Literary Terms
Terms
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- Parallel structure
- The use of phrases or clauses with identical or highly similar grammatical construction
- Ad hominem
- An appeal to another's special interests, prejudices, or emotions rather than to reason
- Anthropomorphism
- Inatimate objects given human characteristics (personification is about shape)
- Balanced sentence
- The phrases or clauses balance each other by structure, meaning or length
- Personification
- Human physical attributes or qualities are given to non-human objects
- Monosyllabic or Polysyllabic
- Are words short (like Anglo-Saxon) or long (likely Latin/Greek)
- Connotative or Denotative?
- Are the words associative and loose or definitive and firm?
- Apostrophe
- A sudden turn from the audience to address a specific group, person or personified abstraction
- Aporia
- Expression of doubt (often feigned) by which a speaker appears to be uncertain
- Narration
- Writing intended to relate an event or sequence of events
- Diction
- Word choices creating "voice"
- Compound sentence
- Two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction or semicolon
- Cliche
- Word or phrase made lifeless through overuse
- Synecdoche
- Using one part of an object to represent the entire object
- Metaphor
- Comparison without using LARTS
- Conceit
- Extremely elaborate metaphor
- Compound complex sentence
- Two independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses
- Hyperbole
- Incredible exaggeration or overstatement
- Exposition
- Writing intended to make clear or explain something; 1. organizational tropes including analogy, cause/effect, classification/division, chronological compare/contrast, definition, example/illustration, and process analysis
- Description
- Writing intended to create a picture of a scene, an event or a character
- Jargon
- A language used in a specific profession or by a particular type of people
- Absolute
- A principle held to be always true; a word that cannot be compared or qualified
- Inversion
- The predicate precedes the subject
- Cacophonous or Euphonious?
- Are the sounds of the words themselves harsh or pleasant?
- Opposition
- Pairing elements that contrast sharply, causing each to become more striking and resonant
- Analogy
- Extremely elaborate simile
- Epanalepsis
- Repetition at the end of a clause the word at the beginning of a clause
- Interrogative
- Poses a question
- Synecdoche
- Using one part of an object to represent the entire object
- Cognates
- Words with a common linguistic or etymological origin (old Greek, German)
- Simile
- Comparison using LARTS
- Juxtaposition
- Normally unassociated items are placed beside one another
- Syntax
- The manner in which words are arranged, including structure, length and pattern
- Dialect
- A particular variety of language spoken in one place by a distinct group
- Synesthesia
- Combining unrelated sense images
- Imperative
- Makes a command
- Persuasion
- Writing intended to convince the reader of a position's validity or to take action
- Discourse
- Formal, extended expression of thought on a subject
- Paradox
- Something that initially appears false but reveals truth upon closer inspection (opposite of irony)
- Paraleipsis
- Stating and drawing attention to something in the act of pretending to pass over it
- Simple sentence
- One subject and one verb
- Abstract or Concrete
- Are the words vague, conceptual and general or clear, tangible and specific?
- Periodic
- Makes sense only when end of the sentence is reached
- Natural order
- The subject precedes the predicate
- Loose sentence
- It makes sense if it is brought to a close before the actual ending
- Purple patch
- The sudden use of colorful or unexpectedly descriptive language
- Antithesis
- Opposition or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction
- Colloquial, Formal, or Old-Fashioned
- Are the words slang, literary, controversial or old fashioned?
- Litotes
- An understatement in which something affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite
- Metonymy
- A person, place or thing is referred to by something or a part closely associated with it
- Anaphora
- The use of the same word of phase at the beginning of several successive clauses
- Declarative
- Makes a statement
- Parallelism
- Parallel elements are in parallel form
- Figurative language
- Describing one thing in terms of a dissimilar thing
- Exclamatory
- Makes an exclamation
- Imagery
- Words appealing to the five physical senses
- Incongruity
- The deliberate joining of opposites or elements not appropriate to each other (oxi-moron)
- Invective
- Intensely vehement, highly emotional verbal attack