Ad Hominem

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices: 

Appealing to personal considerations rather than to logic or reason.

Ex: Jason's essay was deemed terrible because he was accused of running in the halls.

Analogy

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

A comparison of two things to show that they are alike in certain respects

Ex: Water is to fire as air is to earth.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

To put forward an argument that assumes the very point it is supposed to establish

Ex: If we run into the forest, we will be able to see a dear.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

Proving an assertion using the assertion as evidence.

Ex: There wouldn't be any arguemnet if everyone would agree to not argue.

Contrast

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

To present two subjects in opposition to emphasize differences.

Ex: Black is darker than yellow.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

Persuasive appeal based on the character or projected character of the speaker or writer.

Ex: "I was a commander in the army; therefore, I am qualified to be your president."

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

A statement or an argument based on a false or invalid inference.

Ex: Six-year-old Tina say that the world is full of chocolate.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

An unjustified inference drawn on the basis of similarities between two items or types of item.

Ex: Since water can put out water, this basic solution can extenguish this acidic solution.

Induction

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

Reasoning from specific examples to general laws

EX: Jeera, a girl from Africa, is black; hence, all people from Africa are black.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

Discourse that casts blame on somebody or something; abusive language

Ex: Paul is ugly, fat, and annoying. I would not want to be his friend.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices: 

The means of persuasion by demostration of truth, real or apparent

Ex: Democracy is a government that lets the people rule, while a dictatorship is a government that only one leader rules.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

A statement that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

Ex: It is has been a hot summer in Virginia, especially with all the snow. 

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

The art of public speaking.

Ex: Dr. Martin Luthur King's Speech: "I Had a Dream"

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

An apparent contradiction that is actually true.

Ex: She killed him with kindness.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

Persuasion that appeals to the emotion of the reader or listener.

Ex: We need to stop the war because many are dying cruel, bloody deaths.

Post Hoc

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices: 

One event is asserted to be the cause of a later event simply by virtue of having happened earlier

Ex: Because I take vitamins, I did not get sick.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices: 

A play on the multiple meanings of a word or on two words that may sound alike but have different meanings.

Ex: When a clock gets hungry, it goes back for seconds.

Red Herring

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

A deliberate attempt to change the subject or divert the argument.

Ex: Decreasing fertilizer use can help clean the bay because global warming is becoming a big issue.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

An attack on an opposing idea.

Ex: Bill: "Going to school can lead to success"

     Jill:  "How do you know that?"

Rhetoric

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

The use of language, particuarly, oratory, for persuasion.

Ex: Hitler used rhetoric to persuade the Germans to elect him into office.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

A figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply

Ex: "Why does this happen to me?"

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

Assertion that one event will inevitably fallow another.

Ex: The government has put a tax on water. Soon their will be a tax on air!

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Strategies/Devices:  

A logical argument in which a conclusion is inferred from two other premises of a certain form.

Ex: Careful bicycle riders wear helmets. Riders who wear helmets have fewer accidents. Careful bicycle riders have fewer accidents.

Allegory

Rhetorical Modes: 

A story in which the character, setting, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts

Ex: Dante's Devine Comedy is a journey that symbolizes every individual's  quest for spiritual salvation.

Rhetorical Modes: 

A brief and witty story that focuses on a single interesting incident or event, often in order to make a point or teach a moral lesson.

Ex: Africa's wilderness is dangerous and unfimiliar. The zebra did not want to stay with the herd and left to explore it. Then a lion came along and attacked it.

Modes of Discourse:

Re-creating a person, place, thing, event, or experieance

Ex: The rug had mud everywhere, smelled like a zoo, and felt very rough.

Modes of Discourse: 

A mode of rhetorical discourse that is designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand

Ex: America is in the midst of a storm, i.e., America is going through some tough times.

Narration

Modes of Discoures: 

The act of telling a story.

Ex: Homer's Illiad tells of a story about a war fought over the possession of a woman.

Rhetorical Modes: 

The imitation of an artistic work for amusement or instruction

Ex: Cervantes' Don Quixote mocks medieval romances.

Modes of Discourse: 

Writing that tries to persuade the listener to think or act in a certain way.

Ex: Commercials try to persuade the consumer into buying their product.

Rhetorical Modes: 

The central idea or insight of a work of literature.

Ex: Love is stronger than hate.

Rhetorical Modes:  

A statement that declares what you believe and what you intend to prove

Ex: James Hurst shows that family may betray one another due to pride and anger. This, in turn, causes devastating effects to the family or the traiter themselves.

Tone:

A portrayal of feelings, usually displayed through actions or words

Ex: David stomped his feet because he was angry.

Tone:

An instructive tone meant to give advice or a moral.

Ex: The Zen Parables usually have a moral in their stories. 

Elegiac

Tone:

Mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past

Ex: Yehuda Amichai's "Laments on the War Dead"

Tone:

Having or showing great academic knowledge

Ex: Teachers expect students to be erudite.

Tone:

Tending to become worse

Ex: A thunderstorm can be pejorative.

Tone:

A kind of particularly cutting irony, in which praise is used tauntingly to indicate its opposite meaning

Ex: That was really smart of you to touch a hot iron!

Tone

Tone:

The attitude a writer takes toward the reader, a subject, or a character

Ex: The character Suzy crying creates a elegiac tone. 

Syntax:

A noun phrase that comprises of a noun and some type of modifier (ususally a participle)

Ex: The horse loped across the yard, her foal trailing behind her. 

Syntax:

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases

Ex: "It is always, always, always important to wash your hands," emphasized Mom.

Syntax:

Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses

Ex: "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing."
(Goethe)

Syntax:

A style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses

Ex: We played, danced, sang, ran, talked, slept.

Syntax:

A sentence consisting of two or more clauses that are parallel in structure

Ex: I went to the mall; at the mall, we picked up bread. Then we went home.

Syntax:

A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases 

Ex: He went to the country, to the town went she

Syntax:

A sentence that contains at least one dependent clause with an independent clause

Ex: When Jon went to the store, he bought some bread.

Syntax:

Two sentences combined either by a coordinating conjuction and a comma, a semicolon, or a semicolon followed by conjunctive adverb and a comma. 

Ex: 

Mark went to the store, but he did not play catch.           -OR-

Mark went to the store; he did not play catch.                -OR-

Mark went to the store; however, he did not play catch.  

Syntax:

A sentence that is made up of two independent clauses with at least one independent clause.

Ex: As Jack and Jill went up the hill, Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after him.

Syntax:

A figure of reasoning in which one or more statements of a syllogism is/are left out of the configuration.

Ex: All humans are mortal. Michael is human. Michael is mortal.

Syntax:

Figure of repetition that occurs when the last word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is repeated one or more time at the end of successive sencences, clauses, or phrases.

Ex: America is a country for the people, by the people, and for the people.

Syntax:

A sentence that has the topic or point at the beginning and a string of details following the topic.

Ex: Bells rang, filling the air with their clangor, startling pigeons into flight from every belfry, bringing people into the streets to hear the news.

Syntax:

The repetition of words, phrases, or sentences that have the same grammatical structure or that compare and contrast.

Ex: The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and thoroughly.

Syntax:

A sentence in which the main clause or its predicate is withheld until the end.

Ex: Despite heavy winds and nearly impenetrable ground fog, the plane landed safely.

Syntax:

A sentence style that employs many conjunctions.

Ex: We played and danced and sang and ran and talked and slept.

Syntax:

A predicate is the portion of a clause, excluding the subject, that expresses something about the subject

Ex: The book is on the table.

Syntax:

A sentence composed of a subject and a predicate.

Ex: The book is on the table.

Syntax:

The part of the sentence or clause about which something is being said.

Ex: The book was on the table.

Syntax:

The way in which something is spoken, written, or performed to express the writer's or speaker's ideas.

Ex: Jamaica Kincaid uses dashes in her essay to re-emphasize her points.

Syntax:

The way a sentence is structured.

Ex: Victorian writings are often noted for their long, descriptive sentences.

Syntax:

When one part of speech governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in a series).

Ex: She opened the door and her heart to the open.

Diction and Dialect:

A concise, sometimes witty saying that expresses a principle, truth, or observation.

Ex: "Don't cry over spilled milk."

Diction and Dialect:

An expression not used in formal speech.

Ex: "Y'all don't wanna be goin' to the mall!"

Diction and Dialect:

A way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region or goup of people.

Ex: Mandarin is a dialect of the Chinese language.

Diction and Dialect:

A writer's or speaker's conversation between two or more people.

Ex: "Big room" as opposed to "Comodius Chamber"

Diction and Dialect:

Diction consisting of a dignified, imperonal, and elevated use of language.

Ex: When writing a formal paper learned diction should be used to make the paper sound more educated.

Diction and Dialect:

A compromise of formal and informal diction, it is diction used to appeal to the average reader or audience.

Ex: Teachers use popular diction in order for their students to understand them.

Diction and Dialect:

A word or expression that is characteristic of a particular geographic area.

Ex: Many "steep" their tea in the North, while in the south they "wet" their tea.

Diction and Dialect:

The use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language.

Ex: The "dude" who lives right next to me is my "homie." 

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

The repetition of consonant sounds that are cose to one another.

Ex: Waterfalls will empty when water stops flowing.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth, politics, or some other field of knowledge.

Ex: Czeslaw Milosz's "Song of a Citzen contains an allusion to the biblical book Ecclesiastes.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech in whicha speaker directly addressses an absent or dead person, a deity, an abstract quality, or something nonhuman as if it were present and capable of responding.

Ex: "Oh, thank you heavans for receiving me!"

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together.

Ex: It's a great day for baseball!

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A fanciful and elaborate figure of speech that makes a surprising connection between to different things.

Ex: Petrach used conceits to describe a lady who had hair of gold, lips of cherry red, and teeth of oriental pearl.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

All the manings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests.

Ex: Apparel (sophistocated) versus garments (unsophistocated)

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

The literal , dictionary definition of a word.

Ex: Apparel and garments both mean "articles worn to cover the body."

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

An adjective or other descriptive phrase that is regularly used to characterize a noun.

Ex: Alexander the Great 

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A real or mythical person from whose name the name of a nation, institution, idea, or term has been derived.

Ex: The word "quixotic" is derived from Cervantes' character Don Quixote.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express a strong sentiment or create a comic effect.

Ex: She is so hungry she could eat a whole zebra.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

Language that appeals to the senses.

Ex: His skin was covered in warm, soft sheep's wool.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things without using the connective words "like," "than," "as," or "resembles."

Ex: The stars are icy diamonds.  

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech in which something closely related to a thing or suggested by it is substituted for the thing itself.

Ex: Use when calling a monarch "the crown."

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning.

Ex: In war soldiers often hear the bang of a gun firing.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory or opposing ideas.

Ex: Horror movies often talk of zombies -- the living dead!

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human.

Ex: The hands of the clock are set wrong.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things by using the connective words "like," "as," "than," or "resembles."

Ex: This hail is as hard as BB pellets.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A person, place, thing, or event that stands for both itself and for something beyond itself.

Ex: A dove symbolizes peace.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole.

Ex: Silence sounds sweet.

Figurative Lanuage and Stylistic Devices:

A figure of speech that consists of saying less than what is really meant or saying somthing with less force than appropriate.

Ex: After the rainfall it was a little wet outside.

Types of Understatements:

A figute of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

Ex: Joe wasn't too sad when his best friend died.

Types of Understatements:

Understatement to belittle or put down.

Ex: A lawyer defened a schoolboy who was charged for arson. The lawyer explained to the judge that it was just a "prank."

Modes of Discourse:

The reason an event occured and what happens afterwards.

EX: It rained a lot last night, and today there is a flood.

Modes of Discourse:

The act of discussing similarities between two subjects.

EX: Both a pen and a pencil allow us to write.

Modes of Discourse:

The process of grounding items or subjects.

EX: Oxygen, mercury, and uranium may have different properties, but they are all periodic elements.

Modes of Discourse

Using the a word or phrase and then describing its meaning

Ex: America is facing inflation. Inflation is a declining value in money.

Modes of Discourse:

A object that represents an overall group.

Ex: There are many types of birds in the world such as the red-breasted robin.

Modes of Discourse:

A statement intended to give information about or explanation of difficult material.

Ex: President Obama explains explains his new economic plan to children.

Modes of Discourse:

Eplains the arrangement of a sequence in chronological order.

Ex: The step-by-step directions on how to bake a cake

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Appeals:

The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.

Ex: A good leader needs rhetoric to make a good speech.

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Appeal:

Reasoning which infers a point from a subject.

Ex: Since the author describes a dove flying on to the scene, one can infer that it represents purity.

Figurative Language and Stylistic Devices:

Substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa.

Ex: Instead of tissue, use kleenex.  

Sentence Structure:

A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures.

Ex: "Each throat/was parched, and glazed each eye." (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).