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act The major subunit into which the action of a play is divided. The number of acts in a play typically ranges between one and five, and the acts are usually further divided into scenes.
ad hominem Latin for “to the man,” this fallacy refers to the specific diversionary tactic of switching the argument from the issue at hand to the character of the other speaker. If you argue that a park in your community should not be renovated because the person supporting the plan was arrested during a domestic dispute, then you are guilty of using an ad hominem fallacy.
ad populum (bandwagon appeal) Latin for “to the people,” this fallacy occurs when evidence used to defend an argument boils down to “everybody’s doing it, so it must be a good thing to do.”
You should vote to elect Rachel Johnson — she has a strong lead in the polls.
Polling higher does not necessarily make Senator Johnson the “best” candidate; it only makes her the most popular.
allegory A literary work that portrays abstract ideas concretely. Characters in an allegory are frequently personifications of abstract ideas and are sometimes given names that refer to these ideas. See Gabriel García Márquez, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children,” p. 428.
alliteration Repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of several words or syllables in sequence.
their blond legs burn like brush.
— Mark Strand, “Eating Poetry,” p. 18
allusion Brief reference to a person, an event, or a place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art.
With Mercury’s Insignia on our sneakers,
— Yusef Komunyakaa, “Slam, Dunk, & Hook,” p. 50
analogy A comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things. Often, an analogy uses something simple or familiar to explain something complex or unfamiliar.
Shawne Merriman is almost as big as the best offensive tackle who ever played and almost as fast as the best wide receiver who ever played. He is a rhinoceros who moves like a deer.
— Chuck Klosterman, “Why We Look the Other Way,” pp. 492–
anaphora Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.
But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.
— Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” p. 357
anecdote A brief story used to illustrate a point or claim.
annotation The taking of notes directly on a text. For an example of annotation, see pp. 952-
antagonist Character in a piece of literature who opposes the protagonist: while not necessarily an enemy, the antagonist creates or intensifies a conflict for the protagonist. An evil antagonist is a villain.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (p. 254), the witches serve as antagonists, fueling Macbeth’s ambition, and using misleading prophecies to prod him toward his downfall.
antithesis Opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a parallel construction.
This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good.
— William Shakespeare, Macbeth, p. 260
appeal to false authority This fallacy occurs when someone who has no credibility to speak on an issue is cited as an authority. A TV star, for instance, is not a medical expert, though pharmaceutical advertisements often use such celebrities to endorse products.
According to former congressional leader Ari Miller, the Himalayas have an estimated Yeti population of between 300 and 500 individuals.
archaic diction Old-
My river runs to thee:
Blue sea, wilt welcome me?
— Emily Dickinson, “My river runs to thee,” p. 49
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argument A process of reasoned inquiry. A persuasive discourse resulting in a coherent and considered movement from a claim to a conclusion.
Aristotelian triangle See rhetorical triangle.
assertion A statement that presents a claim or thesis.
assonance The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words.
The only roads are those that offer access.
— Wisława Szymborska, “Utopia,” p. 891
audience The listener, viewer, or reader of a text. Most texts are likely to have multiple audiences.
Understanding his audience well, President Abraham Lincoln used a series of biblical allusions in his Second Inaugural Address to urge unity between the North and South at the end of the Civil War:
bandwagon appeal See ad populum (bandwagon appeal).
begging the question A fallacy in which a claim is based on evidence or support that is in doubt. It “begs” the question whether the support itself is sound.
Giving students easy access to a wealth of facts and resources online allows them to develop critical thinking skills.
bias A prejudice or preconceived notion that prevents a person from approaching a topic in a neutral or an objective way. While you can be biased toward something, the most common usage has a negative connotation.
blank verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter. See William Shakespeare, “The Seven Ages of Man,” p. 158.
caesura A pause within a line of poetry, sometimes punctuated, sometimes not, that often mirrors natural speech.
Once Flick played for the high-
He was good: in fact, the best.
— John Updike, “Ex-
catharsis Refers to the emotional release felt by the audience at the end of a tragic drama. The term comes from Aristotle’s Poetics, in which he explains this frequently felt relief in terms of a purification of the emotions caused by watching the tragic events. (Catharsis means “purgation” or “purification” in Greek.)
character A person depicted in a narrative. While this term generally refers to human beings, it can also include animals or inanimate objects that are given human characteristics. Several more specific terms are used to refer to types of characters frequently employed by authors:
flat character A character embodying only one or two traits and who lacks character development; for this reason, a flat character is also called a static character. Often such characters exist only to provide background or adequate motivation for a protagonist’s actions.
In Don Quixote (p. 345), Sancho Panza is a stock character. He is a faithful servant to Don Quixote but shows little depth or complexity.
round character A character who exhibits a range of emotions and evolves over the course of the story.
In Don Quixote (p. 345), Don Quixote himself is a round character. He has complex motivations and various facets to his personality, and our understanding of him evolves over the course of the story.
characterization The method by which the author builds, or reveals, a character; it can be direct or indirect. Indirect characterization means that an author shows rather than tells us what a character is like through what the character says, does, or thinks or through what others say about the character. Direct characterization occurs when a narrator tells the reader who a character is by describing the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of a character.
circular reasoning A fallacy in which the argument repeats the claim as a way to provide evidence.
You can’t give me a C; I’m an A student!
claim Also called an assertion or proposition, a claim states the argument’s main idea or position. A claim differs from a topic or subject in that a claim has to be arguable.
complex sentence A sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
Every opportunity I got, I used to read this book.
— Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” p. 756
compound sentence A sentence that includes at least two independent clauses.
He beat his friend until his friend couldn’t take any more beating, and then he beat him some more.
— Nathan Englander, “Free Fruit for Young Widows,” p. 446
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concession An acknowledgment that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable. In a strong argument, a concession is usually accompanied by a refutation challenging the validity of the opposing argument.
Throw in humanity’s jealousies, violence, and constant anxieties, and the transhumanist project begins to look downright reasonable.
— Francis Fukuyama, “Transhumanism,” p. 928
conflict The tension, opposition, or struggle that drives a plot. External conflict is the opposition or tension between two characters or forces. Internal conflict occurs within a character. Conflict usually arises between the protagonist and the antagonist in a story.
In Macbeth (p. 254) the internal conflict is between Macbeth’s ambition and his conscience. The external conflict is between Macbeth and the other rulers he is trying to remove in order to gain power.
connotation and denotation Connotation refers to meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. Connotations are often positive or negative, and they often greatly affect the author’s tone. Consider the connotations of the words below, all of which mean “overweight.”
That cat is plump. That cat is fat. That cat is obese.
context The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text.
“Do you want to know why I can care for a man who once beat me? Because to a story there is context. There is always context in life.”
— Nathan Englander, “Free Fruit for Young Widows,” p. 448
counterargument An opposing argument to the one a writer is putting forward. Rather than ignoring a counterargument, a strong writer will usually address it through the process of concession and refutation.
It might be argued that a genetically enhanced athlete, like a drug-
— Michael Sandel, from “The Case against Perfection,” p. 417
cumulative sentence A sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence and then builds and adds on.
Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s data thickets—
— Nicholas Carr, The Shallows, p. 19
deduction Deduction is a logical process wherein you reach a conclusion by starting with a general principle or universal truth (a major premise) and applying it to a specific case (a minor premise). The process of deduction is usually demonstrated in the form of a syllogism:
Major Premise Exercise contributes to better health.
Minor Premise Yoga is a type of exercise.
Conclusion Yoga contributes to better health.
diction A speaker’s choice of words. Analysis of diction looks at these choices and what they add to the speaker’s message.
either-
Either we agree to higher taxes, or our grandchildren will be mired in debt.
end rhyme See rhyme.
enjambment A poetic technique in which one line ends without a pause and continues to the next line to complete its meaning; also referred to as a “run-
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
— W. H. Auden, “Musée des Beaux Arts,” p. 318
epigram A short, witty statement designed to surprise an audience or a reader.
And what is a kiss, when all is done?
A promise given under seal—
Taken before the shrine of memory—
A signature acknowledged—
Over the i of Loving—
— Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, pp. 718-
equivocation A fallacy that uses a term with two or more meanings in an attempt to misrepresent or deceive.
We will bring our enemies to justice, or we will bring justice to them.
ethos Greek for “character.” Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say.
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“As a senior at Upper Arlington High School, I am extremely proud of both my school and community. Except for two years in private education, I have spent my entire life in the Upper Arlington School District and know firsthand what an amazing system it is.”
— Owen Dirkse, letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch, p. 69
eye rhyme See rhyme.
fallacy See logical fallacies.
false dilemma See either-
faulty analogy A fallacy that occurs when an analogy compares things that are not comparable. For instance, to argue that we should legalize human euthanasia, since we all agree that it is humane to put terminally ill animals to sleep, ignores significant emotional and ethical differences between the ways we view humans and animals.
figurative language (figure of speech) Nonliteral language, often evoking strong imagery, sometimes referred to as a trope. Figures of speech often compare one thing to another either explicitly (using simile) or implicitly (using metaphor). Other forms of figurative language include personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony.
form Refers to the defining structural characteristics of a work, especially a poem (i.e., meter and rhyme scheme). Often poets work within set forms, such as the sonnet, which require adherence to fixed conventions.
hasty generalization A fallacy in which a faulty conclusion is reached because of inadequate evidence.
Smoking isn’t bad for you; my great aunt smoked a pack a day and lived to be ninety.
hortative sentence Sentence that exhorts, urges, entreats, implores, or calls to action.
First, though, we must wake up to what our schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands.
— John Taylor Gatto, “Against School,” p. 211
hyperbole Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or an ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point.
In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
— J. D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye,” p. 48
iambic pentameter An iamb, the most common metrical foot in English poetry, is made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Iambic pentameter, then, is a rhythmic meter containing five iambs. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse.
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss: and if to live,
— William Shakespeare, “The St. Crispin’s Day Speech,” p. 569
imagery A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds. Imagery may use literal or figurative language to appeal to the senses.
All at once she bloomed. Huge, enormous, beautiful to look at from the salmon-
— Sandra Cisneros, “No Speak English,” p. 761
imperative sentence Sentence used to command or enjoin.
A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand:
“Come!”
— James Joyce, “Eveline,” p. 165
Incongruity Something unexpected, out of place, or inconsistent. This term is generally used in English class to refer to irony, which relies on incongruity for its effect.
induction From the Latin inducere, “to lead into,” induction is a logical process wherein you reason from particulars to universals, using specific cases in order to draw a conclusion, which is also called a generalization.
Regular exercise promotes weight loss.
Exercise lowers stress levels.
Exercise improves mood and outlook.
Generalization Exercise contributes to better health.
internal rhyme See rhyme.
inversion Inverted order of words in a sentence (deviation from the standard subject-
Not a people, race, or class striving for freedom is there anywhere in the world that has not made our axioms the chief weapon of the struggle.
— Carrie Chapman Catt, “Women’s Suffrage Is Inevitable,” p. 385
irony, dramatic Tension created by the contrast between what a character says or thinks and what the audience or readers know to be true; as a result of this technique, some words and actions in a story or play take on a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters. Of the Weird Sisters, Macbeth says:
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“Infected be the air whereon they ride, And damned all those that trust them!”
— William Shakespeare, Macbeth, p. 296
irony, situational A discrepancy between what is expected and what actually happens. See Jason Edward Harrington, “Do You Like Me? Click Yes or No,” p. 834.
irony, verbal A figure of speech that occurs when a speaker or character says one thing but means something else or when what is said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity. Sarcasm involves verbal irony used derisively.
And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.
— William Shakespeare, “The Seven Ages of Man,” p. 159
juxtaposition Placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences.
Behold our Uncle Sam floating the banner with one hand, “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” and with the other seizing the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom he refuses “representation.”
— Carrie Chapman Catt, “Women’s Suffrage Is Inevitable,” p. 383
logical fallacies Logical fallacies are potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses in an argument. They often arise from a failure to make a logical connection between the claim and the evidence used to support it.
logos Greek for “embodied thought.” Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up.
“According to a 2014 report from Amnesty International, “only nine countries have continuously executed in each of the past five years—
— Charles Blow, from “Eye-
metaphor Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as.
Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, the way Houdini would expand his body while people were putting him in chains.
— Sharon Olds, “My Son the Man,” p. 154
meter The formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet. A foot is distinguished by the number of syllables it contains and how stress is placed on the syllables — stressed ( ´ ) or unstressed ( ˘ ). There are five typical feet in English verse: iamb ( ˘ ´ ), trochee ( ´ ˘ ), anapest ( ˘ ˘ ´ ), dactyl ( ´ ˘ ˘ ), and spondee ( ´ ´ ). Some meters dictate the number of feet per line, the most common being tetrameter, pentameter, and hexameter, having four, five, and six feet, respectively.
metonymy Figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is related to it or emblematic of it.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
modifier An adjective, an adverb, a phrase, or a clause that modifies a noun, pronoun, or verb. The purpose of a modifier is usually to describe, focus, or qualify.
On a humid Monday, four cult members waited at the campus gate and waylaid a professor driving a red Mercedes.
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “Cell One,” p. 438
mood The feeling or atmosphere created by a text.
near rhyme See rhyme.
occasion The time and place a speech is given or a piece is written.
When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, there was emerging evidence that DDT softened the shells of bird eggs (particularly those of bald eagles and peregrine falcons), resulting in a dramatic drop in the birds’ population.
onomatopoeia Use of words that refer to sounds and whose pronunciations mimic those sounds.
The cars’ tires laid behind them on the snowy street a complex trail of beige chunks like crenellated castle walls. I had stepped on some earlier; they squeaked.
— Annie Dillard, “An American Childhood,” p. 466
oxymoron A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words.
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We outmaneuvered the footwork
Of bad angels.
— Yusef Komunyakaa, “Slam, Dunk, & Hook,” p. 50
paradox A statement or situation that is seemingly contradictory on the surface but delivers an ironic truth.
Spanish
is simple and baroque,
— Marjorie Agosín, “English,” p. 781
parallelism Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
The idea and feeling that the world was made, and life given, for the happiness of all, and not for the ambition, or pride, or luxury, of one, or of a few, are pouring in, like a resistless tide. . . .
— Horace Mann, from The Common School Journal, p. 213
passive voice A sentence employs passive voice when the subject doesn’t act but rather is acted on.
Foxes, rabbits, and bobolinks are starved out of their homes or dismembered by the sickle mower.
— Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, p. 107
pathos Greek for “suffering” or “experience.” Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience’s values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.
“. . . I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea. . .”
— Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” p. 355
persona Greek for “mask.” The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience.
“I have done whatever I did, both as an individual and as a leader of my people, because of my experience in South Africa and my own proudly felt African background . . .” Nelson Mandela, “An Ideal for Which I Am Prepared to Die,” p. 365
personification Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea.
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.
— William Stafford, “Traveling through the Dark,” p. 462
plot The arrangement of events in a narrative. Almost always, a conflict is central to a plot, and traditionally a plot develops in accordance with the following model: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. There can be more than one sequence of events in a work, although typically there is one major sequence along with other minor sequences. These minor sequences are called subplots.
polemic Greek for “hostile.” An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion over all others, a polemic generally does not concede that opposing opinions have any merit.
point of view The perspective from which a work is told. The most common narrative vantage points are
first person Told by a narrator who is a character in the story and who refers to himself or herself as “I.” First person narrators are sometimes unreliable narrators because they don’t always see the big picture or because they might be biased.
second person Though rare, some stories are told using second person pronouns (you). This casts the reader as a character in the story.
third person limited omniscient Told by a narrator who relates the action using third person pronouns (he, she, it). This narrator is usually privy to the thoughts and actions of only one character.
third person omniscient Told by a narrator using third person pronouns. This narrator is privy to the thoughts and actions of all the characters in the story.
post hoc ergo propter hoc This fallacy is Latin for “after which therefore because of which,” meaning that it is incorrect to always claim that something is a cause just because it happened earlier. One may loosely summarize this fallacy by saying that correlation does not imply causation.
We elected Johnson as president and look where it got us: hurricanes, floods, stock market crashes.
propaganda The spread of ideas and information to further a cause. In its negative sense, propaganda is the use of rumors, lies, disinformation, and scare tactics in order to damage or promote a cause.
protagonist The main character in a work; often a hero or heroine, but not always.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is the protagonist, though certainly not a hero.
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pun A play on words that derives its humor from the replacement of one word with another that has a similar pronunciation or spelling but a different meaning. A pun can also derive humor from the use of a single word that has more than one meaning.
purpose The goal the speaker wants to achieve.
For example, Malala Yousafzai wrote her blog primarily to call attention to what she believed was an unfair situation — limitations on the educational opportunities available to women in her culture — but she also intended to criticize the regime that created such oppression.
qualified argument An argument that is not absolute. It acknowledges the merits of an opposing view but develops a stronger case for its own position.
qualifier Qualifiers are words like usually, probably, maybe, in most cases, and most likely that are used to temper claims a bit, making them less absolute.
Unqualified Dogs are more obedient than cats.
Qualified Dogs are generally more obedient than cats.
qualitative evidence Evidence supported by reason, tradition, or precedent.
quantitative evidence Quantitative evidence includes things that can be measured, cited, counted, or otherwise represented in numbers — for instance, statistics, surveys, polls, and census information.
red herring A type of logical fallacy wherein the speaker relies on distraction to derail an argument, usually by skipping to a new or an irrelevant topic. The term derives from the dried fish that trainers used to distract dogs when teaching them to hunt foxes.
We can debate these regulations until the cows come home, but what the American people want to know is, when are we going to end this partisan bickering?
rhetoric Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” In other words, it is the art of finding ways of persuading an audience.
rhetorical appeals Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are to ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion).
rhetorical question Figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer.
So why is it, please explain, that you’re in our stories but we’re not in yours?
— Kamila Shamsie, “The Storytellers of Empire,” p. 565
rhetorical situation The context surrounding a text, including who the speaker is, what the subject is, who the audience is, and the relationship among these three elements. The rhetorical situation also includes the author’s purpose, and the occasion that has prompted the text. See rhetorical triangle.
rhetorical triangle (Aristotelian triangle) A diagram that illustrates the interrelationship among the speaker, audience, and subject in determining a text.
rhyme The poetic repetition of the same (or similar) vowel sounds or of vowel and consonant combinations. A rhyme at the end of two or more lines of poetry is called an end rhyme. A rhyme that occurs within a line is called an internal rhyme. A rhyme that pairs sounds that are similar but not exactly the same is called a near rhyme or a slant rhyme. A rhyme that only works because the words look the same is called an eye rhyme or a sight rhyme. Rhyme often follows a pattern, called a rhyme scheme.
end rhyme
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
— Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” p. 567
internal rhyme
continually confused the light. In flight,
— Li-
near rhyme or slant rhyme
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
— William Blake, “The Tyger,” p. 53
eye rhyme
My river waits reply. Oh sea, look graciously!
— Emily Dickinson, “My river runs to thee,” p. 49
satire The use of irony or sarcasm as a means of critique, usually of a society or an individual.
setting Where and when a story takes place.
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne. She was tired.
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Few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home; she heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards crunching on the cinder path before the new red houses. One time there used to be a field there in which they used to play every evening with other people’s children. Then a man from Belfast bought the field and built houses in it — not like their little brown houses but bright brick houses with shining roofs.
— James Joyce, “Eveline,” p. 162
simile A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by comparing it explicitly to something else, using the words like, as, or as though.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
— William Shakespeare, “The Seven Ages of Man,” p. 159
slant rhyme See rhyme.
slippery slope fallacy In this fallacy, also known as the “floodgates fallacy,” the effect the speaker is claiming is out of proportion to the cause, or illogical based on the cause.
Statistics go to show that in most equal suffrage states, Colorado particularly, that divorces have greatly increased since the adoption of the equal suffrage amendment, showing that it has been a home destroyer. Crime has also increased due to lack of the mothers in the home.
— J. B. Sanford, “Argument against Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 8,” p. 78
SOAPS A mnemonic device that stands for Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, and Speaker. It is a handy way to remember the various elements that make up the rhetorical situation.
sonnet, Shakespearean Also known as the English sonnet, this poem has fourteen lines composed of three quatrains and a couplet, and its rhyme scheme is abab cdcd, efef, gg. See Sherman Alexie, “Facebook Sonnet,” p. 811
sound The musical quality of poetry, as created through techniques such as rhyme, enjambment, caesura, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, and meter.
speaker The person or group who creates a text. This might be a politician who delivers a speech, a commentator who writes an article, an artist who draws a political cartoon, or even a company that commissions an advertisement.
We know, for example, that Harriet Beecher Stowe was a committed abolitionist, and we also know that she was a devout Christian. Both aspects of her background greatly influenced how she presented her argument in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
straw man A fallacy that occurs when a speaker chooses a deliberately poor or oversimplified example in order to ridicule and refute an idea.
Politician X proposes that we put astronauts on Mars in the next four years.
Politician Y ridicules this proposal by saying that his opponent is looking for “little green men in outer space.”
style The way a literary work is written. Style is produced by an author’s choices in diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, and other literary elements.
subject The topic of a text. What the text is about.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s subject was slavery in the United States. Carson’s was DDT specifically, pesticides in general.
symbol A setting, an object, or an event in a story that carries more than literal meaning and therefore represents something significant to understanding the meaning of a work of literature.
In “The Tell-
synecdoche Figure of speech that uses a part to represent the whole.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent.
— Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” pp. 361–
syntax The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. This includes word order (subject-
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synthesis Combining two or more ideas in order to create something more complex in support of a new idea.
text While this term generally refers to the written word, in the humanities it has come to mean any cultural product that can be “read” — meaning not just consumed and comprehended but also investigated. This includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, political cartoons, fine art, photography, performances, fashion, cultural trends, and much more.
theme The underlying issues or ideas of a work.
Romeo and Juliet suggests that love is a destructive force that, once unleashed, cannot be controlled.
tone A speaker’s attitude toward the subject as conveyed by the speaker’s stylistic and rhetorical choices.
tragedy A serious dramatic work in which the protagonist experiences a series of unfortunate reversals due to some character trait, referred to as a tragic flaw. The most common tragic flaw is hubris, Greek for pride. See William Shakespeare, Macbeth, p. 254.
understatement A figure of speech in which something is presented as less important, dire, urgent, good, and so on than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect. Also called litotes, it is the opposite of hyperbole.
wit In rhetoric, the use of laughter, humor, irony, and satire in the confirmation or refutation of an argument.