Rhetoric, grammar, and essay structure concepts tested on the CLEP College Composition exam. Front: the term or rule. Back: a plain-language definition.
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- Ethos
- An appeal based on the credibility, trustworthiness, or authority of the speaker or writer.
- Pathos
- An appeal to the audience's emotions, values, or personal experiences.
- Logos
- An appeal based on logic, facts, evidence, and rational reasoning.
- Tone
- The writer's attitude or emotional stance toward the subject matter.
- Voice
- The distinctive personality and characteristic manner of expression of a writer.
- Diction
- The choice and use of words in writing or speech.
- Audience analysis
- Examining the characteristics, knowledge, and expectations of the intended readers to shape writing accordingly.
- Rhetorical situation
- The context in which communication occurs, including the writer, audience, purpose, subject, and constraints.
- Parallelism
- The use of similar grammatical structures or patterns in a series of words, phrases, or clauses.
- Subject-verb agreement
- A verb must agree in number with its subject: singular subjects take singular verbs, plural subjects take plural verbs.
- Comma splice
- An error in which two independent clauses are joined with only a comma, without a coordinating conjunction or semicolon.
- Sentence fragment
- An incomplete sentence that lacks either a subject, a predicate, or both.
- Run-on sentence
- Two or more independent clauses joined without appropriate punctuation or connecting words.
- Misplaced modifier
- A word or phrase that is placed too far from the word it is meant to modify, creating confusion.
- Dangling modifier
- A word or phrase that lacks a clear noun to modify, leaving its meaning ambiguous or illogical.