AP Language Rhetorical Terms List

Sound Devices: Often used to create a more poetic feel or a memorable phrase. They can also draw attention to a certain point. These are more minor devices, so you rarely want to focus on them when writing AP analysis essays unless you can combine them with some other effect or strategy.

1. alliteration – the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another: Mickey Mouse; Donald Duck; Suzy sells seashells down by the seashore.

2. consonance – repetition of identical consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity, as in “boost/best”; it can also be seen within several compound words, such as “fulfill” and “ping-pong.”

3. assonance – repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such as in “sweet/meet,” “neigh/fade,” or “on a proud round cloud in white high night” (e.e. cummings).

4. onomatopoeia – use of words that imitate the sound they represent, such as “hiss,” “buzz,” “slam,” “sizzle,” “zip,” and “boom.” Unlike other sound devices, this one tends to create a more immature or humorous tone, although it can certainly be used in other ways as well.

Figurative Language: Often used to create a poetic feel or illustrate a point in a clearer/more complex way. These devices can create wildly different moods and tones, depending on the content. When analyzing these, make sure you go beyond a simplistic “they paint a picture in the reader’s mind” response. Focus on why this particular simile. What exactly is the author trying to convey that could not be conveyed through more concrete description?

5. metaphor – a figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another; for example, “Between the lower east side tenements, the sky is a snotty handkerchief” (Marge Piercy).

6. 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, “My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain” (W.H. Auden).

7. synesthesia – the description of one sense by using another sense. For example, “The jazz was really blue tonight” describes sound (jazz) in terms of sight (the color blue). If you say “the colors in this room are so loud,” you describe sight (color) in terms of sound (loud).

8. synecdoche – a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole, such as saying “I need a new set of wheels” to mean “I need a new car” or “All hands on deck,” when you really mean “All sailors on deck.”

9. metonymy – a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated (although not an integral part of), such as using “the crown” to refer to a monarch; if you take the crown off the person’s head, he’s not going to bleed out and die, as in synecdoche if you cut the hands off of the sailors.

10. oxymoron – a figure of speech composed of contradictory words, such as “wise fool,” “bitter-sweet,” “pretty ugly,” “jumbo shrimp,” “cold fire.” Usually no more than two or three words long.

11. paradox – a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau; “I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” Whereas oxymorons tend to be only two word combinations, paradoxes are usually comprised of one or two sentences.

12. hyperbole – deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis. Example: He was so hungry he could have eaten an elephant.

13. euphemism – a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable. “He passed away” is a common euphemism for “he died.” These are also often used to obscure the reality of a situation. The military uses “collateral damage” to indicate civilian deaths in a military operation. Basic Appeals: Most arguments contain all three to some degree. When discussing these in AP essays, please be specific. Do not say he “appeals to pathos.” Say “he plays upon their fears about nuclear war” or something to that effect. Do not say the author “has ethos.” Say “he emphasizes his first-hand knowledge about race cars.”

14. appeal to ethos – a character-based appeal. When a writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him or her based on an aspect or aspects of his character (his morality, his experience as a lawyer, his reputation for objectivity, etc.)

15. appeal to pathos – an appeal based on emotion. When a writer tries to persuade the audience by evoking pity, fear, anger, or some other emotion.

16. appeal to logos – an appeal based on logical reasoning. When a writer tries to persuade the audience through facts, statistics, and logic.

Repetition/rhythmic Terms: Often used to create an insistent rhythm, to weave together parts of a work, to draw out strong emotions, to make a point stick in the audience’s mind, to emphasize repeated actions/events, to speed up or slow down a sentence, etc. When analyzing these, make sure you go beyond identifying and explain how they are functioning in the text to help the writer accomplish a particular purpose.

17. parallel structure – two or more words, phrases, or clauses that are similar in length and syntax. For example, Churchill once said, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields.” Using a slightly different type of parallel structure, Francis Bacon wrote, “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.”

18. anaphora – repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences (or phrases/clauses) in a row. This is a more specific subtype of parallel structure. Example: “Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

19. epistrophe –another more specific subtype of parallel structure, this is the repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences (as in Lincoln's “of the people, by the people, for the people” or in the following passage from Corinthians: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.”).

20. asyndeton – commas used (with NO conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are emphasized equally when the conjunction is omitted; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence. Asyndeton takes the form of X, Y, Z as opposed to X, Y, and Z. Examples: “Be one of the few, the proud, the Marines.” (Marine Corps) “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” (John F. Kennedy)

21. polysyndeton – sentence which uses and or another conjunction (with no commas) to separate the items in a series. Polysyndeton appear in the form of X and Y and Z, stressing equally each member of a series. It makes the sentence slower and the items more emphatic than in the asyndeton.

Grammatical Terms: You will need to know these so that you can accurately describe an author’s rhetorical choices.

22. syntax – the grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. It includes length of sentence, kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, imperatives, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, compound-complex, periodic, etc.).

23. diction – word choice, an element of style; it creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning. An essay written in academic diction would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise than street slang. 24. loose sentence – a sentence where the main subject and verb come first in the sentence, forming an independent clause, which may then be followed by dependent clauses. For example, Murray Kempton writes, “Sal Maglie ended the third for the Dodgers, walking out slowly carrying one bat, digging his spikes in as though anything is possible in this game, driving the first pitch straight to Mickey Mantle and walking over towards third base to change his cap and get his glove.” Although this is a fairly long sentence, the main subject (Sal Maglie) and verb (ended) occur right at the beginning. The first comma could be changed to a period and it would still form a complete sentence. That is a good way to test for a loose sentence.

25. periodic sentence – a sentence (frequently a long, complex sentence) where the main subject and/or verb is delayed, and occurs towards or at the end of the sentence. For example, Dylan Thomas wrote the following sentence: “Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed.” The sentence’s main subject and verb are “it snowed.”

26. compound sentence – a sentence with two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction or a semicolon. For example, in Braveheart William Wallace says, “They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom.” (“They may take our lives” and “They will never take our freedom” could both stand alone as complete sentences, and are therefore independent clauses.)

27. complex sentence – a sentence with an independent clause and at least one dependent clause. For example, “John screamed when he saw the platypus” is a complex sentence because “John screamed” is an independent clause that could form a complete sentence on its own, and “when he saw the platypus” is a dependent clause that would create a fragment if it stood on its own.

28. compound-complex sentence – a sentence with two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction and at least one dependent clause. For example, Dave Barry writes, “We operate under a jury system in this country, and as much as we complain about it, we have to admit that we know of no better system, except possibly flipping a coin.” This is a compound-complex sentence because “We operate under a jury system in this country” and “we have to admit that we know of no better system” are both independent clauses, while “as much as we complain about it” and “except possibly flipping a coin” are dependent clauses.

29. antecedent – the noun or noun phrase to which a pronoun refers. For example, H.L. Mencken wrote “Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.” In this sentence, the pronoun “they” refers to “most people.”

30. jargon - The specialized language or slang of a professional, occupational, or other group, sometimes meaningless to outsiders. For example, a doctor might say “Do something about that gomer, stat!” Gomer stands for “Get Out Of My Emergency Room,” and is used in a negative way to refer to geriatric patients with multiple medical problems. “Stat” means right away.