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cliche
A trite expression, often a figure of speech whose effectiveness has been worn out through overuse and
excessive familiarity.
"Cut every cliché you come across," advises author and editor Sol Stein. "Say it new or say it straight"
(Stein on Writing, 1995).
As old as the hills
All is fair in love and war
Do you think I am made of money
A
euphemism is a polite expression used in place of words or phrases that otherwise might be
considered harsh or unpleasant to hear. Euphemisms are used regularly, and there are many examples
in every day language.
Passed away instead of died
Correctional facility instead of jail
Departed instead of died
Differently-abled instead of handicapped or disabled
Three equally spaced points ( . . . ) used in writing or printing to indicate the omission of words in a
quotation. Also known as
An
ellipsis. Plural, ellipses.
anecdote is a short story, usually serving to make the listeners laugh or ponder over a topic.
Generally, the anecdote will relate to the subject matter that the group of people is discussing.
Dynamic Character - a character which changes during the course of a story or novel.
The change in outlook or character is permanent. Sometimes a dynamic character is called a developing
character.
Example: Ebenezer Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol by Dickens, was very stingy with his money. He worked
his employees very very hard for little pay. After his experiences with the ghosts that visited him, he
changed his ways, paying his employees a more than fair wage, providing days off work and actually
giving gifts.
In this example Ebenezer Scrooge is a dynamic character.
Flat Character - a character who reveals only one, maybe two, personality traits in a story or
novel, and the trait(s) do not change.
Example: In a story about a friendly teacher named Sandra Smith, Louis Drud is a janitor in her building.
Louis is always tired and grumpy whenever Sandra runs across him and says hello.
In this example Louis Drud is a flat character.
Foil - a character that is used to enhance another character through contrast. Cinderella’s grace and
beauty as opposed to her nasty, self-centered stepsisters is one clear illustration of a foil many may
recall from childhood.
Example: The main character in a story, a teenager named Sally, is a very honest person. She always tries
to tell the truth and consider everyone’s feelings. The teacher assigns Betty to be Sally’s science lab
partner. Betty enjoys gossip and likes to see people’s reactions, especially if it involves hurt or
embarrassment.
In this example Betty is a foil.
Round Character - a well developed character who demonstrates varied and sometimes
contradictory traits. Round characters are usually dynamic (change in some way over the course of a
story).
Example: A character in a story named Elaine never cuts anybody a break. She tells her friends and
coworkers that charity and compassion have no place in society. On the other hand, Elaine can never
pass up feeding a stray kitten or puppy, and always tries to find a good home for lost or abandoned
pets.In this example Elaine is a round character
.
Static Character – a character that remains primarily the same throughout a story or novel.
Events in the story do not alter a static character’s outlook, personality, motivation, perception, habits,
etc.
Example: Bert, a bumbling salesman, never takes the time to organize his files, properly record his sales,
or follow up with customers. Finally, his boss gets fed up and fires him. Bert struggles for two months to
find a new sales position. During that time, his car is repossessed for nonpayment and he maxes out his
credit cards. Bert finally finds a new sales position but, before a week passes, he is called into a
conference with his new boss. Bert is informed he must get organized or he’ll be fired. A week later the
new boss fires Bert after he fails to follow up with an important customer.
In this example Bert is a static character.
Parallel Structure Examples
Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more words or ideas are
of equal importance and to help the reader comprehend what is being written. It is grammatically
correct to ensure that phrases, clauses and items on a list after a colon use the correct parallel structure.
Parallel Structure in Words and Phrases
•Ashley likes to ski, to swim and to jump. This is correct and uses parallel structure. An incorrect version
of this sentence would read: Ashley likes to ski, to swim and jumping.
•Joe likes singing, walking and diving. This is correct and uses parallel structure. An incorrect version of
this sentence would read: Joe likes singing, walking and to dive.
•Mary wanted to make sure that she made her presentation creatively, effectively and persuasively.
This is correct and uses parallel structure. An incorrect version of this sentence would read: Mary
wanted to make sure she made her presentation creatively, effectively and persuaded others.
•Tim was considered to be a good employee because he was never late, he was very motivated and he
was not lacking in initiative. This is correct and uses parallel structure. An incorrect version of this
sentence would read: Tim was considered to be a good employee because he was never late, he was
very motivated and he did not lack initiative.
Parallel Structure on Lists
When you have items on a list following a colon, the items should all be in the same form in order to
avoid a parallel structure error.
•The following activities can be done at the shopping center: buying groceries, eating lunch or paying
your bill. This is correct and uses parallel structure. An incorrect version of this sentence without parallel
structure would read: The following activities can be done at the shopping center: buying groceries,
eating lunch and a bill payment center.
•In your bedroom, you can find the following: a bed, a closet and a desk. This is correct and uses parallel
structure. An incorrect version of this sentence would read: In your bedroom, you can find the following:
a bed, a closet and sitting at a desk.
•Dogs are great pets for the following reasons: they are loyal, they are loving and they are obedient.
This is correct and uses parallel structure. An incorrect version of this sentence would read: Dogs are
great pets for the following reasons: they are loyal, they are loving and because of their obedience.
•People who get ahead do lots of different things such as: studying, working hard and going to college.
This is correct and uses parallel structure. An incorrect version of this sentence would read: People who
get ahead do lots of different things such as: studying, working hard and to attend college.
In each of these different examples, words of equal importance can either be written in the same format
(which is correct) or they can be written in different forms (which is incorrect). Parallel structure errors
can make your writing sound strange to listeners. Many tests, including the SAT, will require you to
identify parallel structure errors as a means of testing your writing ability.
Definition of
Allusion
Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or
political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a
passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion
and grasp its importance in a text.
For instance, you make a literary allusion the moment you say, “I do not approve of this quixotic idea,”
Quixotic means stupid and impractical derived from Cervantes’s “Don Quixote”, a story of foolish knight
and his misadventures.
Examples of Allusion in Everyday Speech
The use allusions are not confined to literature alone. Their occurrence is fairly common in our daily
speech. Look at some common examples of allusions in everyday life:
•“Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” – “Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo, a
passionate lover of Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet”.
•The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora box of crimes. – “Pandora box” an allusion to Greek
Mythology.
•“This place is like a Garden of Eden.” – It is a biblical allusion.
•“Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?” – “Newton”, here means a genius student, alludes
to a famous scientist.
•‘“Stop acting like my ex-husband please.” – Apart from scholarly allusions we refer to common people
and places in our speech.
Four Types of Writing:
There are four types of writing or four writing styles that are generally used. Knowing all these four
different types of writing and their usages are important for any writer. A writer’s style is a reflection of
his personality, his unique style, his voice and his way to approach his audience and readers.
Generally there are four different types or styles of writing. Following are their names and details:
1.
Expository Writing:
Expository writing is a subject-oriented writing style, in which the main focus of the author is to tell you
about a given topic or subject, and leave out his personal opinions. He furnishes you with relevant facts
and figures and does not include his opinions. This is one of the most common type of writing styles,
which you always see in text books and usually “How – to” articles, in which the author tells you about a
given subject, as how to do something.
Key Points:
•Expository writing usually explains something in a process
•Expository writing is often equipped with facts and figures
•Expository writing is usually in a logical order and sequence
Descriptive writing is a style of writing which focuses on describing a character, an event
or a place in great details. It is sometimes poetic in nature in which the author is specifying the details of
the event rather than just the information of that event happened.
Example:
In descriptive writing, the author will not just say: “The vampire killed his lover”
He will change the sentence, focusing on more details and descriptions, like: “The red-eyed, bloody
vampire, flushed his rusty teeth into the soft skin of his lover, and ended her life.”
Key Points:
•It is often poetic in nature
•It describes places, people, events, situations or locations in a highly-detailed manner.
•The author visualizes you what he sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels.
3.
Persuasive Writing:
Persuasive writing, unlike ‘Expository Writing’, contains the opinions, biasness and justification of the
author. Persuasive writing is a type of writing which contains justifications and reasons to make
someone believe on the point the writer is talking about. Persuasive writing is for persuading and
convincing on your point of view. It is often used in complain letters, when you provide reasons and
justifications for your complaint; other copywriting texts, T.V commercials, affiliate marketing pitches
etc. are all different types of persuasive writing, where author is persuading and convincing you on
something he wants you to do and/or believe.
Key Points:
•Persuasive writing is equipped with reasons, arguments and justifications
•In persuasive writing, the author takes a stand and asks you to believe his point of view.
•If often asks for a call or an action from the readers.
Narrative writing is a type of writing in which the author places himself as the character
and narrates you to the story. Novels, short stories, novellas, poetry, biographies can all fall in the
narrative writing style. Simply, narrative writing is an art to describe a story. It answers the question:
“What happened then?”
Key Points:
•In narrative writing, a person, being a narrative, tells a story or event.
•Narrative writing has characters and dialogues in it.
•Narrative writing has definite and logical beginnings, intervals and endings.
•Narrative writing often has situations like disputes, conflicts, actions, motivational events, problems
and their solutions.
Circular stories follow a “round” pattern—they begin and end in the same way. Like the
cycle of seasons or the life cycle, circular stories follow a predictable series of events that returns to the
starting point.
Jargon is not slang! Well, at least not always! It is a term that you might have come across while at
your cabin in the work place or during a casual chat with your colleague out at a party. Jargon stands for
a specific terminology that people follow and understand under various settings. For e.g., bottom-line
globally means the basic idea but in some corporates, it specifically refers to profits. You might also
come across some abbreviations like WTD which may stand for Week Till Date in formal institutions
while, at the same time, it can stand for What To Do in an informal or casual setting. However, the use
of slang or colloquial language cannot be covered under this category. In literature, jargon can be
spotted in the works of renowned writers like Shakespeare and Charles Dickens etc; their jargon relates
to the expressions used during that period of time. Modern writers resort to jargon that is common
today which makes it easy for their readers to relate to their work. Jargon can be found in the every
field; work place, literature, business, medicine, films and even day-to-day languages are ridden with
jargon. Jargon today has become a part of people's lives however, its usage in areas like military,
teaching and politics has often been criticized.
Jargon At Work Place
You are likely to find many examples of jargon in the work place, in malls or café, of the typical work
place terms that are used. In most of the cases, these terms might also be referred to as workplace
metaphors used either in the cubicle or in the pantry among colleagues. This practice apparently
originated in the United Kingdom as euphemism, but later became jargon which was equally used by the
manager and staff. Certain examples of jargon at work place are listed below:
•Land and expand: To sell a small solution to the client that later expands and caters to more problems
in the environment surrounding the client.
•Think outside the box: A constantly used jargon that indicates widening the limits of the thought
process so as to encourage people to be creative regarding their job views.
•End user perspective: This is a critically used term at workplaces, as it describes the customer
requirements of a product. This also focuses on how the client would feel after using the so-designed
product.
•Pushing the envelope: In order to attain a target, the corporates forward their ideas further and this
goes by this jargon.
•Drink our own champagne: Here, champagne indicates 'a good product'. This jargon indicates that the
products sold to the clients are the same as the one being used in the business.
•Get our ducks in a row: Getting prioritized in order to ensure that efficient and effective organization of
everything in the work place.
•The helicopter view: Simply signifies an overview of things.
•Blue sky thinking: An imaginary procedure without the practical application
Jargon In Business
In business, jargon is an inevitable tool used for marketing purposes. This field, being particularly
customer oriented, has to deliver apt words in order to promote investment.
•Ahead in the count: Signifies that you are doing well and are ahead of your peer competitors.
•Get your ducks in a row: Indicates you are all ready and planned for the project that you are about to
undertake shortly.
•Connect ear-to-ear: This simply means to speak about the project over the phone.
•Plug and play: Deals with anything that does not require much thinking for the implementation of the
product.
•Cookies: Specifies computer jargon referring to the saved web passwords, websites and your shopping
cart preferences.
•Business jargon also includes terms like, core competency, brain dump, bullish, free lunch, food chain,
hired guns, behind the eight ball, ball park, bait and switch, actionable, circular file, best practice, face
time, fall guy, game changer, head count, fall guy, in the black, in the loop, in the red, push back,
traction, talk turkey, time frame, value added, put to bed, rubber check, not invested here, stake
holders, out of pocket , zero sum game, etc.
Other Examples Of Jargon
Computer Jargon - This would include both mail and chat jargon.
•BTW - By The Way
•IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
•MOTD - Message Of The Day
•FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
•CYA - See You Around
•HTH - Hope This Helps
•FYI - For Your Information
•LOL - Laugh Out Loud
•PFA - Please Find Atached
Other Computer Jargons
Browser, folder, network, fragmentation, CPU, crash, database, download, resolution, keyboard
shortcuts, mouse, virus, URL, upload, software, plug and play, interface, file, driver, cache, chip, cookie,
freeware, gopher, hardware, operating system, spam.
Baseball Jargon
Big league, pickoff, pinch hitter, position, power hitter, loud out, at bat, good eye, grand slam, rally,
relay, sacrifice hunt, strike zone, take a pitch, tea party, tipping pitches, MVP, bases loaded, Hall of
Fame, hit by pitch, home run, stayed alive, stolen base, golfing, caught looking, changeup, balk, choke
up, go-ahead run, position, alley(or gap), sacrifice fly, dig it out, assist, advance a runner, ahead in the
count, etc.
Football Jargon
Touchdown, territory, scrambling, loose ball, kickoff, man-in-motion, down, end zone, goal line, handoff, offside, picked off, recovery, audible, blitz, clipping, down.
Common examples of Jargon
•On cloud nine: Extremely happy
•Sweet tooth: Someone who loves sweets is said to have a sweet tooth.
•Shrink: Psychiatrist
•Gumshoe/Private Eye: Detective
•Poker face: Blank or unreadable expression
•Ball park figure: A value that is numerically estimated
•UFO: Unidentified Flying Object
•Back Burner: Low priority given, something put off till a date
Peter Ives once remarked about jargon that, 'For those who use it, it is a language which describes the
world in which we live'. Jargon, is indeed a powerful tool that can be used to create an impression on
people's minds. Once you get to use the right jargon in the right context, right timing and to the right
person, be it among your colleagues or staff, you are sure to make the right impression. Hope this article
has provided you enough insights in jargons and encouraged you to use it with your friends, at the right
time of course
Colloquial language
Colloquial language is language that is informal. This can include words as well as phrases. You might use
colloquial language when messaging your friends but not in a formal situation such as writing a letter to
a business:
1. I'm gonna go down to the beach. You wanna come?
I am going to go down to the beach. Do you want to come?
2. Ain't that strange?
Isn't that strange?
3. Ain't these doo whoppers unusual?
Aren't these things unusual?
4. I dunno where we're meeting up tomorrow.
I don't know where we're meeting tomorrow
I do not know where we are meeting tomorrow.
5. Danny was as tough as nails. Danny was very tough.
Underline? Italics? Quotation Marks?
Prior to computers, people were taught to underline titles of books and plays and to surround chapters,
articles, songs, and other shorter works in quotation marks. However, here is what The Chicago Manual
of Style says: When quoted in text or listed in a bibliography, titles of books, journals, plays, and other
freestanding works are italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and other shorter works are set in roman
and enclosed in quotation marks.
Below are some examples to help you:
Example: We read A Separate Peace in class. (title of a book)
Example: That Time magazine article, “Your Brain on Drugs,” was fascinating.
Note that the word “magazine” was not italicized because that is not part of the actual name of the
publication.
Example: His article, “Death by Dessert,” appeared in The New York Times Magazine.
Note that the and magazine are both capitalized and set off because the name of the publication is The
New York Times Magazine.
Newspapers, which follow The Associated Press Stylebook, have their own sets of rules because italics
cannot be sent through AP computers.