97. Rhetoric the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse; Rhetoric focuses on the interrelationship of invention, arrangement, and style in order to create felicitous and appropriate discourse.
98. Rhetorical modes exposition, description, narration, argumentation
99. Rhetorical Question one that does not expect an explicit answer. It is used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience.
100. Sarcasm harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony, but more mean-spirited
101. Satire A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. Satire doesn’t simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). Satire targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals.
102. Setting Time and place of a literary work.
103. Simile a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities; for example, “The sky looked like an artist’s canvas.”
104. Speaker the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious persona
105. Stereotype a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality; a conventional patter, expression or idea.
106. Straw Man When a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak. Setting up a straw man diverts attention from the real issues.
107. Style an author’s characteristic manner of expression – his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to style
108. Subjectivity a personal presentation of evens and characters, influenced by the author’s feelings and opinions
109. Syllogism A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. A syllogism is the format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.
Examples:
Major Premise: All tragedies end unhappily.
Minor Premise: Hamlet is a tragedy.
Conclusion: Therefore, Hamlet ends unhappily.
110. Symbolism the use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance
111. Synecdoche a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using “boards” to mean a stage or “wheels” to mean a car – or “All hands on deck.”
112. Syntactic Fluency Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length.
113. Syntactic Permutation Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. They are often difficult for a reader to follow.
114. Syntax the grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. Syntax includes length of sentence, kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, or compound).
115. Theme the central idea or “message” or a literary work
116. Thesis the main idea of a piece of writing. It presents the author’s assertion or claim. The effectiveness of a presentation is often based on how well the writer presents, develops, and supports the thesis.
117. Tone the characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience (anger, sarcastic, loving, didactic, emotional, etc.)
118. Tricolon Sentence consisting of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses.
119. Understatement the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.
120. Voice refers to two different areas of writing. One refers to the relationship between a sentence’s subject and verb (active and passive voice). The second refers to the total “sound” of a writer’s style