Thursday, January 15, 2015

Vocabulary List #1



Allegory: a tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities; a story that uses symbols to make a point
Alliteration: the repetition of similar initial sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words
Allusion: a reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects a reader to recognize
Ambiguity: something uncertain as to interpretation
Anachronism: something that shows up in the wrong place or the wrong time
Analogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them
Analysis: a method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny
Anaphora: a device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences
Anecdote: a very short story used to illustrate a point
Antagonist: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative
Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness
Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life
Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology
Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly
Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by proving either the truth or the falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself
Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true
Audience: the intended listener or listeners
Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character’s personality
Chiasmus: a reversal in the order off words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order

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