English Composition

• A strategy that attempts to see the relationship between a constituent part, other parts, and the whole.
• The texts is placed into context before it is read.

Contextualizing

A strategy that involves taking in as much information as possible in a limited amount of time.

Cramming

Considering the title of a work as a clue to its content or message.

Judging.

A scanning strategy that focuses on the structure of a text.

X-raying

table of contents

x-ray results

The process of writing notes as you read.

Annotating.

The process of concluding which words the author is using as terms and what precisely those terms mean.

Coming to terms

Translating within a single language, or putting a text into your own words.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing

put into fewer words.

Summarize

Either of two propositions related in such a way that it is impossible for both to be true or both to be false.

Contradiction

Occurs when an author defines a term in one way and uses it in another (usually opposite) way.

Contradiction in terms

Devices of languate that are nonliteral; figurative language says one thing but means another.

Figurative language

The intentional use of contradiction to emphasize or make light of something by saying or doing the opposite of what one intends.

Irony

A statement that is seemingly contradictory but which could nevertheless be true.

Paradox

An unintentional contradiction.

Simple contradiction.

Person in a literary work; sometimes referred to as "flat" or "round."

Character

Character

A type or mode of writing.

Genre

• drama
• short stories
• essays
• poems
• novels

From the Latin for "mirror," this refers to the author's means of representing or mirroring reality in fiction.

Mimesis

In a story, the person speaking to the reader or telling the reader the story.

Narrator.

The way an author represents a chain of events within a literary work.

Plot

The perspective or vantage point by which the reader is able to see or experience certain events within a story or poem.

Point of view.

The place where a story occurs. May sometimes refer to the time as well as the place of a story.

Setting

Setting

An object, action, or even a person that has acquired meaning beyond itself; anything that represents more than itself or is invested with meaning. Symbols may be contextual or public.

Symbol

Symbol

Unifying, central subject or idea that provides a literary work with its stance or approach.

Theme

The emotional approach or attitude that the writer chooses to use to color his or her work.

Tone

• plot
• point of view
• character
• setting
• symbol
• theme
• tone

Language that is not obviously musical in beat or rhyme and that is printed from the left to the right margin.

Prose

• 1. Ask questions of the author.
• 2. Make reminders for yourself.
• 3. Make note of recurring images, arguments, ideas, words, and phrases.
• 4. Starting with the title, keep track of what kind of expectations the author seems to be creating.

The counterforce or opponent who provides conflict in the play or story, controlling or attempting to complicate the life of the central character, or protagonist.

Antagonist

The culmination of events in the story, novel or play. The highest point of interest or intensity. The point at which the events make an important and irrevocable change.

Climax

Climax

Climax

The central tension and point of suspense in a literary work.

Conflict

The final revelations or developments that occur afteror because of the events of the climax or central conflict.

Denouement

A moment of sudden realization or understanding in which the true meaning of certain events is revealed.

Epiphany

That part of a play, story, or novel in which the author establishes setting, situations, and often central characters and themes.

Exposition

This kind of action is usually composed of the characters' immediate reactions and responses to the climatic events of a story. The characters have not yet resolved their conflicts, but the events are heading toward a conclusion.

Falling action

A prediction within the text. This is often a hint toward some event or situation that will develop later in the story.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing

The central character in a piece of drama or fiction. The protagonist is the hero, the main character in "contest" or "conflict" with his or her situation or another character (the antagonist).

Protagonist

Protagonist

Refers to the increasing conflict or struggle within a story, the culmination of which will result in the climax. This is also the means by which the suspense in a story is established.

Rising action

Rising action

A second plot, usually one that involves minor characters. This plot is subordinate to the main plot but often affects or is resolved by certain events that occur in the primary plot.

Subplot

The point in a story where things change irrevocably for the characters.

Turning point

• A story is a narrative of events in chronological order.
• A plot is a narrative of events, but the emphasis is less on the order of events and more on their relationship to each other.

• Exposition
• Rising action
• Climax or crisis
• Falling action
• Denouement or conclusion

A form of irony in which the reader knows information that the characters in the story do not.

Dramatic irony

One of the characters narrates the story knowing only that information he can observe based on his limited perspective. Uses the first-person pronoun "I" to refer to the narrator.

First-person point of view

First-person point of view.

A reversion back to events that have previously taken place. This allows the writer to interrupt normal chronological order in his or her narrative.

Flashback

"All-knowing" or able to see everything at once. Usually used in reference to an omniscient narrative voice.

Omniscient

A character that does not know he is a character and who is unaware of the narrator.

Reflector character

Considerably more rare than first or third person. To identify this point of view, look for the subjective pronoun "you," where "you" is the subject or primary character of the piece.

Second-person point of view

A narrative technique that attempts to simulate the complete flow of character's thoughts. In this form of writing, ideas, thoughts, memories, dreams, sensory impressions, and conversations may combine or intermingle without clear transition or conventions.

Stream of consciousness

Stream of consciousness

The writer focuses on the actions and thoughts of only some of the characters. To identify this point of view, look for third-person pronouns like "he" or "she" or proper names in reference to the narrator.

Third-person limited point of view

Third-person limited point of view

The writer uses an "all-seeing" or "all-knowing" narrator who is aware of all of the private thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of each character.

Third-person omniscient point of view

The writer will act as an impartial observer, providing very little comment on the events of the story or behavior of the characters.

Third-person objective point of view

A work in which related symbols work together to produce a moral lesson or indication of progress.

Allegory

A recurrent image that emerges from deep-seated associations that are anchored in universal patterns or structures of experience.

Archetype

Term used to describe characters who are comically distorted by the exaggeration of key traits that make them seem ridiculous or worthy of parody.

Caricature

The way in which an author represents or portrays a character for the reader.

Characterization

Any association or attitude that is embedded in a word's meaning or is brought to mind by the mention of a word or phrase.

Connotation

The literal definition of a word, devoid of contextual or emotional issues or connotations.

Denotation

Regional variations in the speech of a common language.

Dialect

A character who is easily descibable or represented with a one-track personality, or one who is representative of a stereotype.

Flat character

A character that is more developed or complicated that a flat character, exhibiting a range of responses, emotions, and loyalties.

Round character

The use of humor, wit, and ridicule to criticize, attack, or hold up for scorn. Often, satires are meant to expose some folly in human behavior for the purposes of social change, reform, or awareness.

Satire

Satire

The overriding, dominant emotional quality present in a literary work, created by the author's description of theme, setting, and/or character.

Mood

• Geographical location
• Characters' occupations and daily manner of living
• Time or period in which the action takes place
• General environment of the characters

A symbol whose meaning is derived from certain events within the text.

Contextual symbol

A symbol that refers to objects, actions, or persons that history, religion, myth, or legend has infused with meaning.

Public symbol

Reference to something outside a story that suggests a thematic connection between the story and a concept, association, or memory that has acquired some significance for the reader.

Allusion

The central and unifying idea about human experience that grows out of all the other elements in a story.

Theme

The writer's choice or use of words.

Diction

The way the author expresses or presents his subject matter. Style is created through diction, syntax, figurative language, dialogue, and all of the choices an author makes.

Style

Word order

Often, a poem on the occasion of the death of a particular person. More broadly, a poem on the subject ofdeath or human frailty and mortality.

Elegy

Elegy

Figurative language that refers or makes reference to physical sensations--usually sight and touch. By appealing to the senses in this way, images illustrate concepts, things, or processes.

Imagery

The assumed identity the writer presents when speaking to the reader.

Persona

The way the poem goes together in terms of its component parts.

Formal structure

The way the argument or presentation of the material of the poem is developed.

Thematic structure

Language that refers to concepts, ideas, qualities, or "abstracts" rather than particular people, places, or things. Might refer to that which cannot be experienced by the five senses. Love, pride, and bravery are all abstract terms, whereas rock, man, and car are all concrete and more specific terms.

Abstract language

Abstract language

abstract

Language that employs vivid, graphic images that appeal to the senses, as opposed to abstract language.

Concrete language

concrete

A type of image in which an image is represented in terms of another image or thing; involves a turn on the literal meaning of the word.

Figurative image

A type of image that calls up a sensory representation of the object it describes; does not require change to the obvious meaning of the words that make up the image.

Literal image

A highly ironic figure of speech that attempts to represent something as being less important than it is.

Understatement

A comparison that uses a known thing or idea to explain something vague or unfamiliar.

Analogy

An extended metaphor or comparison.

Conceit

Figurative language that includes overstatement or exaggeration.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech containing two elements in which one element is provided with certain attributes or characteristics by being equated with the second, different element. Or, put simply, something described as though it were something else, as in "Life is a bowl of cherries."

Metaphor

Metaphor

Literally means "acutely silly." A figure of speech where contradictory ideas are combined to create a paradoxical phrase or statement. For example, thunderous silence, manic grace, or wise fool.

Oxymoron

Oxymoron

oxymorons

An imaginative figure of speech that shows comparison by using the words like, as, or as if. Unlike the implied relationship and comparison suggested by a metaphor, the simile is a more direct statement that something is like something else. The Robert Burns line "My love is like a red, red rose" is a simile.

Simile

simile

simile

The repetition of similar consonant sounds, usually occurring at the beginning of consecutive words.

Alliteration

A metrical foot of three syllables. This foot will consist of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable, as in the word jamboree.

Anapest

Anapest

The repitition of vowel sounds within a line, sentence, or stanza. Assonance may be internal (for example, an "a" sound in the middle of consecutive words), or it may occur toward the end of lines to prompt a rhyme.

Assonance

A narrative poem that focuses on an event or episode and that is usually told without authorial comment.

Ballad

four quatrains of alternating four- and three- stress iambic lines.

rhyme

the last lines of each stanza are nearly identical.

Lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Blank verse

A strong pause or break within a line of verse. From the Latin for "cutting off."

Caesura

Two rhymed lines of verse. Couplets may occur as a part of a stanza or may be self-contained and set away from the rest of the text. In this case, the two rhymed lines would be referred to as a "closed couplet."

Couplet

A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, as in syllable, carousel, and admiral.

Dactyl

A line of poetry consisting of two metrical feet.

Dimeter

A true rhyme, which sounds much like an echo of similar sounds. For example, the rhyming of tense and defense or pure and cure.

End rhyme

A line of verse that ends with a period, colon, or semicolon.

End-stopped

When one line in a poem runs on into another without pause or punctuation.

Enjambment

A type of rhyme in which words appear to rhyme though their pronunciation is different, as in move and love or break and speak.

Eye rhyme

Two-syllable rhymes in which the last syllables are unstressed, such as flying and crying.

Feminine rhyme

The smallest unit of verse in a poem; usually composed of one stressed and one or more unstressed syllables. Some different kinds of metric feet include anapest, iamb, dactyl, trochee, and spondee.

Foot

Poetry that is open in form, free of a patterned meter and rhyme. A form that allows for a less rigid structure and possesses its own pattern and rhythm.

Free verse

Free verse

Lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme aa, bb, cc, and so forth. Often these couplets are closed or end-stopped.

Heroic couplet

A line of verse composed of seven metrical feet.

Heptameter

A line of verse composed of six metrical feet.

Hexameter

A metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word today or defer.

Iamb

Two or more words in a line of poetry that rhyme within the line itself rather than at the end of lines.

Internal rhyme

A rhyme in which the last syllables are stressed, as in dog and fog.

Masculine rhyme

Recurring patterns of syllables in lines of verse. These syllables may be either stressed or unstressed, and there are four basic accented patterns.

Meter

A type of rhyme in which words almost, but not exactly, rhyme, as in close and lose. Also sometimes referred to as slant rhyme or approximate rhyme.

Near rhyme

Near rhyme

Near rhyme

A line of verse composed of nine metrical feet.

Nonameter

A line of verse composed of eight metrical feet.

Octameter

Where words of marginal structural relationship aer made to function as a rhyme. Often, the rhyme will be approximate since the syllables in the words meant to rhyme will not match completely. For example, the rhyming of the words pearl and alcohol.

Off rhyme

Off rhyme

A line of verse composed of five metrical feet.

Pentameter

A unit of poetry consisting of words and phrases that are printed on one line of a page.

Poetic line

A set of four lines, like the two sets of four lines that form the opening of a Petrarchan sonnet.

Quatrain

Words with repetitions of the final stressed vowel sounds and any sounds following (cat and rat, debate and relate) are said to rhyme.

rhyme

The pattern of rhyme that exists in a particular poem or the pattern that is required by a form of poetry, such as the sonnet.

Rhyme scheme

Rhyme scheme

The quality created by the relationship between stressed and unstressed syllables. A regular pattern of alternation between stressed and unstressed syllables produces meter.

Rhythm

Rhyme

A system of reading, charting, or identifying the underlying beat or meter of a poetic work.

Scansion

The Shakespearean, or English, sonnet is arranged as three quatrains and a couplet with the typical rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.

Shakespearean sonnet

A crafted fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. There are many different types of sonnets (Petrarchan, Shakespearean, English, etc.).

Sonnet

A type of metrical foot with two consecutive stress syllables, as in the words baseball, moonshine, and daylight.

A group of lines in a poem that have either a structural, topical, or metrical relationship; often they will possess a certain metrical and rhyme scheme that will be repeated or varied in later stanza of the poem.

Stanza

A break between stanzas, or sections, of a poem.

Stanza break

Accent or emphasis that makes one syllable stand out more from others in a word or phrase.

Stress

A line of verse composed of four metrical feet.

Tetrameter

A line of verse composed of three metrical feet.

Trimeter

Three-syllable rhymes with the stress placed on the first syllable, as in beautiful and dutiful.

Triple rhyme

A sequence of three rhymed lines of verse.

Triplet

A metrical foot coonsisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as in the words master or movie.

A term often used interchangeably with poetry, but which also referst to a stanza of a poem.

Verse

Verse that is alive with variations and pauses, exceptionally regular lines may help maintain the underlying beat.

Versification

The combined product of the chosen kind of foot multiplied by the number of feet per line.

Meter

Short narrative poem, typically using a four-line stanza that rhymes the second and fourth lines.

Ballad stanza/ballad meter

A poem in which the speaker addresses another person (in the poem) in the form of monologue. Often allow the speaker to gradually reveal facets of his personality throughout the narrative.

they have one speaker who is speaking at a particular time and place.

Dramatic monologue

Dramatic monologue

Another name for the Shakepearean sonnet.

Elizabethan sonnet or English sonnet

Another name for the Shakespearean sonnet.

Another name for the Petrarchan sonnet.

Italian sonnet

A stanza consisting of eight lines. Often, this will be the opening eight lines of an Italian sonnet and is followed by a sestet that concludes the poem. The octave will often be rhymed abbabba.

Octave

Octave

Octave

Finely crafted poem reserved for solemn, important subjects that the writer wishes to pay homage to. These subjectsmay be people or places and occasionally things.

Ode

Also referred to as an Italian sonnet. The Petrarchan sonnet begins with an eight line segment or octave with a rhyme scheme abbaabba followed by a sestet of cdcdee or cdecde. The lines in the octace will often raise a question or address a problem that will then be answered in the sestet.

Petrarchan sonnet

Petrarchan sonnet

Petrarchan sonnet

A group of lines, usually at the end of a stanza in a folk song, ballad, or poem that echoes, or repeats, at intervals in the poem.

Refrain

A stanza consisting of six lines.

Sestet

Also called the English or Elizabethan sonnet. This sonnet is arranged as three quatrains and a couplet. The typical rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.

Shakespearean sonnet

Shakespearean sonnet.

A set of three lines or a stanza consisting of three lines.

Tercet

A repetition of similar sounds (typically consonant sounds) at the ends of words. For example, purse and curse, horse and purse, or turn and burn.

Consonance

In a poem, the use of words whose sounds seem to correspond to and effect their meanings, like pop, buzz, hiss, or stream.

Onomatopoeia

To attribute human qualities to nonhuman things such as animals, certain aspects of nature, abstractions, or ideas.

Personification

share beginning sounds, such as "so sweet" or "the only old owner."

Alliterating

When more than one character is onstage, these lines of dialogue are spoken by one character and are only meant to be heard by members of the audience.

Aside

The main conflict that drives a play's momentum. May be either internal or external.

Central conflict

Another term for rising action.

Complication

The playing off of differing points of view.

Dialectic

When the audience of a literary work is aware of situations, actions, and/or word meanings that one or more characters are not aware of. In other words, the audience is "in on" something the character is not.

Dramatic irony

Dramatic irony

A long, uninterrupted speech by a character. Presented with other characters present.

Monologue

A reversal or sudden turn in the fortunes of a character. Also called peripety.

Reversal.

Reversal

A speech in which a single character reveals his feelings and inner conflict. Occurs when the character is alone onstage, not addressing any other characters directly.

Soliloquy

Event or events within a play that are secondary to the play's primary driving action and ploty. Typically, the subplot will involve a relationship between two characters that provides a parallel or contrast to the relationship between protagonist and antagonist.

Subplot

Subplot

• Conflict
• Plot
• Style
• Dialogue
• Character

• 1. Exposition
• 2. Complication
• 3. Reversal
• 4. Denouement

• Rising action. Bulk of the play's action. Interweaves the character's shifting fortunes.
• Includes the climax, point of tension and critical juncture.

Peripety. Point at which the complication or climax culminates in the resolution of the plot.

The circumstances or situations within a play that allows the audience to identify with the hero or to assume that character's experience for a short time.

Catharsis

In ancient Greece, the chorus was a group of masked dancers who would change lyric hymns at religious festivals. In later Greek plays such as those of Sophocles, the chorus would change odes that would separate the episodes in the play. These odes would serve both as a comment on the action within the play as well as a representation of the audience's reaction to the play itself.

Chorus

Chorus

In a dramatic production, comedy usually represents situations that are designed to amuse as well as instruct, delight, and entertain. Often, comedies will present ordinary characters confronting their human condition, whereas tragedies tend to focus on the heroic or the ideal.

Comedy

Comedy

From the Latin meaning "god from a machine." In ancient Greek theater, a mechanical contraption would allow the character playing the god to be lowered onto the stage.

Deus ex machina

Deus ex machina

An exaggerated form of comedy that derives much of its humor from slapsitck humor, crude jokes, pratfalls, hilariously inept characters, and rambunctious behavior.

Farce

From the Greek meaning "insolence" or "outrage." Best defined as the overreaching pride of humans that inevitably leads to their downfall. In Greek theater, hubris would make human beings forget their limitations and shortcomings and challenge the gods.

Hubris

Hubris

Hubris

In Greek theater, a hymn of praise, often sung in honor of the god Apollo. Now, the term is applied more broadly to any lyric that celebrates its subject.

Paean

Paean

From the Greek for "suffering" and "passion." Refers to a quality in literature or art that arouses pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow.

Pathos

Pathos

Along with comedy, this is one of the two dramatic genres as defined in Greek theater. A tragedy will commonly recount the story of the fall of a hero or person who occupies a high position at the beginning of the play, as in the fall of a king or prince. Typically, tragedies are identified by their common features: the tortured protagonist's journey toward self-knowledge or awareness; the fateful, often irrevocable choices he makes; and often, a high body count at the end of the play.

Tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy

Otherwise referred to as a "fatal flaw," or shortcoming, in a tragic hero. In his Poetics, Aristotle used the notion of the tragic flaw to provide explanation for the downfall of an otherwise admirable character. The flaw may manifest itself in a character as pride, anger, jealousy, uncertainty,etc.

Tragic flaw

Tragic flaw

• Special pronouns and matching verb forms for talking to one rather than several persons.
• Word order (syntax): objects generally follow the complete verb.
• Prithee (please), forsooth (in truth), anon (presently, very soon), wherefore (why), ere (before); Would used in the sense of with or want (Would it were true).

A word formed from the first letter (or first few letters) of several words. Example: NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Acronym

When a reference, generally a pronoun reference, is not clear; when a pronoun might refer to more than one possible antecedent. Example: Her mother asked her to carry her coat (Whose coat is being referred to--the mother's or the daughter's?)

Ambiguous reference

The noun or phrase to which a pronoun refers. Example: In the sentence, "Bob is third from the left, he is the one standing." Bob is the antecedent for he.

Antecedent

antecedent

A verb that helps form tenses, moods, or voices of other verbs; the most common auxillary verbs are have, be, may, must, do, shall, and will. Example: Have and been in "You must have been studying hard," help form the tense of studying.

Auxillary verb

auxillary verbs

An expression or idea that has become trite and overused. Example: Use this recipe, it's tried and true.

Cliche

A singular noun that denotes a collection of individual people, animals, or things. Example: a pride of lions.

Collective noun

When two independent clauses are written as one sentence and joined only by a comma without a coordinating conjunction.

Comma splice

A word used to connect words, phrases, or clauses. There are two kinds of conjunctions: coordinating and subordinating.

Conjunction

• Coordinating
• Subordinating

The shorteningof a word or phrase by the omission of one or more letters. Example: it's for it is.

Contraction

A general agreement on the usage of language that is not quite as rigid as a rule would be. Example: It is not a rule, but it is a convention, that long-held principles or theories are written about using the present tense (e.g., Einstein's theory of relativity states that E=mc2).

Convention

Joins two words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance or weight in a sentence. The most common coordinating conjunctions are and, but, or, nor, for, and yet. Examples: (words) oranges and apples; (phrases) over the river and through the woods, neither a walk in the park nor a run in the rain; (clauses) I want to go out someplace fabulous for dinner, but I also want to lose weight.

Coordinating conjunction

coordinating conjunctions

The linking of words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance in a sentence by using conjunctions or semicolons.

Coordination

When two or more independent clauses are written as one sentence with no punctuation or conjunction linking them. Fused sentences are idential to comma splices except they lack the comma. Example: Movies are increasingly sophisticated in their use of technology they have extraordinary complex special effects. (There should be a period after technology and a capital T on they.)

Fused sentence

Fused sentences

A verb-based noun ending in -ing. A gerund has all the uses of a noun (subject or object of a clause or phrase) but retains many characteristics of its verb base, such as the ability to take an object or an adverbial modifier. Example: Paying your bills on time is preferable to going into debt. (Paying functions as the subject of the sentence but takes an object as the verb to pay would; going functions as the object of the preposition to but has a modifying adverb phrase into debt.)

Gerund phrase

Gerund phrase

A word pronounced the same as another word but different meaning and, generally, in spelling. Example: Here and hear are homonyms.

Homonym

homonyms

A construction or pattern of language contrary to the literal meaning of each word in the phrase. Example: He went the whole nine yards when he refurbished his house. (The meaning of the 'the whole nine yards' has nothing to do with ditance but rather with the thoroughness of completing the task.)

Idiom

an idiom

Refer to nonspecific things or persons. The most common ones are anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, none, no one, somebody, someone, or something. They are considered singular in meaning even when they seem to imply plurality (everyone and everything) and therefore take singular verbs.

Indefinite pronouns

• singular
• pluarility
• singluar

A phrase that contains both a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence.

Independent clause

The specialized vocabulary and idioms of people in the same profession or academic discipline. Jargon is generally regarded as inappropriate diction if the intended audience is more general than or different from people in the writer's same profession or discipline.

Jargon

A word, phrase, or clause that limits or enhances the meaning of another word. If the modified word is a noun or a pronoun, the modifier is considered adjectival. If the modified word is a verb, verb form, or an adjective, the modifier is considered adverbial.

Modifier

adjectival

adverbial

The manner in which the verb indicates the writer's attitude toward the action or state expressed, such as stating a fact (indicative mood); exploring a possibility (subjunctive mood); giving a command (imperative mood); or asking a question (interrogative mood).

Mood

indicative

subjunctive

imperative

interrogative

An element of a sentence--a clause, phrase, or word--that is considered nonessential to the meaning or sense of the sentence. It is usually set off from the rest of the sentence.

Nonrestrictive element

A structural aspect of sentences wherein lists of three words, phrases, or clauses are structurally similar. Parallism is used for clarity, emphasis, rhythm, and aesthetic appeal.

Parallelism

Parallelism

A pronoun that relates back to another word or phrase earlier in the sentence or in a previous sentence. The most common relative pronouns are which, that, who, and whom.

Relative pronoun

A modifying word, phrase, or clause that restricts or delimits the word it modifies. Example: Most of the apples that are on the ground are worm-eaten. (The phrase that are on the ground restricts the apples that are worm-eaten to just those that are on the ground.)

Restrictive element

The conditions of text creation, including the purpose or function of a written text and its intended audience.

Rhetorical context

The name given to a set of language conventions generally agreed to constitute acceptable use of language in academic and business settings in America. While SAE is traditional in what it deems appropriate, its language conventions nonetheless change over time according to usage.

Standard American English (SAE)

The distinctive and unique manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve particular effects. Style combines the idea to be expressed with the individuality of the author and includes individual word choices, sentence structures and length, tone, irony, and figurative language.

Style

Style

A word or noun phrase that completes the subject after a linking verb, the most common of which is the verb to be. Example: Anthony Hopkins is a brilliant actor. (Actor completes or complements the notion of Anthony Hopkins within the meaning of the sentence.)

Subject complement

completes or complements

Introduces a cluase that is dependent on or is modifying another clause in the sentence, including because, when, since, after, and whenever. Relative pronouns such as who, which, and that also function as subordinate conjunctions. Example: Reading is important to doing well on the exam because the more you read, the more familiar you become with written language usage. (Because introduces a subordinate clause that modifies, or explains, the main clause of the sentence.Words that introduce a subordinate clause are called a subordinate conjunctions.)

Subordinate conjunction

Use of a clause that modifies or explains the main clause in a sentence.

Subordination

The time of an action or a state of being, generally with reference to verbs and verb forms. The verb tenses most commonly used are present, past, and future. To express subtleties of time, each of the three major tenses can be expressed in simple form, imperfect form (ongoing action), perfort form (completed action), or conditional form (dependent on another action).

Tense

ongoing action

imperfect

completed action

perfect

dependent on another action.

conditional form

A manner of writing or speaking that indicates the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject. Because tone is indicated by words a writer or speaker chooses, tone and diction are closely related in writing and speaking.

Tone

diction

Shows the relationship between the subject and verb of a sentence. If the subject performs the action, the voice of the verb is active. Example: He finished his homework. If the subject receives the action of the verb, the voice of the verb is passive. Example: His homework was finished by nine o'clock.

Voice

active

performs the action

passive

receives the action of the verb

• Spelling
• Commas
• Pronouns
• Vocabulary (choosing the right word)
• Problems with verbs
• Problems with prepositions
• Problems with apostrophes
• Problems with sentences

• Paralleism
• Consistency
• Conciseness
• Variety and emphasis
• Coordination and subordination

Making a "map" of one's brain.

Brain scanning

A prewriting technique that utilizes continuous and spontaneous writing.

Brainstorming

Drawing visual connections between words and ideas, with the connections centered around a common hub.

Clustering

A technique in which the writer imagines the topic as a house and then gives a "tour" of that house to the reader.

Home showing

Making connections between words and ideas.

Linking

The creation of a series of lists.

Listing

Summarizing a piece of writing or a plan of attack by breaking it down into headings and subheadings.

Outlining

Developing a branching list of problems and their possible solutions.

Problem-solution gridding

A list put into shape.

Scratch outline

The most formal of the three types of outlines. Each item in the outline takes the form of a complete sentence, with one sentence devoted to each of the essay's paragraphs.

Sentence outline

Sentence outline

Creating a chronological list in order to see the scope of a project.

Time lining

A type of outline that arranges information according to numbered and lettered headings and subheadings.

Topic outline

A type of journal centered on one activity over a period of time, such as a director's journal.

Activity journal

Often, a collection of quotations that appeal to the writer and the writer's responses to them.

Commonplace book

A drafting strategy that requires the writer look at the subject from six different perspectives: describing, comparing, associating, analyzing, apply, and arguing.

Cubing

A strategy that involves the exchange of ideas between two people. In a self-dialogue, the writer challenges his or her own perspective, ideas, and beliefs through deliberate questioning of his or her own work.

Dialoging

A written record of one's dreams.

Dream journal

A drafting strategy that involves writing freely, without stopping to censor or edit what has been written.

Freewriting

A writing strategy in which the writer keeps a regularly maintained written record.

Journaling

A drafting strategy that builds on freewriting, requiring that the writer first stray away from the topic and then return to it in a cyclic process.

Looping

A journal in which one records detailed sensory observations.

Observation journal

A journal that records thoughts and responses to material read by the writer.

Reading journal

The process of posing questions as a means of exploring and investigating a topic.

Questioning

Latin for "to the man." Type of logical fallacy wherein the writer argues not about the issue at hand but rather about the personal characteristics of the person making statements about the issue.

Ad hominem

Ad hominem argument

A very short story used to provide an example or to illustrate an idea.

Anecdote

Often called circular reasoning, is another type of logical fallacy. Most commonly in this flawed logical reasoning, the writer circles back to the beginning statement as the cause of the problem without having added any additional evidence.

Begging the question

Begging the question

An organizational pattern based on the order of occurrence. Storytelling, or narrative, relies most heavily on chronological order. Summaries are also often based on the sentence of events. Chronological order can proceed either from the first event to the most recent event of from the most recent event back to the earliest event.

Chronological

Clear connections between ideas, making explicit to the reader how ideas relate to each other.

Coherence

An example of organizational development based on explaining the meanings of the terms under consideration.

Definition

Also known as false dualism, either-or reasoning is another type of logical fallacy. It presents an issue as though there were only two alternatives and hense leads to oversimplification.

Either-or reasoning

Either-or reasoning

An assertion that can be verified through evidence, observation, research, or experiment.

Fact

While an analogy is an identification of suggestion of similarity between two things that are otherwise quite different, a false analogy uses this limited basis of similarity to suggest that the two items compared are similar in many more ways.

Drawing a conclusion from insufficient evidence; also referred to as jumping to conclusions.

Hasty generalization

Hasty generalization

A set of categories of lapses of logical reasoning in setting forth an argument. May seem at first to be logical and reasonable, but they are based on flawed, or fallacious (false), reasoning, Overgeneralizing is one of the most common logical fallacies. Example: when a news article suggests that all HMOs are bad because two or three terrible tragedies occured, particularly if there is no reference to how many similar tragedies occurred in the same time period in non-HMO medical events.

Logical fallacies

Logical fallacies

Overgeneralizing

A type of organizational pattern based on telling a story to illuminate or explain an idea.

Narration

Latin for "it does not follow." In this type of logical fallacy, the conclusion does not follow logically from the premises of earlier statements in the paragraph or argument.

Non sequitur

Non sequitur

When a general principle is applied too generally than appropriate to a broader population. Often signaled by words such as never or always or by implicit or explicit references to all people within a certain category.

Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization

When complex ideas are presented in a simple, dualistic way.

Oversimplification

Latin for "after this" and is an abbreviation of a longer Latin phrase, post hoc, ergo, prpter hoc, which means "after this, therefore because of this." This logical fallacy occurs when a writer assumes a cause-effect relationship when the relationship is actually just sequential or chronological.

Post hoc

Post hoc

A word, phrase, sentence, or group of sentences that relates a succeeding sentence or thought with a preceding one.

Transition

• Topic: What you are writing about.
• Thesis: Your assertion about the topic.
• Focus: The explicit boundary that you place around the extent to which you will develop your thesis.
• Main idea: May be almost identical to your thesis but extends the thesis somewhat with your own interpretation of the significance of the thesis.

• Description or report: Info in the form it is observed.
• Analysis: Info in component parts, shows the relationship between the component parts and the main idea.
• Synthesis: Summarizes the analysis, presents a higher or deeper level of understanding of the main idea.
• Evaluation: Judges the situation based on description, analysis, and synthesis.