A VERY INCOMPLETE GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Rhetoric: All of the methods by which meanings are communicated
Rhetor: The source of the communication—writer, speaker, filmmaker, photographer, etc.
Euphemism: An alternative word choice that alters (usually softens) the rhetorical effect (“die” vs. “pass away” vs. “in a better place”). Different choices of language signal different implications and underlying philosophies. Euphemisms tend to distance the audience from the subject, using more vague and imprecise language (“collateral damage” vs. “unintended killings,” “got the better end of the deal,” vs. “swindled the other guy”).
Paraphrase: An alternative phrasing of an author’s original language. Don’t paraphrase simply to pretend an author’s arguments or content are your ideas, or to avoid accusations of plagiarism. Instead, paraphrase in order to reveal something that wasn’t obvious in the author’s original words. Effective paraphrases make the implicit explicit (“What she’s saying here is...”) Always give credit to your sources, even when you paraphrase.
Summary: Similar to paraphrase (in that you choose your own words to describe an author’s argument), except in a summary, you compress large portions of text into a much smaller space. You’ll need to choose specific things to focus on in a summary. You aren’t trying to restate every claim and every piece of evidence. Instead, choose smaller parts of the text that are relevant to your work and explain how you want your reader to understand them.
Quotation: A rhetor’s exact language reproduced with precise accuracy (no words changed!), attributed to them, and presented in quotation marks. (She said, “This is what a quotation looks like.”)
Analysis: An examination and logical interpretation of evidence. Analysis does not set out to prove an existing claim. Instead, analysis examines evidence, then asks what can