Argument and
Text Structure
Text Structure
This is the type of text structure that would be best for the following paragraph:
For example, the state of Louisiana, where the death penalty is legal, has a murder rate of 21.3 per 100,000 residents. In Iowa, where the death penalty was abolished in 1965, the murder rate is 3.2 per 100,000. In Kentucky the death penalty is legal and the murder rate is 9.6; in Michigan where it’s illegal, the murder rate is 8.7. The death penalty simply has no bearing on murder rates. If it did, we’d see markedly lower murder rates in states that maintain the practice. But that’s not the case. Capital punishment does not deter crime. Therefore, it should be abolished.
What is descriptive?
What is connotation?
This word, though often associated with weather or the sky, is another word for the mood of a piece of writing.
What is atmosphere?
This is the type of author's purpose that would be best represented in text books, scientific articles, and user manuals.
What is to inform?
This literary term describes the use of an object to represent a larger idea or concept in a story or piece of writing.
What is symbolism?
This type of rhetorical appeal is used the most in the following passage:
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
What is pathos?
What is the connotation of the word queer in the following passage:
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
What is positive?
This is the person the mood represents the feelings of.
Who is the reader?
This is the author's purpose best captured in a political speech or an argumentative essay.
What is to persuade?
This part of plot is often represented by an idea or statement that captures what the author wants the reader to gain from the text.
What is theme?
This is the type of rhetorical appeal used most in the following passage:
They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted?
What is logos?
What connotation best describes the following list of words:
syringe, vial, pancreas, insulin
What is neutral?
This is a word to describe the mood of the following passage:
But see, amid the mimic rout,
A crawling shape intrude!
A blood-red thing that writhes from out
The scenic solitude!
It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And seraphs sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued.
What is scary/horrific/disgusted [answers will vary]?
This type of author's purpose would be often found in novels, comic books, news features on celebrities, among other types of writing.
What is to entertain?
This is the literary term best represented in the following movie summary:
When this movie opens, we see a town and the setting appears to be early-Colonial America (i.e. the Puritans). The town is attacked regularly by creepy rat-like monsters in red cloaks. One of the members of the town falls very ill, and they need to send someone to another town for medical supplies. They choose to send a blind girl in the town, who leaves on her journey, having to run from the monsters. When she reaches the main road, a truck picks her up and we realize that the setting is not early-American but present day!
What is situational irony?
The following is a supporting detail that could support this central idea or argumentative claim:
Social media also promotes unrealistic and unhealthy beauty standards, which can lead to anxiety and depression.
What is social media is harmful to our mental health?
This is an appropriate way to describe the tone of the following selection:
There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!
This is a word to describe the mood of the following passage:
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as “Nevermore.”
What is mystery/confusion [answers will vary]?
This is the type of author's purpose that would be best represented in poetry and some opinion writing.
What is to express?
This is a poetic device that is created by the repetition of vowel sounds within a word, such as:
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
What is assonance?
This is the central idea of the following argumentative passage:
Proponents of the death penalty have long claimed that the practice is an effective deterrent to crime. It might not be pretty, they say, but its deterrent effects prevent further crime. Therefore, its continued use is justified. The problem is that this is just not borne out in the data. There is simply no evidence that the death penalty deters crime more than other forms of punishment, like long prison sentences. States, where the death penalty is still carried out, do not have lower crime rates than states where the practice has been abolished. States that have abandoned the death penalty likewise show no increase in crime or murder rates.
What is that the death penalty does not deter crime?
This is a word to describe the tone of the narrator in the following passage:
But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man’s terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! — do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me — the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man’s hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room.
What is anxious/nervous/on-edge [answers will vary]?
This is an appropriate word to describe the mood of the following poem:
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee
What is happy/whimsical/joyous [answers will vary]?
This author's purpose would be found in a news article on an art gallery, a passage laying out the appearance and landmarks of an old battlefield, or a visual poem.
What is to describe?
What is to create emphasis on that topic of the hyperbole?