of the Old Norse verb kenna 'to know, recognize'…It is a device for introducing descriptive colour or for suggesting associations without distracting attention from the essential statement. (Cuddon offers the following instances of Old English kennings: == > == a) helmberend—"helmet bearer" = "warrior" == > == b) beadoleoma—"battle light" = "flashing sword" == > == c) swansrad—"swan road" = "sea" Essentially, then, a kenning is a compact metaphor that functions as a name or epithet; it is also, in its more complex forms, a riddle in miniature.) == > [|http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/beauty-anglo-saxon-poetry-prelude-beowulf#sect-preparation] >

**Litotes: (pronounced //lee-TOE-tays//): A form of meiosis using a negative statement. **
====**Understatement, the opposite of exaggeration: "I was somewhat worried when the psychopath ran toward me with a chainsaw." (i.e., I was terrified).Litotes (especially popular in Old English poetry) is a type of meiosis in which the writer uses a statement in the negative to create the effect: "You know, Einstein is not a bad mathematician." (i.e., Einstein is a good mathematician.) "That pustulant wart is somewhat unbeautiful" (i.e.,That pustulant wart is ugly). Litotes is recognizable in English by negatives like not, no, non- and un-.)**==== = Logical Fallacies - = > <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Ad hominem (Latin) means “against the man.” W <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,Century,Times,serif; font-size: 15px;">hen presented with a statement from someone that you don’t agree with, rather than addressing the points of the argument, you attack the person. **Donald Trump and the Art of the Ad Hominem By: [|Rick Yuzzi] ** <span class="byline-italic" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia,Century,Times,serif; font-size: 11px;">**September 11th, 2015** " He calls Jeb Bush low energy. He then said Ben Carson makes Jeb Bush look like the energizer bunny. He basically called Rick Perry dumb by saying he puts on glasses so people will think he’s smart." <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5;">It is always important to attack arguments, rather than arguers. > ===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">A satisfied citizen says: “Richardson is the most successful mayor the town has ever had because he's the best mayor of our history.” "I'm right because I'm right."The second part of these sentences offer no evidence — they simply repeat the claim that was already presented. === > > <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">It is assumed that because one thing occurred after another, it must have occurred as a result of it. > "The rooster crows immediately before sunrise; therefore, the rooster causes the sun to rise." (Wikipedia's example) <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Just because one thing follows another does not mean that it was caused by it. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ Calling an act of arson a prank. //
 * =<span style="color: #08c9f8; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em;">Ad Hominem (Personal Attack) =
 * =<span style="color: #08c9f8; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em;">Begging the Question / Circular Reasoning =
 * =<span style="color: #08c9f8; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em;">Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy =
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">meiosis - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> Representation of a thing as less than it really is to compel greater esteem for it.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ "No man **is** an island" (Donne). // === METAPHOR: A comparison or analogy stated in such a way as to imply that one object is another one, figuratively speaking. When we speak of "the ladder of success," we imply that being successful is much like climbing a ladder to a higher and better position. Another example comes from an old television add from the 1980s urging teenagers not to try drugs. The camera would focus on a close-up of a pair of eggs and a voice would state "This is your brain." In the next sequence, the eggs would be cracked and thrown onto a hot skillet, where the eggs would bubble, burn, and seeth. The voice would state, "This is your brain on drugs." The point of the comparison is fairly clear. Another example is how Martin Luther wrote, "A mighty fortress is our God, / A bulwark never failing." (Mighty fortress and bulwark are the two metaphors for God in these lines.) === === A metaphor is an example of a rhetorical trope, and such metaphors have a long history of critical discussion. Aristotle, for instance, claimed "the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances" (qtd in Deutsche 84). Often, a metaphor suggests something symbolic in its imagery. For instance, Wordsworth uses a metaphor when he states of England, "she is a fen of stagnant waters," which implies something about the state of political affairs in England as well as the island's biomes. Sometimes, the metaphor can be emotionally powerful, such as John Donne's use of metaphor in "Twickenham Garden," where he writes, "And take my tears, which are love's wine" (line 20). === === If we break down a metaphorical statement into its component parts, the real-world subject (first item) in a metaphoric statement is known as the tenor. The second item (often an imaginary one or at least not present in a literal sense) to which the tenor refers is called the vehicle. For example, consider the metaphorical statement, "Susan is a viper in her cruel treacheries." Here, Susan is the tenor in the metaphor, and viper is the vehicle in the same metaphor. The tenor, Susan, is literally present or literally exists. The vehicle, the hypothetical or imagined viper, is not necessarily physically present. === === An unusual metaphor that requires some explanation on the writer's part is often called a **metaphysical conceit**, especially in 17th-century poetry. If the metaphorical connection is merely implied rather than directly stated, such as talking about "the ladder of success," the term is a "subdued metaphor." The combination of two different metaphors into a single, awkward image is called a "mixed metaphor" or **//abusio//**. See also **tenor**, **vehicle**, **subdued metaphor**, and telescoped metaphor. Contrast with **simile**. ===
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">metaphor - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> An implied comparison that //__does not use the word like or as.__//

=== Metonymy- Some examples of metonymy are using the metonym "crown" in reference to royalty or the entire royal family, or stating "the pen is mightier than the sword" to suggest that the power of education and writing is more potent for changing the world than military force. We use metonymy in everyday speech when we refer to the entire movie-making industry as the L. A. suburb "Hollywood" or the advertising industry as the street "Madison Avenue" (and when we refer to businessmen working there as "suits.") Journalists use metonymy to refer to the collective decisions of the United States government as "Washington" or when they use the term "the White House" as a shorthand reference for the executive bureaucracy in American government. === == __Oxymoron__ (plural oxymora,similar to paradox): Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level. After reading Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," the reader understands the two word oxymoron __"monstrous joy."__ Simple or joking examples include such two word oxymora as jumbo shrimp,sophisticated rednecks, and military intelligence. The richest literary oxymora seem to reveal a deeper truth through their contradictions. These oxymora are sometimes called paradoxes. For instance, "without laws, we can have no freedom." ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Here is another example of juxtaposed words with seemingly contradictory meanings--

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ "O __miserable abundance__! O __beggarly riches__!" (Donne). //

===Paradox- Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level. Common paradoxes seem to reveal a deeper truth through their contradictions, such as noting that "without laws, we can have no freedom." Shakespeare's //Julius// //Caesar// also makes use of a famous paradox: "Cowards die many times before=== ===their deaths" (2.2.32). In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard "breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday that she had thought with a shudder that life might be long." In Shakespeare's __Macbeth__, the witches plan to meet "when the battle's lost and won." Richard Rolle uses an almost continuous string of paradoxes in his Middle English work, "Love is LoveThat Lasts For Aye." Oscar Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Gaol" notes "And all men kill the thing they love." The taoist master === ===Lao-Tzu makes extraordinary use of paradox in the Tao-te Ching in his discussion of "the Way." Charles Dickens begins //__A Tale of Two Cities__// with the contradictory line that "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."===

Parallel construction or
** If the writer uses two parallel structures, the result is isocolon parallelism: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." ** ||  **//PATHOS//** (Greek, "emotion"): In its rhetorical sense, //pathos// is a writer or speaker's attempt to inspire an emotional reaction in an audience--usually a deep feeling of suffering, but sometimes joy, pride, anger, humor, patriotism, or any of a dozen other emotions. P//athos// signifies a scene or passage designed to evoke the feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow in a reader or viewer. from []  ||
 * PARALLELISM**: ** When the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length. For instance, "King Alfred tried to make the law clear, precise, and equitable." The previous sentence has parallel structure in use of adjectives. However, the following sentence does not use parallelism: "King Alfred tried to make clear laws that had precision and were equitable." **
 * If there are three structures, it is tricolon parallelism: "That government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." Or, as one student wrote, "Her purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to startle the complacent." Shakespeare used this device to good effect in Richard II when King Richard laments his unfortunate position: **
 * I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, **** My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, **** My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, **** My figured goblets for a dish of wood . . . . (3.3.170-73) **

Periodic Sentence Structure--
** The most common type of periodic sentence involves a long phrase in which the verb falls at the very end of the sentence after the direct object, indirect object and other grammatical necessities. For example, <span class="purple_quotation_sans_serif"> "For the queen, the lover, pleading always at the heart's door, patiently waits." In a ** non-periodic sentence**, ** ** we would normally write, "Always pleading at the heart's door, the lover waits patiently for the queen." The non-periodic sentence is clearer in English. It tends to follow the subject-verb-object pattern we are accustomed to. The periodic sentence is more exotic and arguably more poetic, but initially confusing. ** == Personification-- a bstractions, animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given human character, traits, abilities, or reactions. Personification is particularly common in poetry, but it appears in nearly all types of artful writing. Examples include Keat's treatment of the == == vase in "Ode on a Grecian Urn," in which the urn is treated as a <span class="purple_quotation_sans_serif">"sylvan historian, who canst thus express / A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme," or Sylvia Plath's "The Moon and the Yew Tree," in which the moon "is a face in its own right, / White as a knuckle and terribly upset. / It drags the sea after it like a dark crime." When discussing the ways that animistic religions personify natural forces with human qualities, scientists refer to this process as "**anthropomorphizing**," sometimes with derogatory overtones. A special sub-type of personification is **//prosopopoeia//**, in which an inanimate object is given the ability of human speech. **Apostrophe** (not to be confused with the punctuation mark) is a special type of personification in which a speaker in a poem or rhetorical work pauses to address some abstraction that is not physically present in the room. HINT-- ** Often, the poet or author will capitalize the word that is being personified. **==

__Portmanteau__-a literary device in which two or more words are joined together to coin a new word.
In modern times, portmanteau words have entered the English language regularly. We see their widespread coinage in different fields of life. No doubt, they are both useful and interesting. Below is a list of examples of portmanteau words nowadays.
 * telephone + marathon = telethon
 * medical + care = Medicare
 * parachute + troops = paratroops
 * motor + hotel = motel
 * camera + recorder = camcorder
 * web + log = blog
 * iPod + broadcasting = podcasting
 * situational + comedy = sitcom

Post Hoc Ergo Propter hoc fallacy- See "Logical Fallacies" above.
= Prose is ordinary writing. It is Not poetry. When you read novels, stories, articles in magazines, and newspaper accounts, you are reading prose. =


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">protagonist - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> The major character in a piece of literature; the figure in the narrative whose interests the reader is most concerned about and sympathetic toward.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. //

= Provenance- the place of origin or earliest known history of something. The provenance of the Beowulf manuscript is very ambiguous. The story was first told by scops in the oral tradition. It was probably written with Christian overtones by monks. =

= Pun- Often a play on words, as found in Shakespeare's //Romeo and Juliet// when Mercutio has been mortally wounded. = <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Open Sans','Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">One of the cleverest and most morbid puns comes as a joke from a fatally-stabbed Mercutio, who stops joking to explain that “tomorrow … you shall find me a grave man.” Grave means serious, but here it also alludes to his imminent death. = = Read more at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-puns-in-literature.html#UK9XS6iiode8mBlE.99 = A rhyming couplet... Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit. Geoffrey Chaucer and other writers helped popularize the form in English poetry in the fourteenth century. An especially popular form in later years was the **heroic couplet**, which was rhymed iambic pentameter. It was popular from the 1600s through the late 1700s. Much Romantic poetry in the early 1800s used the couplet as well. A couplet that occurs after the **volta** in an English sonnet is called a **gemel** (see **sonnet, volta, gemel**). = = = = Scansion: =

Greek and other poetic traditions.
=**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Setting: **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> The context--including time and place--of a narrative. = ====//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">The area surrounding New York City in the 1920s is the setting of **__ The Great Gatsby __**//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">, by F. Scott Fitzgerald--East Egg, West Egg, The Valley of Ashes, and The Plaza Hotel. //====

== SIMILE: An analogy or comparison implied by using like or as, in contrast with a metaphor which figuratively makes the comparison by stating outright that one thing is another thing. This figure of speech is of great antiquity. It is common in both prose and verse works. ==


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">From //The Great Gatsby//: **

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ "There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away" (Fitzgerald 2). //

A poetic example of simile comes from Robert Burns' poem:
> <span style="color: #5918bb; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">O, my luve **is like** a red, red rose > <span style="color: #5918bb; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That's newly sprung in June: > <span style="color: #5918bb; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">O, my luve is like the melodie > <span style="color: #5918bb; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That's sweetly played in tune... > > = A soliloquy is = == spoken by an actor when the character believes himself to be alone on stage. The technique frequently reveals a character's innermost thoughts, including his feelings, state of mind, motives or intentions. The soliloquy often provides necessary but otherwise inaccessible information to the audience. The dramatic convention is that whatever a character says in a soliloquy to the audience must be true, or at least true in the eyes of the character speaking (i.e., the character may tell lies to mislead other characters in the play, but whatever he states in a soliloquy is a true reflection of what the speaker believes or feels). The soliloquy was rare in Classical drama, but Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights used it extensively, especially for their villains. Well-known examples include speeches by the title characters of //Macbeth//, Richard III, and //Hamlet// and also Iago in //Othello//. (Contrast with an **aside**.) Unlike the aside, a soliloquy is not usually indicated by specific **stage directions**. ==

==** SYLLEPSIS ** : A specialized form of zeugma in which the meaning of a verb cleverly changes halfway through a sentence but remains grammatically correct. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Open Sans','Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">A <span style="color: #3995d9; font-family: 'Open Sans','Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; text-decoration: none;">[|zeugma] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Open Sans','Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"> is an interesting device that can cause confusion in sentences, while also adding some flavor. Let's take a famous example from Star Trek: The Next Generation: "You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit." <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Open Sans','Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">In this sentence, the word "execute" applies to both laws and citizens, and as a result, has a shocking effect. == <span style="font-family: 'Open Sans','Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Read more at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-zeugma.html#ADW6ZGQDcRZrSiVt.99

== **syllogism** from Logic A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion; for example, All humans are mortal, the major premise, I am a human, the minor premise, therefore, I am mortal, the conclusion. Reasoning from the general to the specific; deduction. A subtle or specious piece of reasoning. ==


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">syllogism - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> Logical reasoning from inarguable premises.

//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ All mortals die. All humans are mortal. Therefore, all humans die. //

== A SYMBOL: A word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level. For instance, consider the stop sign. It is literally a metal octagon painted red with white streaks. However, everyone on American roads will be safer if we understand that this object also represents the act of coming to a complete stop--an idea hard to encompass briefly without some sort of symbolic substitute. In literature, symbols can be cultural, contextual, or personal. An object, a setting, or even a character can represent another more general idea. ==

== SYMBOLISM: Frequent use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something beyond what they are on a literal level. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," an open window symbolizes opportunity and freedom. Birds, tree tops, and blue skys continue the theme of freedom for the main character as she considers her days ahead living for herself not her husband. ==


 * SYNAESTHESIA** (also spelled **synesthesia**, from Grk.

"perceiving together"): A rhetorical trope involving shifts in **imagery** or sensory metaphors. It

involves taking one type of sensory input (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

and comingling it with another separate sense in what seems an impossible way.

In the 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 ma////l//, 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. Neurologists also have identified certain rare individuals

who experience such blending of the senses, often associating a color with a

number or letter. **(F. Scott Fitzgerald is noted for his use of synesthesia, like "yellow cocktail music.")**

[]

**SYNECDOCHE**: //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ "The hired hands are not doing their jobs." // A part of an object represents the whole, or the whole of an object represents a part. For instance, a writer might state, "Twenty eyes watched our every move." Rather than implying that twenty disembodied eyes are swiveling to follow him as he walks by, she means that ten people watched the group's every move. When a captain calls out, "All hands on deck," he wants the whole sailors, not just their hands. When a cowboy talks about owning "forty head of cattle," he isn't talking about stuffed cowskulls hanging in his trophy room, but rather forty live cows and their bovine bodies. When La Fontaine states, "A hungry stomach has no ears," he uses synecdoche and **metonymy** simultaneously to refer to the way that starving people do not want to listen to arguments. In the New Testament, a similar synecdoche about the stomach appears. Here, the stomach represents all the physical appetites, and the heart represents the entire set of personal beliefs. Paul writes: > <span style="color: #5918bb; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (Romans 16:17) Likewise, when Christians pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," they aren't asking God for bread alone, but rather they use the word as a synecdoche for all the mundane necessities of food and shelter. In the demonic play //Faust//, Marlowe writes of Helen of Troy, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" The //thousand ships// is a synecdoche for the entire Greek army: i.e., men, horses, weapons, and all. Likewise, the //towers// are a synecdoche; they are one part of the doomed city's architecture that represents the entire city and its way of life. Helen's //face// is a decorous synecdoche for Helen's entire sexy body, since her suitors were presumably interested in more than her visage alone. Eliot writes in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" that Prufrock "should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floor of silent seas." Here, the synecdoche implies the incompleteness of the poetic speaker. Prufrock is so futile and helpless, he shouldn't even be a complete crab, only the crab's claws scuttling along without a complete body, brain, or sense of direction. Henry IV implies that the city of Paris deserves some honorable ceremony when he claims, "Paris is well worth a mass," and so on. Synecdoche is often similar to and overlaps with **metonymy**, above. It is an example of a rhetorical trope.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">synecdoche - **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> A part of something used to refer to the whole.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">The order of words in a sentence. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ "The dog ran" not "The ran dog." //
 * Syntax ** refers to the way words are arranged within sentences.

Although the basic structure of the English sentence is prescribed (there must be a subject and a verb; word order can be random), there is great latitude in its execution. How writers control and manipulate the sentence is a strong determiner of voice and imparts personality to the writing. Syntax encompasses word order, sentence length, sentence focus, and punctuation.

Most English sentences follow a subject-verb-object/complement pattern. Deviating from the expected word order can serve to startle the reader and draw attention to the sentence. This, in turn, emphasizes the unusual sentence’s message. There are several ways to change normal word order:

ª Inverting subject and verb (__Am I__ ever sorry!) ª Placing a complement at the beginning of the sentence (__Hungry__, without a doubt, he is) ª Placing an object in front of a verb (__Sarah__ I like – not Susan).

Good writers shift between conformity and nonconformity, preventing reader complacency without using unusual sentence structure to the point of distraction.

Another aspect of syntax is sentence length. Writers vary sentence length to forestall boredom and control emphasis. A short sentence following a much longer sentence shifts the reader’s attention, which emphasizes the meaning and importance of the short sentence. Many modern writers put key ideas in short sentences. However, this has not always been so. Practice will help students learn to examine sentence length and look for relationship between length and emphasis in works from different historical periods.

Sentence length contributes to variation and emphasis among sentences. Sentence focus deals with variation and emphasis within a sentence. In the English sentence, main ideas are usually expressed in main-clause positions. However, main-clause placement often varies, and this placement determines the writer’s focal point. Sentence focus is generally achieved by syntactic tension and repetition.

Syntactic tension is the withholding of syntactic closure (completion of grammatical structure) until the end of the sentence. Sentences that delay closure are called //periodic sentences//. Periodic sentences carry high tension and interest: the reader must wait until the end of the sentence to understand the meaning. For example, note that the main idea of the following sentence is completed at the end of the sentence: //As long as we ignore our children, refuse to dedicate the necessary time and money to their care, __we will fail to solve the problem of school violence__//.

In contrast, sentences that reach syntactical closure early (loose sentences) relieve tension and allow the reader to explore the rest of the sentence without urgency. Note the difference in tension when we change the sentence to a loose sentence: //__We will fail to solve the problem of school violence__ as long as we ignore our children and refuse to dedicate the necessary time and money to their care//.

Repetition is another way writers achieve sentence focus. Purposeful repetition of a word, phrase, or clause emphasizes the repeated structure and focuses the reader’s attention on its meaning. Writers can also repeat parallel grammatical forms such as infinitives, gerunds, and prepositional phrases. This kind of repetition balances parallel ideas and gives them equal weight.

Punctuation is used reinforce meaning, construct effect, and express the writer’s voice. Of particular interest in shaping voice are the semicolon, colon and dash.

ª The ( **;** ) //semicolon// gives equal weight to two or more independent clauses in a sentence. The resulting syntactical balance reinforces parallel ideas and imparts equal importance to both (or all) of the clauses. ª The ( **:** ) //colon// directs reader attention to the words that follow. It is also used between independent clauses if the second summarizes or explains the first. A colon sets the expectation that important, closely related information will follow, and words after the colon are emphasized. ª The ( **--** ) //dash// marks a sudden change in thought or tone, sets off a brief summary, or sets off a parenthetical part of the sentence. The dash often conveys a casual tone.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">**Theme- The message conveyed by a literary work.** //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">**__Ex:__ The decline of the American dream in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott F**itzgerald. // = =

= = = = =** Tone ** is the expression of attitude. It is the writer’s (or narrator’s) implied attitude towards his subject and audience. The writer creates tone by selection (diction) and arrangement (syntax) or words and= by purposeful use of details and images. The reader perceives tone by examining these elements. Tone sets the relationship between reader and writer. As the emotion growing out of the material and connecting the material to the reader, tone is the hallmark of the writer’s personality.

Understanding tone is requisite to understanding meaning. Such understanding is the key to perceiving the author’s mood and making the connection between the author’s thought and its expression. Identifying and analyzing tone requires careful reading, sensitivity to diction and syntax, and understanding of detail selection and imagery. Students can, with practice, learn to identify tone in writing. Tone is as varied as human experience and as with human experience, familiarity and thought pave the way to understanding.

**UNDERSTATEMENT**: See **//litotes//**

== **//Unreliable narrator://** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> An untrustworthy or naïve commentator on events and characters in a story. ==


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">__Ex:__ The people at Gatsby's parties like Jordan who spread rumors about Gatsby's past in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (excerpted from--Aboukhadijeh, Feross. "Rhetorical Terms - Trope" StudyNotes.org. Study Notes, LLC., 17 Nov. 2012. Web. 02 Apr. 2015. <https://www.apstudynotes.org/english/rhetorical-terms/trope/>.)

= Verbal irony... see irony above. = =Verbals-= The form of **a verb that functions as another** part of speech. There are three types of verbals in English: (from about.com)
 * [participles] (also known as -ing forms and -en forms. -A verb used as an adjective.
 * [gerunds] (also known as -ing forms-- A verb ending in -ing and used as a noun.
 * [infinitives] A verb that usually begins with to and is used as a noun, adjective or adverb.

= __The Victorian Age__ is a period of British literature in the late 19th century. The dates often given are 1837-1901-- the years Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire. The literature is characterized by excellent and memorable novelists, essayists, and poets. The time period shows a belief in social progress, a concervative attitude toward morals and respectability, values of hard work, and a strong sense of gentlemanly honor and feminine virtue. The negative characteristics of the Victorians include hypocrisy, smugness, prudishness, humorlessness, and unquestioning belief in matters of religion and politics. Those who defied social and moral convention would be condemned. = = Some of the prominent British writers include Cardinal Newman, Benjamin Disraeli, Bulwer-Lytton, Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Ann Bronte, George Eliot, Lewis Caroll, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Robert Louis Stevenson. = []

====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">**Villanelle** -- A Villanelle <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">is divided into three segments. The first segment is called the introduction. The second is called the development and the third is called the conclusion. Villanelle builds up the intensity and tone of a poem. It is mostly used in lyrical poems and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #00468c; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration: none;">[|songs] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> with the objective of using repeated lines to soften the typical <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #00468c; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration: none;">[|repetition] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> of traditional forms. ====

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">It is defined as a poetic device which requires a poem to have 19 lines and a fixed form. It has five tercets (first 15 lines), a <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #00468c; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration: none;">[|quatrain] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> (last four lines), and a <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #00468c; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration: none;">[|couplet] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> at the end of the quatrain. http://literarydevices.net/villanelle/

There are five elements of voice: diction, detail, imagery, syntax and tone.
= = == = = = . = = = = =
 * Diction** (word choice) is the foundation of voice and contributes to all of its elements.
 * Detail** (facts, observations, and incidents) is used to develop a topic, shaping and seasoning voice.
 * Imagery** (verbal representation of sense experience) brings the immediacy of sensory experience to writing and give voice a distinctive quality.
 * Syntax** (grammatical sentence structure) controls verbal pacing and focus.
 * Tone** (expression of attitude) gives voice its distinctive personality.