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Person
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A grammatical distinction made between the speaker, the one spoken to, and the one spoken about. In the first person (I, we) the subject is speaking. In the second person (you), the subject is being spoken to. In the third person (he, she, it) the subject is being spoken about.
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Connotation and denotation
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Two types of meaning most words have. Denotation is the explicit, literal, dictionary definition of a word. Connotation refers to a word's implied meaning, resonant with associations.
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Pretentious diction (Diction)
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Use of words or more numerous and elaborate than necessary, such as institution of higher learning for college
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Scene
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In a NARRATIVE, an event retold in detail to re-create an experience.
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Essay
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A short nonfiction composition on one central theme or subject in which the writer may offer personal views.
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Anecdote
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A brief NARRATIVE, or retelling of a story or event.
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Regional terms (Diction)
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Words heard in a certain locality
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Understatement
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Opposite of hyperbole that creates an ironic or humorous effect.
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Verbal Irony
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The intentional use of words to suggest a meaning other than literal.
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Obsolete diction (Diction)
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Words that have passed out of use
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Paradox (FOP)
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A seemingly self-contradictory statement that, on reflection, makes sense
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A Rational Appeal
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Asks readers to use their intellects and their powers of reasoning. It relies on established conventions of logic and evidence
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Hasty generalization (Fallacy)
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Leaping to a generalization from inadequate or faulty evidence
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Dominant impression
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The main idea a writer conveys about a subject through DESCRIPTION - that an elephant is gigantic, for example, or an experience scary.
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Paragraph
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A group of closely related sentences that develop a central idea.
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Unity
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The good quality of good writing in which all parts relate to the THESIS.
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Voice
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In writing, the sense of author's character, personality, and attitude that comes through the words.
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Nonstandard English (Diction)
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Words and grammatical forms such as theirselves and ain't that are used mainly by people who speak dialect other than standard English.
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Drafting
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The stage of writing process during which a writer expresses ideas in complete sentences, links them, and arranges them in a sequence.
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Discovery
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The stage of writing process before the first draft. It may include deciding on a topic, narrowing the topic, creating or finding ideas, doing reading and other research, defining PURPOSE and AUDIENCE, planning and arranging material.
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Coherence
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The clear connection of the parts in effective writing so that the reader can easily follow the flow of ideas between sentences, paragraphs, and larger divisions, and can see how they relate successively to one another.
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Journal
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A record of one's thoughts, kept daily or at least regularly. Keeping a journal faithfully can help a writer gain confidence and develop ideas.
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Syllogism
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A three-step form of reasoning that employs DEDUCTION.
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Active Voice
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The form of the verb when the sentence subject is the actor. Tree [subject] shed [active verb] their leaves in autumn.
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Allude, allusion
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To refer to a person, place, or thing believed to be common knowledge (allude), or the act or result of doing so (allusion).
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Audience
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A writer's readers. Having in mind a particular audience helps the writer in choosing strategies.
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Situational Irony
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The circumstances themselves are incongruous (inappropriate), run contrary to expectations, or twist fate.
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Suspense
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Often an element in NARRATION: the pleasurable expectation or anxiety we feel that keeps us reading a story
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Analogy
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An extended comparison based on the like features of two unlike things: one familiar or easily understood, the other familiar, abstract, or complicated.
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Chronological order
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The arrangement of events as they occurred or occur in time, first to last.
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Sentimentality
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A quality sometimes found in writing that fails to communicate.
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Strategy
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Whatever means a writer employs to write effectively.
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Data
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The name for EVIDENCE favored by logician Stephen Toulmin in his system of reasoning.
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Description
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A mode of writing that conveys the evidence of the senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell.
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Slang (Diction)
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Certain words in highly informal speech or writing, or in the speech of a particular group.
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Either/or reasoning (Fallacy)
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Assuming that a reality may be divided into only two parts or extremes; assuming that a given problem has only one or two possible solutions
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Objective and subjective
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Kinds of writing that differ in emphasis. In objective writing, the emphasis falls in the topic; in subjective writing, it falls in the writer's view of the topic.
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Parallelism, parallel structure
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Keeping ideas of equal importance in similar grammatical forms.
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Narrator
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The teller of a story, usually either in the first PERSON (I) or in the third (he, she, it, they)
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Synthesize, synthesis
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To link elements into a whole (synthesize), or the act or result of doing so (synthesis).
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Fallacies
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Errors in reasoning.
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Repetition
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Careful repetition of key words or phrases can give them greater importance.
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Deductive reasoning, deduction
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The method of reasoning from the general to the particular: From information about what we already know, we deduce what we need to know or want.
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Standard English (Diction)
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The common American language, words, and grammatical forms that are used and expected in school, business, and other sites.
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Cliché
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A worn-out, trite (lacking in freshness or effectiveness because of constant use or excessive repetition) expression that a writer employs thoughtlessly.
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Example
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Also called exemplification or illustration, a method of development in which the writer provides instances of a general idea.
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Argument from doubtful or unidentified authority (Fallacy)
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"We ought to castrate all sex offenders."
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Figures of Speech
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Expressions that depart from the literal meanings of words for the sake of emphasis or vividness.
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Archaisms (Diction)
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Old-fashioned expressions, once common but now used to suggest an earlier style, such as ere and forsooth.
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Transitions
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Words, phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs that relate ideas
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Focus
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The narrowing of a subject to make it manageable. Beginning with a general subject, you concentrate on a certain aspect of it.
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Evidence
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The factual basis for an argument or an explanation. Common forms: facts, statistics, examples, reported experience, expert testimony, and quotations and/or paraphrases.
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Evaluate, evaluation
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To judge the merits of something (evaluate), or the act or result of doing so (evaluation). Evaluation is often part of CRITICAL THINKING, READING, AND WRITING.
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Comparison and Contrast
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Two methods of development usually found together. Using them, a writer examines the similarities and differences between two things to reveal their natures.
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Colloquial expressions (Diction)
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Words or phrases from conservation
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General and specific
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Terms that describe the relative number of instances or objects included in the group signified by a word.
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Rhetorical question
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A question posed for effect, one that requires no answer.
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Claim
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The proposition that an ARGUMENT demonstrates.
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Jargon
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Strictly speaking, the special vocabulary of a trade or profession. The term has also come to mean inflates, vague, meaningless language of any kind.
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Rhetoric
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The study (and the art) of using language effectively.
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Style
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The distinctive manner in which a writer writes.
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Assume, assumption
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To take something for granted (assume), or a belief or opinion taken for granted (assumption). Whether stated or unstated, assumptions influence a writer's choices of subject, viewpoint, evidence, and even language.
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Point of view
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In an essay, a physical position or the mental angle from which a writer beholds a subject.
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An Ethical Appeal
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Asks reader to look favorably on the writer. It stresses the writer's intelligence, competence, fairness, morality, and other qualities desirable in a trustworthy debater or teacher.
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Summarize, summary
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To condense a work (essay, movie, news story) to its essence (summarize), or the act or result of doing so (summary).
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Persuasion
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A mode of writing intended to influence people's action by engaging their beliefs and feelings.
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Topic sentence
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The statement of the central idea in a PARAGRAPH, usually asserting one aspect of an essay's THESIS.
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Emphasis
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The stress or special importance given to a certain point or element to make it stand out.
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Process Analysis
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A method of development that most often explains step by step how something is done or how to do something.
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Purpose
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A writer's reason for trying to convey a particular idea (THESIS) about a particular subject to a particular AUDIENCE of readers.
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Critical thinking, reading, and writing
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A group of interlocking skills that are essential for college work and beyond. Each seeks the meaning beneath the surface of a statement, poem, editorial, picture, and advertisement.
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Non sequitur (Fallacy)
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("it does not follow") stating a conclusion that doesn't follow from the first premise(s) ex. "I've lived in this town a long time - why, my grandfather was the first mayor - so I'm against putting fluoride in drinking water."
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Paraphrase
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Putting another writer's thoughts into your own words.
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Personification (FOP)
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A simile or metaphor that assigns human traits to inanimate (non-living) objects or abstractions.
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Irony
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A manner of speaking or writing that does not directly state a discrepancy, but implies one.
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Image
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A word or word sequence that evokes a sensory experience. Whether literal or figurative, an image appeals to the reader's memory of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting.
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Plagiarism
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The use of someone else's ideas or words as if they were your own, without acknowledging the original author.
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Effect
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The result of an event or action, usually considered together with CAUSE as a method of development. In discussing writing, the term effect also refers to the impression a word, sentence, paragraph, or entire work makes on the reader: how convincing it is, whether it elicits an emotional response, what associations it conjures up, and so on.
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Colloquial Expressions
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Words and phrases occurring primarily in speech and in informal writing that seeks a relaxed, conversational tone.
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Diction
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The choice of words.
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Conclusion
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The sentences or paragraphs that bring an essay to a satisfying and logical end.
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Euphemism
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The use of inoffensive language in place of language that readers or listeners may find hurtful, distasteful, frightening, or otherwise objectionable. ex. someone died is replaced with someone passed
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Hyperbole (FOP)
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A conscious exaggeration.
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Oversimplification (Fallacy)
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Supplying neat and easy explanations for large and complicated phenomena
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Flashback
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A technique of NARRATIVE in which the sequence of events is interrupted to recall an earlier period.
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Argument ad hominem (Fallacy)
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("to the man") attacking a person's views by attacking his or her character.
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Introduction
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The opening of a written work. Often it states the writers' subject, narrows it, and communicates the writers' main idea (THESIS).
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Exposition
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The mode of prose writing that explains (or exposes) its subject. Its function is to inform, to instruct, or to set forth ideas.
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Position (Emphasis)
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The beginnings and ends of sentences, paragraphs, and larger divisions are the strongest positions, periodic sentence - a sentence in which less important details precede the main point.
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Proportion (Emphasis)
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Important ideas are given greater coverage than minor points
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Classification
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A method of development in which a writer sorts out plural things (contact sports, college student, kinds of music) into categories.
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Metaphor (FOP)
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Declares one thing to be another. A dead metaphor is a word or phrase that, originally a figure of speech, has come to be literal through common usage. ex: "the hands of a clock"
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Generalization
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A statement about a class based on an examination of some of its members: "Lions are fierce."
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Passive Voice
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The form of the verb when the sentence subject is acted upon: The report [subject] was published [passive verb] anonymously.
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Symbol
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A visible object or an action that suggests further meaning.
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Warrant
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The name in Stephen Toulmin's system of reasoning for the thinking, or ASSUMPTION, that links DATA and CLAIM.
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Tone
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The way a writer expresses his or her regard for subject, AUDIENCE, or self.
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Analyze, analysis
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To separate a subject into its part (analyze), or the act or result of doing so (analysis, also called division).
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False analogy (Fallacy)
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The claim of persuasive likeness when no significant likeness exists
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Argument
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A mode of writing intended to win reader's agreement with an assertion by engaging their powers of reasoning. Argument often overlaps PERSUASION.
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Thesis
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The central idea in a work of writing, to which everything else in the work refers.
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Technical terms (Diction)
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Words and phrases that form the vocabulary of a particular discipline
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Simile (FOP)
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States the comparison directly, usually connecting the two things using like, as, or than
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Premise
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A proposition or ASSUMPTION that supports a conclusion.
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Mechanical devices
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Italics (underlining), capital letters, and exclamation points can make words or sentences stand out.
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Revision
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The stage of writing process during which a writer "re-sees" a draft from the viewpoint of a reader. Two steps: Considering fundamental matters such as PURPOSE and organization, and then editing for surface matters such as smooth TRANSITIONS and error-free sentences.
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Satire
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A form of writing that employs wit to attack folly (a foolish action, practice, idea, etc). Purpose is to bring about not only enlightenment but reform.
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An Emotional Appeal
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Asks readers to respond out of their beliefs, values, or feelings. It inspires, affirms, frightens, angers
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Begging the question (Fallacy)
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Taking for granted from the start what you set out to demonstrate. When you beg the question, you repeat that what is true is true.
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Definition
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A statement of the literal and specific meaning or meanings of a word, or a method of developing an essay. In the latter, the writer usually explains the nature of a word, a thing, a concept, or a phenomenon. Such a definition may employ NARRATION, DESCRIPTION, or any other method.
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Cause and effect
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A method of development in which a writer ANALYZES reasons for an action, event, or decision, or analyzes its consequences.
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Inductive reasoning, induction
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The process of reasoning to a conclusion about an entire class by examining some of its members.
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Post hoc, ergo propter hoc (Fallacy)
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("after this, therefore because of this") assuming that because B follows A, B was cause by A.
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Abstract and Concrete
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Two kinds of language. Abstract words refer to ideas, conditions, and qualities we cannot directly perceive: truth, love courage, evil, poverty, progressive. Concrete words indicate things we can know with out senses: tree, chair, bird. Concrete words lend vigor and clarity for writing for they help readers picture things.
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Narration
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The mode of writing that tells a story.
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Infer, inference
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To draw a conclusion (infer), or the act or result of doing so (inference). In CRITICAL THINKING, READING, AND WRITING, inference is the means to understanding a writer's meaning, ASSUMPTIONS, PURPOSE, fairness, and other attributes.
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Dialect (Diction)
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A variety of English based on differences in geography, education, or social background.
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