Rhetorical Terms page six

the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious persona

a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality; a conventional patter, expression or idea

when a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak. Using this diverts attention from the real issues

an author's characteristic manner of expression-his or her direction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute 

a personal presentation of evens and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions

a form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. the format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion

the use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance 

a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "boards" to mean a stage or "wheels" to mean a car- or "all hands on deck"

ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length

sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. They are often difficult for a reader to follow

the grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. Includes length of a sentence, kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declaritive sentences, rhetorical questions, simple, complex, or compound)

the central idea or "message" of a literary work

the main idea of a piece of writing. It presents the author's assertion or claim. The effectiveness of a presentation is often based on how well the writer presents, develops, and supports this. 

the characteristic emotion of attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience (anger, sarcastic, loving, didactic, emotional, etc)

a word of phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph

sentence consisiting of three parts of equal importance and length, usualy three independent clauses

the opposite of exaggeration. it is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended

quality of a piece of writing (also see coherence)

refers to two different areas of writing. One refers to the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active and passive voice.) The second refers to the total "sound" of a writer's voice