Academic Vocab for Gettysburg Address

Academic Vocab for Gettysburg Address

by Ichabod Fouraker

Author's Purpose

Author's purpose might be described as why an author is writing a text. Popular purposes include informing, persuading, entertaining, and trying to express emotion or feeling.

Multiple Choice

What is the author's purpose for writing a love note?

"I love you more than a racoon loves trash!"

• Informing

• Entertaining

• Persuading

• Expressing some type of emotion or feeling

• E

​Seminal Document

​These are documents which have stood the test of time. These documents are described as having great historical and/or literary significance.

Multiple Choice

Which of these might be considered a seminal document?

• Your guardian's bank statement

• Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream speech"

• Squid Games

• Charlotte's Web

​Rhetoric

Rhetoric can have several meanings. Our textbook defines it as ​the art of using specific words and language structures to make messages memorable. If you google "rhetorical devices" you will find lots of examples such as alliteration, repetition, simile, metaphor, personification, etc. Rhetoric can include lots of different terms and ideas that authors use to effectively communicate.

Multiple Choice

What is not an example of rhetoric?

• Simile

• Repetition

• Verbs

• Hyperbole

​Repetition vs Parallelism

Repetition and parallelism are two related rhetorical devices.​

​

Repetition is when the same word or phrase is repeated exactly.

​Ex. heart to heart, time after time, mano a mano, etc.

​

​Parallelism is when grammatical structures are repeated.

​Ex. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.

​Repetition will be an exact reuse of the same word or phrase.

​

​Parallelism will not necessarily reuse the exact same words or phrases but will have sentences that resemble each other in the way that they are written.

​

​Examples of parallelism will often contain repetition, as well.

Multiple Choice

“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Parallelism or repetition?

• repetition

• parallelism

• neither

Multiple Choice

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

Repetition or parallelism

• parallelism

• repetition

• neither

Poll

Do you feel that you have a good initial idea of our upcoming academic vocabulary?

• Oh!  For sure!

• Sort of.

• I have an idea but am still confused.

• I have total confusion.  Thanks for a