A Packet of Literary Terms

Revised June 2012

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Literary Terms to Know Updated June 2012 Note: The following are compiled from a vast array of book and internet sources. The compiler of this list takes no credit for the definitions, examples, etc. All she did was gather them into one packet. abstract: existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence; not attached to anything specific or concrete; for this reason, abstract terms or ideas are sometimes difficult to understand, and the word abstract is sometimes applied to difficult or dense works. concrete detail: descriptive, physical. Active/Passive Voice: In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action denoted by the verb: The goat ate the locust. In a passive voice sentence, the subject is acted upon: The locust was eaten by the goat. Write in active voice for more powerful sentences. Aesthetic: Relating to beauty or to a branch of philosophy concerned with art, beauty, and taste. Allegory: A work of literature in which characters and places stand for abstract qualities, usually virtues and vices. Sometimes the characters and places in an allegory have names that describe what they symbolize, such as a character called Mr. Mean and a place called Sea of Troubles. A form of extended metaphor in which objects, people, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The purpose of an allegory is to teach a moral lesson. Examples of allegory include: Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan in which Vanity Fair represents the world, and the Celestial City symbolizes Heaven. Watership Down by Richard Adams in which the various warrens can represent different political systems. Alliteration. The recurrence of initial consonant sounds. The repetition may sometimes be limited to only two words. Ah, what a delicious day! Yes, I have read that little bundle of pernicious prose. Done well, alliteration is a satisfying sensation. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Allusion. A causal and brief reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event: You must borrow me Gargantua's mouth first. 'Tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size. --Shakespeare If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over again. Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing Notice in these examples that the allusions are to very well known characters or events, not to obscure ones. (The best sources for allusions are literature, history, Greek myth, and the Bible.) Note also that the reference serves to explain or clarify or enhance whatever subject is under discussion, without sidetracking the reader. Allusion can be wonderfully attractive in your writing because it can introduce a variety and energy into an otherwise limited discussion (an exciting historical adventure rises suddenly in the middle of a discussion of chemicals or some abstract argument), and it can please the reader by reminding him of a pertinent story or figure with which he is familiar, thus helping (like analogy) to explain something difficult. The instantaneous pause and reflection on the analogy refreshes and strengthens the reader's mind. Ambiguity: A quality that allows readers to interpret a story or other work in more than one way. Ambiguity is not something that can be cleared up by careful interpretation. Sometimes, writers deliberately make stories ambiguous to reinforce the idea that life itself is often ambiguous and can be interpreted in more than one way.

Anachronism: The misplacement of a person, occurrence, custom, or idea in time; also sometimes refers to an individual or thing that is incorrectly placed in time. Think rotary phones in the 21st century. Anadiplosis. The repetition of the last word (or phrase) from the previous line, clause, or sentence at the beginning of the next. Often combined with climax. Example: "The laughter had to be gross or it would turn to sobs, and to sob would be to realize, and to realize would be to despair." (Howard Griffin, Black Like Me) Analogy. The comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical purpose of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended. For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it. --Aristotle You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. --Samuel Johnson And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." --Mark 2:17 He that voluntarily continues ignorance is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces, as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. --Samuel Johnson Notice in these examples that the analogy is used to establish the pattern of reasoning by using a familiar or less abstract argument which the reader can understand easily and probably agree with. Some analogies simply offer an explanation for clarification rather than a substitute argument: Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. --Samuel Johnson The beginning of all evil temptations is inconstancy of mind, and too little trust in God. For as a ship without a guide is driven hither and thither with every storm, so an unstable man, that anon leaveth his good purpose in God, is diversely tempted. The fire proveth gold, and temptation proveth the righteous man. --Thomas a Kempis When the matter is complex and the analogy particularly useful for explaining it, the analogy can be extended into a rather long, multiple-point comparison: The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. [And so forth, to the end of the chapter.] --1 Cor. 12:12 (NIV) The importance of simile and analogy for teaching and writing cannot be overemphasized. To impress this upon you better, I would like to step aside a moment and offer two persuasive quotations: The country parson is full of all knowledge. They say, it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone: and there is no knowledge, but, in a skillful hand, serves either positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other knowledge. He condescends even to the knowledge of tillage, and pastorage, and makes great use of them in teaching, because people by what they understand are best led to what they understand not. --George Herbert To illustrate one thing by its resemblance to another has been always the most popular and efficacious art of instruction. There is indeed no other method of teaching that of which anyone is ignorant but by means of something already known; and a mind so enlarged by contemplation and enquiry that it has always many objects within its view will seldom be long without some near and familiar image through which an easy transition may be made to truths more distant and obscure. --Samuel Johnson Analysis: Separating something into the components or elements of which it is made; also skilled in using analysis, especially in reasoning or thinking. Anaphora. The repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism:

To think on death is misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity,/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think that here man hath no perfect bliss. --Peacham In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth; from books come the forth laws of peace. --Richard de Bury Finally, we must consider what pleasantness of teaching there is in books, how easy, how secret! How safely we lay bare the poverty of human ignorance to books without feeling any shame! --Ibid. The wish of the genuine painter must be more extensive: instead of endeavoring to amuse mankind with the minute neatness of his imitations, he must endeavor to improve them by the grandeur of his ideas; instead of seeking praise, by deceiving the superficial sense of the spectator, he must strive for fame by captivating the imagination. --Sir Joshua Reynolds Slowly and grimly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they would find at the top of the hill, not knowing that they were so near to Disneyland. They are the entertainment of minds unfurnished with ideas, and therefore easily susceptible of impressions; not fixed by principles, and therefore easily following the current of fancy; not informed by experience, and consequently open to every false suggestion and partial account. --Samuel Johnson Anaphora can be used with questions, negations, hypotheses, conclusions, and subordinating conjunctions, although care must be taken not to become affected or to sound rhetorical and bombastic. Consider these selections: Will he read the book? Will he learn what it has to teach him? Will he live according to what he has learned? Not time, not money, not laws, but willing diligence will get this done. If we can get the lantern lit, if we can find the main cave, and if we can see the stalagmites, I'll show you the one with the bat skeleton in it. Adverbs and prepositions can be used for anaphora, too: They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money. --Richard de Bury She stroked her kitty cat very softly, very slowly, very smoothly.

Anecdote: The brief narration of a single event or incident; good way to begin an essay. Antagonist- A person or force that opposes the protagonist (See Protagonist.), who is the central character in fiction. The antagonist may be an individual, a group of people, a force of nature, or a social force such as prejudice. Antecedent: In grammar, a substantive word, phrase, or clause whose denotation is referred to by a pronoun. In logic, the conditional element in a proposition. The noun that a pronoun refers to in a text. Anthropomorphism: The application of human qualities to inanimate objects, animals and other life forms, and natural phenomena, such as to cars or hurricanes. Antihero: A protagonist who is not admirable or who challenges our notions of what should be considered admirable. The bad guy. Antimetabole. Figure of emphasis in which the words in one phrase or clause are replicated, exactly or closely, in reverse grammatical order in the next phrase or clause; an inverted order of repeated words in adjacent phrases or clauses (A-B, B-A). Example: "We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." -- Benjamin Franklin and "I don't throw darts at balloons. I throw balloons at darts." - Joe Montana (on his throwing velocity) Antithesis. Establishing a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure or balanced sentences. Human beings are inveterate systematizers

and categorizers, so the mind has a natural love for antithesis, which creates a definite and systematic relationship between ideas: To err is human; to forgive, divine. --Alexander Pope I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil. --Romans 16:19b That short and easy trip made a lasting and profound change in Harold's outlook. That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. --Neil Armstrong Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. --Samuel Johnson Antithesis convey some sense of complexity in a person or idea by admitting opposite or nearly opposite truths: Though surprising, it is true; though frightening at first, it is really harmless. If we try, we might succeed; if we do not try, we cannot succeed. Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise. Antithesis, because of its close juxtaposition and intentional contrast of two terms or ideas, is also very useful for making relatively fine distinctions or for clarifying differences which might be otherwise overlooked by a careless thinker or casual reader: In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it. --Samuel Johnson The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. --Matt. 23:2-3 (RSV) I agree that it is legal, but my question was, Is it moral? The advertisement indeed says that these shoes are the best, but it means that they are equal; for in advertising "best" is a parity claim and only "better" indicates superiority. Note also that short phrases can be made antithetical: Every man who proposes to grow eminent by learning should carry in his mind, at once, the difficulty of excellence and the force of industry; and remember that fame is not conferred but as the recompense of labor, and that labor, vigorously continued, has not often failed of its reward. --Samuel Johnson

Aphorism: A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation. Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" contains numerous examples, one of which is Drive thy business; let it not drive thee. which means that one should not allow the demands of business to take control of one's moral or worldly commitments. Apophasis. The rejection of several reasons why a thing should or should not be done and affirming a single one, considered most valid. Apophasis was originally and more broadly a method of logical reasoning or argument by denial - a way of describing what something is by explaining what it is not, or a process-ofelimination way of talking about something by talking about what it is not. A useful inductive technique when given a limited universe of possibilities, the exclusion of all but the one remaining is affirmation through negation. The familiar guessing-game of Twenty Questions is an example of apophatic inquiry. Apostrophe. The direct address of a person or personified thing, either present or absent. Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back. Thus an apostrophe often interrupts the discussion: O value of wisdom that fadeth not away with time, virtue ever flourishing, that cleanseth its possessor from all venom! O heavenly gift of the divine bounty, descending from the Father of lights, that thou mayest exalt the rational soul to the very heavens! Thou art the celestial nourishment of the intellect. . . . --Richard de Bury With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies! --Sidney O books who alone are liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and enfranchise all who serve you faithfully! --Ibid.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! --Luke 13:34 (NASB) Apostrophe does not appear very often in argumentative writing because formal argument is by its nature intellectual and restrained rather than emotional; but under the right circumstances, an apostrophe could be useful: But all such reasons notwithstanding, dear reader, does not the cost in lives persuade you by itself that we must do something immediately about the situation?

Appositive: A noun or noun phrase that identifies or renames another noun--is a handy way of adding details to a sentence. The term comes from the Latin word for "placing close by," and an appositive usually appears right after the word or phrase that it renames. Example: Francis, [1]the head jailer, [2]a fat Dravidian in a white drill suit and gold spectacles, waved his black hand. Archetype: A term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a reader. In literature, characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences, regardless of when or where they live, are considered archetypes. Common literary archetypes include stories of quests, initiations, scapegoats, descents to the underworld, and ascents to heaven. See also mythological criticism. Argument: The expression of a position or claim supported by reasons; also a discourse intended to persuade or convince. Assonance. The use of similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants: "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." --Matthew 5:14b (KJV) or "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." --Matthew 5:16 (KJV) Asyndeton: A sentence that leaves out conjunctions: I want pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon. Audience: the readers of a piece of literature or text. One of the three points on which an essay rests. Author's Purpose- A writer's reasons for creating a literary work; these may include entertaining, informing, or persuading an audience. Sometimes an author's purpose may just be to express a personal opinion or convey a sense impression. For example, Voltaire's main purpose in writing Candide was to satirize the widely held 18th century philosophical view that "this is the best of all possible worlds." Authority, Appeal to: In an argument, a person cited because his or her opinion carries special weight or credibility. Autobiography: The nonfictional story of a person's life, told by that person. Bildungsroman: A novel abut the education or psychological growth of the protagonist (or main character). Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Biography: The story of a person's life written by someone other than the subject of the work. Katherine Drinker Bowen's "Yankee from Olympus" which details the life and work of the great jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is an example. A biographical work is supposed to be rigorously factual. However, since the biographer may by biased for or against the subject of the biography, critics, and sometimes the subject of the biography himself or herself, may come forward to challenge the trustworthiness of the material. Biographical approach:: The use of a writer's life experiences to help analyze and respond to a text. Writers often draw on their own backgrounds to create a piece of literature.

Biographical knowledge: Information about a writer's life that helps the reader understand the text. Black Comedy: Disturbing or absurd material presented in a humorous manner, usually with the intention of confronting uncomfortable truths. Example: the movie Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Caesura. A pause, metrical or rhetorical, occurring somewhere in a line of poetry. The pause may or may not be typographically indicated. Canon: An evolving group of literary works considered essential to a culture's literary tradition. Carpe diem The Latin phrase meaning "seize the day." This is a very common literary theme, especially in lyric poetry, which emphasizes that life is short, time is fleeting, and that one should make the most of present pleasures. Robert Herricks poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" employs the carpe diem theme. Cause/Effect- A basic mode of thinking that answers the question why, as well as an organizational pattern. Cause examines the reasons why certain actions, events, or attitudes exist; while effect examines consequences. Since cause/effect are inseparable, the two together create causation. Historical writing relies heavily on cause and effect. Ex. What were the economic and political causes of the American Revolution (effect)? Cause/effect is used frequently in such questions as this: What will be the effects on the student body if a strict dress code is instituted for the school? Patterns in cause/effect relationships are often complex: single cause to multiple effects, multiple causes to multiple effects, multiple causes to single effect, etc. The complexity of a writer's topic will determine the organizational complexity of the cause/effect essay. Character traits: The special qualities of a character, such as his or her behaviors, values, habits, likes, and dislikes. Characterization: The way writers reveal how and why characters think, feel, and act. In direct characterization, the writer explains straight out, or directly, what the characters are like. In indirect characterization, the writer provides clues to what the characters are like. Clues are often found in the characters' words, private thoughts, and actions, as well as in the ways they look and dress. Characters: People (and sometimes animals) who play the roles and/or parts in a story or play. Flat Character: A character who has only one or two key personality traits. Round Character: A character who has many personality traits. Stock Character: A one-sided character whom we think of as a "type"for example, the absent-minded professor. Dynamic Character: A character who changes in an important way during the story. Static Character: A character who is the same at the end of the story as at the beginning; static characters are most often subordinate characters. Main Character: The character who drives the action in a story. How the main character changes during the story provides clues to the story's theme. Chiasmus. Two phrases in which the syntax is the same but the placement of words is reversed. A crossing parallelism, where the second part of a grammatical construction is balanced or paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order. Instead of an A,B structure (e.g., "learned unwillingly") paralleled by another A,B structure ("forgotten gladly"), the A,B will be followed by B,A ("gladly forgotten"). So instead of writing "What is learned unwillingly is forgotten gladly," you could write, "What is learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten." Similarly, the parallel sentence, "What is now great was at first little," could be written chiastically as, "What is now great was little at first." Here are some examples: He labors without complaining and without bragging rests. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Polished in courts and hardened in the field, Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled. --Joseph Addison For the Lord is a Great God . . . in whose hands are the depths of the earth; the peaks of the mountains are his also. --Psalm 95:4 Chiasmus is easiest to write and yet can be made very beautiful and effective simply by moving subordinate clauses around: If you come to them, they are not asleep; if you ask and inquire of them, they do not withdraw themselves; they do not chide if you make mistakes; they do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. --Richard de Bury Prepositional phrases or other modifiers can also be moved around to form chiastic structures. Sometimes the effect is rather emphatic: Tell me not of your many perfections; of your great modesty tell me not either. Just as the term "menial" does not apply to any honest labor, so no dishonest work can be called "prestigious." At other times the effect is more subdued but still desirable. Compare the versions of these sentences, written first in chiastic and then in strictly parallel form. Which do you like better in each case?

Claim: A statement or assertion that is open to challenge and that requires support. Clich An idea or expression that has become tired and trite from overuse, its freshness and clarity having worn off. Clichs often anesthetize readers, and are usually a sign of weak writing. See also sentimentality, stock responses. "That's the way the cookie crumbles." "A picture is worth a thousand words." Climax (in a story): The most exciting part of a storythe moment when the outcome of the conflict is determined. The climax usually occurs near the end of a short story. (IR) Climax (gradatio) consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis. Parallelism usually forms a part of the arrangement, because it offers a sense of continuity, order, and movement-up the ladder of importance. But if you wish to vary the amount of discussion on each point, parallelism is not essential. The concerto was applauded at the house of Baron von Schnooty, it was praised highly at court, it was voted best concerto of the year by the Academy, it was considered by Mozart the highlight of his career, and it has become known today as the best concerto in the world. At 6:20 a.m. the ground began to heave. Windows rattled; then they broke. Objects started falling from shelves. Water heaters fell from their pedestals, tearing out plumbing. Outside, the road began to break up. Water mains and gas lines were wrenched apart, causing flooding and the danger of explosion. Office buildings began cracking; soon twenty, thirty, forty stories of concrete were diving at the helpless pedestrians panicking below. To have faults is not good, but faults are human. Worse is to have them and not see them. Yet beyond that is to have faults, to see them, and to do nothing about them. But even that seems mild compared to him who knows his faults, and who parades them about and encourages them as though they were virtues. In addition to arranging sentences or groups of short ideas in climactic order, you generally should also arrange the large sections of ideas in your papers, the points in your arguments, and the examples for your generalizations climactically; although in these cases, the first item should not be the very least important (because its weakness might alienate the reader). Always begin with a point or proof substantial enough to generate interest, and then continue with ideas of increasing importance. That way your argument gets stronger as it moves along, and every point hits harder than the previous one. Closure: An ending or completion, or something that gives a sense of finality.

Colloquial Refers to a type of informal diction that reflects casual, conversational language and often includes slang expressions. See also diction. Example: "All the other lads there were/Were itching to have a bash." Comparison/Contrast- In comparison, two or more objects or concepts are considered together for their likenesses; in contrast, the objects or concepts are considered together to show their differences. The thought processes are often used together and complement one another. Commonly, both processes are referred to simply as comparison. The two main organizational patterns are block or whole-to-whole (all of "A" and then all of "B"), or point-to-point (A1, Bl, A2, B2, etc.). Comparison/contrast is used to point out similarities or differences that are interesting in themselves, to explain the familiar in terms of the unfamiliar, or to evaluate-to show that one idea or object is better than another in its same class. This is a basic thought process that is used daily in judging friends, buying products, making decisions. Teachers often ask students to compare and/or contrast one literary work (a poem, short story, novel, essay) with another to draw a conclusion or make an evaluation. Complications: The problems that come up during the story as the characters try to resolve, or deal with, the conflict. (IR) Conceit. An elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or image, such as an analogy or metaphor in which, say a beloved is compared to a ship, planet, etc. The comparison may be brief or extended. See Petrarchan Conceit. (Conceit is an old word for concept.) See John Donne's "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," for example: "Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, / The Intelligence that moves, devotion is." concrete detail Conclusion: The end of an argument, the function of which is to summarize or draw together what has come before and/or to draw final inferences from what has already been stated. Conflict/Plot is the struggle found in fiction. Conflict/Plot may be internal or external and is best seen in (1) Man in conflict with another Man: (2) Man in conflict in Nature; (3) Man in conflict with self. Conflict- A major element of plot, it is a struggle between opposing forces. An external conflict exists when a character is at odds with another character, the rules of society, or another force (as in Star Wars). Internal conflict occurs when a character is at war within himself over a moral or ethical problem. Main characters in longer works of fiction often experience both types of conflicts. Another way of looking at conflict is by type: man vs. himself, man vs. society, man vs. nature, or man vs. the universe. The decisive moment in a series of conflicting actions constitutes the climax in the plot. Connotation (KAH-nuh-TAE-shun): an association that comes along with a particular word. Connotations relate not to a word's actual meaning, or denotation, but rather to the ideas or qualities that are implied by that word. A good example is the word "gold." The denotation of gold is a malleable, ductile, yellow element. The connotations, however, are the ideas associated with gold, such as greed, luxury, or avarice. Another example occurs in the Book of Genesis. Jacob says: Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horses heels so that its rider tumbles backward" (Gen 49:17). In this passage, Dan is not literally going to become a snake. However, describing Dan as a "snake" and "viper" forces the reader to associate him with the negative qualities that are commonly associated with reptiles, such as slyness, danger, and evil. Dan becomes like a snake, sly and dangerous to the riders. Writers use connotation to make their writing more vivid and interesting to read. Consequence: An inference or conclusion derived through logic, or the result following from a cause. Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines of poetry. Consider the following example from Theodore Roethke's "Night Journey:"
We rush into a rain

That rattles double glass.

The repetition of the r sound in rush, rain, and rattles, occurring so close to each other in these two lines, would be considered consonance. Convention: In writing, a practice or principle (such as a rule of spelling, grammar, or usage), that is accepted as true or correct. Delayed Sentence: A sentence that delays introducing the subject and verb (or independent clause) until the end. Also known as a periodic sentence: In the prime of his life, he was cut down. Denotation (DEE-no-TAE-shuhn): the exact meaning of a word, without the feelings or suggestions that the word may imply. It is the opposite of connotation in that it is the dictionary meaning of a word, without attached feelings or associations. Some examples of denotations are: 1. heart: an organ that circulates blood throughout the body. Here the word "heart" denotes the actual organ, while in another context, the word "heart" may connote feelings of love or heartache. 2. sweater: a knitted garment for the upper body. The word "sweater" may denote pullover sweaters or cardigans, while sweater may also connote feelings of warmness or security. Denotation allows the reader to know the exact meaning of a word so that he or she will better understand the work of literature. Denouement (day-noo-mon): literally meaning the action of untying, a denouement is the final outcome of the main complication in a play or story. Usually the climax (the turning point or "crisis") of the work has already occurred by the time the denouement occurs. It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot. In the drama Othello, there is a plot to deceive Othello into believing that his wife, Desdemona, has been unfaithful to him. As a result of this plot, Othello kills his wife out of jealousy, the climax of the play. The denouement occurs soon after, when Emilia, who was Desdemona's mistress, proves to Othello that his wife was in fact honest, true, and faithful to him. Emilia reveals to Othello that her husband, Iago, had plotted against Desdemona and tricked Othello into believing that she had been unfaithful. Iago kills Emilia in front of Othello, and she dies telling Othello his wife was innocent. As a result of being mad with grief, Othello plunges a dagger into his own heart. The denouement helps the reader see how the final end of a story unfolds, and how the structure of stories works to affect our emotions. Deus ex Machina: In some ancient Greek drama, an apparently insoluble crisis was solved by the intervention of a god, often brought on stage by an elaborate piece of equipment. This "god from the machine" was literally a deus ex machina. Few modern works feature deities suspended by wires from the ceiling, but the term deus ex machina is still used for cases where an author uses some improbable (and often clumsy) plot device to work his or her way out of a difficult situation. When the cavalry comes charging over the hill or when the impoverished hero is relieved by an unexpected inheritance, it's often called a deus ex machina. Dialect A type of informational diction. Dialects are spoken by definable groups of people from a particular geographic region, economic group, or social class. Writers use dialect to contrast and express differences in educational, class, social, and regional backgrounds of their characters. See also diction. Dialectic: A form of reasoning that proceeds by juxtaposing contradictory ideas and synthesizing or finding areas of agreement between them. Dialogue: A conversation between two or more speakers; also an exchange of ideas. Diction: A writers choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning. Formal diction consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language; it follows

the rules of syntax exactly and is often characterized by complex words and lofty tone. Middle diction maintains correct language usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people speak. Informal diction represents the plain language of everyday use, and often includes idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions, and many simple, common words. Poetic diction refers to the way poets sometimes employ an elevated diction that deviates significantly from the common speech and writing of their time, choosing words for their supposedly inherent poetic qualities. Since the eighteenth century, however, poets have been incorporating all kinds of diction in their work and so there is no longer an automatic distinction between the language of a poet and the language of everyday speech. See also dialect. Didactic [tone word]: Intended to instruct or to educate. Discourse: The wider social and intellectual context in which communication takes place. Drama Vocabulary and Terminology: Play: A story acted out live, using dialogue and action. Tragedy: A play that presents serious and important actions that end unhappily for the main character. Tragic hero: An admirable figure who has a personal failing that leads to his or her downfall. Tragic flaw: A failing that leads a character to make choices that result in tragedy. Comedy: A play that ends happily, in which the main character gets what he or she wants. Character foil: A character who contrasts dramatically with another character. A "foil" serves to highlight the qualities of the characters he or she is contrasted with. Dialogue: Conversations between characters in a play. Monologue: A long speech made by one character to one or more other characters onstage. Soliloquy: A speech made by a character who is alone onstage, speaking to himself or herself or to the audience. Usually speaks the truth. Aside: A short speech delivered to the audience or to another character that others onstage are not supposed to hear. Dramatic Monologue: A poem in which one character speaks directly to one or more listeners. From a dramatic monologue you can learn everything about the setting, the situation, supporting characters, and the speaker's own personality. "My Last Duchess" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" are two such poems. Elegy: A formal statement of praise. Ellipsis: omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences; the dots indicating such omissions". . . ." Emblem: A concrete object that represents something abstract; unlike a symbol, an emblem has a fixed meaning that does not vary in different contexts. Emphasis: Force or intensity of expression brought to bear on a particular text or speech. Emphasis can also be achieved by placement of points in a text. Enthymeme: An informal method of argument in which one of the major premises is implied or assumed rather than stated. Example: The sentence We cant trust this article because its actually an advertisement assumes, rather than states, that advertisements cannot be trusted. Enumeratio. Figure of amplification in which a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may include a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences; the listing or detailing of the parts of something. "Since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have

fought in our wars; they have served in our government; they have stood for civil rights; they have started businesses; they have taught at our universities; they've excelled in our sports arenas; they've won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch." -Barack Obama, Speech at Cairo University Epanalepsis: repetition of the same word or clause after intervening matter. More strictly, repetition at the end of a line, phrase, or clause of the word or words that occurred at the beginning of the same line, phrase, or clause. In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. Paul Harvey Epiphany In fiction, when a character suddenly experiences a deep realization about himself or herself; a truth which is grasped in an ordinary rather than a melodramatic moment. Epistle: a letter. Epistrophe. The repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. Epistrophe (also called antistrophe) is thus the counterpart to anaphora. Examples: What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson; When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. 1 Corinthians 13 Epitaph: A brief statement to memorialize a deceased person or a thing, time, or event that has ended. Epithet. An adjective or adjective phrase appropriately qualifying a subject (noun) by naming a key or important characteristic of the subject, as in "laughing happiness," "sneering contempt," "untroubled sleep," "peaceful dawn," and "life-giving water." Sometimes a metaphorical epithet will be good to use, as in "lazy road," "tired landscape," "smirking billboards," "anxious apple." Aptness and brilliant effectiveness are the key considerations in choosing epithets. Be fresh, seek striking images, pay attention to connotative value. A transferred epithet is an adjective modifying a noun which it cannot logically modify, yet which works because the metaphorical meaning remains clear: At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth of thieves and murderers. . . . --George Herbert Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold/ A sheep hook . . . --John Milton In an age of pressurized happiness, we sometimes grow insensitive to subtle joys. The striking and unusual quality of the transferred epithet calls attention to it, and it can therefore be used to introduce emphatically an idea you plan to develop. The phrase will stay with the reader, so there is no need to repeat it, for that would make it too obviously rhetorical and even a little annoying. Thus, if you introduce the phrase, "diluted electricity," your subsequent development ought to return to more mundane synonyms, such as "low voltage," "brownouts," and so forth. It may be best to save your transferred epithet for a space near the conclusion of the discussion where it will be not only clearer (as a synonym for previously stated and clearly understandable terms) but more effective, as a kind of final, quintessential, and yet novel conceptualization of the issue. The reader will love it. Eulogy: A formal statement of praise given at funerals about the deceased. Euphemism. The substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one, as in the use of "pass away" instead of "die." The basic psychology of euphemistic language is the desire to put something bad or embarrassing in a positive (or at least neutral light). Thus many terms referring to death, sex, crime, and excremental functions are euphemisms. Since the euphemism is often chosen to disguise something horrifying, it can be exploited by the satirist through the use of irony and exaggeration. Evidence: Specific facts or examples used to support a claim in a piece of writing.

Expletive: 1. an interjectory word or expression, frequently profane; an exclamatory oath. 2. a syllable, word, or phrase serving to fill out. 3. Grammar. a word considered as regularly filling the syntactic position of another, as it in It is his duty to go, or there in There is nothing here. In grammar, a construction that begins with the word here, there or it and is followed by a form of the verb to be. Explication: The detailed analysis of a literary work. Exposition: The basic situation of a story. (IR) An explanation of the meaning or purpose of a piece of writing, especially one that is difficult to understand. Fable: An allegory in which animal characters who usually symbolize vices and virtues act out a story in order to teach a practical lesson about how to succeed in life. Figurative language (fig-YOOR-a-tive LAN-gwije): a type of language that varies from the norms of literal language, in which words mean exactly what they say. Also known as the "ornaments of language," figurative language does not mean exactly what it says, but instead forces the reader to make an imaginative leap in order to comprehend an author's point. It usually involves a comparison between two things that may not, at first, seem to relate to one another. In a simile, for example, an author may compare a person to an animal: "He ran like a hare down the street" is the figurative way to describe the man running and "He ran very quickly down the street" is the literal way to describe him. Figurative language facilitates understanding because it relates something unfamiliar to something familiar. Some popular examples of figurative language include a simile and metaphor. Also, language that describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be understood on a literal level. Common figures of speech include similes, metaphors, and personification. Flashback: A scene that interrupts the story to introduce an event that took place in the past. (IR) Flash-forward: A scene that jumps ahead of the story to narrate an event that happens in the future. (IR) Foil: A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast. Foreshadowing: Hints in the story that certain events are going to happen later. (IR) Free verse: Poetry that does not follow a regular, or steady, pattern of rhyme and meter. Generalization: A statement that conveys a general truth, based on several specific details. A statement about a story's theme is a kind of generalization. Genre (ZHAHN-ruh): The different forms of literature, such as stories, novels, plays, essays, and poems. We say a poem, novel, story, or other literary work belongs to a particular genre if it shares at least a few conventions, or standard characteristics, with other works in that genre. For example, works in the Gothic genre often feature supernatural elements, attempts to horrify the reader, and dark, foreboding settings, particularly very old castles or mansions. Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" belongs to the Gothic genre because it takes place in a gloomy mansion that seems to exert supernatural control over a man who lives in it. Furthermore, Poe attempts to horrify the reader by describing the man's ghastly face, the burial of his sister, eerie sounds in the house, and ultimately the reappearance of the sister's bloody body at the end of the story. Other genres include the pastoral poem, epic poem, elegy, tragic drama, and bildungsroman. An understanding of genre is useful because it helps us to see how an author adopts, subverts, or transcends the standard practices that other authors have developed.

Hamartia (tragic flaw): A "tragic" or "fatal" character flaw that causes the downfall of a person of high status. Historical approach [literary criticism]: The use of historical context to help analyze and respond to a work. Historical context/setting: The historical periods that shapes a work of literature. Hyperbole. Exaggeration used for emphasis. Hyperbole can be used to heighten effect, to catalyze recognition, or to create a humorous perception. Example: It is a maxim among these lawyers that whatever hath been done before may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind. These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities, to justify the most iniquitous opinions; and the judges never fail of decreeing accordingly. Swift Hypophora. Figure of reasoning in which one or more questions is/are asked and then answered, often at length, by one and the same speaker; raising and responding to one's own question(s). "What is George Bush doing about our economic problems? He has raised taxes on the people driving pickup trucks and lowered taxes on the people riding in limousines." -- William Jefferson Clinton, 1992 DNC Acceptance Address Note: Can you spot the antithesis? Hypothetical: Involving a hypothesis (an assumption granted for the sake of argument). Idiom. An idiom is a combination of words that has a meaning that is different from the meanings of the individual words themselves. It can have a literal meaning in one situation and a different idiomatic meaning in another situation. It is a phrase which does not always follow the normal rules of meaning and grammar. To sit on the fence can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence. I sat on the fence and watched the game. However, the idiomatic meaning of to sit on the fence is that one is not making a clear choice regarding some issue. The politician sat on the fence and would not give his opinion about the tax issue. Many idioms are similar to expressions in other languages and can be easy for a learner to understand. Other idioms come from older phrases which have changed over time. To hold one's horses means to stop and wait patiently for someone or something. It comes from a time when people rode horses and would have to hold their horses while waiting for someone or something. "Hold your horses," I said when my friend started to leave the store. Other idioms come from such things as sports that are common in the United Kingdom or the United States and may require some special cultural knowledge to easily understand them. To cover all of one's bases means to thoroughly prepare for or deal with a situation. It comes from the American game of baseball where you must cover or protect the bases. I tried to cover all of my bases when I went to the job interview. Image: A description of anything we can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. The image of a spaniel's floppy ears, for example, appeals to the senses of sight and touch. Imagery: A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work. The following example of imagery in T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,"
When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table.

uses images of pain and sickness to describe the evening, which as an image itself represents society and the psychology of Prufrock, himself. In Medias Res: In medias res is Latin for "into the middle of things." It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle usually at some crucial point in the action. The term comes from the ancient Roman poet Horace, who advised the aspiring epic poet to go straight to the heart of the story instead of beginning at the beginning. Irony. A mode of expression, through words (verbal irony) or events (irony of situation), conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation. A writer may say the opposite of what he means, create a reversal between expectation and its fulfillment, or give the audience knowledge that a character lacks, making the character's words have meaning to the audience not perceived by the character. In verbal irony, the writer's meaning or even his attitude may be different from what he says: "Why, no one would dare argue that there could be anything more important in choosing a college than its proximity to the beach." An example of situational irony would occur if a professional pickpocket had his own pocket picked just as he was in the act of picking someone else's pocket. The irony is generated by the surprise recognition by the audience of a reality in contrast with expectation or appearance, while another audience, victim, or character puts confidence in the appearance as reality (in this case, the pickpocket doesn't expect his own pocket to be picked). The surprise recognition by the audience often produces a comic effect, making irony often funny. An example of dramatic irony (where the audience has knowledge that gives additional meaning to a character's words) would be when King Oedipus, who has unknowingly killed his father, says that he will banish his father's killer when he finds him. Irony is the most common and most efficient technique of the satirist, because it is an instrument of truth, provides wit and humor, and is usually at least obliquely critical, in that it deflates, scorns, or attacks. The ability to detect irony is sometimes heralded as a test of intelligence and sophistication. When a text intended to be ironic is not seen as such, the effect can be disastrous. Some students have taken Swift's "Modest Proposal" literally. And Defoe's contemporaries took his "Shortest Way with the Dissenters" literally and jailed him for it. To be an effective piece of sustained irony, there must be some sort of audience tip-off, through style, tone, use of clear exaggeration, or other device. Verbal ironyoccurs when someone says one thing but means the opposite. Example: "Thanks for your support," said the basketball player to the coach when he was cut from the team. Situational ironyan event is not just surprising but is the opposite of what we had expected. Example: A thief is hired to guard the palace treasures. Dramatic ironytakes place when we know what is going to happen to the character but the characer does not know. Example: we know that Oedipus married his mother and killed his father, but he does not yet know. Romantic ironyAn author's persistent presence in his or her work, meant to ensure that the audience will maintain critical detachment and not simply accept the writing at face value. Cosmic ironyThe depiction of fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering, creating a painful contrast between our purposeful activity and its ultimate meaninglessness. Think Lord of the Flies. Legend: Stories that are based on historical events and take on elements of fantasy as they are retold over the years. Literal: Focusing on the explicit meaning of words only, and not dealing with context, connotation, figurative language, or other elements that add deeper shades of meaning to a text. Litotes. Understatement for rhetorical effect, especially when achieved by using negation with a term in place of using an antonym of that term, as in "She was not a little upset" for "She was extremely upset." The term meiosis means understatement generally, and litotes is considered a form of meiosis.

Local color: A detailed setting forth of the characteristics of a particular locality, enabling the reader to "see" the setting. Loose/Cumulative Sentence: If you put your main point at the beginning of a long sentence, you are writing a loose sentence: I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada, considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters. The main point of this sentence is that the writer prefers to live in Canada, and the writer makes the point at the very beginning: everything which follows is simply extra information. When the readers read about the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, they will already know that these are reasons for living in Canada, and as a result, they will be more likely to understand the sentence on a first reading. Loose sentences are the most natural for English speakers, who almost always talk in loose sentences: even the most sophisticated English writers tend to use loose sentences much more often than periodic sentences. While a periodic sentence can be useful for making an important point or for a special dramatic effect, it is also much more difficult to read, and often requires readers to go back and reread the sentence once they understand the main point. Finally, it is important to remember that you have to structure a loose sentence as carefully as you would structure a periodic sentence: it is very easy to lose control of a loose sentence so that by the end the reader has forgotten what your main point was. The Periodic Sentence If your main point is at the end of a long sentence, you are writing a periodic sentence: Considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada. The main point of this sentence is that the writer prefers to live in Canada. At the beginning of this sentence, the reader does not know what point the writer is going to make: what about the free health care, cheap tuition fees, low crime rate, comprehensive social programs, and wonderful winters? The reader has to read all of this information without knowing what the conclusion will be. The periodic sentence has become much rarer in formal English writing over the past hundred years, and it has never been common in informal spoken English (outside of bad political speeches). Still, it is a powerful rhetorical tool. An occasional periodic sentence is not only dramatic but persuasive: even if the readers do not agree with your conclusion, they will read your evidence first with open minds. If you use a loose sentence with hostile readers, the readers will probably close their minds before considering any of your evidence. Finally, it is important to remember that periodic sentences are like exclamatory sentences: used once or twice in a piece of writing, they can be very effective; used any more than that, they can make you sound dull and pompous. Main Idea: The central meaning, purpose, or concept around which a piece of writing is organized. Malapropism \mal-uh-PROP-iz-uhm\, noun: The usually unintentionally humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound; also, an example of such misuse.

At 15, Rachel, the whiny would-be beauty queen who "cares for naught but appearances," can think only of what she misses: the five-day deodorant pads she forgot to bring, flush toilets, machine-washed clothes and other things, as she says with her willful gift for malapropism, that she has taken "for granite." -- Michiko Kakutani, "The Poisonwood Bible': A Family a Heart of Darkness", New York Times, October 16, 1998 He also had, as a former colleague puts it, "a photogenic memory"--a malapropism that captures his gift for the social side of life, his Clintonian ability to remember names of countless people he has met only briefly. -- Eric Pooley and S.C. Gwynne, "How George Got His Groove", Time, June 21, 1999 A malapropism is so called after Mrs. Malaprop, a character noted for her amusing misuse of words in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy The Rivals. Maxim: a saying that widely accepted on its own merits. Mediation: The process of bringing opposing parties or positions into a state of accord or compromise; also refers to negotiation. Melodrama: The use of sentimentality, gushing emotion, sensational action, or plot twists to provoke audience or reader response. Popular in Victorian England, melodrama is now considered manipulative and hokey. Meter: A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. Meter gives poetry rhythm. You can hear the meter of a poem when you read it aloud. Stressed syllables are emphasized more than unstressed syllables. Analyzing the meter of a poem is called scanning. Special marks are used to scan a poem. The stress mark (') is placed over each stressed syllable. The "short" mark ( ) is placed over each unstressed syllable. See Poetry Terms. Metaphor. A comparison which imaginatively identifies one thing with another dissimilar thing, and transfers or ascribes to the first thing (the tenor or idea) some of the qualities of the second (the vehicle or image). Unlike a simile or analogy, metaphor asserts that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another. Very frequently a metaphor is invoked by the to be verb: Affliction then is ours; / We are the trees whom shaking fastens more. --George Herbert Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life." --John 6:35 I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. --John 10:9 But I will sing of your strength, / In the morning I will sing of your love; / For you are my fortress, / My refuge in times of trouble. --Psalm 59:16 Their works are worthless; / Their molten images are wind and emptiness. --Isaiah 41:29 The name of the Lord is a strong tower; / The righteous run to it and are safe. --Proverbs 18:10 Thus a mind that is free from passion is a very citadel; man has no stronger fortress in which to seek shelter and defy every assault. Failure to perceive this is ignorance; but to perceive it, and still not to seek its refuge, is misfortune indeed. --Marcus Aurelius The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter. --Joshua Reynolds Another common method of constructing a metaphor is to use the possessive, where the image is expressed as being a part of the idea, usually in the form of "the x of y": A writer's river of words will dry up unless it is continuously replenished by streams of new learning. The first beam of hope that had ever darted into his mind rekindled youth in his cheeks and doubled the lustre of his eyes. --Samuel Johnson The furnace of affliction had softened his heart and purified his soul. [I] therefore determined to gratify my predominant desire, and by drinking at the fountains of knowledge, to quench the thirst of curiosity. --Samuel Johnson

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. --Eph. 6:14-17 The most learned philosopher knew little more. He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery. . . . I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined. --Mary Shelley In fact, there is a whole range of different degrees of direct identification between image and idea (vehicle and tenor). There is fully expressed: The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. --Luke 11:34 There is semi-implied: And he said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.'" --Luke 13:32 There is implied: . . . For thou hast been my help, and in the shadow of thy wings I sing for joy. --Psalm 63:7 And there is very implied: For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? --Luke 23:31 Like simile and analogy, metaphor is a profoundly important and useful device. Aristotle says in his Rhetoric, "It is metaphor above all else that gives clearness, charm, and distinction to the style." And Joseph Addison says of it: By these allusions a truth in the understanding is as it were reflected by the imagination; we are able to see something like color and shape in a notion, and discover a scheme of thoughts traced out upon matter. And here the mind receives a great deal of satisfaction, and has two of its faculties gratified at the same time, while the fancy is busy in copying after the understanding, and transcribing ideas out of the intellectual world into the material. So metaphor not only explains by making the abstract or unknown concrete and familiar, but it also enlivens by touching the reader's imagination. Further, it affirms one more interconnection in the unity of all things by showing a relationship between things seemingly alien to each other. And the fact that two very unlike things can be equated or referred to in terms of one another comments upon them both. No metaphor is "just a metaphor." All have significant implications, and they must be chosen carefully, especially in regard to the connotations the vehicle (image) will transfer to the tenor. Consider, for example, the differences in meaning conveyed by these statements: That club is spreading like wildfire. That club is spreading like cancer. That club is really blossoming now. That club, in its amebic motions, is engulfing the campus. And do you see any reason that one of these metaphors was chosen over the others? The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. --Luke 10:2 The pile of dirt is high, but we do not have many shovels. The diamonds cover the ground, but we need more people to pick them up. So bold and striking is metaphor that it is sometimes taken literally rather than as a comparison. (Jesus' disciples sometimes failed here--see John 4:32ff and John 6:46-60; a few religious groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses interpret such passages as Psalm 75:8 and 118:15 literally and thus see God as anthropomorphic; and even today a lot of controversy surrounds the interpretation of Matthew 26:26.) Always be careful in your own writing, therefore, to avoid possible confusion between metaphor and reality.

Metonymy. Another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche (and, in fact, some rhetoricians do not distinguish between the two), in which a closely associated object is substituted for the object or idea in mind: The orders came directly from the White House.

In this example we know that the writer means the President issued orders, because the "White House" is quite closely associated with "President," even though it is not physically a part of him. Consider these substitutions, and notice that some are more obvious than others, but that in context all are clear: You cannot fight city hall. This land belongs to the crown. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. . . . --Genesis 3:19 Boy, I'm dying from the heat. Just look how the mercury is rising. The checkered flag waved and victory crossed the finish line. The use of a particular metonymy makes a comment about the idea for which it has been substituted, and thereby helps to define that idea. Note how much more vivid "in the sweat of thy face" is in the third example above than "by labor" would have been. And in the fourth example, "mercury rising" has a more graphic, physical, and pictorial effect than would "temperature increasing." Attune yourself to such subtleties of language, and study the effects of connotation, suggestion, substitution, and metaphor. MLA formatparenthetical citationssee Handbook or MLA format on the internet. Modes of Discourse: types of writing, including narration, exposition, description, persuasion, cause and effect, classification, process analysis, definition, comparison/contrast, analogy, extended metaphor. Mood: The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions. A work may contain a mood of horror, mystery, holiness, or childlike simplicity, to name a few, depending on the author's treatment of the work. Motif (moh-TEEF): a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. A motif may also be two contrasting elements in a work, such as good and evil. In the Book of Genesis, we see the motif of separation again and again throughout the story. In the very first chapter, God separates the light from the darkness. Abraham and his descendants are separated from the rest of the nation as God's chosen people. Joseph is separated from his brothers in order that life might be preserved. Another motif is water, seen in Genesis as a means of destroying the wicked and in Matthew as a means of remitting sins by the employment of baptism. Other motifs in Genesis and Matthew include blood sacrifices, fire, lambs, and goats. A motif is important because it allows one to see main points and themes that the author is trying to express, in order that one might be able to interpret the work more accurately. Motivation: The reasons why a character acts or thinks in a certain way. Myth: Stories that are closely linked to a particular society and reflect is values and religious beliefs. Narrative (na-RAH-tiv): a collection of events that tells a story, which may be true or not, placed in a particular order and recounted through either telling or writing. One example is Edgar Allen Poe's "The TellTale Heart." In this story a madman resolves to kill his landlord because he fears the man's horrible eye. One night he suffocates the landlord and hides the body beneath the floorboards of the bedroom. While fielding questions from the police in the bedroom where the body is hidden, the madman thinks he hears the heart of the victim beating beneath the floorboards. Scared that the police hear the heartbeat too, the madman confesses. This is a narrative because of two things, it has a sequence in which the events are told, beginning with murder and ending with the confession, and it has a narrator, who is the madman, telling the story. By understanding the term "narrative, one begins to understand that most literary works have a simple outline: the story, the plot, and the storyteller. By studying more closely, most novels and short stories are placed into the categories of first-person and third-person narratives, which are based on who is telling the story and from what perspective. Other important terms that relate to the term "narrative, are "narrative poetry," poetry that tells a story, and "narrative technique" which means how one tells a story.

Narrator : The voice of the person telling the story, not to be confused with the authors voice. With a firstperson narrator, the I in the story presents the point of view of only one character. The reader is restricted to the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of that single character. For example, in Melvilles "Bartleby, the Scrivener," the lawyer is the first-person narrator of the story. First-person narrators can play either a major or a minor role in the story they are telling. An unreliable narrator reveals an interpretation of events that is somehow different from the authors own interpretation of those events. Often, the unreliable narrators perception of plot, characters, and setting becomes the actual subject of the story, as in Melvilles "Bartleby, the Scrivener." Narrators can be unreliable for a number of reasons: they might lack self-knowledge (like Melvilles lawyer), they might be inexperienced, they might even be insane. Naive narrators are usually characterized by youthful innocence, such as Mark Twains Huck Finn or J. D. Salingers Holden Caulfield. An omniscient narrator is an all-knowing narrator who is not a character in the story and who can move from place to place and pass back and forth through time, slipping into and out of characters as no human being possibly could in real life. Omniscient narrators can report the thoughts and feelings of the characters, as well as their words and actions. The narrator of The Scarlet Letter is an omniscient narrator. Editorial omniscience refers to an intrusion by the narrator in order to evaluate a character for a reader, as when the narrator of The Scarlet Letter describes Hesters relationship to the Puritan community. Narration that allows the characters actions and thoughts to speak for themselves is called neutral omniscience. Most modern writers use neutral omniscience so that readers can reach their own conclusions. Limited omniscience occurs when an author restricts a narrator to the single perspective of either a major or minor character. The way people, places, and events appear to that character is the way they appear to the reader. Sometimes a limited omniscient narrator can see into more than one character, particularly in a work that focuses on two characters alternately from one chapter to the next. Short stories, however, are frequently limited to a single characters point of view. See also persona, point of view, stream-of-consciousness technique. Neologism: A new or invented word, expression, or usage. Occasion: the event or activity that engenders a piece of literature or text; i.e., political campaign would need a speech; funeral would need an elegy. Ode: A serious lyric poem, often of significant length, that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure. Onomatopoeia. The use of words which in their pronunciation suggest their meaning. "Hiss," for example, when spoken is intended resemble the sound of steam or of a snake. Other examples include these: slam, buzz, screech, whirr, crush, sizzle, crunch, wring, wrench, gouge, grind, mangle, bang, blam, pow, zap, fizz, urp, roar, growl, blip, click, whimper, and, of course, snap, crackle, and pop. Note that the connection between sound and pronunciation is sometimes rather a product of imagination ("slam" and "wring" are not very good imitations). And note also that written language retains an aural quality, so that even unspoken your writing has a sound to it. Compare these sentences, for instance: Someone yelled, "Look out!" and I heard the skidding of tires and the horrible noise of bending metal and breaking glass. Someone yelled, "Look out!" and I heard a loud screech followed by a grinding, wrenching crash. Onomatopoeia can produce a lively sentence, adding a kind of flavoring by its sound effects: The flies buzzing and whizzing around their ears kept them from finishing the test at the swamp. No one talks in these factories. Everyone is too busy. The only sounds are the snip, snip of scissors and the hum of the sewing machines. But I loved that old car. I never heard the incessant rattle on a rough road, or the squeakity-squeak whenever I hit a bump; and as for the squeal of the tires around every corner--well, that was macho. If you like the plop, plop, plop of a faucet at three in the morning, you will like this record. Overstatement: An exaggeration of fact; also called hyperbole.

Oxymoron. A paradox reduced to two words, usually in an adjective-noun ("eloquent silence") or adverbadjective ("inertly strong") relationship, and is used for effect, to emphasize contrasts, incongruities, hypocrisy, or simply the complex nature of reality. Examples: wise fool, ignorantly learned, laughing sadness, pious hate. Some others: I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves and their art. . . . --Jonathan Swift The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head. . . . --Alexander Pope He was now sufficiently composed to order a funeral of modest magnificence, suitable at once to the rank of a Nouradin's profession, and the reputation of his wealth. --Samuel Johnson Oxymoron can be useful when things have gone contrary to expectation, belief, desire, or assertion, or when your position is opposite to another's which you are discussing. The figure then produces an ironic contrast which shows, in your view, how something has been misunderstood or mislabeled: Senator Rosebud calls this a useless plan; if so, it is the most helpful useless plan we have ever enacted. The cost-saving program became an expensive economy. Other oxymorons, as more or less true paradoxes, show the complexity of a situation where two apparently opposite things are true simultaneously, either literally ("desirable calamity") or imaginatively ("love precipitates delay"). Some examples other writers have used are these: scandalously nice, sublimely bad, darkness visible, cheerful pessimist, sad joy, wise fool, tender cruelty, despairing hope, freezing fire. An oxymoron should preferably be yours uniquely; do not use another's unless it is relatively obvious formulation (like "expensive economy") which anyone might think of. Also, the device is most effective when the terms are not common opposites. So, instead of "a low high point," you might try "depressed apex" or something. Parable: An allegory in the form of a brief story, set in the everyday world, told to teach a lesson about ethics or morality. Paradox A statement that initially appears to be contradictory but then, on closer inspection, turns out to make sense. For example, John Donne ends his sonnet "Death, Be Not Proud" with the paradoxical statement "Death, thou shalt die." To solve the paradox, it is necessary to discover the sense that underlies the statement. Paradox is useful in poetry because it arrests a readers attention by its seemingly stubborn refusal to make sense. Parody. A satiric imitation of a work or of an author with the idea of ridiculing the author, his ideas, or work. The parodist exploits the peculiarities of an author's expression--his propensity to use too many parentheses, certain favorite words, or whatever. The parody may also be focused on, say, an improbable plot with too many convenient events. Fielding's Shamela is, in large part, a parody of Richardson's Pamela. Parallelism Repeated grammatical structure: parallelism often helps to make the message memorable. Parallelism often helps establish that particular items belong in a list. 1. "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will" (King 189). 2. "First there is what may be called case poverty. . . . Second, there is what may be called insular poverty" (Galbraith 251). 1. The parallel sounds of "[whatever] understanding from people of [whatever] will" help this statement to stick in the reader's mind. 2. The parallel structure (and wording) of these two sentences help the reader to see the organization of Galbraith's ideas. These two sentences stand out as the main points of his argument.

6. Parallelism (parallel structure) is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.

Any sentence elements can be paralleled, any number of times (though, of course, excess quickly becomes ridiculous). You might choose parallel subjects with parallel modifiers attached to them: Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness. Or parallel verbs and adverbs: I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door. Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book. Or parallel verbs and direct objects: He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit. Or just the objects: This Arab owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and ten assorted Mercedes. Or parallel prepositional phrases: He found it difficult to vote for an ideal truth but against his own self interest. The pilot walked down the aisle, through the door, and into the cockpit, singing "Up, Up, and Away." Notice how paralleling rather long subordinate clauses helps you to hold the whole sentence clearly in your head: These critics--who point out the beauties of style and ideas, who discover the faults of false constructions, and who discuss the application of the rules--usually help a lot in engendering an understanding of the writer's essay. When, at the conclusion of a prolonged episode of agonizing thought, you decide to buy this car; when, after a hundred frantic sessions of begging stonefaced bankers for the money, you can obtain sufficient funds; and when, after two more years of impatience and frustration, you finally get a driver's license, then come see me and we will talk about a deal. After you corner the market in Brazilian coffee futures, but before you manipulate the price through the ceiling, sit down and have a cup of coffee with me (while I can still afford it). It is also possible to parallel participial, infinitive, and gerund phrases: He left the engine on, idling erratically and heating rapidly. To think accurately and to write precisely are interrelated goals. She liked sneaking up to Ted and putting the ice cream down his back, because he was so cool about it. In practice some combination of parts of speech or sentence elements is used to form a statement, depending as always on what you have to say. In addition, the parallelism, while it normally should be pretty close, does not have to be exact in its syntactical similarity. For example, you might write, He ran up to the bookshelves, grabbed a chair standing nearby, stepped painfully on his tiptoes, and pulled the fifty-pound volume on top of him, crushing his ribs and impressing him with the power of knowledge. Here are some other examples of parallelism: I shall never envy the honors which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardor to virtue, and confidence to truth. --Samuel Johnson They had great skill in optics, and had instructed him to see faults in others, and beauties in himself, that could be discovered by nobody else. . . . --Alexander Pope For the end of a theoretical science is truth, but the end of a practical science is performance. --Aristotle Parenthesis. An explanatory or qualifying word, clause, or sentence; often used in farces, especially in the early 17th century. Examples: "The English (it must be owned) are rather a foul-mouthed nation." (William Hazlitt) and "In the valley of the jolly--ho-ho-ho!--Green Giant." Pathetic fallacy: In the arts, the presentation of natural events and objects as controlled by human emotions, so that in some way they express human sorrow or joy (a brave little snowdrop; the heavens smiled on our enterprise). The phrase was coined by the English critic John Ruskin in Modern Painters (184360), to describe the ascription of human feelings to the outside world. poetic practice of attributing human emotion or responses to nature, inanimate objects, or animals. The practice is a form of personification that is as old as poetry, in which it has always been common to find smiling or dancing flowers, angry or cruel winds, brooding

mountains, moping owls, or happy larks. The term was coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters (1843 60). It is a rhetorical figure nearly identical to personification. Examples of the pathetic fallacy include: "The stars will awaken / Though the moon sleep a full hour later" (Percy Bysshe Shelley) "The fruitful field / Laughs with abundance" (William Cowper) "Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty" (Walt Whitman) "Nature abhors a vacuum" (John Ruskin's translation of the well-known Medieval saying natura abhorret a vacuo, in his work Modern Painters.)

Persona. The person created by the author to tell a story. Whether the story is told by an omniscient narrator or by a character in it, the actual author of the work often distances himself from what is said or told by adopting a persona--a personality different from his real one. Thus, the attitudes, beliefs, and degree of understanding expressed by the narrator may not be the same as those of the actual author. Some authors, for example, use narrators who are not very bright in order to create irony. Personification. The metaphorical representation of an animal or inanimate object as having human attributes--attributes of form, character, feelings, behavior, and so on. As the name implies, a thing or idea is treated as a person: The ship began to creak and protest as it struggled against the rising sea. We bought this house instead of the one on Maple because this one is more friendly. This coffee is strong enough to get up and walk away. Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, / "Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us." --Isa. 14:8 Ideas and abstractions can also be personified: Wisdom cries aloud in the streets; in the markets she raises her voice. . . . --Prov. 1:20 Men say they love Virtue, but they leave her standing in the rain. --Juvenal Love and faithfulness meet together; Righteousness and peace kiss each other. --Psalm 85:10 Perspective: The point of view through which a subject or its parts are mentally perceived. Persuading: The process of influencing an audience to alter its actions and attitudes. Plot "A series of related events, each event connected to the next, like links in a chain." (IR) An authors selection and arrangement of incidents in a story to shape the action and give the story a particular focus. Discussions of plot include not just what happens, but also how and why things happen the way they do. Stories that are written in a pyramidal pattern divide the plot into three essential parts. The first part is the rising action, in which complication creates some sort of conflict for the protagonist. The second part is the climax, the moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative, usually marking a turning point in the plot at which the rising action reverses to become the falling action. The third part, the falling action (or resolution) is characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plots conflicts and complications. In medias res is a term used to describe the common strategy of beginning a story in the middle of the action. In this type of plot, we enter the story on the verge of some important moment. See also character, crisis, resolution, subplot. Poetic Diction: The use of specific types of words, phrases, or literary structures that are not common in contemporary speech or prose."Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm,/Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to curse." Wilfred Owen Poetic License: The liberty that authors sometimes take with ordinary rules of syntax and grammar, employing unusual vocabulary, metrical devices, or figures of speech, or by committing factual errors, in order to strengthen a passage of writing.

Poetry Terms Scansion Meter

METER: A recognizable though varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress. Compositions written in meter are said to be in verse. There are many possible patterns of verse. Each unit of stress and unstressed syllables is called a "foot." The following examples are culled from M. H. Abrams' Glossary of Literary Terms, seventh edition, which has more information. You can also click here to download a PDF handout giving examples of particular types of feet, or click here for a longer PDF handout discussing meter and scansion. Iambic (the noun is "iamb" or "iambus"): a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable.
Example: "The crfew tlls the knll of prting dy." (Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.")

Anapestic (the noun is "anapest") two light syllables followed by a stressed syllable: "The Assyrian came
dwn like a wlf on the fld." (Lord Byron, "The Destruction of Sennacherib.")

Trochaic (the noun is "trochee") a stressed followed by a light syllable: "Thre they re, my ffty men and
wmen."

Dactylic (the noun is "dactyl"): a stressed syllable followed by two light syllables: "ve, with her bsket, was /
Dep in the blls and grass."

Iambs and anapests, since the strong stress is at the end, are called "rising meter"; trochees and dactyls, with the strong stress at the beginning with lower stress at the end, are called "falling meter." Additionally, if a line ends in a standard iamb, with a final stressed syllable, it is said to have a masculine ending. If a line ends in a lightly stressed syllable, it is said to be feminine. To hear the difference, read the following examples aloud and listen to the final stress: Masculine Ending:
"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Feminine Ending:
"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the housing, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mousing."

We name a metric line according to the number of "feet" in it. If a line has four feet, it is tetrameter. If a line has five feet, it is pentameter. Six feet, hexameter, and so on. English verse tends to be pentameter, French verse tetrameter, and Greek verse, hexameter. When scanning a line, we might, for instance, describe the line as "iambic pentameter" (having five feet, with each foot tending to be a light syllable followed by heavy syllable), or "trochaic tetrameter" (having four feet, with each foot tending to be a long syllable followed by a short syllable). Here is a complete list of the various verse structures:

Monometer: one foot Dimeter: two feet Trimeter: three feet Tetrameter: four feet Pentameter: five feet Hexameter: six feet Heptameter: seven feet Octameter: eight feet Nonameter: nine feet

Point of View A way the events of a story are conveyed to the reader, it is the vantage point from which the narrative is passed from author to the reader. The point of view can vary from work to work. For example,

in the Book of Genesis the objective third person point of view is presented, where a nonparticipant serves as the narrator and has no insight into the characters' minds. The narrator presents the events using the pronouns he, it, they, and reveals no inner thoughts of the characters. In Edgar Allan Poes short story The Cask of Amontillado the first person point of view is exhibited. In this instance the main character conveys the incidents he encounters, as well as giving the reader insight into himself as he reveals his thoughts, feelings, and intentions. Many other points of view exist, such as omniscient (or all knowing) in which the narrator moves from one character to another as necessary to provide those characters respective motivations and emotions. Understanding the point of view used in a work is critical to understanding literature; it serves as the instrument to relay the events of a story, and in some instances the feelings and motives of the character(s). Point of view Refers to who tells us a story and how it is told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a work are shaped by the authors choice of point of view. The teller of the story, the narrator, inevitably affects our understanding of the characters actions by filtering what is told through his or her own perspective. The various points of view that writers draw upon can be grouped into two broad categories: (1) the third-person narrator uses he, she, or they to tell the story and does not participate in the action; and (2) the firstperson narrator uses I and is a major or minor participant in the action. In addition, a second-person narrator, you, is also possible, but is rarely used because of the awkwardness of thrusting the reader into the story, as in "You are minding your own business on a park bench when a drunk steps out and demands your lunch bag." An objective point of view employs a third-person narrator who does not see into the mind of any character. From this detached and impersonal perspective, the narrator reports action and dialogue without telling us directly what the characters think and feel. Since no analysis or interpretation is provided by the narrator, this point of view places a premium on dialogue, actions, and details to reveal character to the reader. See also narrator, stream-of-consciousness technique. Omniscient point of viewthe narrator knows everything that is going on in the story, including the characters' thoughts and feelings. This type of narrator rarely plays a direct role in the story. First-person point of viewone of the characters tells the story, using the personal pronoun I. We know only what this person knows and see only what this person sees. Some first-person narrators are credible, or reliablewe can believe what they tell us. Other first-person narrators are not crediblewe can't necessarily believe what they say because they may not be telling the truth. Third-person limited point of viewthe narrator tells the story from the vantage point of only one character. The narrator reveals the thoughts and feelings of this character, and events are limited to what this character experiences and observes. Polysyndeton: The device of repeating conjunctions in close succession. "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" Propaganda: Ideas, facts, or allegations spread to persuade others to support ones cause or to go against the opposing cause. Prose: Any composition not written in verse. Prosopopoeia: 1. Noun. Representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature. A paragraph of examples: "A train at the top of a hill sniffs a flower before swooping down the other slope. Holsters even spread themselves to receive Panchito's revolvers (The Three Caballeros, Norma Ferguson). A steam engine is given eyes, piston chambers that thrust like feet when it pulls, and a mouth and voice that cry 'All aboard' (Dumbo, Walt Disney and Ben Sharpsteen). A building hoist falling at breakneck speed politely slides across to the next shaft on meeting someone, sliding back again after it has passed him (Rhapsody in Rivets, Leon Schlesinger and Isadore Freleng)." (N. Roy Clifton, The Figure in Film. Associated University Presses, 1983)

Protagonist: The hero or central character of a literary work. In accomplishing his or her objective, the protagonist is hindered by some opposing force either human (one of Batman's antagonists is The Joker), animal (Moby Dick is Captain Ahab's antagonist in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick"), or natural (the sea is the antagonist which must be overcome by Captain Bligh in Nordhoff and Hall's "Men Against the Sea," the second book in the trilogy which includes "Mutiny on the Bounty"). Pun: A play on words that sound similar or exactly the same. Critics with too much time on their hands use the term from classical rhetoric, paronomasia. Realism: A loose term that can refer to any work that aims at honest portrayal over sensationalism, exaggeratin, or melodrama. 19th century literary movement. Reason: A statement offered as an explanation or justification for something; also a sufficient basis for believing something or a logical defense. Need reasons to prove your thesis. Repetition: rhetorical device used for emphasis. Resolution: (see "denouement). The very end of the story, when the loose ends of the plot are tied up. (IR) Rhetoric: Rhetoric has gotten an undeservedly bad rap in recent decades. Most people believe the word has negative connotations, for example, excessive use of ornamentation and contrivance in spoken or written discourse and/or speech or discourse that pretends to significance but lacks true meaning: All the politician says is mere rhetoric. In addition, something that is a question where no answer is expected is a rhetorical question, and politicians who are all talk and no action are using empty rhetoric. But the ancient art of rhetoric, one of the seven liberal arts, deserves more respect than that. Rhetoric, simply stated, is the art of persuasion using language to convince or sway an audience or the study of that art. Able rhetoricians, including good writers and good lawyers, know how to make their points effectively, by arranging their arguments and choosing the appropriate language in which to convey them. Classical rhetoricians divided the field into several varieties: Deliberative rhetoric, the art of persuading an audience to take (or not to take) some action think of senators addressing their peers, or lobbyists addressing their representatives; Forensic rhetoric, the art of making a persuasive case in a legal matter, as when a lawyer argues for or against an accused person; Epideictic rhetoric, the use of powerfully affective language to praise or blame someone or something most odes are epideictic oratory, as are most inaugural addresses. Rhetorical Device: An extraordinary use of language to achieve a certain effect on an audience. Examples are chiasmus, parallelism, rhetorical question, and synecdoche. Rhetorical Figures: Linguistic effect can be perceptible to the mind and/or the eye. Figures of thought appeal to the mind by twisting language in a way that is strictly improper, but licensed by usage. Thus the word 'is' is used improperly in the sentence 'John is a lion', but the metaphorical usage is permissible. Or when we hear the sentence 'All hands on deck', we understand that the word 'hands' is being used as a synecdoche for sailors. Figures of thought are sometime called tropes (from a Greek word meaning 'turn', 'twist') or conceits (from a Latin word meaning 'concept', because the conceit appeals to the mind). Figures of speech are perceptible to the eye and the ear. Thus rhyme is a figure of speech, as is alliteration and anaphora. Figures of speech are sometimes called schemes (Greek 'forms'). Rhetorical Question: A question that is asked not to elicit a response but to call attention to or assert something.

Rhyme: The repetition of the accented (stressed) vowel sound and all remaining sounds in a word (lime, time; mixture, fixture). End rhymes occur at the end of the line; internal rhyme occurs inside the line; in approximate rhyme the repetition of sound is not exact. Sarcasm. A form of sneering criticism in which disapproval is often expressed as ironic praise. (Oddly enough, sarcastic remarks are often used between friends, perhaps as a somewhat perverse demonstration of the strength of the bond--only a good friend could say this without hurting the other's feelings, or at least without excessively damaging the relationship, since feelings are often hurt in spite of a close relationship. If you drop your lunch tray and a stranger says, "Well, that was really intelligent," that's sarcasm. If your girlfriend or boyfriend says it, that's love--I think.) Satire. A literary mode based on criticism of people and society through ridicule. The satirist aims to reduce the practices attacked by laughing scornfully at them--and being witty enough to allow the reader to laugh, also. Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are almost always present. The satirist may insert serious statements of value or desired behavior, but most often he relies on an implicit moral code, understood by his audience and paid lip service by them. The satirist's goal is to point out the hypocrisy of his target in the hope that either the target or the audience will return to a real following of the code. Thus, satire is inescapably moral even when no explicit values are promoted in the work, for the satirist works within the framework of a widely spread value system. Many of the techniques of satire are devices of comparison, to show the similarity or contrast between two things. A list of incongruous items, an oxymoron, metaphors, and are examples. Scansion: see Poetry Terms: Scansion: The act of "scanning" a poem to determine its meter. To perform scansion, the student breaks down each line into individual metrical feet and determines which syllables have heavy stress and which have lighter stress. According to the early conventions of English poetry, each foot should have at least one stressed syllable, though feet with all unstressed syllables are found occasionally in Greek and other poetic traditions Scesis Onomaton emphasizes an idea by expressing it in a string of generally synonymous phrases or statements. While it should be used carefully, this deliberate and obvious restatement can be quite effective: We succeeded, we were victorious, we accomplished the feat! Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that deal corruptly. --Isaiah 1:4 But there is one thing these glassy-eyed idealists forget: such a scheme would be extremely costly, horrendously expensive, and require a ton of money. Wendy lay there, motionless in a peaceful slumber, very still in the arms of sleep. May God arise, may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him. --Psalm 68:1 (NIV) Scesis onomaton does have a tendency to call attention to itself and to be repetitive, so it is not used in formal writing as frequently as some other devices. But if well done, it is both beautiful and emphatic. Sententia. (sen-TEN-chee-uh): Figure of argument in which a wise, witty, or pithy maxim or aphorism is used to sum up the preceding material. "There has been this tendency to set aside some of the women, and if they were willing, either to set themselves aside in a religious service, or in some dedicated activity where they didn't act as wives and mothers. Society was willing, then, to accord them quite a few of the privileges that were accorded to men, as if it was being said, implicitly -- but of course...sometimes explicitly: 'You can't have everything.'" -- Margaret Mead Sentence structure simple: one independent clause;

complex: one independent clause; one or more subordinate clauses; compound: two independent clauses; compound complex: two or more independent clauses; one or more subordinate clause Sentence types declarativemakes a direct statementA cat is the world's best pet. exclamatorystatement with emphasisThe cat is absolutely fabulous! imperativecommandsPet that cat. interrogativeasks a questionDon't you like cats? Sequence: The order in which the story's events take place. Most stories take place in chronological order, or time order. (IR) Setting (set-ting): the time, place, physical details, and circumstances in which a situation occurs. Settings include the background, atmosphere or environment in which characters live and move, and usually include physical characteristics of the surroundings. Settings enables the reader to better envision how a story unfolds by relating necessary physical details of a piece of literature. A setting may be simple or elaborate, used to create ambiance, lend credibility or realism, emphasize or accentuate, organize, or even distract the reader. Settings in the Bible are simplistic. In the book of Genesis, we read about the creation of the universe and the lives of the descendants of Adam. Great detail is taken in documenting the lineage, actions, and ages of the characters at milestones in their lives, yet remarkably little detail is given about physical characteristics of the landscape and surroundings in which events occurred. In Genesis 20, we learn that because of her beauty, Sarahs identity is concealed to prevent the death of her husband, Abraham. Yet, we have no description of Sarah or Abrahams hair, eye or skin color, height, weight, physical appearance, or surroundings. Detailed settings that were infrequent in some ancient writings like the Bible are common in todays literature. In recent literature, settings are often described in elaborate detail, enabling the reader to vividly envision even imaginary characters and actions like the travels of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Settings have a way of drawing the reader into a piece of literature while facilitating understanding of the characters and their actions. Understanding the setting is useful because it enables us to see how an author captures the attention of the reader by painting a mental picture using words. Simile. A direct, expressed comparison between two things essentially unlike each other, but resembling each other in at least one way. In formal prose the simile is a device both of art and explanation, comparing the unfamiliar thing (to be explained) to some familiar thing (an object, event, process, etc.) known to the reader. There is no simile in the comparison, "My car is like your car," because the two objects are not "essentially unlike" each other. Slang: [n] a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" [n] informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions; often vituperative or vulgar; "their speech was full of slang expressions" [v] abuse with coarse language [v] fool or hoax; "The immigrant was duped because he trusted everyone"; "You can't fool me!" [v] use slang or vulgar language Sonnet: A fourteen-line poem that follows a strict structure. The writer Petrarch (1304-1374) created the model for what is now referred to as the Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet. The first eight lines, or octave, asks a question, and the rhyme scheme of the octave is abba abba. The last six lines, or the sestet, respond to the question or problem, and the rhyme scheme may be cde cde or cdc cdc.

Speaker The voice used by an author to tell a story or speak a poem. The speaker is often a created identity, and should not automatically be equated with the authors self. See also narrator, persona, point of view. Stream-of-consciousness technique The most intense use of a central consciousness in narration. The stream-of-consciousness technique takes a reader inside a characters mind to reveal perceptions, thoughts, and feelings on a conscious or unconscious level. This technique suggests the flow of thought as well as its content; hence, complete sentences may give way to fragments as the characters mind makes rapid associations free of conventional logic or transitions. James Joyces novel Ulysses makes extensive use of this narrative technique. See also narrator, point of view. Style: The special way a writer uses language. A writer's style may be described as plain, complex, ornate, simple, poetic, conversational, formal, informal, and so on. Syllepsis: A stylistic device in which a single word governs or modifies two or more other words in different ways. Example: Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his leave. Subordinate characters: Less-important characters. Suspense: The excitement and tension that builds up in a story, which makes readers curious to find out how the story ends. (IR) Symploce. Figure of repetition that combines Anaphora and Epistrophe in which the first and last word or words in one phrase, clause, or sentence are repeated in one or more successive phrases, clauses, or sentences; repetition of the first and last words in a clause over successive clauses. Ex: "Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it." -- William Jefferson Clinton, Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Prayer Service Address Symbol: A person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance. Symbols are educational devices for evoking complex ideas without having to resort to painstaking explanations that would make a story more like an essay than an experience. Conventional symbols have meanings that are widely recognized by a society or culture. Some conventional symbols are the Christian cross, the Star of David, a swastika, or a nations flag. Writers use conventional symbols to reinforce meanings. Kate Chopin, for example, emphasizes the spring setting in "The Story of an Hour" as a way of suggesting the renewed sense of life that Mrs. Mallard feels when she thinks herself free from her husband. A literary or contextual symbol can be a setting, character, action, object, name, or anything else in a work that maintains its literal significance while suggesting other meanings. Such symbols go beyond conventional symbols; they gain their symbolic meaning within the context of a specific story. For example, the white whale in Melvilles Moby-Dick takes on multiple symbolic meanings in the work, but these meanings do not automatically carry over into other stories about whales. The meanings suggested by Melvilles whale are specific to that text; therefore, it becomes a contextual symbol. Syntax: The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. Poets often manipulate syntax, changing conventional word order, to place certain emphasis on particular words. Emily Dickinson, for instance, writes about being surprised by a snake in her poem "A narrow Fellow in the Grass," and includes this line: "His notice sudden is." In addition to the alliterative hissing s-sounds here, Dickinson also effectively manipulates the lines syntax so that the verb is appears unexpectedly at the end, making the snakes hissing presence all the more "sudden."

Synecdoche. A form of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the whole thing itself (or vice versa), i.e., Farmer Jones has two hundred head of cattle and three hired hands. Theme (theem): A truth about life and human nature that gives meaning to a story. Different readers may discover different themes in a story, based on their own attitudes and backgrounds. The meaning of a story comes from both the writer and the reader. Also, a common thread or repeated idea that is incorporated throughout a literary work. A theme is a thought or idea the author presents to the reader that may be deep, difficult to understand, or even moralistic. Generally, a theme has to be extracted as the reader explores the passages of a work. The author utilizes the characters, plot, and other literary devices to assist the reader in this endeavor. One theme that may be extracted by the reader of Mark Musas interpretation of Dantes The Divine Comedy Volume I: Inferno is the need to take account of ones own behavior now, for it affects one's condition in the afterlife. One example of this theme can be found in Canto V - ...when the evil soul appears before him, it confesses all, and he [Minos], who is the expert judge of sins, knows to what place in Hell the soul belongs: the times he wraps his tail around himself tells just how far the sinner must go down (7-12). In addition, Dantes use of literary techniques, such as imagery, further accentuates the theme for the consequences of not living right, for he describes the cries and shrieks of lamentation (III:22), the banks were coated with a slimy mold that stuck to them like glue, disgusting to behold and worse to smell (XVIII:106-108) and many other terrifying examples of Hell. In truly great works of literature, the author intertwines the theme throughout the work and the full impact is slowly realized as the reader processes the text. The ability to recognize a theme is important because it allows the reader to understand part of the authors purpose in writing the book. A universal theme appears in the literature of all cultures, in all historical periods. Thesis The central idea of an essay. The thesis is a complete sentence (although sometimes it may require more than one sentence) that establishes the topic of the essay in clear, unambiguous language. Tone. The writer's attitude toward his readers and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic. While both Swift and Pope are satirizing much the same subjects, there is a profound difference in their tone. Tone is conveyed through a writer's choice of words and details. Trope: a general term for any figure of speech which alters the literal sense of a word or phrase: so metaphor, simile and allegory are all tropes, since they affect the meaning of words. In the rhetorical tradition tropes are contrasted with figures, which are rhetorical devices which affect the order or placing of words (so the repetition of a particular word at the start of each line is a figure). Understateme The significance of the issue or detail is nt downplayedmolehills made out of mountains In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Black Knight says the following after King Arthur has cut off his arm: "'Tis but a scratch." "A scratch" is an understatement for the fact that his arm has been chopped off and he's got blood spurting out of his shoulder like a fountain.

Utopia: An imaginary, idealized world presented in literature. Voice: A term in literature that refers to a writer's special use of language in a story, including diction and tone.

VOLTA: Also called a turn, a volta is a sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion near the conclusion of a sonnet. This invisible volta is then followed by a couplet or gemel (in English sonnets) or a sestet (in Italian sonnets). Typically, the first section of the sonnet states a premise, asks a question, or suggests a theme. The concluding lines after the volta resolve the problem by suggesting an answer, offering a conclusion, or shifting the thematic concerns in a new direction.

ZEUGMA (Greek "yoking" or "bonding"): Artfully using a single verb to refer to two different objects grammatically, or artfully using an adjective to refer to two separate nouns, even though the adjective would logically only be appropriate for one of the two. For instance, in Shakespeare's Henry V, Fluellen cries, "Kill the boys and the luggage." (The verb kill normally wouldn't be applied to luggage.) If the resulting grammatical construction changes the verb's initial meaning, the zeugma is sometimes called syllepsis. Examples of these syllepses abound--particularly in seventeenth-century literature:
"If we don't hang together, we shall hang separately!" (Ben Franklin). "The queen of England sometimes takes advice in that chamber, and sometimes tea." ". . . losing her heart or her necklace at the ball." (Alexander Pope). "She exhausted both her audience and her repertoire." (anonymous) "She looked at the object with suspicion and a magnifying glass." (Charles Dickens) "Miss Bolo went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair." (Charles Dickens) [King Charles I was . . .] "Circled with his royal diadem and the affections of his people." (Mistress Evelyn) "I fancy you were gone down to cultivate matrimony and your estate in the country" (Goldsmith) "Her beauty pierced mine eye, her speech my wo[e]ful breast, / Her presence all the powers of my discourse."

Zeugma is also known as synezeugmenon. Some rhetoricians subdivide zeugma according to the location of the verb that functions as the shared connector, referring to a zeugma as a prozeugma or protozeugma if the connector comes before the various subsequent components (as illustrated in the last example listed above). They refer to the figure as a mesozeugma if the connector appears in the middle of a phrase. For example, "And now a bubble burst, and now a world" (Lanham 99). Rhetoricians refer to the figure as a hypozeugma if the connector appears at the end. An example of a hypozeugma would be "Hours, days, weeks, months, and years do pass away" (Sherry, quoted in Lanham 88).

Logos, Ethos and Pathos Whenever you read an argument you must ask yourself, "is this persuasive? And if so, to whom?" There are several ways to appeal to an audience. Among them are appealing to logos, ethos and pathos. These appeals are prevalent in almost all arguments. To Appeal to Emotion (pathos)

To Appeal to Logic (logos)

To Develop Ethos

Theoretical, abstract language Denotative meanings/reasons Literal and historical analogies Definitions Factual data and statistics Quotations Citations from experts and authorities Informed opinions

Language appropriate to audience and subject Restrained, sincere, fair minded presentation Appropriate level of vocabulary Correct grammar

Vivid, concrete language Emotionally loaded language Connotative meanings Emotional examples Vivid descriptions Narratives of emotional events Emotional tone Figurative language

Effect Evokes a cognitive, rationale response Demonstrates author's reliability, competence, and respect for the audience's ideas and values through reliable and appropriate use of support and general accuracy Evokes an emotional response

Definitions Logos: The Greek word logos is the basis for the English word logic. Logos is a broader idea than formal logic--the highly symbolic and mathematical logic that you might study in a philosophy course. Logos refers to any attempt to appeal to the intellect, the general meaning of "logical argument." Everyday arguments rely heavily on ethos and pathos, but academic arguments rely more on logos. Yes, these arguments will call upon the writers' credibility and try to touch the audience's emotions, but there will more often than not be logical chains of reasoning supporting all claims. Ethos: Ethos is related to the English word ethics and refers to the trustworthiness of the speaker/writer. Ethos is an effective persuasive strategy because when we believe that the speaker does not intend to do us harm, we are more willing to listen to what s/he has to say. For example, when a trusted doctor gives you advice, you may not understand all of the medical reasoning behind the advice, but you nonetheless follow the directions because you believe that the doctor knows what s/he is talking about. Likewise, when a judge comments on legal precedent audiences tend to listen because it is the job of a judge to know the nature of past legal cases. Pathos: Pathos is related to the words pathetic, sympathy and empathy. Whenever you accept an claim based on how it makes you feel without fully analyzing the rationale behind the claim, you are acting on pathos. They may be any emotions: love, fear, patriotism, guilt, hate or joy. A majority of arguments in the popular press are heavily dependent on pathetic appeals. The more people react without full consideration for the WHY, the more effective an argument can be. Although the pathetic appeal can be manipulative, it is the cornerstone of moving people to action. Many arguments are able to persuade people logically, but the apathetic audience may not follow through on the call to action. Appeals to pathos touch a nerve and compel people to not only listen, but to also take the next step and act in the world. Examples of Logos, Ethos and Pathos Logos --Let us begin with a simple proposition: What democracy requires is public debate, not information. Of course it needs information too, but the kind of information it needs can be generated only by vigorous popular debate. We do not know what we need to know until we ask the right questions, and we can identify the right questions only by subjecting our ideas about the world to the test of public controversy. Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate, is better understood as its by product. When we get into arguments that focus and fully engage our attention, we become avid seekers of relevant information. Otherwise, we take in information passively--if we take it in at all. Christopher Lasch, "The Lost Art of Political Argument" Ethos My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely."...Since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable in terms. I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in."...I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Pathos For me, commentary on war zones at home and abroad begins and ends with personal reflections. A few years ago, while watching the news in Chicago, a local news story made a personal connection with me. The report concerned a teenager who had been shot because he had angered a group of his male peers. This act of violence caused me to recapture a memory from my own adolescence because of an instructive parallel in my own life with this boy who had been shot. When I was a teenager some thirty-five years ago in the New York metropolitan area, I wrote a regular column for my high school newspaper. One week, I wrote a column in which I made fun of the fraternities in my high school. As a result, I elicited the anger of some of the most aggressive teenagers in my high school. A couple of nights later, a car pulled up in front of my house, and the angry teenagers in the car dumped garbage on the lawn of my house as an act of revenge and intimidation. James Garbarino "Children in a Violent World: A Metaphysical Perspective"

Terms for Argumentation Ad Hominem: Attacking the opposition with personal attacks, not issues.

Appeal to Authority: In an argument, a person cited because his or her opinion carries special weigh or credibility. Argument by Definition: Form of argument in which the writer defines a term by placing it in a particular category, thereby claiming that what is true for the whole category is true for the particular term. Example: Women must have the right to vote because they are individuals; individuals are endowed with the right to vote. Assumption: A fact or statement that is taken for granted rather than tested or proved. Deductive Reasoning: Reasoning in which one derives a specific conclusion from something generally or universally understood to be true. Example: Chicken is supposed to be healthy. This sandwich contains chicken, so it probably healthy. Either/Or Reasoning: Presenting only two choices in an argument. Enthymeme: An informal method of argument in which one of the major premises is implied or assumed rather than stated. Example: The sentence "We can't trust this article because it's actually an advertisement" assumes, rather than states, that advertisements cannot be trusted. Evidence: Specific facts or examples used to support a claim in a piece of writing. Inductive Reasoning: Reasoning in which one arrives at a general conclusion from specific instances. Example: I got hives from the shrimp I ate last night; I must be allergic to shellfish. Qualifier: A statement that modifies or limit the meaning of a claim. Red Herring: Something that distracts attention from the real issue. Refutation: The process of proving something wrong by argument or evidence. Syllogism: A syllogism, or logical appeal, (Greek: "conclusion," "inference"), (usually the categorical syllogism) is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from two others (the premises) of a certain form. In Aristotle's Prior Analytics, he defines syllogism as "a discourse in which, certain things having been supposed, something different from the things' supposed results of necessity because these things are so." (24b1820) Despite this very general definition, he limits himself first to categorical syllogisms [1] (and later to modal syllogisms). The syllogism was at the core of traditional deductive reasoning, where facts are determined by combining existing statements, in contrast to inductive reasoning where facts are determined by repeated observations. Syllogism was superseded by firstorder predicate logic following the work of Frege, in particular 1879 Begriffsschrift (Concept Script) 1879. Basic structure A categorical syllogism consists of three parts: the major premise, the minor premise, and the conclusion, each part of which is a categorical proposition, and each categorical proposition containing two categorical terms [2]. In Aristotle, each of the premises is in the form "Some/all A belong to B," or "Some/all A is/are [not]B,"where "A" is one term and "B" is another, but more modern logicians allow some variation. Each of the premises has

one term in common with the conclusion: in a major premise, this is the major term (i.e., the predicate of the conclusion); in a minor premise, it is the minor term (the subject) of the conclusion. For example: Major premise: All humans are mortal. Minor premise: Some animals are human. Conclusion: Some animals are mortal. Each of the three distinct terms represents a category, in this example, "human," "mortal," and "animal." "Mortal" is the major term; "animal," the minor term. The premises also have one term in common with each other, which is known as the middle term in this example, "human." Here the major premise is universal and the minor particular, but this need not be so. For example: Major premise: All mortals die. Minor premise: All men are mortals. Conclusion: All men die. Here, the major term is "die", the minor term is "men," and the middle term is "mortals" Both of the premises are universal. A sorites is a form of argument in which a series of incomplete syllogisms is so arranged that the predicate of each premise forms the subject of the next until the subject of the first is joined with the predicate of the last in the conclusion. For example, if one argues that a given number of grains of sand does not make a heap and that an additional grain does not either, then to conclude that no additional amount of sand will make a heap is to construct a sorites argument. For more information, see Wikipedia or other internet source. logical fallacies (fully explained in most rhetorics): a. Nonsequitur- ("it does not follow") Ex. The President graduated from Harvard. He can't make mistakes. b. Begging the Question Ex. Synthetic vitamins are dangerous to one's health, so all of them should be removed from the store shelves. The first part of the statement has no proof. c. Circular Reasoning- repeats a premise rather than giving a valid reason. Ex. Martha is a good supervisor because she supervises the company's personnel office effectively. d. Straw-man Argument- attributes untrue characteristics to a person and then attacks that person on those characteristics. Ex. You are a bad driver, so that is why you won't support a bill to raise the driving age to twenty-one. e. Ad Hominem (to the man)- attacks the person rather than the issue. Ex. Sam is divorced, so how can he make sound financial decisions for the city? f. Over-generalization- draws a conclusion about an entire group based on insufficient evidence. Ex. I know five Italians who like pizza, so all Italians must like pizza. g. Post hoc, Ergo Procter Hoc (after this; therefore because of this)-attributes a cause/effect relationship simply because something occurs after something else. Ex. Our weather patterns have changed since we began launching rockets into space. h. Either/or Argument- is based on the assumption that there are only two possibilities.

Ex. Either you are with America's fight against terrorism or you are America's enemy. i. Appeal to the Crowd- plays on a group's fears or prejudices. Ex. We will all go broke if we don't put a stop to welfare fraud. j. Faulty Analogy- assumes that two circumstances or things are similar in all respects, when in fact they are not. Ex. The Ravens won the NFL football championship through player discipline; that is how we will win the high school football championship.