Five Common Topics
Elocution
Terms
Books
Tools
100

This topic answers the question, "Who or what is X?"

What is topic of definition?

100

This trope uses 'like' or 'as' to compare two different things that share a common quality.

What is simile?

100

The following is an example of this: "Whether Edmund should have followed the White Witch."

What is an issue?

100
This story took place in WWII England and in a fantasy land at the end of a hundred years of winter.

What is the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?

100
These are three kinds of Exordium. 
What are question, challenge and quotation.
200

This topic answers the question, "How is X similar to/different from Y?"

What is the topic of comparison?

200

The scheme where two opposite ideas are stated in parallel form.

What is antithesis?

200

These three stages of writing solve the three broad challenges all writers face.

What are the canons of composition (Invention, Arrangement, Elocution).

200

This story featured a piece of jewelry with a star and two best friends.

What is Number the Stars?

200

The part of an outline states the amount of proofs or reasons.

What is enumeration?

300

This topic features the question of what witnesses say about a character or his actions.

What is the topic of testimony?

300
"Miss Daisy drove the car." "The car was driven by Miss Daisy." In the above examples, "drove" and "driven" are examples of these."

What are passive and active verbs.

300

In this column of an ANI chart, gathered information is placed that fits in neither of the other two columns.

What is Interesting?

300

This character was an apprentice who longed for an opportunity for learning, and found it in unexpected places.

Who is Mr. Bowditch?

300

This tool expresses to whom your thesis matters and why.

What is amplification?
400

This topic answers the question, "What is happening elsewhere at the same time?"

What is the topic of circumstance?

400

Below is an example of what tool used in Elocution: "Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories about nothing."

What is parallelism?
400

This is an argument that we use to defend our thesis.

What is a proof?

400

This story set in medieval England features a boy who overcame great personal hardship to find freedom from a troubled family background.

What is Crispin: The Cross of Lead?

400

This tool describes the point of disagreement between the writer and an opponent.

What is division?

500

These are all the five common topics.

What are comparison, definition, relationship, circumstance, and testimony?
500

"The exhausted student went to his Latin class." "The exhausted student traipsed wearily to his Latin class." The words "went" and "traipsed" are examples of these kinds of verbs.

What are imprecise and precise verbs?

500

This is used to grab the reader's attention at the beginning of an essay.

Exordium

500

This story set in medieval England features a boy who overcame great personal hardship to save a castle from invasion.

What is The Door in the Wall?

500

This tool is the response to an opposing argument where you state two of the opponent's proofs and show why they are inadequate.

What is refutation?

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