Literature Section/Rouse
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English 2 – Unit 2: Nonfiction Study Guide
1. Allusion: reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature,
history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science, or the arts
2. Argument: Pro and Con
a. Pro: in favor or support of a topic
b. Con: against a topic
3. Credibility: believablility
4. Evidence
a. Subjective/Pathos/Emotional appeals: writer targets reader’s heart or feelings; PATHOS
i. Denotation: the dictionary definition
ii. Connotation: emotions or feelings associated with a word
iii. Loaded words: words with strong connotations
b. Objective/Logos/Logical appeals: writer targets reader’s mind with statistics, evidence, etc.
5. Euphemism: a less direct word or phrase is used as a substitute for a term some may find offensive or
distasteful. Example: Instead of prison, house of correction.
6. Fallacies: are errors in logical thinking.
7. Fallacious Reasoning:
a. Attacking the person/Name calling - go off on a person without any evidence. Uses labels to
attack a person who holds an opposing view, instead of giving evidence to attack the opposing
view itself. The fallacy includes attacking the person’s character, situation, or background. For
example, computer geeks are out of touch with the real world.
b. Bandwagon: everyone is using this product, you should too.
c. Card stacking: A fallacy in which any evidence that supports an opposing argument is simply
rejected, omitted, or ignored.
d. Circular reasoning – writer appears to be giving a reason to support his or her opinion, but all
he or she is doing is restating his or her opinion. For example, college graduates are financially
successful because they can get high-paying jobs.
e. Either-or – assumes that there are only 2 possible choices (usually extremes). For example, “I
have to get my license, or I will have no social life and lose all of my friends.”
f. False cause and effect – when one event is said to be the cause of another event just because
the 2 events happened around the same time. For example, the year that I began running, my
grades improved.
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g. Hasty generalization – a broad, general statement or conclusion that is made without sufficient
evidence to back it up. Typically, a hasty generalization is made on the basis of only 1 or 2
experiences or observations. For example, Jenna’s dog has fleas, and she spends a ton of
money on dog food. The hasty generalization would be that “dogs don’t make good pets,”
which would be based on only 2 pieces of information.
h. Testimonial: paid celebrity or famous person endorsing a product.
i.
Transfer: A writer uses this technique when he or she tries to transfer our good feelings about
one thing to his or her product.
j. Glittering generality: use of loaded words that stir up certain emotions in us. Sometimes, these
words “glitter and sparkle” to attract our eye, or sometimes they make us angry or repulsed.
The writer focuses on your emotions versus your logic. For example, “Pure, fresh, mountain
spring water. Bottled especially for you in Utah from only our purest mountain springs.”
k. Plain folks: the speaker presents him or herself as an “Average Joe,” a common person who
can understand and empathize with a reader’s concerns.
8. Flashback: scene in a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that interrupts the present
action of the plot to show events that happened at an earlier time.
9. Foreshadow: A hint or clue about something that will happen later in a story
10. Forms of Nonfiction
a. Personal essay: short and informal and often reveals a great deal about the writer’s personality
and tastes
b. Expository essay: explains something to the reader by giving information or clarifying an idea.
Usually formal in tone and generally fact or objective based.
c. Autobiography: account of writer’s OWN life
d. Memoir: zeroes in on a particular time period in the writer’s life
e. Biography: tells the story of a person’s life. Told or written by someone other than its subject.
f. Anecdote: very, very brief story usually told to make a point
11. Idiom: expression peculiar to a particular language that means something different from the literal
meaning of words. Example: It is raining cats or dogs.
12. Intent: writer’s goal to make you think or act a certain way
13. Irony: contrast between expectation and reality
14. Juxtaposition: two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions etc. are placed side by side in a
narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts. For example, in
Paradise Lost Milton uses the juxtaposition of two characters: God and Satan. The bad qualities of
Satan and the good qualities of God are placed side by side. The comparison brings to the surface the
contrast between the two characters.
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15. Parallelism: the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same or similar in their
construction, sound, meaning or meter. For example, “Vivian ran into the room, into the garden, and
into our hearts.” “Easy come, easy go.” “Billy was wanted dead or alive.”
16. Primary Source: an original, firsthand account (example - autobiography)
17. Secondary Source: a secondhand account by a writer who did NOT participate directly in the event
that he or she interprets, relates, or analyzes
18. Setting: time and place.
19. Structure: how a writer organizes his writing
20. Style: the way he or she uses language
21. Symbol/symbolism: person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and for something
beyond itself. Example: US flag. It is a flag, itself. It also stands for the United States, freedom, and
independence.
22. Writer’s Purpose: the writer’s reason for writing a piece (tell a story, persuade the reader, provide
information, etc.)
23. Writer’s Style
a. Diction: writer’s word choice
b. Tone: writer’s attitude toward his or her subject
c. Figures of Speech: unusual comparison (metaphor, personification, simile)
i. Simile: comparison of two unlike things using “like, as, resembles”
ii. Metaphor: comparison of two unlike things without “like, as, resembles”
iii. Personification: giving human characteristics to something nonhuman
iv. Hyperbole: uses exaggeration to express strong emotion or create a comic effect
d. Mood: emotional atmosphere
e. Imagery: appeal to one of your 5 senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, or hearing)
24. Theme: central idea or insight revealed in a work of literature
Selections
1. “Team of Rivals” p.452
4. “Typhoid Fever” p.482
7. “Into Thin Air” p.504
2. “102 Minutes”p. 523
5. “9/11 Report” p.544-548
8. Titanic Accounts p.397
3. “There Comes a Time” p.570
6. “Eulogy” p.577
9. “Choice of W.” p.468