EmpoWord: A Student-Centered Anthology & Handbook for College Writers

Glossary 480 figurative language language which implies a meaning that is not to be taken literally. Common examples include metaphor, simile, personification, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole. flat character a character who is minimally detailed, only briefly sketched or named. Generally less central to the events and relationships portrayed in a narrative. Contrast with round character. fluff uneconomical writing: filler language or unnecessarily wordy phrasing. Although fluff occurs in a variety of ways, it can be generally defined as words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that do not work hard to help you achieve your rhetorical purpose. genre a specific category, subcategory, style, form, or medium (or combination of the above) of rhetoric. A genre may have a “generic imperative,” which is an expectation or set of expectations an audience holds for a particular genre of rhetoric; the foundational assumptions that particular genres carry. imagery sensory language; literal or figurative language that appeals to an audience’s imagined sense of sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. inquiry-based research research and research writing that is motivated by questions, not by answers. interpretation the process of consuming rhetoric to create meaning. “An interpretation” refers to a specific meaning we build as we encounter a text, focusing on certain ideas, language, or patterns. interpretive position the unique position from which each of us interprets a text— necessarily different for all people at any given time, and often different for the same person at different times in their life. Impacted by your purpose, posture, lens, and background. iterative literally, a repetition within a process. The writing process is iterative because it is non-linear and because an author often has to repeat, revisit, or reapproach different steps along the way. Analysis is iterative because it requires repeated critical encounters with a text.