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Voice Lessons
Tone Analysis
Syntax and Style terms
Random Terms
100
a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph.
What is a transition?
100
the author's choice of words that creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning
What is diction?
100
What is the author's tone toward the tide? There is no drop of water in the ocean, not even in the deepest parts of the abyss, that does not know and respond to the mysterious forces that create the tide. No other force that affects the sea is so strong. Compared with the tide the wind-created waves are surface movements felt, at most, no more than a hundred fathoms below the surface.
What is reverence? veneration? any word that is stronger than respect?
100
refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity.
What is parallelism?
100
a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement
What is hyperbole?
200
A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point.
What is an anecdote?
200
Identify the exclamatory sentence and explain its effect. The impact of poetry is so hard and direct that for the moment there is no other sensation except that of the poem itself. What profound depths we visit then – how sudden and complete is our immersion! There is nothing here to catch hold of; nothing to stay us in our flight. . . . The poet is always our contemporary. Our being for the moment is centered and constricted, as in any violent shock of personal emotion.
What is What profound depths we visit then – how sudden and complete is our immersion! The exclamatory sentence here serves to emphasize the immediacy and complete involvement found in reading poetry. Exclamatory sentences in general show deep feeling, excitement, and passion. When used sparingly, they provide contrast for the more decorous declarative sentences, and they express the strong feelings of the writer?
200
What is the author's attitude toward the "collective white man?" I perceived, as I read, how the collective white man had been actually nothing but a piratical opportunist who used Faustian machinations to make his own Christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests. First, always “religiously,” he branded “heathen” and “pagan” labels upon ancient non-white cultures and civilizations. The stage thus set, he then turned upon his non-white victims his weapons of war.
What is contempt?
200
A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. The independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. The effect is to add emphasis and structural variety.
What is a periodic sentence?
200
the presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by phrase, clause, or paragraphs. "To be or not to be . . ." "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times . . ." "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country . . ."
What is antithesis?
300
From the Greek for "reckoning together," a __ is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion.
What is a syllogism?
300
What are the connotations of the word tattered? What tone does the diction reveal? An aged man is but a paltry thing A tattered coat upon a stick....
What is A tattered coat connotes hanging, torn, ragged, and in disarray. By understanding this, the reader understands the persona’s attitude toward an aged man: that he is insignificant, wasted, and of little value?
300
What is Mark Twain's tone towards Cooper in the following passage? But that is Cooper’s way; frequently he will explain and justify little things that do not need it and then make up for this by as frequently failing to explain important ones that do need it. For instance he allowed that astute and cautious person, Deerslayer-Hawkeye, to throw his rifle heedlessly down and leave it lying on the ground where some hostile Indians would presently be sure to find it – a rifle prized by that person above all things else in the earth – and the reader gets no word of explanation of that strange act. There was a reason, but it wouldn’t bear exposure. Cooper meant to get a fine dramatic effect out of the finding of the rifle by the Indians, and he accomplished this at the happy time; but all the same, Hawkeye could have hidden the rifle in a quarter of a minute where the Indians could not have found it. Cooper couldn’t think of any way to explain why Hawkeye didn’t do that, so he just shirked the difficulty and did not explain at all. — Mark Twain, “Cooper’s Prose
What is contemptuous and sarcastic?
300
Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are emphasized equally when the conjunction is omitted; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence. X, Y, Z as opposed to X, Y, and Z.
What is asyndeton?
300
Often called circular reasoning, __ occurs when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim.
What is begging the question?
400
A single assertion or a series of assertions presented and defended by the writer
What is an argument?
400
Identify and explain the effect of the repetition in this passage: When the moment is ripe, only the fanatic can hatch a genuine mass movement. Without him the disaffection engendered by militant men of words remains undirected and can vent itself only in pointless and easily suppressed disorders. Without him the initiated reforms, even when drastic, leave the old way of life unchanged, and any change in government usually amounts to no more than a transfer of power from one set of men of action to another. Without him there can perhaps be no new beginning.
What is The phrase without him links each supporting sentence to the main idea (only the fanatic can hatch a genuine mass movement). The repetition continually brings the reader back to the essential: that the fanatic, the person him- or herself, is requisite to a new beginning. Repetition 132 / Discussion Suggestions — Syntax focuses the passage’s impact and both clarifies and emphasizes the main idea.
400
What is the author's attitude toward her subject matter? It’s true. If you want to buy a spring suit, the choice selection occurs in February: a bathing suit, March: back-to-school clothes, July: a fur coat, August. Did I tell you about the week I gave in to a mad-Mitty desire to buy a bathing suit in August? The clerk, swathed in a long-sleeved woolen dress which made her look for the world like Teddy Snowcrop, was aghast. “Surely, you are putting me on,” she said. “A bathing suit! In August!” “That’s right,” I said firmly, “and I am not leaving this store until you show me one.” She shrugged helplessly. “But surely you are aware of the fact that we haven’t had a bathing suit in stock since the first of June. Our – no offense – White Elephant sale was June third and we unload – rather, disposed of all of our suits at that time.”
What is genial and satirical (gently making fun of)?
400
Sentence which begins with the main idea and then expands on that idea with a series of details or other particulars. Sets a scene and then expands on it. Provides details. May seem rambling at times.
What is a cumulative (or loose) sentence?
400
When a writer uses the same term in two different senses in an argument.
What is equivocation?
500
Provide an example of an appropriately introduced and cited source for the synthesis essay.
According to Dr. Y, senior member of the Obama staff, "_____________" (Source C).
500
When the moment is ripe, only the fanatic can hatch a genuine mass movement. Without him the disaffection engendered by militant men of words remains undirected and can vent itself only in pointless and easily suppressed disorders. Without him the initiated reforms, even when drastic, leave the old way of life unchanged, and any change in government usually amounts to no more than a transfer of power from one set of men of action to another. Without him there can perhaps be no new beginning.
What is The last sentence is short, much shorter than the other sentences. It thus provides contrast and emphasis. It sums up the other sentences and strengthens the meaning of the paragraph.
500
What is Pope's tone toward his AUDIENCE in the passage below? In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the best abodes, Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods. Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell, Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel: And who but wishes to invert the laws Of Order, sins against th’ Eternal Cause.
What is didactic (preachy)?
500
repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent.
What is anaphora?
500
Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X. It is often short and summarizes a main idea.
What is chiasmus?