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Mr. McKenna
AP English Lang. & Comp.
AP English Language & Composition – 2022 Summer Assignments
Congratulations! You have chosen to embark on a journey that will challenge, inspire, and enlighten you
as to the ways language and rhetoric impacts our lives as individuals and as members of society. I
commend you for your maturity and willingness to take academic risks!
The journey begins with your completion of the following Summer Assignments. This assignment is
designed with three main purposes in mind:
1. It will introduce you to key rhetorical terms and ideas.
2. It will give you a flavor of the types of writing you will read and produce throughout the year.
3. It will give your instructor an understanding of your skills as new members of the class.
Please complete each assignment prior to the start of school on August 29
th
.
Assignment #1 – Rhetorical Terms, Modes, & Tone Words
1. Familiarize yourself with the terms and words on the following three handouts. (Don’t memorize them.)
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
Rhetorical Modes – Patterns of Development
Diction & Tone Words
2. Consider these handouts the foundation of the “rhetorical toolbox” that you will refer back to regularly
throughout this course. Some of these terms are already familiar to you, but many will be new. The sooner
you can begin understanding them and applying them to your reading and writing, the better.
Assignment #2 – Thank You For Arguing
1. Please borrow or purchase a copy of Thank You For Arguing, Fourth Edition (Broadway Books) and read the
Prefaces and Chapters 1 through 14. (Feel free to read more if you’re enjoying it.)
2. While reading, use the following symbols and brief notes to annotate the text (in the margins or on Post-
it notes):
! – things you find interesting or important
? – things you didn’t understand or would like to challenge
* - things you’d like to discuss with the class
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3. Be prepared to discuss the reading (and your annotations) in small groups and with me during the first
week of school. In addition, many of the skills and strategies discussed in this reading will prove quite
useful when completing the first major writing assignment of the year.
Assignment #3 – Rhetorical Analysis
1. Pease borrow or purchase a copy of The Best American Essays of the Century (Mariner Press).
2. Close read and annotate (in the margins or on Post-it notes) “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin
Luther King, Jr.
3. Select, close read, and annotate another two (2) texts from the essays within The Best American Essays of
the Century. (Please do not select E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake” as this text is included in the 9
th
and 10
th
grade Language Arts curriculum).
3. Write three (3) short essays (one about “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and one about each of your chosen
texts) in which you analyze how the author’s rhetorical choices allows them to achieve their purpose. (The
resources included with Assignment #1 might be helpful in completing this portion of the assignment.)
The suggested word count for these essays is about 1500 words for all three.
Possible texts within and outside of The Best American Essays of the Century to choose from (this list is non-
exhaustive):
• Corn-Pone Opinions – Mark Twain
• Of the Coming of John – W.E.B. Du Bois
• Artists in Uniform – Mary McCarthy
• A Sweet Devouring – Eudora Welty
• The Crack-Up – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• They All Just Went Away – Joyce Carol Oates
• Looking For Zora – Alice Walker
• Total Eclipse – Annie Dillard
• The Hills of Zion – H.L. Mencken
• The College Try – Ashley Powers
• On Political Correctness – William Deresiewicz
• Good Neighbors – Tamara Dean
• Cat People vs. Dog People – Laura Miller
• On Being a Cripple – Nancy Mairs
• Are You Somebody? – Nuala O’Faolain
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In your mini-essays, please do your best to do the following:
• Respond to the prompt with a thesis that analyzes the writer’s rhetorical choices.
• Select and use evidence to develop and support your line of reasoning.
• Explain the relationship between the evidence and your thesis.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the text’s rhetorical situation.
• Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.
4. Please print your essays (compile them as one document) and bring it with you to class on the first day of
school.
General Guidelines
1. Please use the following guidelines when formatting your analytical responses (Assignment #3):
• Use 1” margins and double-spaced 12-point Times New Roman font.
• Put your name, date, and the teacher’s name in the upper left corner, single-spaced.
• Please include the title and author of the essay with each response.
• Indent the first line of each paragraph .25” (standard default tab).
• Do not add an extra space between paragraphs.
• Your work should be printed and stapled before class.
2. All assignments are due as per the dates and times previously listed. Printer, computer, or other
technical difficulties are not an excuse for late work.
3. These essays serve as individualized practice in developing your rhetorical analysis skills. In the second week
of school, you will respond to a timed Free Response Question (FRQ) that will assess your ability to
analyze a teacher-chosen text. See the rubric below (Page 5) for general guidelines and reference.
Academic Integrity
I take academic integrity seriously. All work is to be your own. Any sources used to help you complete the
project must be selected and cited appropriately according to MLA guidelines.
Students who violate WHS policy by cheating or plagiarizing will receive a zero for the assignment and
their parents/guardians will be contacted.
Please feel free to message me via Schoology with questions throughout the summer. I encourage you to
seek your own answers (from appropriate sources) before coming to me but know that I am always here to
help whenever and however I can.
Have a terrific summer! I look forward to meeting you in a few months.
Mr. Matthew McKenna
mmcke[email protected]
Mr. McKenna
AP English Lang. & Comp.
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Scoring Guide For AP English Language & Composition Argument Essays
Timed FRQs
9
25
Essays earning a score of 9 meet the criteria for 8 essays and, in addition, are especially sophisticated
in their argument, thorough in development or impressive in their control of language.
8
23.5
Essays earning a score of 8 EFFECTIVELY* establish and support their argument. The evidence
and explanations used are appropriate and convincing, and the argument is especially coherent
and well developed. The prose demonstrates a consistent ability to control a wide range of the
elements of effective writing but is not necessarily flawless.
7
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Essays earning a score of 7 fit the description of 6 essays but provide more complete explanation,
more thorough development, or a more mature prose style.
6
20.5
Essays earning a score of 6 ADEQUATELY establish and support their argument. The evidence
and explanations used are appropriate and sufficient, and the argument is coherent and
adequately developed. The writing may contain lapses in diction or syntax, but generally the
prose is clear.
5
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Essays earning a score of 5 establish and support their argument. The evidence or explanations used
may be uneven, inconsistent, or limited. The writing may contain lapses in diction or syntax, but it
usually conveys the writer’s ideas.
4
17.5
Essays earning a score of 4 INADEQUATELY establish and support their argument. The
evidence or explanations used may be inappropriate, insufficient, or less convincing. The
argument may have lapses in coherence or be inadequately developed. The prose generally
conveys the writer’s ideas but may be less consistent in controlling the elements of effective
writing.
3
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Essays earning a score of 3 meet the criteria for a score of 4 but demonstrate less success in
establishing and supporting their argument. The essays may show less maturity in control of
writing.
2
RW
Essays earning a score of 2 demonstrate LITTLE SUCCESS in establishing and supporting their
argument. These essays may misunderstand the prompt, or substitute a simpler task by
responding to the prompt tangentially with unrelated, inaccurate, or inappropriate explanation.
The prose often demonstrates consistent weaknesses in writing, such as grammatical problems,
a lack of development or organization, or a lack of control.
1
RW
Essays earning a score of 1 meet the criteria for a score of 2 but are undeveloped, especially simplistic
in their explanation, weak in their control of writing, or do not cite even one source.
0
RW
Indicates an on-topic response that receives no credit, such as one that merely repeats the
prompt. Indicates a blank response or one that is completely off topic.
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Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of common rhetorical terms that will be referred to throughout this
course this year. Review them, look for them in your reading, and consider applying them in your
writing. This is the beginning of your “rhetorical toolbox.”
Allegory - The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an
abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. The allegorical meaning usually deals with a moral
truth or a generalization about human existence.
Example: Animal Farm, George Orwell
Alliteration - The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants in two or more neighboring
words (as in “she sells seashells by the seashore”). Although the term is not used frequently in the
multiple-choice section, you can look for alliteration in any essay passage. The repetition can reinforce
meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, and/or echo the sense of the passage.
Allusion - A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known such as
an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Allusions can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or
mythical. There are many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of
allusion.
Ambiguity (am-bi-gyoo-i-tee) - The expression of an idea in such a way that more than one meaning is
suggested. Most if not all of the texts we will read this year contain some level of ambiguity. Being
comfortable with ambiguity is an important skill.
Analogy - A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.
An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to
something more familiar. Analogies can also make writing more vivid, imaginative, or intellectually
engaging.
An analogy is comparable to metaphor and simile in that it shows how two different things are similar,
but it’s a bit more complex. Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument.
The presenter of an analogy will often demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out shared
characteristics, with the goal of showing that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in
other ways as well.
Anaphora (uh-naf-er-uh) – One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or
words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences.
Example: “They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words,
without clothes or money.” – Richard de Bury
Anecdote – A short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event. The term most
frequently refers to an incident in the life of a person.
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Antecedent (an-tuh-seed-nt) - The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. The AP English
Lang. & Comp. exam occasionally asks for the antecedent of a given pronoun in a long, complex
sentence or in a group of sentences.
Example: “When Kris (antecedent) sprained his ankle, Coach Ames replaced him (personal
pronoun) with Jasper, a much slower runner.”
Antithesis (an-tih-theh-sis) – A syntactic strategy in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally
juxtaposed in the structure of a sentence through parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing ideas in
adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences. Antithesis creates a definite and systematic relationship
between ideas.
Example: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Aphorism – A terse statement of know authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral
principle. (If the authorship is unknown, the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb.)
An aphorism can be a memorable summation of the author’s point.
Apostrophe – A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a
personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot
answer. The effect is to display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back.
Example: William Wordsworth addresses John Milton as he writes, “Milton, thou shouldst be
living at this hour: /England hath need of thee.”
Asyndeton (uh-sin-di-tuhn): consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.
This can give the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored
account. Asyndetic lists can be more emphatic than if a final conjunction were used.
Example: On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame. They spent the day
wondering, searching, thinking, understanding.
Chiasmus (kahy-az-muhs) - From the Greek word for “criss-cross,” a designation based on the Greek
letter “chi,” written “X.” Chiasmus is a figure of speech in which two successive phrases or clauses are
parallel in syntax, but reverse the order of the analogous words.
Example: “The land was ours before we were the land’s” - Robert Frost
“Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.” – Lord Byron
Clause – A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent, or main, clause
expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. A dependent or subordinate clause
cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause. The point that
you want to consider is the question of what or why the author subordinates one element to the other.
You should also become aware of making effective use of subordination in your own writing.
Colloquial/colloquialism (kuj-loh-kwee-uhl) - The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing.
Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone.
Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects.
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Coherence - A principle demanding that the parts of any composition be arranged so that the
meaning of the whole may be immediately clear and intelligible. Words, phrases, clauses within the
sentence; and sentences, paragraphs, and chapters in larger pieces of writing are the unit that by their
progressive and logical arrangement, make for coherence.
Connotation - The nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning.
Connotations may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes.
Denotation – The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion attitude, or
color.
Diction – Related to style, diction refers to the writer’s word choices, especially with regard to their
correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. For the AP exam, you should be able to describe an author’s
diction (for example, formal or informal, ornate or plain) and understand the ways in which diction
can complement the author’s purpose. Diction, combined with syntax, figurative language, literary
devices, etc., creates an author’s style. (For a list words used to describe an author’s diction, refer to the
Diction & Tone Words handout.)
Didactic (dahy-dak-tik) – Used to describe the tone or purpose of a text. From the Greek, didactic
literally means “teaching.” Didactic works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially
the teaching of moral or ethical principles.
Ethos – Greek for “character.” Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and
trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say.
Euphemism (yoo-fuh-miz-uhm) - From the Greek for “good speech,” euphemisms are a more
agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. The euphemism may
be sued to adhere to standards of social or political correctness or to add humor or ironic
understatement.
Example: Saying “earthly remains” rather than “corpse” is an example of euphemism.
Exposition - In essays, one of the four chief types of composition, the others being argumentation,
description, and narration. The purpose of exposition is to explain something. In drama, the
exposition is the introductory material, which creates the tone, gives the setting, and introduces the
characters and conflict.
Extended metaphor – A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout
the work.
Figurative language – Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually
meant to be imaginative and vivid. Devices used to produce figurative language often compare
dissimilar things. Figures of speech include apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy,
oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement.
Genre – The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose,
poetry, and drama. However, genre is a flexible term; within these broad boundaries exist many
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subdivisions that are often called genres themselves. For example, prose can be divided into fiction
(novels and short stories) or nonfiction (essays, biographies, autobiographies, etc). Poetry can be
divided into lyric, dramatic, narrative, epic, etc. Drama can be divided into tragedy, comedy,
melodrama, farce, etc. On the AP exam, expect the majority of the passages to be from the following
genres: autobiography, biography, diaries, criticism, essays, and journalistic, political, scientific, and
nature writing.
Hyperbole (hahy-pur-buh-lee) – A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.
Hyperboles often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Often, hyperbole
produces irony.
Example: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!
Hypophora – Figure of reasoning in which one or more questions is/are asked and then answered,
often at length, by one and the same speaker; raising and responding to one’s own question(s). A
common usage is to ask the question at the beginning of a paragraph and then use the paragraph to
answer it. You can use hypophora to raise questions which you think the reader obviously has on
his/her mind and would like to see formulated and answered.
Example: “When the enemy struck on that June day of 1950, what did America do? It did what
it always has done in all its times of peril. It appealed to the heroism of its youth.” - Dwight D.
Eisenhower
Imagery - The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent
abstractions. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses; we refer to visual,
auditory, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory imagery. On a broader and deeper level, however, one image
can represent more than one thing. For example, a rose may present visual imagery while also
representing the color in a woman’s cheeks and/or symbolizing some degree of perfection. An author
may use complex imagery while simultaneously employing other figures of speech, especially
metaphor and simile. In addition, this term can apply to the total of all the images in a work. On the
AP exam, pay attention to how an author creates imagery and the effect of this imagery.
Inference/infer – To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. When a multiple-
choice question asks for an inference to be drawn from a passage, the most direct, most reasonable
inference is the safest answer choice. If an inference is implausible, it’s unlikely to be the correct
answer. Note that if the answer choice is directly stated, it is not inferred and is wrong. You must be
careful to note the connotation – negative or positive – of the choices.
Irony/ironic - The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant. The difference
between what appears to be and what actually is true. In general, there are three major types of irony
used in language:
verbal irony - the words literally state the opposite of the writer’s (or speaker’s) true meaning
situational irony - events turn out the opposite of what was expected, what the characters and
the readers think ought to happen
dramatic irony - facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction, but
known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work. Irony is used for many reasons,
but frequently, it’s used to create poignancy or humor
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Juxtaposition (juhk-stuh-puh-zish-uhn) - When two words, phrases, images, or ideas are placed close
together or side by side for comparison or contrast.
Litotes (lahy-toh-teez) – From the Greek word “simple” or “plain.” Litotes is a figure of speech in
which a point is affirmed by negating its opposite. It is a special form of understatement, where the
surface denial serves, through ironic contrast, to reinforce the underlying assertion.
Example: He’s no fool (which implies he is wise). Not uncommon (which implies that the act is
frequent).
Logos (low-gos) – Greek for “embodied thought.” Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering
clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back
them up.
Metaphor – A metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a
comparison between the two. The key words here are “one thing to mean another.” So, when someone
says, “He’s become a shell of a man,” we know not to take this literally, even though it’s stated directly
as if this person had actually lost his internal substance. Metaphorical language makes writing more
vivid, imaginative, thought provoking, and meaningful.
Metonymy (mi-ton-uh-mee) – A term from the Greek meaning “changed label” or “substitute name.”
Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another
closely associated with it. A news release that claims “the White House declared” rather that “the
President declared” is using metonymy. The substituted term generally carries a more potent
emotional response.
Mood – This term has two distinct technical meanings in English writing. The first meaning is
grammatical and deals with verbal units and a speaker’s attitude. The indicative mood is used only for
factual sentences. For example, “Joe eats too quickly.” The subjunctive mood is used to express
conditions contrary to fact. For example, “If I were you, I’d get another job.” The imperative mood is
used for commands. For example, “Shut the door!” The second meaning of mood is literary, meaning
the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect the mood.
Narrative – The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.
Onomatopoeia (on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh) – A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in
the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum, crack, whinny, and
murmur. If you notice examples of onomatopoeia in an essay passage, note the effect. They can add
humor, excitement, action, generate interest, or give a text a poetic or almost musical quality.
Oxymoron – From the Greek for “pointedly foolish,” an oxymoron is a figure of speech wherein the
author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox. Simple examples include “jumbo
shrimp” and “cruel kindness.” This term does not usually appear in the multiple-choice questions, but
there is a chance that you might find it in an essay. Take note of the effect that the author achieves
with this term.
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Paradox – A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon
closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity.
Parallelism – Also referred to as parallel construction or parallel structure, this term comes from
Greek roots meaning “beside one another.” It refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words,
phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. This can involve, but is not limited to
repetition of a grammatical element such as a preposition or verbal phrase. A famous example of
parallelism begins Charles Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities: “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 . . .” The effects of parallelism are numerous, but frequently they act as an
organizing force to attract the reader’s attention, add emphasis and organization, or simply provide a
musical rhythm.
Parody – A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic
effect and/or ridicule. As comedy, parody distorts or exaggerates distinctive features of the original. As
ridicule, it mimics the work by repeating and borrowing words, phrases, or characteristics in order to
illuminate weaknesses in the original. Well-written parody offers enlightenment about the original,
but poorly written parody offers only ineffective imitation. Usually an audience must grasp literary
allusion and understand the work being parodied in order to fully appreciate the nuances of the
newer work. SNL is famous for its parodies.
Pathos (pay-thos) – Greek for “suffering” or “experience.” Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally
motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience’s values, desires,
and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.
Periodic sentence – A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. This
independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. The effect of a periodic
sentence is to add emphasis and structural variety. It is also a much stronger sentence than the loose
sentence. The periodic sentence is a suspended sentence; in other words, the reader either does not
know who or what is being discussed and/or what is happening until the final word of the sentence. A
well-crafted periodic sentence often holds the reader in suspense. The reader anticipates something
important, but the writer holds it back, building tension, until the final moment of revelation. Notice
how one can underline the first
Example: “Spring, with new buds popping out, flowers blooming, and mild temperatures, is
my favorite season.”
Personification – A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or
inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions. Personification is used to
make these abstractions, animal, or objects appear more vivid to the reader.
Polysyndeton (polly-sin-dih-tawn) – Figure of addition and emphasis which intentionally employs a
series of conjunctions (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) not normally found in successive
words, phrases or clauses; the deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions in successive words or
clauses. The effect is a feeling of multiplicity, energetic enumeration, and building up – a persistence
or intensity.
Example: “They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and talked and flunked.”
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Prose – Ordinary writing that uses paragraphs and sentences. One of the major divisions of genre,
prose refers to fiction and non-fiction, including all its forms. In prose, the printer determines the
length of the line; in poetry, the poet determines the length of the line.
Repetition - The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a
sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. When you notice the use of repetition
in a passage, note the specific effect that is created.
Rhetorical modes - This flexible term describes the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major
kinds of writing. (For a more thorough description, refer to the Rhetorical Modes handout.)
Rhetorical Question – Differs from hypophora in that it is not answered by the writer because its
answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no answer would suffice. It is used for
effect, emphasis, or provocation, or for drawing a concluding statement from the fact at hand.
Example: “We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into being without it?
What does Nature hold dearer, or more proper to herself? Could you have a hot bath unless
the firewood underwent some change? Could you be nourished if the food suffered no change?
Do you not see, then, that change in yourself is the same order, and no less necessary to
Nature?” – Marcus Aurelius
Sarcasm – From the Greek meaning “to tear flesh,” sarcasm involves bitter, caustic language that is
meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. It may use irony as a device, but not all ironic
statements are sarcastic, that is, intended to ridicule. When well done, sarcasm can be witty and
insightful; when done poorly, it’s simply cruel.
Satire – A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform
or ridicule. Regardless of whether or not the work aims to reform human behavior, satire is best seen
as a style of writing rather than a purpose for writing. It can be recognized by the many devices used
effectively by the satirist: irony, wit, parody, caricature, hyperbole, understatement, and sarcasm. The
effects of satire are varied, depending on the writer’s goal, but good satire, often humorous, is thought
provoking and insightful about the human condition.
Simile - A type of metaphor that compares two different things in order to create a new meaning. In
this case, we are made explicitly aware that a comparison is being made due to the use of “like” or “as.”
Example: “He’s like a shell of a man”.
Subordinate clause - A word group containing a subject and a verb (plus any accompanying phrases
or modifiers), but unlike the independent clause, the subordinate clause cannot stand alone; it does
not express a complete thought. Also called a dependent clause, the subordinate clause depends on a
main clause, sometimes called an independent clause, to complete its meaning. Easily recognized key
words and phrases usually begin these clauses, for example: although, because, unless, if even though
since, as soon as, while who, when, where, how and that.
Syllogism (sil-uh-jiz-um)– From the Greek for “reckoning together, “ a syllogism (or syllogistic-
reasoning or syllogistic logic is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises (the first
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one called “major” and the second, “minor”) that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. A frequently
cited example proceeds as follows:
Major premise: All men are mortal.
Minor premise: Socrates is a man.
Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
A syllogism’s conclusion is valid only if each of the two premises is valid. Syllogisms may also present
the specific idea first (“Socrates”) and the general second (“All men”_). A syllogism differs from an
enthymeme in that a syllogism’s major premise is stated, while an enthymeme’s major premise is
unstated or assumed.
Symbol/symbolism – Generally, anything that represents itself and stands for something else. Usually
a symbol is something concrete – such as object, action, character, or scene – that represents
something more abstract.
Synecdoche (si-nek-duh-kee) – 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 Joe has two hundred head of cattle [whole cattle], and three hired hands
[whole people]. If we had some wheels [whole vehicle], I’d put on my best threads [clothes]
and ask for Jane’s hand [hopefully her whole person] in marriage.
Syntax – The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is
similar to diction, but you can differentiate them by thinking of syntax as the groups of words, while
diction refers to the individual words.
Theme - The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually theme is unstated
in fictional works, but in nonfiction, the theme may be directly stated, especially in expository or
argumentative writing.
Thesis – In expository writing, the thesis statement is the sentence or a group of sentences that
directly expresses the author’s opinion, purpose, meaning, or position. Expository writing is usually
judged by analyzing how accurately, effectively, and thoroughly a writer has proved the thesis.
Tone – Similar to mood, tone describes the author’s attitude toward his material, the audience, or
both. Tone is easier to determine in spoken language than in written language.
Considering how a work would sound if it were read aloud can help in identifying an author’s tone.
(For a list words used to describe the tone of a text, refer to the Diction & Tone Words handout.)
Transition – A word or phrase that links different ideas. Used especially, although not exclusively, in
expository and argumentative writing, transitions effectively signal a shift from one idea to another. A
few commonly used transitional words or phrases are furthermore, consequently, nevertheless, for
example, in addition, likewise, similarly, and on the contrary. More sophisticated writers use more subtle
means of transition.
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Understatement – A satirical device involving the ironic minimizing of fact, or presenting something
as less significant than it is. The effect can frequently be humorous and emphatic. Understatement is
the opposite of hyperbole.
Example: “The 1906 San Francisco earthquake interrupted business somewhat in the
downtown area.
Undertone - An attitude that may lie under the ostensible tone of the piece. Under a cheery surface,
for example, a work may have threatening undertones. William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” from
the Songs of Innocence has a grim undertone.
Wit – In modern usage, intellectually amazing language that surprises and delights. A witty statement
is humorous, while suggesting the speaker’s verbal power in creating ingenious and perceptive
remarks. Wit usually uses terse language that makes a pointed statement.
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Mr. McKenna
AP English Lang. & Comp.
Patterns of Development*
Writers choose to employ various patterns of development (also called “modes”) depending on the
purpose(s) they’re trying to achieve. Is the writer’s purpose to compare and contrast, to narrate an
event, to define a term? Each of these purposes suggests a method of organization or arrangement.
These patterns of development include a range of logical ways to organize an entire text or, more
likely, individual paragraphs or sections within a text. Here’s an overview of the major patterns of
development along with some examples of way in which they can be employed.
Narration
Narration refers to telling a story or recounting a series of events. It can be based on personal
experience or on knowledge gained from reading or observation. Chronology usually governs
narration, which includes concrete detail, a point of view, and sometimes such elements as dialogue.
Narration is not simply crafting an appealing story; it is crafting a story that supports your thesis.
Writers often use narration as a way to enter into their topics. In the following example, Rebecca
Walker tells a story about her son to lead into her explanation of why she put together the anthology
Putting Down the Gun (p. 412).
The idea for this book was born one night after a grueling conversation with my then eleven-
year-old son. He had come home from his progressive middle school unnaturally quiet and
withdrawn, shrugging off my questions of concern with uncharacteristic irritability. Where
was the sunny, chatty boy I dropped off that morning? What had befallen him in the perilous
halls of middle school? I backed off but kept a close eye on him, watching for clues.
After a big bowl of his favorite pasta, he sat on a sofa in my study and read his science textbook
as I wrote at my desk. We both enjoyed this simple yet profound togetherness, the two of us
focused on our own projects yet palpably connected. As we worked under the soft glow of
paper lanterns, with the heat on high and our little dog snoring at his feet, my son began to
relax. I could feel a shift as he began to remember, deep in his body, that he was home, that he
was safe, that he did not have to brace to protect himself from the expectations of the outside
world.
Walker brings her audience into her experience with her son by narrating step-by-step what
happened and what she noticed when he returned from school. It’s not only a personal story but also
one that she will show has wider significance in the culture. Narration has the advantage of drawing
readers in because everyone loves a good story.
Description
Description is closely allied with narration because both include many specific details. However,
unlike narration, description emphasizes the senses by painting a picture of how something looks,
sounds, smells, tastes, or feels. Description is often used to establish a mood or atmosphere. Rarely is
an entire essay descriptive, but clear and vivid description can make writing more persuasive. By
asking readers to see what you see and feel what you feel, you make it easy for them to empathize with
you, your subject, or your argument. In the following example from “Serving in Florida” (p. 179),
Barbara Ehrenreich describes her coworkers:
I make friends, over time, with the other “girls” who work my shift: Nita, the tattooed twenty-
something who taunts us by going around saying brightly, “Have we started making money
15
yet?” Ellen, whose teenage son cooks on the graveyard shift and who once managed a
restaurant in Massachusetts but won’t try out for management here because she prefers being
a “common worker” and not “ordering people around.” Easy-going fiftyish Lucy, with the
raucous laugh, who limps toward the end of the shift because of something that has gone
wrong with her leg, the exact nature of which cannot be determined without health insurance.
We talk about the usual girl things — men, children, and the sinister allure of Jerry’s chocolate
peanut-butter cream pie.
Ehrenreich’s primary purpose here is to humanize her coworkers and make her readers understand
their struggle to survive on the minimum wage. To achieve this, she makes them specific living-and-
breathing human beings who are “tattooed” or have a “raucous laugh.”
Narration and description often work hand in hand, as in the following paragraph from “Shooting an
Elephant” (p. 979) by George Orwell. The author narrates the death throes of the elephant in such
dense and vivid detail that we mourn the loss and realize that something extraordinary has died, and
the narrator (Orwell), like all of us, is diminished by that passing — which is the point Orwell wants us
to understand:
When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick — one never does when a
shot goes home — but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd. In that
instant, in too short a time, one would have thought, even for the bullet to get there, a
mysterious, terrible change had come over the elephant. He neither stirred nor fell, but every
line of his body had altered. He looked suddenly stricken, shrunken, immensely old, as though
the frightful impact of the bullet had paralysed him without knocking him down. At last, after
what seemed a long time — it might have been five seconds, I dare say — he sagged flabbily to
his knees. His mouth slobbered. An enormous senility seemed to have settled upon him. One
could have imagined him thousands of years old. I fired again into the same spot. At the second
shot he did not collapse but climbed with desperate slowness to his feet and stood weakly
upright, with legs sagging and head drooping. I fired a third time. That was the shot that did for
him. You could see the agony of it jolt his whole body and knock the last remnant of strength
from his legs.
But in falling he seemed for a moment to rise, for as his hind legs collapsed beneath him he
seemed to tower upward like a huge rock toppling, his trunk reaching skyward like a tree. He
trumpeted, for the first and only time. And then down he came, his belly towards me, with a
crash that seemed to shake the ground even where I lay.
Note the emotionally charged language, such as “devilish roar of glee,” and the strong verbs such as
“slobbered,” “did not collapse but climbed.” Note the descriptive details: “jolt,” “sagging,” “drooping,”
“desperate slowness.” The language is so vivid that we feel as though a drawing or painting is
emerging with each detail the author adds.
Process Analysis
Process analysis explains how something works, how to do something, or how something was done.
We use process analysis when we explain how to bake bread or set up an Excel spreadsheet, how to
improve a difficult situation or assemble a treadmill. Many self-help books are essentially process
analysis. The key to successful process analysis is clarity: it’s important to explain a subject clearly
and logically, with transitions that mark the sequence of major steps, stages, or phases of the process.
In the essay “Transsexual Frogs”(p. 655), Elizabeth Royte uses process analysis to explain the research
of Tyrone Hayes, a biologist at the University of California at Berkeley investigating the impact of the
pesticide atrazine.
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The next summer Hayes headed into the field. He loaded a refrigerated 18wheel truck with
500 half-gallon buckets and drove east, followed by his students. He parked near an Indiana
farm, a Wyoming river, and a Utah pond, filled his buckets with 18,000 pounds of water, and
then turned his rig back toward Berkeley. He thawed the frozen water, poured it into
hundreds of individual tanks, and dropped in thousands of leopard-frog eggs collected en
route. To find out if frogs in the wild showed hermaphroditism, Hayes dissected juveniles
from numerous sites. To see if frogs were vulnerable as adults, and if the effects were
reversible, he exposed them to atrazine at different stages of their development.
In this example, Royte explains how something was done, that is, the actual physical journey that
Hayes took when he “headed into the field”: he traveled from California to Indiana, Wyoming, Utah,
and back to California. The verbs themselves emphasize the process of his work: he “loaded,”
“parked,” “filled,” “turned . . . back,” “thawed,” “poured,” and “dropped.”
Exemplification
Providing a series of examples — facts, specific cases, or instances — turns a general idea into a
concrete one; this makes your argument both clearer and more persuasive to a reader. A writer might
use one extended example or a series of related ones to illustrate a point. You’re probably familiar
with this type of development. How many times have you tried to explain something by saying, “Let
me give you an example”?
Aristotle taught that examples are a type of logical proof called induction. That is, a series of specific
examples leads to a general conclusion. If you believe, for example, that hip-hop culture has gone
mainstream, you might cite a series of examples that leads to that conclusion. For example, you could
discuss hip-hop music in chain-store advertising, the language of hip-hop gaining widespread
acceptance, and entertainers from many different backgrounds integrating elements of hip-hop into
their music.
In the following paragraph from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” (p. 89), Francine Prose
establishes the wide and, she believes, indiscriminate range of readings assigned in high school classes
by giving many examples of those her own sons have read:
My own two sons, now twenty-one and seventeen, have read (in public and private schools)
Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and Melville. But they’ve also slogged repeatedly through the
manipulative melodramas of Alice Walker and Maya Angelou, through sentimental
middlebrow favorites (To Kill a Mockingbird and A Separate Peace), the weaker novels of John
Steinbeck, the fantasies of Ray Bradbury. My older son spent the first several weeks of
sophomore English discussing the class’s summer assignment, Ordinary People, a weeper and
former bestseller by Judith Guest about a “dysfunctional” family recovering from a teenage
son’s suicide.
Prose develops her point by giving examples of authors, novels, and types of novels. But only in the
case of Ordinary People does she discuss the example. The others are there to support her point about
the rather random nature of books assigned in high school classrooms.
In the following paragraph, instead of giving several examples, Prose uses one extended example to
make the point that even so-called great literature is often poorly taught. Note how she mines the
example of Huckleberry Finn to discuss the various objections and concerns she has about teaching:
It’s cheering that so many lists include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — but not when we
discover that this moving, funny novel is being taught not as a work of art but as a piece of
damning evidence against that bigot, Mark Twain. A friend’s daughter’s English teacher
informed a group of parents that the only reason to study Huckleberry Finn was to decide
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whether it was a racist text. Instructors consulting Teaching Values Through Teaching Literature
will have resolved this debate long before they walk into the classroom to supervise “a close
reading of Huckleberry Finn that will reveal the various ways in which Twain undercuts Jim’s
humanity: in the minstrel routines with Huck as the ‘straight man’; in generalities about Blacks
as unreliable, primitive and slow-witted. . . .”
By examining one case in depth — Huckleberry Finn — Prose considers the novel itself, ways it is
taught, and the suggestions in one book of how to teach it. Note that she might have brought in other
examples, treating each briefly, but focusing on one book allows her to examine the issue more
closely.
Comparison and Contrast
A common pattern of development is comparison and contrast: juxtaposing two things to highlight
their similarities and differences. Writers use comparison and contrast to analyze information
carefully, which often reveals insights into the nature of the information being analyzed. Comparison
and contrast is often required on examinations where you have to discuss the subtle differences or
similarities in the method, style, or purpose of two texts.
In the following excerpt from “Walking the Path between Worlds” (p. 300), Lori Arviso Alvord
compares and contrasts the landscape and culture of her home in the Southwest with that of New
England and Dartmouth College:
My memories of my arrival in Hanover, New Hampshire, are mostly of the color green. Green
cloaked the hillsides, crawled up the ivied walls, and was reflected in the river where the
Dartmouth crew students sculled. For a girl who had never been far from Crownpoint, New
Mexico, the green felt incredibly juicy, lush, beautiful, and threatening. Crownpoint had had
vast acreage of sky and sand, but aside from the pastel scrub brush, mesquite, and chamiso,
practically the only growing things there were the tiny stunted pines called pinion trees. Yet it
is beautiful; you can see the edges and contours of red earth stretching all the way to the
boxshaped faraway cliffs and the horizon. No horizon was in sight in Hanover, only trees. I felt
claustrophobic.
If the physical contrasts were striking, the cultural ones were even more so. Although I felt
lucky to be there, I was in complete culture shock. I thought people talked too much, laughed
too loud, asked too many personal questions, and had no respect for privacy. They seemed
overly competitive and put a higher value on material wealth than I was used to. Navajos
placed much more emphasis on a person’s relations to family, clan, tribe, and the other
inhabitants of the earth, both human and nonhuman, than on possessions. Everyone at home
followed unwritten codes for behavior. We were taught to be humble and not to draw attention
to ourselves, to favor cooperation over competition (so as not to make ourselves “look better” at
another’s expense or hurt someone’s feelings), to value silence over words, to respect our
elders, and to reserve our opinions until they were asked for.
In the first paragraph, Arviso emphasizes the physical details of the landscape, so her comparison and
contrast relies on description. In the second paragraph, she is more analytical as she examines the
behavior. Although she does not make a judgment directly, in both paragraphs she leads her readers
to understand her conclusion that her New Mexico home — the landscape and its inhabitants — is
what she prefers.
Comparisons and contrasts, whether as a full essay or a paragraph, can be organized in two ways:
subject-by-subject or point by point. In a subject by subject analysis, the writer discusses all elements
of one subject, then turns to another. For instance, a comparison and contrast of two presidential
candidates by subject would present a full discussion of the first candidate, then the second
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candidate. A point-by-point analysis is organized around the specific points of a discussion. So, a
point-by-point analysis of two presidential candidates might discuss their education, then their
experience, then the vision each has for the country. Arviso uses point-by-point analysis as she first
compares and contrasts the landscapes and then the cultures of both places.
Classification and Division
It is important for readers as well as writers to be able to sort material or ideas into major categories.
By answering the question, “What goes together and why?” writers and readers can make connections
between things that might otherwise seem unrelated. In some cases, the categories are ready-made,
such as single, married, divorced, or widowed. In other cases, you might be asked either to analyze an
essay that offers categories or to apply them. For instance, you might classify the books you’re reading
in class according to the categories Francis Bacon defined: “Some books are meant to be tasted, others
to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Most of the time, a writer’s task is to develop his or her own categories, to find a distinctive way of
breaking down a larger idea or concept into parts. For example, in “Politics and the English
Language” (p. 529), George Orwell sets up categories of imprecise and stale writing: “dying
metaphors,” “operators of verbal false limbs,” “pretentious diction,” and “meaningless words.” He
explains each in a paragraph with several examples and analysis. Classification and division is not the
organization for his entire essay, however, because he is making a larger cause and-effect argument
that sloppy language leads to sloppy thinking; nevertheless, his classification scheme allows him to
explore in a systematic way what he sees as problems.
In Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue”(p.542) she classifies the “Englishes” she speaks into categories of
public and private spheres:
Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use. I was giving a talk to a
large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. The
nature of the talk was about my writing, my life, and my book, The Joy Luck Club. The talk was
going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk
sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard
me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her. I was saying
things like “The intersection of memory upon imagination” and “There is an aspect of my
fiction that related to thusand-thus” — speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical
phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses,
conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and
through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.
Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself
conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the
price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: “Not waste money that way.”
My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t notice any switch in my Englishes. And then I
realized why. It’s because over the twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used that same
kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language
of intimacy, a different sort of English that related to family talk, the language I grew up with.
Tan does not start out by identifying two categories, but as she describes them she classifies her
“Englishes” as the English she learned in school and in books and the language of intimacy she
learned at home.
Definition
So many discussions depend upon definition. In examining the benefits of attending an Ivy League
school, for instance, we need to define Ivy League before we can have a meaningful conversation. If we
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are evaluating a program’s success, we must define what qualifies as success. Before we can determine
whether certain behavior is or is not patriotic, we must define the term. Ratings systems for movies
must carefully define violence. To ensure that writers and their audiences are speaking the same
language, definition may lay the foundation to establish common ground or identifying areas of
conflict.
Defining a term is often the first step in a debate or disagreement. In some cases, definition is only a
paragraph or two that clarify terms, but in other cases, the purpose of an entire essay is to establish a
definition. In Jane Howard’s essay “In Search of the Good Family” (p. 283), she explores the meaning
of family, a common enough term, yet one she redefines. She opens by identifying similar terms: “Call
it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.” She contrasts the traditional “blood family”
with “new families . . . [that] consist of friends of the road, ascribed by chance, or friends of the heart,
achieved by choice.” She develops her essay by first establishing the need we all have for a network of
“kin” who may or may not be blood relatives. Then she analyzes ten characteristics that define a
family. Here is one:
Good families prize their rituals. Nothing welds a family more than these. Rituals are vital
especially for clans without histories because they evoke a past, imply a future, and hint at
continuity. No line in the seder service at Passover reassures more than the last: “Next year in
Jerusalem!” A clan becomes more of a clan each time it gathers to observe a fixed ritual
(Christmas, birthdays, Thanksgiving, and so on), grieves at a funeral (anyone may come to
most funerals; those who do declare their tribalness), and devises a new rite of its own. Equinox
breakfasts can be at least as welding as Memorial Day parades. Several of my colleagues and I
used to meet for lunch every Pearl Harbor Day, preferably to eat some politically neutral fare
like smorgasbord, to “forgive” our only ancestrally Japanese friend, Irene Kubota Neves. For
that and other things we became, and remain, a sort of family.
Howard explains the purpose of rituals in her opening paragraph and then provides specific examples
to explain what she means by rituals. She offers such a variety of them that her readers cannot fail to
understand the flexibility and openness she associates with her definition of family.
Cause and Effect
Analyzing the causes that lead to a certain effect or, conversely, the effects that result from a cause is a
powerful foundation for argument. Rachel Carson’s case for the unintended and unexpected effects of
the pesticide DDT in Silent Spring is legendary (p. 798). Although she uses a number of different
methods to organize and develop her analysis, this simple — or not so simple — causal link is the
basis of everything that follows. On a similar topic, Terry Tempest Williams in “The Clan of One-
Breasted Women”(p. 816) proceeds from the effect she sees — the breast cancer that has affected the
women in her family — to argue that the cause is environmental.
Since causal analysis depends upon crystal clear logic, it is important to carefully trace a chain of
cause and effect and to recognize possible contributing causes. You don’t want to jump to the
conclusion that there is only one cause or one result, nor do you want to mistake an effect for an
underlying cause. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (p. 260), for instance, Martin Luther King Jr. points
out that his critics had mistaken a cause for an effect: the protests of the civil rights movement were
not the cause of violence but the effect of segregation.
Cause and effect is often signaled by a why in the title or the opening paragraph. In “I Know Why the
Caged Bird Cannot Read”(p. 89), Francine Prose sets out what she believes are the causes for high
school students’ lack of enthusiasm for reading: “Given the dreariness with which literature is taught
in many American classrooms, it seems miraculous that any sentient teenager would view reading as a
source of pleasure.” In the following paragraph, she explains the positive effects of reading classical
literature:
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Great novels can help us master the all-too-rare skill of tolerating — of being able to hold in
mind — ambiguity and contradiction. Jay Gatsby has a shady past, but he’s also sympathetic.
Huck Finn is a liar, but we come to love him. A friend’s student once wrote that Alice Munro’s
characters weren’t people he’d choose to hang out with but that reading her work always made
him feel “a little less petty and judgmental.” Such benefits are denied to the young reader
exposed only to books with banal, simple-minded moral equations as well as to the students
encouraged to come up with reductive, wrong-headed readings of multilayered texts.
In her analysis, Prose argues for the positive effects of reading canonical literature, and she provides
several examples. She concludes by pointing out that teaching less challenging works, or teaching
more challenging works without acknowledging their complexity, has the effect of encouraging
unclear or superficial thinking.
*Adapted from The Language of Composition © 2019 Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers
21
Mr. McKenna
AP English Lang. & Comp.
Diction & Tone Words
Diction is the author’s word choice, while the tone of a text is the writer’s attitude toward their
subject, characters, or audience. The two are often related as authors choose to use certain words in
order to convey their attitude about the subject. Here is a list of words and synonyms that can be used
to describe an author’s diction and/or tone:
1. allusive – intimate, suggest, connote
2. angry – mad, furious, irate
3. bantering – good-natured teasing, ridicule, joking
4. benevolent – magnanimous, generous, noble
5. burlesque – mockery, sham, spoof, parody
6. candid – clear, frank, genuine, sincere
7. clinical - direct, detached, scientific, impersonal
8. colloquial –common, ordinary, vernacular
9. compassionate – kindly, sympathetic, benevolent
10. complimentary – flattering, approving, laudatory
11. concerned – touched, affected, influenced
12. condescending – scornful, contemptuous, disdainful
13. confident – positive, certain, assured
14. contemptuous – pompous, arrogant, superior, haughty
15. contentious – argumentative, quarrelsome, pugnacious
16. cynical – adverse, suspicious, opposed, doubtful, dubious
17. detached – separated, severed, apathetic
18. didactic – instructive, edifying, moralistic, pedagogic
19. diffident – retiring, timid, hesitant, bashful
20. disdainful – haughty, arrogant, supercilious
21. dramatic – exciting, moving, sensational, emotional
22. effusive – talkative, verbose, profuse
23. elegiac – sad, mournful, plaintive (like an elegy)
24. factious – dissident, rebellious, insubordinate
25. factual – authentic, genuine, truthful
26. fanciful – capricious, extravagant, whimsical
27. flippant – offhand, facetious, frivolous
28. impartial – equitable, unbiased, dispassionate
29. incisive – cutting, biting, penetrating
30. indignant – angry, irritated, resentful
31. inflammatory – angry, arousing strong emotion
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32. informative – expository, communicative, disclosing
33. insipid – flat, bland, tedious, banal (commonplace)
34. insolent – insulting, brazen, rude, contemptuous
35. ironic – contradictory, implausible, incongruous
36. irreverent – profane, impious, blasphemous, ungodly
37. learned – skilled, experienced, professional
38. lugubrious – gloomy, dismal, melancholy, somber
39. maudlin – sentimental, mushy, gushing, insipid
40. mock-heroic – mimicking courage (pretend)
41. mock-serious – mimicking solemnity (pretend)
42. moralistic – virtuous, righteous, blameless
43. objective – impartial, detached, impersonal
44. patronizing – condescending, scornful, disdainful
45. pedantic – academic, bookish, scholastic
46. petty – trivial, insignificant, narrow-minded
47. pretentious – arrogant, boastful, conceited
48. restrained – unwilling, hesitant, reluctant
49. sardonic – cutting, biting, penetrating, satirical
50. satirical – lampooning, facetious
51. scornful – bitter, caustic, acrimonious, mordant
52. sentimental – emotional, mushy, maudlin (tearful)
53. somber – serious, gloomy, dismal, shadowy
54. sympathetic – supportive, favorable, considerate
55. taunting – contemptuous, insulting, derisive
56. terse – concise, succinct, pithy, pointed
57. turgid – pompous, bloated, swollen, distended
58. urgent – compelling, demanding, imperative, pressing
59. vibrant – resonant, active, resounding
60. whimsical – flippant, frivolous, light-hearted, dainty
