85 Rhetorical Terms/Strategies

Rhetorical Terms/Strategies for AP Lang

Abstract

It is difficult to understand, expressing a quality apart from an object, dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects; it is opposite of concrete. Example: the word poem is concrete, poetry is abstract

Allegory

A narrative, either in verse or prose, in which character, action, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of a story. The underlying meaning usually has a moral, social, religious, or political significance, and the characters are often personifications of abstract ideas such as charity, hope, greed, and so on. The Scarlet Letter is an example, as in Animal Farm

Abstract

It is difficult to understand, expressing a quality apart from an object, dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects; it is opposite of concrete. Example: the word poem is concrete, poetry is abstract

Allegory

A narrative, either in verse or prose, in which character, action, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of a story. The underlying meaning usually has a moral, social, religious, or political significance, and the characters are often personifications of abstract ideas such as charity, hope, greed, and so on. The Scarlet Letter is an example, as in Animal Farm

Alliteration

The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated syllables, especially stressed syllables. A good example of a consonantal version is Coleridge’s lines:

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free.

The vowel version is shown in the sentence: “Apt alliteration’s artful aid is often an occasion ornament in prose.” Alliteration of sounds within words appears in Tennyson’s lines:

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees.

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art. Are often biblical or mythological

Anadiplosis

The repetition of a word that ends one clause at the beginning of the next.

“My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,

And every tongue brings in a several tale,

And every tale condemns me a villain.” (Richard III)

Analogy

the process of reasoning that assumes if two subjects share a number of specific observable qualities then they may be expected to share qualities that have not been observed; the process of drawing a comparison between two things based on a partial similarity of like features

Anaphora

one of the devices of repetition in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences. It is one of the most obvious of the devices used in the poetry of Walt Whitman, as these opening lines from one of his poems shows

Anastrophe

Th inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Anastrophe is deliberate rather than accidental and is used to secure rhythm or to gain emphasis or euphony. Anything in language capable of assuming a usual order can be inverted. Anastrophe can apply to the usual order of adjectives in English, so that Arnold’s “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,” Eliot’s “one-night cheap hotels,” and Yeats’s “terrified vague fingers” all depart from the customary sequence (presumably “long, withdrawing melancholy roar,” “cheap one-night hotels,” and “vague terrified fingers”). Other common patterns of anastrophe affect the adjective-noun succession (inverted in many places in poetry, such as Poe’s “midnight dreary”) and the standard subject-verb-object order of syntax. For example, the prodigious opening strophe of Whitman’s “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” is a single sentence twenty-two lines long marked by extreme inversion: twenty substantial lines of adverbial and adjectival matter (showing much anaphora), then the main subject, “I,” then some protracted adjectival matter, then the object, “a reminiscence,” and, finally, after some two hundred preliminary words, the main verb, “sing.”

Antecedent

The word to which a pronoun refers (whose place it takes) is the antecedent of the pronoun. For example: Mrs. Rice is my English teacher this year; I hope that she won’t give the class too much work. She refers to the antecedent Mrs. Rice

Anticipating Audience Response

anticipating audience response is a rhetorical technique often used to convince an audience of anticipating and stating the arguments that one’s opponent is likely to give and then answering theses arguments even before the opponent has had a chance to voice them

Antithesis

A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas, as in “Man proposes, God disposes.” Antithesis is a balancing of one term against another for emphasis. True antithesis structure demands that there be not only an opposition of idea but that the opposition in different parts is manifested through similar grammatical structure

Aphorism

an aphorism is a concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words. The opening sentence of Hippocrates’ Aphorism is a justly famous example: “Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult.” The term aphorism usually implies specific authorship and compact, telling expression. Benjamin Franklin was famous for them as well: “There are no gains without pains.”

Apostrophe

An apostrophe is a figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as through present. Characteristic instances of apostrophe are found in invocations:

And chiefly, Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all temples the upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, for Thou know’st.

Or an address to God, as in Emily Dickinson’s:

Papa Above!

Regard a Mouse.

Early in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cassius, who is actually talking to Brutus, exclaims, “Age, thou art sham’d! / Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!” The form is frequently used in patriotic oratory, the speaker addressing some glorious leader of the past and invoking his or her aid in the present, as in Wordsworth’s lines:

Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee….

Since apostrophe is chiefly associated with deep emotional expression, the form is readily adopted by humorists for purposes of parody and satire.

Appositive Phrase

type of noun phrase that follows the noun or pronoun it modifies and amplifies or restricts its meaning. For example: Our department head, a careful reader and outspoken critic, will review the memo before it is circulated. (italicized phrase is an appositive)

Arrangement

this refers to the organization of a text. The following terms are all different ways for a writer to arrange/organize his/her text for an intended purpose:

Narration – telling a story or recounting a series of events. It can be based on personal experience or on knowledge gained from reading or observation. Chronology usually governs narration which includes concrete detail, point of view and sometimes dialogue. Writers often use narration as a way to enter into their topics.

Description – description is closely allied with narration because both include many specific details. However, description emphasizes the senses by painting a picture of how something looks, sounds, smells, tastes or feels. Description is used to establish a mood or atmosphere.

Process Analysis – explains how something works, how to do something, or how something was done. We use process analysis when we explain how to bake bread or set up an Excel spreadsheet, how to improve a difficult situation or assemble a treadmill. Think of self-help books (i.e. Raising Chickens for Dummies). The key to process analysis is clarity; it’s important to explain a subject clearly and logically with transitions that mark the sequence of major steps, stages, or phases of the process.

Exemplification – providing a series of examples – facts, specific cases, or instances – turns a general idea into a concrete one; this makes your argument both clearer and more persuasive. A writer might use one extended example or a series of related ones to illustrate a point. Overall, this type of writing tries to prove a point with examples.

Comparison/Contrast – juxtaposing two things to highlight their similarities and differences. Often required on exams where you have to discuss the subtle differences or similarities in the method, style or purpose of two texts.

Classification and Division – It is important for readers as well as writers to be able to sort material or ideas into major categories. By answering the question, What goes together and why? writers can make connections between things that might otherwise seem unrelated. In some cases, the categories are ready-made, such as single, married, divorced or widowed. In other cases, you might be asked either to analyze an essay that offers categories or to apply them. For instance, you might classify the books you’re reading in class according to the categories Francis Bacon defined: “Some books are meant to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Definition – So many discussions depend on definition. In examining the benefits of attending an Ivy League school, for instance, we need to define Ivy League before we can have a meaningful conversation. If we are evaluating a program’s success, we must define what qualifies as success. Sometimes the purpose of an entire essay is to establish a definition. Sometimes people write to redefine a word or to define it by saying what it is not. Read “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs for a great example of a definition essay.

Cause and Effect – Analyzing the causes that lead to a certain effect or, conversely, the effects that result from a cause is a powerful foundation for argument. Writers are concerned with why things happen (causes) and what happens as a result (effects). Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is a perfect example

Asyndeton

omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses or words

“Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils

Shrunk to this little measure?” (Julius Caesar)

Attitude

The author’s attitude closely linked with the tone of a piece, can also be the underlying feeling behind a tone. For example: A tone might be one of anger, but the attitude behind the tone would be one of concern or fear of a situation. The mother screams at the child, “Don’t touch the hot stove!”

Call to action

a call to action is writing that urges people to take action or promotes change

Characterization

characterization is the techniques a writer uses to create and reveal fictional personalities in a work of literature, by describing the character’s appearance, actions, thoughts, and feelings.

Chiasmus

a chiasmus is a type of balance in which the second part is balanced against the first but with the part reversed, as in Coleridge’s line, “Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike” or “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Classification and division

classification is a method of sorting, grouping, collecting, and analyzing things by categories based on features shared by all members of a class or group. Division is a method of breaking down of an entire whole into separate parts or sorting a group of items into non-overlapping categories.

Cliché

A cliché is a timeworn expression that through overuse has lost its power to evoke concrete images. For Example: “gentle as a lamb,” smart as a whip” and “please as punch.”

Coinage

coinage is a word or phrase made, invented or fabricated. For example: Bushonomics; gynormous; man-crush

Colloquial Expression

they are words or phrases, characteristics or appropriate ordinary or familiar conversations rather than formal speech writing. Informal, conversational language.

Comparison/ Contrast

comparison/contrast is a rhetorical technique for pointing out similarities or differences. Writers may use a point by-point method to interweave points of comparison or contrast between two things or a subject-by-subject method to discuss similarities and differences.

Compound/Complex Sentences

a compound/complex sentence contains two or more independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause.

Conceit

a conceit is an elaborate and surprising figure of speech comparing two very dissimilar things. It usually involves intellectual cleverness and ingenuity. An elaborate or strained metaphor.

Concrete

concrete pertains to actual things, instances, or experiences: opposite of abstract.

Defensive/ Offensive

Defensive/ Offensive is a method of argument in which the speaker or writer defends her own views (defensive) and/or attacks the views of others (offensive).

Definition

is a method of specifying the basic nature of any phenomenon, idea, or things. Dictionaries place the subject to be defined in the context of the general class to which it belongs and gives distinguishing features that differentiate it from other things in its class.

Denotation, Connotation

Denotation is the specific, exact meaning of a word, independent of its emotion, coloration or association. Connotation is the emotions or implications that words may carry, as distinguished from their denotative meanings. Connotations may be (1) private and personal, the result of individual experience, (2) group (national, linguistic, racial), (3) general or universal, held by all or most people. Connotation depends on usage in a particular linguistic community and climate. A purely private and personal connotation cannot be communicated; the connotation must be shared to be intelligible to others.

Diction

Diction is the choice of words in a work of literature and an element of style important to the work’s effectiveness.

Doublespeak

Language use to distort and manipulate rather than to communicate.

Downplaying/ Intensifying

downplaying/ intensifying are methods of drawing attention and diversion to the work’s effectiveness.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is the omission of a word or words necessary for complete construction but understood in the context. (I love English as much as she.) The word does is understood, hence the nominative she is correct! Ellipsis can include the omission of a noun, verb, etc.

Emotional Appeal (Pathos)

Emotional appeal is exploiting readers’ feelings of pity or fear to make a case: this fallacy draws solely on the readers’ pathos and not on logic. A case may be made that appealing to one’s audience’s emotions is the most legitimate or logically sound of all the fallacies.

Epistrophe

repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses

“I’ll have my bond!

Speak not against my bond!

I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.” (Merchant of Venice)

Ethical Appeal (Ethos)

An ethical appeal is the most subtle and often the most powerful because it comes from character and reputation, not words. As a writer, your ethical appeal stems from your ability to convince your readers that you are a reliable, intelligent person who knows what you’re talking about and cares about the issues. Building this kind of appeal into your argument isn’t easy. You have to know your readers and respect them, and you have to show that you’ve done your homework.

Ethnocentricity

Ethnocentricity is the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own group and culture.

Euphemism

Euphemism is from the Greek word meaning to speak well of: the substitutions of an inoffensive, indirect, or agreeable expression for a word or phrase perceived as socially unacceptable or unnecessarily harsh. For example: “private parts” for sexual organs, “passed away for died” and “disadvantaged” for poor.

Exposition

Exposition is writing that seeks to clarify, explain, or inform using one or several of the following methods: process analysis, definition, classification and division, comparison and contrast, and cause-and-effect analysis.

Figurative Language

Figurative language is the use of words outside their literal or usual meanings, used to add freshness and suggest associations and comparisons that create effective images: includes elements of speech such as hyperbole, irony, metaphor, personification, and simile.

Hyperbole

is a FIGURE OF SPEECH in which conscious exaggeration is used without the intent of literal persuasion. It may be used to heighten effect, or it may be used to produce comic effect. Mark Twain is using hyperbole in the following lines:

I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do. I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.

Imagery

imagery is the use of language to convey sensory experience, most often through the of pictorial images through figurative language. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Idiom

a use of words, a grammatical construction peculiar to a given language, or an expression that cannot be translated literally into a second language. “To carry out” may be taken as an example. Literally it means, or course, to carry something out (of a room perhaps), but idiomatically it means to see that something is done, as “to carry out a command.”

Irony

irony is a mode of speech in which words express a meaning opposite to the intended meaning.

Jargon

jargon is from the fifteenth-century French term jargoun, meaning twittering or jibberish: usually refers to a specialized language providing a shorthand method of quick communication between people in the same field. Often used to disguise the inner working of a particular trade or profession from public scrutiny.

Juxtapose

placing two ideas side by side or close together. Sometimes the two ideas are completely different.

Lending Credence

in arguing her point, a writer or speaker should always lend her opponent some credit for the opponent’s ideas. In this way the writer or speaker persuades her audience that she is fair and has done her homework, thereby strengthening her own argument.

Litotes

litotes is a form of UNDERSTATEMENT in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite. To say “She was not unmindful” when one means that “She gave careful attention” is to employ litotes. Although a common device in ironic expression, litotes was also one of the characteristic FIGURES OF SPEECH of OLD ENGLISH POETRY. In Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” the heroic speaker resorts to litotes several times, with an effect of stoic restraint and (this is still the crafty warrior) subtlety: “little profits” for “profits not at all,” “not least” for “great,” “not to fail” for “succeed splendidly,” and “not unbecoming” for “thoroughly appropriate.”

Logical Fallacies

logical fallacies are methods of pseudoreasoning that may occur accidentally or may be intentionally contrived to lend plausibility to an unsound argument. These include:

• A Shift in Definition: altering the definition of a word to serve your purpose.

• Ad Hominem: an attack against the character of the person instead of the issue.

• Begging the Question: assuming something to be true that really needs proof.

• False Analogy: an argument based on misleading, superficial, or implausible comparisons.

• Non Sequitur: LATIN for “It does not follow;” where the conclusion does not follow its premise.

• Red Herring: use of an irrelevant point to divert attention from the real issue.

• Slippery Slope: failure to provide evidence showing that one event will lead to a chain of events of a

• catastrophic nature.

• Straw Man: where an opponent takes original argument of his adversary and then offers a close imitation of it and knocks down that argument.

Logical Reasoning (Logos)

logical reasoning is the idea that there are principles governing correct or reliable inferences. Examples of the logical appeal include facts, reasons, and expert opinion.

Loose Sentence

a loose sentence is a sentence grammatically complete at some point (or points) before the end; the opposite of a PERIDODIC SENTENCE. A complex loose sentence consists of an independent clause followed by a dependent clause. Most of the complex sentences we use are loose (the term implies no fault in structure), the PERIODIC SENTENCE being usually reserved for emphasis, drama, and variety. The constant use of the PERIODIC SENTENCE would impose too great a strain on the reader’s attention. Loose sentences with too many dependent clauses become “stringy.”

Lyrical Drama

a term used for a dramatic poem in which the form of drama is used to express lyric themes (author’s own emotions or ideas of life) instead of relying on a story as the bases of the action

Metaphor

a metaphor is a figure of speech involving an implied comparison. For example: “She is a rose!” A comparison that is developed throughout a work. In this example of a rose, the extended metaphor would be the rose-like characteristics throughout the poem. A controlling metaphor would be the rose as the main idea around which the entire poem revolves. The poem about a rose might represent the entire female body and attitude.

Metonymy

metonymy is a figure of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this way, we commonly speak of the king as “the crown,” an object closely associated with kingship thus being made to stand for “king” or “Washington” stands for America’s government.

Mood

mood is the overall atmosphere of a work. The tone may change from paragraph to paragraph or page to page, etc. The mood of The Fall of the House of Usher is gloomy and depressing, and the tone mirrors this overall atmosphere with shadings of gloom and depression. One paragraph might include fear and another includes irritation. These tones may fall under the feeling of mood or depression.

Motif

in literature, recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work are called motifs. Nabokov’s Lolita, for example, is saturated by a light-dark motif that is found in the names of the PROTAGONIST and ANTAGONIST (Humbert Humbert and Claire Quilty); patterns of day and night, blonde and brunette, summer and winter, north and south, white and black; and the game of chess.

Narration

narration is the story of events and/or experiences that tell what happened.

Onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia is the use of words that by their sound suggest their meaning. Words include “hiss,” “buzz,” “sizzle” and “whirr.” However, onomatopoeia in the hands of a poet become a much more subtle device than simply the use of such words when, in an effort to suit sound to sense, the poet creates verses that themselves carry their meaning in their sounds. A notable example is The Princess by Tennyson.

The moan of doves in immemozrial elms,

And the murmuring of innumerable bees.

Oxymoron

A self contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units. Examples:

jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly, military intelligence, etc.

Paradox

A paradox is a self contradictory statement or situation. It’s a logical process, in which the facts appear to be opposed to themselves. Paradox is a recognized philosophical tool for argument to assess groups of valid facts or logical processes which appear to be conflicting directly. It is a rhetorical device used to secure attention and secure emphasis. Ex. “A rich man is no richer than a beggar.”

Paralepsis

emphasizing a point by seeming to pass over it. Example from Julius Caesar:

“But here’s a parchment, with the seal of Caesar;

I found it in his closet; ‘tis his will:

Let but the commons hear this testament –

Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read….”

Parallelism

repeated syntactical similarities introduced for rhetorical effect. The principal of parallelism dictates that coordinate ideas should have coordinate presentation. For example, “I like to fish and swimming,” is not parallel. The sentence should read, “I like to fish and swim.” Another correct construction would be “I like fishing and swimming.”

Periodic Sentence

A periodic sentence is a sentence that is not grammatically correct before its end; the opposite of a LOOSE SENTENCE. The characteristic of a periodic sentence is that its construction is such as to constantly throw the mind foreword to the idea that will complete the meaning. The periodic sentence is effective when it is designed to arouse interest and curiosity, to hold an idea in suspense before its final revelation is made. Periodicity is accomplished by the use of parallel phrases or clauses in the opening, by the uses of dependent clauses preceding the independent clause, and by the use of such correlatives as neither…nor, not only…but also, and both…and. The first stanza of Longfellow’s “Snowflakes” is a maximally periodic sentence, beginning with a succession of adverbial phrases and not grammatically complete until the very last word, which is the subject:

Out of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

Silent, and soft, and slow,

Descends the snow.

Personification

Personification is attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things. For example: “The tree sighed in the wind.”

Point of View

Point of view is a term used in analysis and criticism for fiction to describe the way in which the reader is presented with the materials of the story or, regarded from another angle, the vantage point from which the author presents the actions of the story.

Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton is the repetition of conjunctions in close succession for rhetorical effect: “Here and there and everywhere.”

Process Analysis

Process analysis is a method of clarifying the nature of something by explaining how it works in separate, easy-to-understand steps. Giving directions to baking a pie or to fixing an air conditioning system would be an example of process analysis.

Pun

the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound. Ex. “She’s a skillful pilot whose career has really taken off.”

Repetition

Repetition is a rhetorical device reiterating a word or phrase, or rewording the same idea to secure emphasis.

Rhetorical Question

A rhetorical question is asked solely to produce an effect and not to elicit a reply such as, “When will genetic engineering fulfill its promise?”

Rhetorical Strategies

Rhetorical strategies, as far as the directions on the AP test are concerned, have two meanings: If the prompt directs the students to mention rhetorical strategies and literary devices and imagery in analyzing a piece, then the term rhetorical strategies means compare/contrast, process analysis, definition, narration, cause/effect, or argumentation/persuasion. If the prompt asks students to discuss the rhetorical strategies in a piece and does not mention other terms, the student should include everything that he or she knows about analysis: literary devices, imagery, compare/contrast, process analysis, definition, narration, cause/effect, and argumentation/persuasion.

Satire

Satire is a technique that ridicules both people and societal institutions using irony, exaggeration, reversal and paradox

Simile

A simile is a figure of speech involving a comparison using like or as. For example: “She is as lovely as a summer’s day.”

Simple Sentence

A simple sentence is a complete sentence that is neither compound nor complex.

Spin (redefining)

Remember “Spin City” with Michael J. Fox? In politics, harmful situations are sometimes presented in the media as philanthropic endeavors. Instead of labeling the war on Iraq as “Murdering an Evil Leader” or “The War on Iraq”, President Bush’s “spin doctors” coined the title, “Operation Iraqi Freedom”.

Style

Style is the author’s characteristic manner of expression. Style includes the types of words used, their placement, and distinctive features of tone, imagery, figurative language, sound, and rhythm.

Syllogism

Syllogism is a formula for presenting an argument logically. The syllogism affords a method of demonstrating the logic of an argument through analysis. In its simplest form, it consists of three divisions: a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.

Major Premise: All public libraries should serve the people.

Minor Premise: This is a public library.

Conclusion: Therefore, this library should serve the people.

Symbol

A symbol is something concrete (such as an object, person, place, or event that stands for or represents something abstract) such as an idea, quality, concept, or condition. The American flag is a symbol of our country’s freedom.

Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a type of figurative language in which the whole is used for the part and the part used for the whole. In “the dying year,” the whole is used to stand for a part, “autumn,” the use of “Wall Street” to refer to the money market or financial affairs of the entire U.S. is an example of the second – using a part to stand for the whole (or the specific to stand for the general). “Nice set of wheels.” Wheels is the part that stands for the whole (car).

Syntax

Syntax is the pattern or structure of the word order in a sentence or phrase: the study of grammatical structure.

TONE!!!

Tone is the voice the writer has chosen to project to relate to readers. For example, serious, lighthearted, etc. Tone is produced by the combined effect of word choice, sentence structure, and purpose, and reflects the writer’s attitude toward the subject.

Understatement

a form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected. Example: “Channing Tatum is an okay looking guy.”

Voice

Voice is the implied personality the author chooses to adopt. In fiction, the voice may reflect a persona who projects views quite a different from the author’s.