Deductive Reasoning

The words go like this:

Cats like to play with Yarn,
Amy is a cat,
Therefore Amy like to play with yarn

Deductive Reasoning is using logic and known facts to reach a conclusion.

Didactic

Didactic: Designed or intended to teach; intended to convey instruction and information.

"Purification of the sample, if we only had a few proteins, directly we had selected HPLC for the separation, but, a choice for a mixture is 2D gel electrophoresis. 2D gels, differences that are characteristics of the individual starting states recognized by comparison of two protein pattern." (This is from a science website discussing gel electrophoresis.)

Rose Tantranon-Sato

Antithesis

Antithesis: establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. Human beings are inveterate systematizers and categorizers, so the mind has a natural love for antithesis, which creates a definite and systematic relationship between ideas.

E.g. Every man who proposes to grow eminent by learning should carry in his mind, at once, the difficulty of excellence and the force of industry; and remember that fame is not conferred but as the recompense of labor, and that labor, vigorously continued, has not often failed of its reward. --Samuel Johnson

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning is the process of making inferences based on observations of patterns/repetitions, or generalizing from detailed facts.

Squares, rectangles, parallelograms, kites, and trapezoids each have many characteristics, but the only ones they have in common are the number of sides and the total degrees. Through inductive reasoning, we can deduce that these are characteristics common to all quadrilaterals.

Alina

ANALOGY

ANALOGY: Compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one.

The teacher nourishes the seed of knowledge in his students so it may grow, as the sapling of a mighty tree is cared for in it's youth.

PATRICK

Analogy

Definition: An analogy compares two things for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical end of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended.

Example:

Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.

- Samuel Johnson

Or this example of a Web Browser and a Server "uniting" to create a web page, their "offspring."

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia: is the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes.

Example: "SPLAT"

Anaphora

ANAPHORA: Starting sentences or clauses with the same word or set of words.

"Man, I go crazy on the beat; I go nimrod

Man I act a a**; treat the beat like a hemorrhoid

Man I go to work on the beat; call it employ

Man I kicks it; b**** get your shinguards"

Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa).

Example:
"Farmer Jones has four head of cattle and three hired hands."

"If I had some wheels, I'd put on my best threads and ask for Jane's hand in marriage."

Shelby Delaney

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic Irony: irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters.

For instance: "I'm king of the ocean!" thought the goldfish to himself as he swam rapidly around his fishbowl.

Parentheses

Parentheses: Two punctuation marks that enclose textual material, or used to add in a side note that doesn't fit into the written sentence.

Example: The landscape was beautiful, there were lots of mountains and trees that pleased the eyes, (also some very interesting Bowie creatures).

Situational Irony

Situational Irony: A situation turns out differently than expected.

Example: Watering plants while it's raining outside.

Eliza Stuber

Pun

Definition: The Humorous use of a word where it can have different meanings or of two or more words with the same sound but different meanings; a play on words.

Example: A bicycle can not stand on it's own because it is two tired.

Euphemism

EUPHEMISM - the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Instead of saying that former President Bush is stupid, we can say that he is "intellectually unique". - Emily C.

Verbal Irony

Definition: Verbal irony is basically sarcasm. It is saying the opposite of what the situation prompts.

Example: A man gets hit by a car or a plane and says, "Fantastic. Just what I need." This is the opposite of what the situation would warrant.

Michael

Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to not by its own name, but by the name of something associated with that thing or concept.

example: using the word "crown" to mean "royalty" 

Ellipsis

An ellipsis proves to be a handy device when you're quoting material and when you want to omit some words. The ellipsis consists of three evenly spaced dots (periods) with spaces between the ellipsis and surrounding letters or other marks.

Examples:

“The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes … visiting the U.S.”

“Juan thought and thought … and then thought some more.”

"I'm wondering …" Juan said, bemused.”

Site Link Credit:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/ellipsis.htm

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning - "The other method of reasoning, the deductive method, begins with an accepted generalization--an already formulated or established general truth and applies it to discover a new logical relationship. That is, through deduction we can come to understand or establish the nature of something strange or uncertain by associating or grouping it with something known or understood. "

Reasoning through logic and evidence.

 

-http://www.virtualsalt.com/think/deduhypo.htm

 

Example:
Given the solid evidence and data provided by the police, as well as the experience given from his previous years in the business, the detective swiftly came to the conclusion that the other man was the killer.

Anaphora

Anaphora is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.

We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary.

— Malcolm X


Henry

Ellipses

Ellipses is the omission of a word, or words, implied by an earlier clause and/or sentence.

"Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends."(Virginia Woolf)

exclamation!

an abrupt excited utterance utilizing an exclamation mark used to give a sense of astonishment, anger or urgency.

Lil Jon is a master of exclamation, frequently uttering excitedly to create a sense of astonishment (WHAT?), anger (HEY!) and urgency (LET'S GO!).

Didactic

def- intended or inclined to each or instruct, often excessively.

ex "Four-score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth, on this continent, an new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal." Abraham Lincoln

Parallelism

figure of balance identified by a similarity in the syntactical structure of successive words, phrases, or clauses with the same or very similar syntactical structure to show that the idea are equal in importance

example in image:

Perch are inexpensive; cod are cheap; trout are abundant; but salmon are best.

most famous example:

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

-John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

-Tianna Diaz

Paradox

A paradox is a statement or group of statements which contains a contradiction that defies intuition. 

Example: A man and his son are driving along when they are caught in a car accident. The son is badly hurt. The two of them are then rushed to the hospital in  an ambulance. When they get to the hospital, the surgeon says "I cannot operate on this boy. He is my son."

The paradox lies in the assumption that the surgeon is a man. The contradiction is resolved when it is revealed that the surgeon is the boy's mother.

-Hannah Kessel

Antithesis

Definition: Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually through parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Examples:
"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 directly to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way." -Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The Yin Yang symbol, which represents opposing ideas such as good and evil or light and dark.

Jeff Williams

What is Rhetoric?

What is Rhetoric?
Simple: It is the practice of using language effectively to please or persuade.

This is the blog/wiki for 5th period Honors English at Albany High School. This site will provide a common location for the class to define and explore all things rhetorical. All class members are contributors to the site.