A question asked solely to produce an effect and not to elicit a reply.
Rhetorical Question
The character that the speaker portrays.
Persona
The assumption the speaker makes about the audience.
Warrant
Method of reasoning that moves from a general premise to a specific conclusion.
Deductive reasoning
A short account of an interesting or humorous incident, intended to illustrate or support a point.
Anecdote
Writing that highlights the similarities and differences between 2 or more topics.
Compare/Contrast
Language describing observable, specific things.
Concrete Language
Writing that provides a series of facts, specific cases, or instances that relate to a general idea.
Exemplification
A brief reference to a person, event, or place--real or fictional--or to a work of art.
Allusion
When a writer delivers relevant opposing arguments.
Refutation
3 or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions.
Freight Train Sentence
A formula for presenting an argument logically.
Syllogism
The discrepancy between appearance and reality: verbal, situational, dramatic.
Irony
When the arrangement of parts of a sentence is similarly phrased on constructed.
Parallelism
A comparison to a directly parallel case; the process of drawing a comparison between two things based on a partial similarity of like features.
Analogy
Repetition of conjunctions in lose succession.
Polysyndeton
Choice of words in a work and an important element of style.
Diction
Failure to provide evidence showing that one event will lead to a chain of events.
Slippery Slope
How a sentence is constructed.
Syntax
Attacking a person's motives or character instead of his argument or claims.
Ad Hominem