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A

Academic Discourse
In this phrase, discourse refers to the conventions of a certain kind of language in a certain kind of place.  We could describe the kind of discourse spoken on the soccer field (to the point, loud, energetic, emotional) or the discourse usually heard at a formal dinner with government officials (respectful, calm).  These might all be called different discourse communities.

Academic discourse, then, refers to the kinds of language used in academic settings.  Of course, this is difficult to define, since different academic areas use different kinds of language with different sets of assumptions! In general, academic discourse refers to language used by students and professors in college settings that purposefully describes a subject in complex ways so that a certain audience can understand and respond to it.​

Ad Hominem
A technique used by a person arguing that attacks their opponent's character, and not necessarily by responding to their opponent's point of view.  They focus on their opponents emotions by insulting them, instead of focusing on what the topic they arguing about.  Example: "Who are you to say you are an expert in psychology? You attended a community college, not a university." Typically written in italics (ad hominem). 

Aesthetics
Aesthetics are usually associated with surface issues (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). In terms of art, it might pertain to questions of beauty. In terms of writing, an aesthetic question would be, “Is your writing pleasing to read?” While this may not seem important, if your paper is not polished it could be difficult or unpleasant to read. Form is just important as function when writing a paper. Typically the components involved in deciding if a paper is aesthetically pleasing involves tone, word choice, sentence variation, paper structure, etc. Think of paper aesthetics like a mural, or painting: if the woodshed in the background is ugly, it affects the whole painting. So too it is with a poorly written paragraph in a paper.

Agency
The ability and power to act.  No, agency doesn't have anything to do with acting on a stage.  Agency refers to the ability to act in any way.  The one doing the acting (in other words, the one with agency) is called an agent. For example, if someone ties me up, I don't have much agency; there are a lot of actions I can't take.  But if I break the rope, I suddenly have a lot more agency, because I'm much more able to act.  So one way to think about agency is to consider how much power someone has to do what they want to.

We sometimes use the word agency in the context of writing classrooms when we talk about the power that communicators have to choose the form of their communication, and the powerful ends they can achieve through written, verbal, or electronic communication. The Wikipedia entry on "agency (philosophy)" includes this helpful summary: "Human agency is the capacity for human beings to make choices and to impose those choices on the world."​

Allusion
A reference to a famous person, historical event or work of art.  Allusions must be referenced to something that is well-known and that the majority of people would understand.

Analogy
An analogy is a type of word formula that requires the analysis of relationships between words. At its core, an analogy is a comparison between one relationship and another where the first relationship dictates the second. It is pattered to be spoken “A is to B as C is to D” and looks like this: A:B :: C:D. For example: “Kitten : Cat :: Puppy : Dog.” In both cases, the first animal is the infant version of the second. Analogies are used on standardized tests to assess the test taker’s ability to understand causal relationships.

Anecdote
An anecdote, at its simplest, is a story that gives an example of something. Using anecdotes in your paper can help you illustrate a point in an engaging and thoughtful manner. Anecdotes can also be used as a small example relating to larger picture (both positive and negative). Fables can be considered anecdotes.

Annotated Bibliography
Annotated means "with notes added to it."  I can annotate a book I own by underlining and taking notes in the margin.

Bibliography means a list of sources (often books, articles, and web resources) that follows a structured format (such as MLA).

So an annotated bibliography is simply a list of sources that includes a "note" (usually a paragraph or two) about each source.  It can be a remarkably helpful research tool, as it allows people to read the annotations and decide whether or not it is worth their time to read the entire original source or not.  Writing annotated bibliographies can also help writers better understand the sources they are annotating.

Two common forms of annotated bibliographies are those that only summarize the sources and those that both summarize and evaluate the sources.  This is quite logical, really: in some circumstances, readers will most want summaries of the sources you found, but sometimes they'll want to know how important, credible, and useful the source is.

For more information, visit the pages on annotated bibliographies at USF's FYC site or at the OWL at Purdue.

Argument
Depending on the context, argument can have many meanings.  In first-year composition classes, it certainly means much more than a yelling match between two angry people, which is what we sometimes first think of when we hear the word. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives a formal definition: "An argument is a connected series of statements or propositions, some of which are intended to provide support, justification or evidence for the truth of another statement or proposition." This is a fine definition, but it can be helpful to expand our thinking about arguments to include anything that acts persuasively toward us.  In that framework, a billboard is an argument that I buy a product, a bumper sticker is an argument for a certain saying or music group, and a yard full of carefully trimmed trees and bushes is an argument about the way yards ought to look.  In other words, arguments are everywhere.  Everything's an argument.

Artifact
An object produced or shaped by human craft, especially a tool, weapon, or ornament of archaeological or historical interest.

Audience
In writing, our audience is the person or group of people who will read or might read our writing.  This is one of the key components of strong writing: if I write about a topic or in a style that my audience won't find engaging, they will stop reading and move on to something else!  I wouldn't mail my diary to the president or to a reporter.  If I wanted to argue about politics with a friend or family member, I would write or speak more casually than if I addressed a government official. In classroom settings, though, audience can be an especially difficult concept to understand.  Sometimes we will address real audiences: our instructors will sometimes ask us to write for readers outside of our class (perhaps through letters to government officials or blog posts).  But often classroom settings demand that we simply imagine an audience and write consistently to that group.

Here's one way this could affect my writing in first-year composition: I might be writing a paper for an audience of people at USF, including professors, students, and staff.  People in this audience are often interested in hearing things they've never heard before about topics that seem to have deep importance.  That means that if I write about an often-repeated topic (abortion, gun control, gay marriage, etc.), my audience is unlikely to be interested in my essay unless I put a special effort into making unique or surprising points (perhaps with a unique story).  They also are more likely to want to hear my personal stories if I make the deeper significance of the story apparent; in other words, details about my morning routine will be out of place if I'm writing for this audience, but details about my morning routine will interest this audience if I point out how much even the little things in my life are affected by my social class or gender.

It's also possible to begin writing an essay as if I were writing to one imaginary audience and then shift unnaturally to another imaginary audience without even realizing it!  This happens when we begin an essay assuming the reader has read the sources I cite but then start summarizing the content later in the essay as if they haven't read the sources.  I also might start an essay as if I were persuading drivers to ride bikes more often but then write a page about how cheap bikes are, a fact that probably wouldn't actually convince any drivers to start riding.

B

Blog
The Wikiepdia entry is helpful here:

A blog (a blend of the term web log) is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.​

C

Catachresis
A figure of association in which a highly unusual or outlandish comparison is made between two things.

Citation​
A reference to a source, allowing readers to find the exact source of information used by an author. For example, if I wrote in an essay, "USF has partnered with various organizations on renewable energy projects," someone might respond by saying, "Where did you get that information?  I'd like to see a citation."  I could then go back to my essay and add a citation to this article.

Citations in printed work often take the form of parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes.  In many contexts, online citations often take the form of hyperlinks--as in the above paragraph.​

Cliché
Overused to the point of being nearly meaningless.  Words, phrases, actions, and even images may become cliche when they have lost their original context and are used commonly by virtually all cultural/age/gender groups. 

If a phrase is something everyone says (most often to try to sound like a particular type of person), or an action is something everyone else does (most often to try to be like a particular type of person), it is probably cliche.

Phrases such as "the old rat race," "kick the bucket," and even the more contemporary "whatEVER" are all examples of phrases that have become cliche.   

Anything that helps make communication happen between individuals or groups.  Examples are pencils, pens, typewriters, phones, e-mail, blogs, podcasts, and videos, but there are many more examples. We can call these objects tools because we use them in a way that is analogous to using a tool like a hammer.  When my goal is for a nail to be driven into a wall, I use the hammer as a tool to help me complete that task.  In the same way, when my goal is to post my opinions on a subject to a global community, I use a Rhetorical as a tool to help me complete that task. 

The art of putting words and sentences together in accordance with the rules of grammar and rhetoric. Written composition is when a writter can form words and clauses that makes up a sentence and agrees with each other. For example: I am composing this sentence by taking previous knowledge of the word, along with researching the words definition.

Figure of repetition in which the key word or words in one phrase, clause or sentence is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences, clauses or phrases; repetition of a key word over successive phrases or clauses. Example: "The strength of the passions will never be accepted as an excuse for complying with them; the passions were designed for subjection, and if a man suffers them to get the upper hand, he then betrays the liberty of his own soul" -Alexander Pope.


Quite simply, critical thinking refers to one's ability to think "below the surface." Beyond just responding to external events and stimuli, individuals who think critically are able to engage in self-reflection and analyze individual elements of a given situation to find deeper meaning. Depending on what discipline, field, or area a person is in, critical thinking will have different connotations and definitions. In rhetoric and writing studies (composition), being able to think critically means being able to interpret text through different "lens" to extract meaning. It also means that one is able to take an act of communication and articulate the purpose, audience, and strategies used to get the message across.    

D

Datagogy

 


Refers to the democratizing power of online technology has on pedagogical concerns, the ability of crowds of teachers and students to collaborate in real time on pedagogical matters. The term "datagogies" reers to when "a new kind of teaching and learning takes place, a kind of teaching and learning that heretofore has been unimaginable (Meehan and Moxley; Moxley)." This new type of learning is enabled by commons based peer-to-peer technologies - web 2.0 - that enable a large community of online contributors to create a sophisticated curriculum that otherwise would be done by a small number of disciplinary experts. By enabling a large group of lay members to co-create educational content, datagogical efforts distinguish emphasize radical liberatory pedagogy instead of pedagogical communities.

The definition of the term has been generalized by other scholars to mean the way in which terminology influences pedagogy, rather than specifically referring to the liberatory potential of Web 2.0. For instance, Rich Rice, in the online journal Kairos, defined "datagogy" as "the study of the use of data to administer and teach in holistic and systemic ways."​


One of the three forms of rhetoric.  The art of persuading the audience to take a form of action.  Usually used for polictic purposes.

Development

In the context of writing classes, diction refers to word choice.  "You should think about your diction," means, "You should think carefully about your choice of words."

Often, one of the largest problems in a writer's diction is vagueness.  For instance, if I write, "His argument was really good," someone might criticize my diction by saying something like, "The phrase really good is quite vague.  Is this argument strong?  Forceful?  Carefully worded?  Emotionally moving?  Logical?  Something else?"

A problem that has no clear answer or easily discernable solution.  Dilemmas frequently arise in terms of social issues and ethics, hence the terms "social dilemma" and "ethical dilemma." 
Usually, the issues involved in a dilemma are complex and have more than two sides; there is no "right" or "wrong" or "good" or "bad" solution to a dilemma.  Instead, a dilemma's solution is considered using many intermediate shades of "better" or "worse," with particular emphasis placed on the broader consequences of the solution.  Social dilemmas include abortion (which may also be an ethical dilemma), homelessness, lack of and rising costs of health care, terrorism prevention, and immigration. 
Ethical dilemmas include the use of violence to s​olve problems, lying, and stealing food for a starving family​.


To doublespeak is to use language to deceive your listeners or readers. Politicians are often criticized for doublespeech to mislead people on certain subjects, making them appear positive when they are not. It's just a technique that is misleading on the topic at hand.​

​Drafting has two essential identities. First, it acts as the foundation for the final paper. It is often the first steps taken after brainstorming or outlining. Drafting is a time for a writer to sketch out the rough approximation of their paper. In this way the paper begins. Just with buildings, papers take time to construct. Secondly, drafting acts as an umbrella term for the process of writing, revising, and editing. Each draft of the drafting process creates a new layer to the paper and thus adds something to the paper which it lacked before. A paper is hardly ever perfect in its first draft. Writing is a process, and drafting is the manual labor required to make the paper grow into a fully realized achievement. 

E

Editing
Editing is often described as the part of the writing process that takes place after revision. Whereas revision involves the overall structure of a paper, editing focuses on the actual words and grammatical mechanics. Think of it like this: You’re setting a table, and revision is your plates and silverware. Are your spoons in the right place? Editing is what belongs on your plate. Revision enables a writer to make best use of editing. Certainly you could eat your food without plates or forks, but it wouldn’t be quite the same.

Ethnography
Wikipedia describes ethnography as "a genre of writing that uses fieldwork to provide a descriptive study of human societies." In writing classrooms, this describes writing in which the student writer investigates communities of people as a form of primary research.  This investigation might be general, in order to describe a complex, multifaceted picture of a group.  Or it might be very focused, with the investigator paying special attention to communication methods or another specific thing.

Ethos
One of the three rhetorical appeals described by Aristotle, a Greek philosopher from the fourth century B.C.E. At its simplest, an appeal to ethos emphasizes the ethics and strong character of a rhetor.  So if I want to use my ethos to strengthen an argument I'm making, I will look for ways to emphasize that I'm a trustworthy source.  After all, no one will believe me I'm not someone who can be trusted. 

Companies appeal to ethos all the time in advertising, emphasizing that their company has been in business for a long time or has been highly rated by a popular magazine. Writers often appeal to ethos by avoiding sloppy sentences with simple errors in logic or grammar, because this can make them look uneducated.  Writers also appeal to ethos by showing that they have tried to look at an issue from a variety of angles and have done a considerable amount of research.  Isn't that the kind of person you would trust to give you new information?

Etymology 
The study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time. The history of a particular word or element of a word.  The branch of linguistics concerned with the history of the forms and meanings of words. 

F

Fair Use

First-Person Point of View
Writing from the perspective of the writer, using words like I and me and my.  The following sentence is written from a first-person point of view: "I have never eaten a purple petunia." If that sentence were revised to a third-person point of view, it might read, "He has never eaten a purple petunia."

Over the last thirty years, it has become increasingly acceptable to use the first person when writing academic discourse.  Before that, writers sometimes wrote unnecessarily wordy sentences to avoid using I--sentences that begin with, "It is this author's view that..." or, "It is believed that...."  Instead, it's often fine (depending on the context) to simply write, "I believe..." or, "I find that...."

Of course, this does not mean that all uses of the personal are acceptable in academic writing!  It would still seem odd if I interrupted an essay about Aristotle to write something like, "I feel so happy and tingly inside whenever I read Aristotle!"  However, there's nothing wrong with writing, "I find that when I read the published arguments about Aristotle, I usually find myself siding with Horkheimer.  I believe that is due to three reasons:..."

G

Genre 
A type of writing.  Usage: "In what genre is this piece of writing?"  "The genre of this essay is a memo." Writers may choose to write in different genres depending on their purpose and audience. You might want to check out this list of genres (mostly nonfiction), or this list of literary genres.

Google Generation
One of many names sometimes attributed to the generation of young people who supposedly have grown up with superior knowledge of online technology. See the Wikipedia entry for "Generation Z" for more information.

H

Handbook
In the context of writing, a handbook is a reference book for writers, usually including information on grammar, mechanics, style, and citation.  Two examples are The Brief Thomson Handbook and The Little Penguin Handbook.

Historical Context and Process
One of the dimensions making up USF's Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum (of which ENC 1101 is a part). Here's their description:  

Historical studies focus on the context (physical, temporal, intellectual) in which the events of human history have taken place. Historical processes involve the impact these events have on human actions and events, and the ways in which societies evolve as a result. These processes affect not only peoples and societies, but also institutions, ideas, and beliefs and can be seen in intellectual, social, economic, religious, artistic, and political contexts. The historical process also involves taking the building blocks of historical knowledge, the largely undisputed "facts" such as names, dates, and places, and working these into defensible arguments about the meanings of these facts. While the facts may remain constant, their meanings undergo a constant process of rethinking and reinterpreting. Mastering the terms, issues, participants, theoretical orientations, methods, and methodologies of these discussions is the goal of this dimension of learning. Therefore, any course that fulfills the historical context and process requirement would be one that addresses all three components: the facts themselves, their impact on the development of cultures and societies, and an awareness of the evolution of their historical interpretation. 

Historiography
According to Wikipedia's entry, "Historiography is the aspect of history, and of semiotics, that is the study of how knowledge of the past, recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted. Broadly speaking, historiography examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods, drawing upon such elements as authorship, sourcing, interpretation, style, bias, and audience. The word historiography can also refer to a body of historical work. As the tools of historical investigation have changed over time and space, the term itself bears multiple meanings and is not readily associated with a single all-encompassing definition."

Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a statement that is over-exaggerated for an intended purpose. These exaggerations usually have to do with the quantity of something. Examples: My teacher gave us, like, 4000 pages of reading. I ate a ton of food. He’s dated a million girls.

I

Identity
Broadly speaking, identity refers to the way one thinks about oneself.  One's identity is always complicated and multifaceted, but we all choose certain parts of our identity to focus on.  I could even say that I have a number of identities: as a man, a husband, a son, a friend, a neighbor, a fan of video games, a musician, and so on.  Part of my every day life is determined by the ways I choose to embrace and accept parts of my identity even as I try to understand the parts I don't know or like so much.

The concept of identity is a major part of writing.  When I write anything, regardless of what genre I'm writing in, I have to choose what parts of my identity to show.  Perhaps for a certain audience I will choose to write using words and sentence structures that are very different from the way I speak; in that case, I would be highlighting one writing identity instead of another.  And of course, my life experiences will shape the kinds of things I choose to write about in addition to the way I shape that writing with words and sentences.

Information Literacy
We often hear about literacy in the sense of "the ability to read words."  But it's not much of a leap to use the word to describe other kinds of things that we read; in that sense, visual literacy would describe the ability to understand visual messages, spatial literacy would describe the ability to understand the layout of spaces, and so on.

From that starting point, consider information literacy, which we can describe as the ability to know what information is needed in what circumstances and how to find it.  This has tons of meaningful applications to writing in college, which often depends on responding intelligently to the information in other sources.  But imagine how hard it would be to write an appropriate piece of writing if you don't know what kinds of information you need and you don't know where to get it!  Because of that, information literacy skills include (among other things) library research skills and online research skills.

There's lots more about this at the Information Literacy page of the Association of College and Research Libraries.​

Inquiry
In the context of writing classrooms, inquiry often refers to the act of discovering meaningful questions to ask about a topic. For example, a student might write an essay about a paperclip that's really boring.  This boring essay might describe how shiny, curved, bendable, and small the paperclip is, but unless he convinces me that this is a meaningful topic, I probably won't care about it at all.  In other words, his essay won't have answered any kind of meaningful question that people actually care about.  It will demonstrate a lack of inquiry.

But really, there are hundreds of possible questions one could ask oneself about paperclips.  How do paperclips fit into the history of the modern office?  What work goes into producing a paperclip, and is it fair to everyone involved?  What interesting uses have paperclips been put to?  An essay that discusses these or other interesting, meaningful topics will show that the author has thought through what people might actually want to know about paperclips.  Thus, that essay will demonstrate that the author went through a useful process of inquiry.

Invention

Irony

J


K

Kairos

L

Literacy
See information literacy.

Logos
One of the three rhetorical appeals described by Aristotle, a Greek philosopher from the fourth century B.C.E. At its simplest, an appeal to logos uses logic or good reasoning to convince an audience.  If I want to use logos to strengthen an argument, I will try to make it clear that certain premises lead logically to certain conclusions.  For example, it would be illogical for me to claim that people must carry guns just because the Constitution allows people to carry guns.  That argument doesn't make sense.  In other words, I would not have effectively used logos in my argument.

Writers often misunderstand logos, thinking that all there is to logos is the inclusion of facts and data in an argument.  But this doesn't really make much sense; a writer could use thousands of facts but still draw illogical conclusions from them.  Instead, an argument that strongly uses logos will demonstrate strong reasoning; there will be very few places where a reader thinks, "Wait a minute, this doesn't make sense.  I don't think the writer has used good reasoning here at all." One way to strengthen the logos of your argument is to try to avoid logical fallacies, which are common errors that people make when constructing arguments. 

Read more about fallacies and logos here.​

M

Medium
See remediate.

Memoir
A genre of writing in which a writer thoughtfully writes about events from his or her life. Although the boundaries between memoir and autobiography are rather loose, an autobiography usually refers to a large book that chronologically describes every aspect of a person's life.  For instance, in an autobiography the author would probably start by describing the circumstances of his or her birth and would continue a lengthy account that walks through every part of his or her life up to the present.  In a memoir, the author might choose a few particularly memorable parts of life and focus on those. Also, autobiographies are more likely to present clear, unambiguous facts, while memoirs often read much like novels, with characters and dialogue and plot.  Think about it: the memoirist probably does not remember exactly what she and her sister said to each other when they were young children, but she may choose to write out this dialogue anyway.  What reasons might a writer have to make this choice?

Metaphor
Metaphors are comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way. Metaphors are a way to describe something. Authors use them to make their writing more interesting or entertaining. ​

MLA Format and Style
The structured format for organizing the layout of the page and citing sources in a research paper as described by the Modern Language Association.  MLA style is only one of many ways to organize a research paper, but it is usually the preferred style in the humanities (including English, languages, history, philosophy, and art). MLA format includes guidelines for layout issues such as margins, titles, headings, page numbers, and spacing in an essay.  MLA style includes guidelines for citing sources within the text of the essay (using parenthetical documentation) and for formatting the list of Works Cited at the end of the document, which uses an organized style to list all of the sources cited anywhere in the text of the essay.

For advice on MLA format and style, see the USF Libraries' page on MLA style or the advice at The OWL at Purdue.  Many scholars follow the citation style of their discipline by using both handbooks and computerized citation assistance, such as that offered by RefWorks.

N


O

Objectivity 
Objective claims are assumed to be free from personal considerations, emotional perspectives, etc. Often described as the opposite of subjectivity.

Outline
An outline is, more or less, the skeleton of your paper. It allows you to decide what should come first, second, third, etc. Outlines are helpful because they allow you to physical see the organization of your paper. It forces your paper into a tangible form and can make it seem less intimidating. An outline can be seen as a “roadmap.”

Just because you’ve begun to write your paper does not make an outline a tool that is no longer relevant to your paper. Mid-process outlines can often times be more helpful than a beginning outline. Say you’re on your 3rd draft and you’re having a hard time getting your topics to connect, if you go paragraph to paragraph and map out your topics you’re likely to find the problem. Mid-process outlines are also a helpful way to visualize your paper. It’s easier to move around the pieces of an outline than to move around the pieces of your paper. By working through an outline, you can apply your revisions to your paper with greater ease and minimal anxiety.

Oratory
A rhetorical skill used to formally address an audience in public speaking. 

Oxymoron
Figure that binds together two words that are ordinarily contradictory; two words with contrary or apparently contradictory meaning occuring next to each other, and, which, nonetheless, evoke some measure of truth. The figure conjures a new way was of seeing or understanding a novel meaning. For example: "Toegther we can put a stop to this, and we must throw these heartless zealots out of this country for good."

P

Paradox
A statement that is self-contradictory on the surface, yet seems to evoke a truth nonetheless. For example: "Whoever loses life, shall find it." (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric)

Pathos
One of the three rhetorical appeals described by Aristotle, a Greek philosopher from the fourth century B.C.E. At its simplest, an appeal to pathos tries to elicit an emotional response in an audience.  So if I want to use pathos to strengthen an argument, I'll look for ways to make my audience feel sad, angry, frustrated, tired, or whatever will help them understand my point of view. Obviously, this can be done ethically or unethically; thus, it is common to hear it said that someone is unethically trying to manipulate an audience's emotions.

Appeals to pathos are common in films--both documentaries and fictional movies.  Both kinds of film might display a situation that is designed to make viewers feel sorry for certain characters or classes of people in order to push them to action.  For example, a movie about a likeable Egyptian girl who lives in a garbage village in Cairo might inspire viewers to take action on behalf of the worldwide poor, due to the strong emotions felt while watching the film.

In writing, different amounts of pathos are acceptable depending on the context and purpose of the writer.  Forwarded e-mail messages often seen extremely sappy because of their overblown use of pathos.  Likewise, a formal report for an employer is probably not an appropriate place to appeal to the emotions of my audience.  But if I am trying to convince an audience to see my perspective on a controversial issue, it may be perfectly fine to insert a personal story that will help the audience see the issue from a personal, emotional point of view.

Pedagogy
The study of teaching. It can be referred to as the way on teaches and the strategies they use in doing so. For example, distance learning. 

Peer-Production Technologies
The concept of peer production refers to the processes by which a group of self-sustaining, self-motivated individuals contribute to produce some sort of shared content of outcome. This happens effectively when facilitated by computer technologies (e.g., wikis). Thus, any technology that affords users the opportunity to produce content collaboratively would fall within the realm of peer-production technologies.

Personification
This is to give inanimate objects and non-living things human characteristics. An example is: "This dress fits my body so well, it hugs my body." A dress cannot hug, and it is not a person and doesn't have arms to cuddle. 

Plagiarism
Copying someone else's work or using someone else's thoughts without giving that person credit. 
To avoid plagiarism, simply cite the person's work that you are quoting, paraphrasing, or basing your thoughts upon.

Primary Research
According to The OWL at Purdue, "Primary research involves collecting data about a given subject directly from the real world." Examples of primary research are interviews, ethnographic observations, readings of primary documents (literary works, letters, historical documents, etc.), and surveys. This kind of research is called primary because it involves the researcher having direct contact with the information that's being observed.  (I talk directly with my interviewee, for example.)  In this way it's different than secondary research, which is at least one step removed from the primary sources.

Primary Source
According to Wikipedia, a "primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines. In historiography, a primary source (also called original source) is a document, recording or other source of information, such as a paper or a picture for instance, that was created at the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources."

Proofreading
Unlike revision, proofreading is the process of correcting typographical, grammatical, and sentence structure errors.  Proofreading is not related to the content of the piece, but rather, to the writing itself and should be the last step in the writing process. 

Propaganda
This is a way in which a person intentionally influences a group of people by deliberately stirring up emotions about a certain cause or problem, such as a campaign fight, or war.  One politician may use a propaganda poster against his opponent to help sway people to vote for him.​

Purpose
A writer's purpose has an extremely important shaping role in the development of any text.  That might seem obvious, but an unclear purpose is often at the heart of lousy writing.  That's because writers don't always have a clear purpose in mind while drafting, and they sometimes forget to go back and make their purpose clear and focused.  This makes life hard for readers.

For example, maybe I want to write an essay about snakes.  It's not enough to say, "My purpose is to write about snakes."  My purpose ought to be to tell my readers about X--but I don't know what X is yet!  So let's say I start writing, and I write one paragraph about the physical traits of snakes, and then I write a paragraph about a snake I had when I was a kid, and then that paragraph reminds me of how afraid my best friend was of my snake, so I decide to write a third paragraph about that friend and his fear of my snake, and I then close up with a fourth paragraph in which I wonder about the reasons why some people are afraid of snakes and some people aren't afraid of them at all. If I gave someone this essay to read, they might say, "I can't tell what your purpose is at all.  Why did you tell me about the snake's physical traits and then move into all these stories?  What's the point?  What's your purpose in telling me this stuff?"  So in response, I might decide that my purpose in this essay is to help my readers understand some of the reasons why some people have certain fears while others have completely different fears.  That's a huge accomplishment, to be able to state my purpose so clearly!  Think about it: that purpose statement will now decide what parts of my essay need to be cut (like that first paragraph about the physical traits) and which parts need to be further developed.

Q


R

Red Herring Fallacy
Process by which one attempts to change the subject, with a strong tangental statement. Doing this sometimes requires hyperbolic statements and or a scapegoat topic. Example: "When the man asked his wife of her side trip to a unusual store during running errands, she inquired how he could have known about it if he was at work."

RefWorks
An online citation tool that helps users store the citation information for sources (including books, articles, and web pages) online and organize the information into Works Cited and bibliography pages.  See the USF library's RefWorks page for more information.

Remediate
To put something into a new medium. In the context of your composition class, think of a medium as the container in which you put your communication message.  If I want to invite a friend to a Bulls game, I can "package" that message in a number of different mediums: face-to-face verbal communication, sign language, a phone call, a text message, an e-mail, a Facebook wall post, or a number of other communication mediums.

To remediate, then, is to take a communication message out of its current medium and put it into another medium.  (Think of re-medium.)  I could remediate a poem by saying it out loud.  I could remediate a song by spray painting the lyrics on my wall.  I could remediate a handwritten essay by typing it into a computer file, and then remediate it again by posting it to a blog. Each remediation calls for new considerations by the communicator.  What do people expect to read/hear/see when they encounter a particular form of communication?  How can I anticipate the expectations of that medium when I compose my messages?

Revision
Revision is often described as focusing on the organization and focus of a paper. Is all of the information where it should be? Is it in the best, most logical, order? The order in which a paper is presented may not seem important, but your reader may become confused or frustrated if all of the information they need to understand where you’re coming from isn’t present when they need them to be.

Imagine reading an instruction manual on how to wash clothes. The first paragraph tells you how to sort your clothes, the second tells you how to put the clothes in the washer, the third tells you how to turn it on, the fourth tells you how to take them out and operate the dryer, and the fifth paragraph tells you how to measure out the soap for the washer. Well, you needed paragraph five to follow paragraph three, didn’t you? Revision is the process by which you would move paragraph five so that it would better fit the logical structure of your paper. 


Revision is also a time to ensure you stay focused. If you were writing a paper about a sewing kit and the structure went “thimbles, needles, thread, zippers, thimbles, needles, thread, zippers,” it could potentially confuse your reader. Revision is a time to make sure your thimbles are all together. After revision comes editing.

Rhetor

Rhetoric
The art of persuation. A writing or use of language to persuade or to communicate. Also, the study of the technique and rules for using language effectively. (Google Definitions)

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Appeal
See ethos, pathos, and logos for more information on specific rhetorical appeals.  Also see this simple site for examples of how you might see different rhetorical appeals working.

Rhetorical Figure

Rhetorical Question
A question that has no definite answer.  It is posed to provoke analysis and critical thought more than to generate a concrete solution.  Most often, a rhetorical questions deal with moral, ethical, or philosophical issues.  Perhaps the most overused rhetorical question is "which came first: the chicken or the egg?"  We can never really know - instead, we can only think about the question and argue endlessly about the correct answer.

Rogerian Argument

S

Secondary Research
Research that is at least one step removed from primary sources.  For instance, if I conduct an interview, I'm conducting primary research.  But if I read the published results of an interview that someone else did, I'm doing secondary research. Other examples of secondary research are textbooks, academic journal articles, encyclopedias, or anything else that involves a researcher reading the results and analysis that someone else did.

Secondary Source
According to Wikipedia, "In library and information science, historiography and other areas of scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the information being discussed. Secondary sources involve generalization, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original information. Primary and secondary are relative terms, and some sources may be classified as primary or secondary, depending on how it is used. An even higher level, the tertiary source, resembles a secondary source in that it contains analysis, but attempts to provide a broad overview of a topic that is accessible to newcomers."

Subjectivity
Subjective claims are assumed to be influenced by such personal considerations.  Often described as the opposite of objectivity.

Summary

Synecdoche
Figure of comparison in which a word standing part of something is used for the whole of that thing or vice versa; a word that stands or symbolizes something that is not mentioned; genus to species or species to genus. 

T

Tapinosis
Naming something in a way which downplays its importance.  A form of meiosis.  Example: Another name for the Mississippi River; a stream. (AmericanRhetoric.com)

Thesis
The main idea that is at the center of your work.  A thesis should summarize the one thing that a text is attempting to assert or prove.  It is often one or two sentences in the introduction of a paper that clearly and concisely tell a reader what the paper is "about."

Tone
Tone is often confused with mood, an overlapping but different concept. One common definition of tone is "the author's attitude toward the subject or the audience." At first that sounds kind of weird, but it makes sense: if I'm writing about a topic that I hate, or if I'm writing to an audience I look up to (and so on), the tone of my writing will change. That tone will be evidenced in all kinds of ways: in the vocabulary, sentence structure, and overall mood of my word choices. People betray their emotions, attitudes, and feelings through their tone of voice. Authors can betray these same things through their writing. 

Toulmin Method

U


V

Voice
A complex combination of your tone, word choice, and the particular way you structure sentences and paragraphs.  "Voice" is how you think, speak, and write; it is the unique "you-ness" in your communications. 

W

Works Cited Page
See MLA format and style​

Writing Process

X


Y


Z
Wiki-Glossary of Rhetorical Terms

Welcome to our instructor- and student-written glossary of terms!  This is a space where all of us can collaborate to define any words or terms that have to do with rhetoric or that relate to our program in any way. 

Please feel free to contribute.  (You'll need to log in to fyc.usf.edu first, and then click the edit icon in the upper left.)  Here are some ways to add your voice:

-You could add to the definition of one of the terms already here.  If a sentence doesn't seem to make sense, delete it and write a better one.  If you think an example would make the definition clearer, write one.  If you know of a web page that would help people who are trying to learn more about that term, add a link.  (Links are easy: after clicking "edit," highlight a word or series of words and then look on the toolbar for the "Insert" menu; click it, then choose "Link.")
 
-You could add a completely new word and definition to the list.  To do that, after clicking "edit," click in space right above or right below the space where you would like to add a new word. (It's nice to try to make the font and size look similar to the words around it, of course.)  Then, if you want other pages on fyc.usf.edu to link directly to that word, e-mail webmaster Dan at drichar3@mail.usf.edu and he'll add a link!
 
Also, please remember to link to any sites that you quote from.  Happy editing!
]]> FOREST\moxley Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:58:18 GMT http://fyc.usf.edu/Glossary Wiki/Home.aspx