Rhetorical Terms
Rhetorical Triangle
Figurative Language
Grammar
Random Surprise
100
An exaggeration used to make a point or to draw attention.
What is hyberbole?
100
The art of using words to persuade in writing or speaking.
What is rhetoric?
100
Broadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in a work; the use of the five senses to call to mind an idea or describe an idea.
What is imagery?
100
A long sentence in which the main clause is not completed until the end, for example, "Looking as if she were being chased by demons, ignoring all hazards, the child ran."
What is a periodic sentence?
100
"To raise a happy, healthful, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety; it takes us all." (Hillary Clinton)
What is anaphora?
200
The specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose or effect.
What is diction?
200
The writer's appeal to emotions.
What is pathos?
200
Treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by endowing it with human features or qualities.
What is personification?
200
A long sentence that starts with its main clause, which is followed by several dependent clauses and modifying phrases. For example, "The child ran, frenzied and ignoring all hazards, as if being chased by demons."
What is a loose sentence?
200
The attitude the writer takes toward a subject and theme.
What is tone?
300
A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it is describing, examples: "buzz," "swoosh,"plink."
What is onomatopoeia?
300
The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker/writer.
What is ethos?
300
The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant.
What is irony?
300
The use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts. "Jane enjoys skiing, walking, and swimming."
What is parallel structure?
300
The use of a person, place, thing, event, or pattern that figuratively represents or "stands for" something else, usually something abstract.
What is symbolism?
400
The regular repetition of the same words or phrases at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses.
What is anaphora?
400
The three points of the rhetorical triangle.
What are writer, audience, and message? or What is pathos, logos, ethos?
400
A figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements.
What is oxymoron?
400
The location of one thing adjacent to or beside another to create an effect, reveal an attitude or accomplish some other purpose.
What is juxtaposition?
400
A literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure.
What is satire?
500
A statement that seems contradictory but may probably be true.
What is a paradox?
500
The repetition of initial identical sounds in successive words.
What is alliteration?
500
The way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.
What is syntax?
500
A syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted in a series, usually producing more rapid prose. "I came, I saw, I conquered." (attributed to Julius Caesar)
What is asyndeton?