CLT Argument and literary vocabulary
Use these terms to describe what a sentence does, not merely to label a passage. Read the definition, identify the relationship in its original example, and explain how a changed claim would require different evidence. These notes support reading strategy; no outside author knowledge is needed to answer the course passages.
Updated October 2, 2026
20 terms with examples.
Study with flashcards| Term / pattern | Meaning / method | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Concession | Acknowledging a genuine point or limit while maintaining a larger argument. | “The trial is small, but its pattern warrants further study” concedes sample size without discarding the evidence. |
| Qualification | A restriction on a claim’s scope, strength or conditions. | “On the observed clear nights” limits a collection claim to tested weather; removing it changes the claim. |
| Premise | A reason or assumption used to support a conclusion. | “Every funded project requires a plan; this project is funded” provides two premises for requiring its plan. |
| Conclusion | The claim the reasoning is intended to establish. | From a repeated need for the same exception, a writer concludes that the rule should state the distinction publicly. |
| Inference | A conclusion drawn from supplied facts rather than copied directly from one sentence. | A caretaker calmly corrects a fault; we infer that the fault does not make her abandon responsibility. |
| Evidence | Information that supports a particular claim through an identifiable connection. | The sentence naming omitted rainy nights supports a sampling limit, rather than a claim about drinking safety. |
| Analogy | A comparison that preserves a selected relationship between ordered elements. | Rattle:loose bolt matches smoke:fire when each first term signals its producing cause. |
| Ambivalence | Mixed feelings or attitudes toward the same subject. | A narrator values the new road’s convenience while regretting the quiet it may disturb. |
| Allusion | An indirect reference to another text, person or event. | Calling a long difficult trip an odyssey evokes an epic voyage; context decides how that reference functions. |
| Irony | A meaningful difference between appearance and reality, or between stated words and intended meaning. | The narrator calls an unwound watch a certificate of independence, exposing dependence through the very object praised. |
| Tone | The attitude expressed through a speaker’s diction and treatment of the subject. | “Promising, though incomplete” suggests measured approval rather than certainty or contempt. |
| Diction | The particular word choices that shape meaning and attitude. | Calling a map line persuasive emphasizes advocacy, while calling it measured emphasizes recorded distance. |
| Imagery | Language that evokes sensory experience. | Dust, oil and scraping beats make hidden maintenance tangible rather than merely naming it. |
| Motif | A recurring element whose changing use contributes to meaning. | A watch that is checked, concealed and finally acknowledged traces a narrator’s changing relation to dependence. |
| Characterization | The presentation of a character through actions, words, thoughts or others’ responses. | Asking for tweezers instead of dramatizing blame portrays a practical response to error. |
| Counterexample | A case that shows a general claim fails as stated. | A showy visible patch challenges the claim that every visible repair is honest. |
| Causal claim | A claim that one factor produces or changes another. | Saying cooler temperature produced higher yield goes beyond merely reporting that both appeared together. |
| Correlation | A pattern in which measured quantities vary together, without by itself proving why. | In a trial, shaded panels were cooler and collected more water; the association does not alone reveal the full time sequence. |
| Generalization | An extension from observed cases to a broader group or setting. | Applying one seed batch’s result to every variety requires evidence about how representative that batch is. |
| Rhetorical purpose | The job a passage or detail performs for its argument or reader. | A concession can admit that access does not guarantee wisdom before explaining why access remains valuable. |