Rhetorical/Writing Terms #5

Division Breaks up an entity into smaller groups or elements.

Classification and Division Numbers listed in your cell phone’s address book are divided into three clearly defined categories; home, work, and mobile.

Classification and Division The pattern of development that uses these two related methods of organizing information. Classification generalizes; division specifies.

Foreshadowing The presentation of material in such a way that the reader is prepared for what is to come later in the work.

Digression A remark or a series of remarks that wanders from the main point of a discussion.

Documentation The formal way of giving credit to the sources from which a writer borrows words or ideas from.

Satire Writing that uses wit, irony, and ridicule to attack foolishness, incompetence, or evil in a person or idea.

Extended Definition A text length definition developed by means of one or more rhetorical strategies.

Principle of Classification The quality the items have in common.

Basis for Comparison A fundamental similarity between two or more things that enables a writer to compare them.

Description The pattern of development that presents a word picture of a thing, a person, a situation, or a series of events.

Frame Device A story within a story

Rhetoric The art of presenting ideas in a clear, effective, and persuasive manner

Refutation The attempt to counter an opposing argument by revealing its weaknesses.

syllepsis a construction in which one word is used in two different senses

Rogerian Argument Rather than attacking the opposition, acknowledge the validity of other points. Find areas of agreement and satisfy all parties.

? The nozzles were variously set but usually so there was a long sweet stream of spray, the nozzle wet in the hand, the water trickling the right forearm and the peeled-back cuff, and the water whishing out a long loose and low- curved cone, and so gentle a sound.

? “After he threw the ball, he threw a fit.”

? Numbers listed in your cell phone’s address book are divided into three clearly defined categories; home, work, and mobile.

? I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if they produced and argument at all, that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words and constructions. So far as the general tone or spirit of a language goes, this may be true, but it is not true in detail. Silly words and expressions have often disappeared, though not through any evolutionary process but owing to the conscious actions of a minority.

? In a discussion on abortion, the opposition concedes that children born to reluctant mothers is an emotional burden that can affect the raising of the child negatively.

? Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights

? Despite the variety of experiences that different students have with different courses, most college classes can be classified into one of four categories: ideal classes, worthless classes, disappointing classes, and unexpectedly valuable classes.

? Both towns have a rapidly expanding immigrant population.

? Altruism is the performance of an unselfish act. As a pattern of behavior, this act must have two properties: it must benefit someone else, and it must do so to the disadvantage of the benefactor. It is not merely a matter of being helpful; it is helpfulness at a cost to yourself.

? Repair records

? Katherine Mangu-Ward, the success of Wikipedia “springs largely from [its founder’s] willingness to trust large aggregations of human beings to produce good outcomes...” (26).

? Charlotte is a spider who lives in the rafters of a barn in this classic story by E.B. White. In the two film adaptations, Charlotte resolves to save the life of a runt pig named Wilbur, who is destined for the dinner table. Early in the film, Charlotte explains to Wilbur that all living things eventually die. This foreshadowing sets the stage for the main plot struggle, which is saving Wilbur from the slaughterhouse. To do this, Charlotte weaves a web over the barn door with a message that startles the humans and spares Wilbur's life. In the process of spinning her web, Charlotte expends all her energy and dies, just as she had hinted to Wilbur at the beginning of the story.

? “A Modest Proposal” I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in fricassee or a ragout.

? When the dog says “squirrel” in the animated movie UP.