LA TERMS

Opposite ideas, often appearing in balanced phrases. ("Speech is silver, but silence is gold." Here, silence and speech are balanced opposites though not necessarily dichotomous.)

An exaggerated portrayal of someone for effect, usually overemphasizing relatively minor characteristics or making one characteristic appear far more important than it is.

Listing various meanings for clarity/to remove ambiguities. ("It's an annual event, by which I mean it comes once a year.")

Referring to another work within your own INDIRECTLY. "The land appeared like a Garden of Eden."

A specific form for clarifying the relationship between things or ideas. "Fish is to shark as high school is to GSMST"

A nice word in place of another. ("We had words" instead of "We argued.")

Combining and analyzing two or more ideas

Conflicting attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, or facts. (When your brain goes, "WHAT?!?!")

A syllogism or other argument in which a premise or the conclusion is missing. ("Does this place look like I'm . . . married? The toilet seat's up, man!"--The Big Lebowski). The premise that a married man would put the toilet seat down is elided.

Listing; dividing a subject into its adjuncts, a cause into its effects, or an antecedent into its consequents. ("[W]hen we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics...MLK)

Raising a question so you can answer it; not a rhetorical question, in which the audience knows the answer. ("Why does a man kill? He kills for food. And not only for food: frequently, there must be a beverage."—Woody Allen) Different from procatalepsis because not necessarily objections--could be clarifying or organizing.

Foreseeing and responding to an opponent's objections. "You might be wondering..." or "I know you're thinking..."

Like foreshadowing, foreseeing objections or problems. Luke: "I'm not afraid." Yoda: "You will be." Procatalepsis is giving preemptive counter argument. [Procatalepsis has the root "cata," like catalyst--action]

Deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. If the premises are true, the conclusion must be. (Ex: All women are mortal. Ms. Milsted is a woman. Therefore, Ms. Milsted is mortal.)

Defining the thing with the thing. ("It's true because he told me so, and he never lies.")