Cacography - Cut Spelling

1. Bad handwriting. 2. Bad spelling.

A word or expression that is generally perceived as harsh, impolite, or offensive.

A traditional rhetorical term for wordiness, stylistic excess, and "perverse affectation"--in particular, the excessive use of foreign and archaic words to impress an audience.

A variety of the English language that is used in Canada.

See "rhetorical canons."

See "argot."

Capitalization is the practice of using capital letters in writing or printing.

The form of an alphabetical letter used to begin a sentence or proper noun; an uppercase letter.

A number (such as 1, 2, or 3) used in counting to indicate quantity but not order.

A general term for the varieties of the English language used in the Caribbean archipelago and on the Caribbean coast of Central America

Visual art or descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates certain features of a subject to create a comic or absurd effect.

Case refers to the grammatical relationship of nouns and pronouns to other words in a sentence.

An extreme, far-fetched, or mixed metaphor; strained or deliberately paradoxical figure of speech; substitution of an inexact word in place of the correct one.

(1) A word used in a figurative sense to remedy a gap in the lexicon. (2) A type of strained metaphor that is logically misused but may be figuratively effective.

See "series."

The use of a pronoun or other linguistic unit to refer ahead to another word in a sentence.

A vogue expression, often media-inspired and usually short-lived.

Direct exposure of an adversary's faults.

A verb that can link with other verbs to form a chain or series.

A verb used to indicate that some person or thing helps to make something happen.

A method of paragraph or essay development in which a writer analyzes the reasons for (and/or the consequences of) an action, event or decision.

A brief descriptive sketch of a class or type of person rather than an individual personality.

An individual (usually a person) in a narrative (usually a work of fiction or creative nonfiction).

A name that suggests the personality traits of a fictional character.

A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

An imprecise term for a nonstandard variety of the English language influenced by the Spanish language and spoken as a native dialect by both bilingual and monolingual speakers.

Speech or writing in English that shows the influence of Chinese language and culture.

The practice and study of persuasive discourse in China.

A sarcastic reply that mocks an opponent, leaving him or her without an answer.

An elementary exercise, or progymnasmata, in which the speaker or writer comments briefly on a famous event or saying.

In composition, a method of organization in which actions or events are presented as they occur (or occurred) in time.

In studies of language acquisition, several words that are customarily used together in a fixed expression.

An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove.

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language to avoid getting to the point.

A source quoted in an essay, report, or book to clarify, illustrate, or substantiate a point.

A claim is an arguable statement.

A letter sent by a customer to a business or agency to identify a problem with a product or service. Also known as a letter of complaint.

A word evoked not by logic or meaning but by its similarity in sound to another word.

A characteristic of any prose composition that communicates effectively with its intended audience.

The practice and teaching of rhetoric in ancient Greece and Rome from roughly the fifth century B.C. to the early Middle Ages.

A method of paragraph or essay development in which a writer arranges people, objects, or ideas with shared characteristics into classes or groups.

A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.

A construction in which some element in a sentence is moved from its normal position into a separate clause to give it greater emphasis.

A trite expression--often a figure of speech whose effectiveness has been worn out through overuse and excessive familiarity.

Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events.

In a narrative, the turning point in the action and/or the highest point of interest or excitement.

See "clipping."

A clipping is a word formed by dropping one or more syllables from a polysyllabic word, such as "cell" from "cellular phone."

A word that is structurally dependent on a neighboring word and cannot stand on its own.

The category of function words--that is, parts of speech (or word classes) that do not readily accept new members.

A thoughtful, disciplined reading of a text or other object.

An invention and discovery strategy in which the writer groups ideas in a nonlinear fashion, using lines and circles to indicate relationships.

Code switching is the practice of shifting back and forth between two languages or between two dialects or registers of the same language.

A cognate is a word that is related in origin to another word.

A usage-based approach to grammar that emphasizes symbolic and semantic definitions of theoretical concepts that have traditionally been analyzed as purely syntactic.

A cluster of overlapping approaches to the study of language as a mental phenomenon.

A quality of sentences, paragraphs, and essays when all parts are clearly connected.

The use of transitional expressions and other stylistic devices to guide readers and show how the parts of a composition relate to one other.

Two or more persons working together to produce a written document.

In composition studies, a discontinuous essay form made up of discrete bits of discourse--description, dialogue, narrative, explanation, and the like.

A noun (such as "team" or "family") that refers to a collection of individuals.

A familiar grouping of words, especially words that habitually appear together and thereby convey meaning by association.

Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English.

An informal expression that is more often used in casual conversation than in formal speech or writing.

Mark of punctuation ( : ) used after a statement that introduces a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a series.

In linguistics, the hypothesis that colonial varieties of a language change less than the variety spoken in the mother country.

The comma is a punctuation mark ( , ) used to indicate a separation of ideas or of elements within a sentence.

Two independent clauses separated by a comma instead of a period or semicolon. Usually considered an error.

A short word group (such as "you see" and "I think") that adds a parenthetical remark to another word group.

The ordinary base form of a noun.

In rhetoric and communication, a basis of mutual interest or agreement that is found or established in the course of an argument.

A noun that can be preceded by the definite article and that represents one or all of the members of a class.

Any statement or bit of knowledge that is commonly shared among a given audience or a community.

A writer's personal collection of quotations, observations, and topic ideas.

Repetition of a point several times in different words.

Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages through verbal or nonverbal means--speech (oral communication), writing (written communication), signs, signals, or behavior.

The exchange of information (a "message") between two or more people.

Communicative competence refers to both the tacit knowledge of a language and the ability to use it.

The form of an adjective or adverb involving a comparison of more or less, greater or lesser.

A type of subordinate clause that follows "as," "than," or "like" and expresses a comparison.

Comparative grammar is the analysis and comparison of the grammatical structures of related languages or dialects.

A rhetorical strategy in which a writer examines similarities and/or differences between two people, places, ideas, or objects.

See "mental grammar."

A word or word group that completes the predicate in a sentence.

A subordinate clause that serves to complete the meaning of a noun or verb in a sentence.

A word (such as "that" or "if") or part of a word used to introduce a complement clause.

A metaphor (or figurative comparison) in which the literal meaning is expressed through more than one figurative term. Similar to a "telescoped metaphor."

A complex preposition is a word group (such as "on account of") that functions like a single preposition.

A fallacy in which the answer to a given question presupposes a prior answer to a prior question.

A sentence that contains at least one independent clause and one dependent clause.

A verb that requires both a direct object and an object complement.

A word made up of two or more morphemes.

(1) The process of putting words and sentences together in conventional patterns. (2) An essay, usually brief and written for training purposes. (3) A college writing course (also called freshman composition), often required of first-year students.

The theory and practice of writing instruction, especially as it is carried out in composition courses in colleges and universities in the United States.

Two or more words (such as "part-time" or "high-speed") that act as a single idea to modify a noun.

A sentence with two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Compounding is the process of combining two words to create a new word (commonly a noun, verb, or adjective).

Two or more nouns combined to form a single noun.

A sentence that contains at least two independent clauses.

A subject that consists of two or more simple subjects joined by a coordinating conjunction and that have the same predicate.

A literary and rhetorical term for an elaborate or strained figure of speech, usually a metaphor or simile.

In studies of metaphor, the representation of any coherent segment of experience, such as the concepts of love or journeys.

The understanding of one idea (or conceptual domain) in terms of another.

Argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer concedes a disputed point or leaves a disputed point to the audience or reader to decide.

A characteristic of a speech or prose composition in which a great deal is conveyed in just a few words.

The proposition that follows logically from the major and minor premises in a syllogism.

The sentences or paragraphs that bring an essay to a satisfying and logical end.

Concord is another term for grammatical agreement between two words in a sentence.

A noun (such as chicken or egg) that names a material or tangible object or phenomenon--something recognizable through the senses.

A clause that expresses a hypothesis or condition, real or imagined.

A type of conceptual metaphor (or figurative comparison) commonly used in English to talk about the process of communication.

The main part of a speech or text in which logical arguments in support of a position are elaborated.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to accept evidence that confirms our beliefs and to reject evidence that contradicts them.

Confrontational rhetoric is a broad term for strategies of persuasion and forms of communication that directly challenge the authority of an opponent.

An informal term for two or more words that are easily confused with one another because of similarities in spelling, pronunciation, and/or meaning.

Congeries is a rhetorical term for the piling up of words or phrases.

See "conjunctive adverb."

A conjunction is the part of speech that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

An adverb that indicates the relationship in meaning between two independent clauses.

The emotional implications and associations that a word may carry.

Broadly, the repetition of consonant sounds; more specifically, the repetition of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words.

A letter of the alphabet that represents a speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by a constriction of the speech organs.

A group of two or more consonant sounds that come before, after, or between vowels.

In rhetoric, those factors that restrict the persuasive strategies or opportunities available to a speaker or writer.

A term used in conversation analysis to describe a re-creation or representation of actual, internal, or imagined speech.

A language, such as Esperanto or Klingon, that has been created by an individual or group.

A marginal language (a type of lingua franca) used for purposes of basic communication by people with no common language.

The interdisciplinary study of the ways in which languages influence one another when people speaking two or more languages (or dialects) interact.

A word that conveys information in a text or speech act.

The words and sentences that surround any part of a discourse and that help to determine its meaning.

Information (such as a definition, synonym, antonym, or example) that appears near a word or phrase and offers direct or indirect suggestions about its meaning.

A shortened form of a word or group of words.

An argument (generally considered a logical fallacy) that draws a conclusion from inconsistent or incompatible premises.

In composition, contrast is a rhetorical strategy and method of organization in which a writer identifies the differences between two people, places, ideas, or things.

One of the simplified versions of English, characterized by a restricted core vocabulary and a limited range of simple sentence structures, developed to communicate with an international audience.

A familiar comparison between two unlike things that does not call attention to itself as a figure of speech.

The spoken exchange of ideas, observations, opinions, or feelings.

In conversation analysis, the interactive process by which speakers and listeners work together to ensure that messages are understood as intended.

In pragmatics, an indirect or implicit speech act: an aspect of what is meant by a speaker's utterance that is not part of what is explicitly said.

A style of public discourse that simulates intimacy by adopting features of informal, conversational language.

In sociolinguistics, the study of the talk produced in ordinary human interactions.

Conversion (or functional shift) is a linguistic process that assigns an already existing word to a new word class or syntactic category.

A term used in conversation(al) analysis to describe a face-to-face interaction in which one speaker talks at the same time as another speaker to demonstrate an interest in the conversation.

The assumption that participants in a conversation normally attempt to be informative, truthful, relevant, and clear.

A coordinating conjunction is a conjunction that joins two similarly constructed and/or syntactically equal words or phrases or clauses.

The grammatical connection of two or more ideas to give them equal emphasis and importance.

See: coordinating conjunction

Expansive richness as a stylistic goal.

A verb that joins the subject of a sentence to a subject complement. See "linking verb."

See "copula."

The process of correcting errors in a text and making it conform to an editorial style.

In prescriptive grammar, the notion that certain words, word forms, and syntactic structures meet the standards and conventions (that is, the "rules") enforced by traditional grammarians.

The study of language based on examples of "real life" language use stored in corpora (or corpuses)--computerized databases created for linguistic research.

A paired conjunction that links balanced words, phrases, and clauses.

A noun that refers to an object or idea that can form a plural or occur in a noun phrase with an indefinite article or with numerals.

An ambiguous headline.

An original comparison between two unlike things that calls attention to itself as a figure of speech.

A branch of writing that employs the literary techniques usually associated with fiction or poetry to report on actual persons, places, or events.

A language that developed historically from a pidgin at a fairly precise point in time.

A composition that offers an analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation of a text.

The process of independently analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information as a guide to behavior and beliefs.

Research that involves a formal analysis and evaluation of a text, production, or performance.

Verbal bit or fragment used as an autonomous unit without transitional devices.

A word or name that is secretly used to refer to a particular person, place, activity, or thing; a code word or name.

CUE is an acronym for three traditional principles of composition: coherence, unity, and emphasis.

A cue word or phrase is a connective expression that links spans of discourse and signals semantic relations in a text.

An independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions that gather details about the person, place, event, or idea.

The tendency of spellcheckers to replace a word that it considers incorrect with a wholly inappropriate word.

A disapproving term for the textbook-based methods of composition instruction popular in the U.S. during the first two-thirds of the 20th century.

(1) Calling for evil or misfortune to befall someone or something. (2) The use of swear words, usually in an exclamation.

A simplified version of English spelling that omits letters not needed to represent pronunciation.