AP English Lit. Terms 3Rhetorical DevicesHilltop High SchoolMrs. Demangos

Diction Word choice. A writer’s choice of words, phrases,

sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning.

Formal Middle Diction Informal Poetic

Formal Diction Formal diction consists of a dignified,

impersonal, and elevated use of language; it follows the rules of syntax exactly and is often characterized by complex words and lofty tone.

Middle Diction Middle diction maintains correct

language usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people speak.

Informal Diction Informal diction represents the plain

language of everyday use, and often includes idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions, and many simple, common words.

Poetic Diction Poetic diction refers to the way poets

sometimes employ an elevated diction that deviates significantly from the common speech and writing of their time, choosing words for their supposedly inherent poetic qualities.

Since the eighteenth century, however, poets have been incorporating all kinds of diction in their work and so there is no longer an automatic distinction between the language of a poet and the language of everyday speech.

Syntax

Sentence and phrase structureThe ordering of words into

meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Syntax Poets often manipulate syntax, changing

conventional word order, to place certain emphasis on particular words.

Emily Dickinson, for instance, writes about being surprised by a snake in her poem “A narrow Fellow in the Grass,” and includes this line:

“His notice sudden is.” In addition to the alliterative hissing s-sounds here, Dickinson also effectively manipulates the line’s syntax so that the verb is appears unexpectedly at the end, making the snake’s hissing presence all the more “sudden.”

Point of ViewNarrative Perspective.First Person: “I” 1. relates the thoughts and

feelings of one character2. Intimate: reader feels as if

they are “in their brain”

Point of ViewSecond Person: “you”1. Used when giving advice2. Can sound didactic

Point of ViewThird Person: “he, she, it…”

Third person objectiveThird person limitedThird person omniscient

Point of View

Third person objective:1. “he, she, it…”2. Reported by a seemingly

neutral/impersonal observer

Third Person Objective Example:At the pizza place, Tony the baker was getting the pizzas ready for baking. He flattened out a ball of dough into a large pancake and tossed it in the air. He spread sauce on it, sprinkled it with cheese, and shoved it in the oven. Then the telephone rang. “A fellow from the factory wants a large pizza delivered in a hurry,” Tony’s wife called. “Ok, I’ll get my coat,” said Tony.

Curious George and the Pizza by Margret Rey

Point of ViewThird person limited:1. “he, she, it…”2. Reports and interprets

thought and feelings of a single character

Third Person Limited Example:After dropping her son off at school, Sara sat at a traffic light and waited. She was on her way to her office job as a secretary in a law office. It was mainly paperwork with very little time to interact with other people, but Sara had gotten used to that. It also gave her plenty of time to daydream, something she had also gotten quite used to. She was a woman in her mid-30’s, married 13 years, with one child.The Ninja Housewife by Deborah Hamlin

Point of View

Third person omniscient1. “he, she, it…”2. All knowing, relates and

interprets thoughts and feelings of more than one character

Third Person Omniscient Example:At dawn, Mae Tuck set out on her horse for the wood at the edge of the village of Treegap. She was going there, as she did once every ten years, to meet her two sons, Miles and Jesse, and she was feeling at ease. At noon time, Winnie Foster, whose family owned the Treegap wood, lost her patience at last and decided to think about running away.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

AntithesisBalancing of contrasting ideasFrom the Greek, "opposition“Example:

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.--Goethe

Antithesis"It was the best of times, it was the worst of

times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Antithesis"I would rather be ashes than dust! I

would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Jack London

PolysyndetonStringing a sentence out with

conjunctionsFrom the Greek, "bound

together". A style that employs many conjunctions.

Polysyndeton Example: “Let the whitefolks have their money and

power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly--mostly--let them have their whiteness. It was better to be meek and lowly, spat upon and abused for this little time than to spend eternity frying in the fires of hell."

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Polysyndeton Milton’s Satan“. . .pursues his way,and swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.”

Example: “I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water.” Ernest Hemingway, "After the Storm."

AnacoluthonBreaking off a sentence…The failure, accidental or deliberate, to

complete a sentence according to the structural plan on which it was started.

That is, beginning a sentence in a way that implies a certain logical resolution, but concluding it differently than the grammar leads one to expect. Anacoluthon can be either a grammatical fault or a stylistic virtue, depending on its use.

Anacoluthon For example, the device can work as a

powerful index of anxiety or disturbed coherence.

“It little profits that an idle king,By this still hearth, among these barren crags,Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and doleUnequal laws unto a savage race . . .” Tennyson “Ulysses”

Anacoluthon

Athletes convicted of drug-related crimes —are they to be forgiven with just a slap on the wrist?

“The darkness drops again; but now I know that twenty centuries of stony sleepwere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,and what rough beast, its hour come round at last,slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” Yeats, “The Second Coming”

ParallelismThe use of similar grammatical structures or word order in two sentences or phrases to suggest a comparison or contrast between them.

ParallelismExample:In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129

“Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream”

ParallelismCan also refer to parallels between larger elements in a narrative.Two charactersTwo plot lines

ParallelismExample:

In Shakespeare’s King Lear, both Lear and Gloucester suffer at the hands of their own children because of their blindness to children who are goodhearted and which are evil.

ApostropheAn address, either to someone who

is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker or to something nonhuman that cannot comprehend.

Apostrophe often provides a speaker the opportunity to think aloud.

ApostropheExamples:John Milton’s “To Mr. Lawrence”

Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,/Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire,/ Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire/ Help waste a sullen day…

Analogy Extended comparison of similar

things.The term comes from the Greek

analogia, meaning “proportion.”Example: the classic analogy

between the heart and a pump.

Analogy

In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift describes the societies of the Lilliputians and the Brobdingrags in such a way as to make their characteristics and weaknesses analogous to human society.

ColloquialismInformal diction.An informal expression or slang,

especially in the context of formal writing.

Example: Larkin’s “Send No Money”“All the other lads there Were itching to have a bash.”