Devices in the Wild
This device places contradictory ideas side by side to sharpen contrast.
What is juxtaposition?
A reference to the Garden of Eden usually evokes this lost condition.
What is innocence?
An AP thesis must do more than summarize; it must do this.
What is make an arguable claim?
A sentence that runs on without clear structure risks becoming this.
What is incoherent?
An interpretation that simply restates plot commits this error.
What is summary?
When a concrete object carries abstract meaning beyond itself, it becomes this.
What is symbolism?
Mentioning Icarus often signals this human flaw.
What is hubris?
Evidence earns credit only when paired with this.
What is commentary?
This punctuation mark often signals an intentional pause or turn.
What is a semicolon?
Treating one meaning as the only possible meaning ignores this literary reality.
What is ambiguity?
This term names a comparison that claims identity, not similarity.
What is metaphor?
An allusion to Prometheus frames knowledge as this dangerous act.
What is transgressive enlightenment?
This rubric category rewards complexity, tension, or multiple perspectives.
What is sophistication?
Short, declarative sentences most often create this effect.
What is urgency?
When a claim cannot be supported by the text, it becomes this.
What is speculation?
A narrator who withholds, distorts, or misreads reality is described this way.
What is unreliable?
Biblical flood imagery commonly represents this cycle.
What is destruction and rebirth?
A line of text becomes “evidence” only after the writer does this to it.
What is interpret it?
Rearranging expected word order for emphasis is called this.
What is inversion?
Strong analysis models this movement: claim → evidence → ______.
What is analysis?
This device allows an author to critique a character’s thinking without direct commentary.
What is irony?
Referencing Odysseus often casts a character as this archetype.
What is the wandering hero / seeker?
The fastest way to lose sophistication is to treat literature as this.
What is a moral lesson or message?
A shift from long periodic sentences to fragments usually signals this tonal change.
What is emotional rupture / intensity?
The most sophisticated readings do not resolve tension; they preserve this.
What is uncertainty?