What is a terministic screen? The terministic screen is a concept created by American literary critic Kenneth Burke to describe the way the language or images we use to communicate can promote one way of seeing a topic over other ways of seeing that same topic. Terministic screens are used everywhere: in newspaper and magazine articles, in television news show headlines, in textbooks, in essays, in all of the information that we consume on a daily basis. The goal of a terministic screen is to convince the reader to see a certain topic a certain way. You can think of a terministic screen like a lens. The lens reflects the information that the author wants us to see, while deflecting the information that the author wishes us to ignore. This is done with a specific endpoint in mind- to foster continuity or discontinuity between the reader and the subject being discussed. In simpler terms, the author either wants to form a connection between the reader and the subject matte