Early American Lit Terms

A point-by-point presentation of one thing as though it were another. This comparison is developed over several lines or through an entire work.

• Extended Metaphor

• Analogy

• Repetition

• Slang

• Archaic Words

A form of persuasion that makes a case to an audience for accepting or rejecting a proposition or course of action.

• Repetition

• Slang

• Archaic Words

• Argument

• Tone

Colorful, informal speech made up of invented words or old words given new meanings.

• Analogy

• Repetition

• Slang

• Archaic Words

• Argument

The emotional attitude toward the reader or toward the subject implied by a literary work-for instance, familiar, ironic, playful, sarcastic, serious, or sincere.

• Argument

• Tone

• Autobiography

• Rhetorical Question

• Modes of Persuasion

The story of a person's life written by that person.

• Argument

• Tone

• Autobiography

• Rhetorical Question

• Modes of Persuasion

A writer's intentional reuse of a sound, word, phrase, or sentence, often for the purpose of emphasis.

• Extended Metaphor

• Analogy

• Repetition

• Slang

• Archaic Words

Words that were once common but are now used rarely.

• Archaic Words

• Argument

• Tone

• Autobiography

• Rhetorical Question

A type of question asked for effect but not meant to be answered because the answer is clear from the context.

• Rhetorical Question

• Modes of Persuasion

• Ethos/Ethical

• Logos/logic

• Pathos/Emotion

Appeal to the emotions

• Ethos/Ethical

• Logos/logic

• Pathos/Emotion

• Thesis

• Parallelism

Rhetorical devices used by speakers or writers to persuade an audience

• Rhetorical Question

• Modes of Persuasion

• Ethos/Ethical

• Logos/logic

• Pathos/Emotion