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Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical Devices
Logic and Fallacies
Logic and Fallacies
100
anecdote
What is a brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature?
100
Irony
What is a situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. Irony is frequently humorous, and can be sarcastic when using words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean.
100
Tone
What is the attitude a literary work takes towards its subject and theme. It reflects the narrator's attitude.
100
Syllogism
What is: 1. All men are mortal. 2. Socrates is a man. 3. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
100
premise
What is a proposition used as evidence in an argument?
200
allusion
What is a figure of speech which makes brief, even casual reference to a historical or literary figure, event, or object to create a resonance in the reader or to apply a symbolic meaning to the character or object of which the allusion consists.
200
oxymoron
What is a figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements, as in "jumbo shrimp" or "deafening silence."
200
satire
What is a literary style used to make fun of or ridicule an idea or human vice or weakness.
200
slippery slope
What is a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens, then eventually through a series of small steps, through B,C, . . . X, Y, Z will happen too, basically equating A and Z. So, if we don't want Z to occur, A must not be allowed to occur either.
200
hasty generalization
What is a conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence. In other words, you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts.
300
epistolary
What is a piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters.
300
epitaph
What is a piece of writing in praise of a deceased person.
300
parody
What is a satirical imitation of a work of art for purpose of ridiculing its style or subject.
300
either/or
What is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices.
300
ad hominem
What is an attack on the character of a person rather than his or her opinions or arguments.
400
dues ex machina
What is, as in Greek theater, use of an artificial device or contrived solution to solve a difficult situation, usually introduced suddenly and unexpectedly.
400
litote
What is a form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis and intensity. For example, "She is not a bad cook." Or "No man ever followed his genius until it misled him." Thoreau
400
doppelganger
What is a ghostly counterpart of a living person or an alter ego.
400
red herring
What is a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them.
400
straw man
What is a move that oversimplifies an opponent's viewpoint and then attacks that hollow argument.
500
zeugma
What is a grammatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs or a verb with two or more direct objects. The linking shows a relationship between ideas more clearly.
500
andiplosis
What is a repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause. For example, "The crime was common, common be the pain." (Alexander Pope)
500
asyndeton
What is the practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list, it gives a more extemporaneous effect and suggests the list may be incomplete. For example, "He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing."
500
post ergo propter hoc
What is a conclusion that assumes that if "A" occurred after "B," then "B" must have caused "A."
500
ad populum
What is an emotional appeal that speaks to positive or negative concepts rather than the real issue at hand?