AP Lang Rhetoric Techniques

Rhetoric techniques and their definitions for my rhetorical analysis exam

Literary Elements

Things that cannot be scraped out (mood, tone, plot, POV)

Structural Choices

Pizzazz (sentence order, diction, punctuation)

Evidence

Anecdote, statistics, expert opinion, etc.

Anaphora

Repetition in the beginning of sentences/clauses.

Ex: Dr MLK Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech

Symploce

Repetition in the beginning and end of sentences/clauses.

Ex: “When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.”

Mesodiplosis

Repetition in the middle of sentences/clauses.

Ex: “Love is patient, patient in the face of anger; love is kind, kind even when confronted with cruelty; love is forgiving, forgiving despite the hurt."

Epistrophe

Repetition at the end of sentences/clauses.

Ex: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, and I thought as a child.”

Amplification

Restating a word or idea and adding more detail. Interrupting your thought to add more detail.

Ex: “Love, real love.”

Adnomination

The use of words with the same root in the same sentence.

Ex: “Somewhere, someplace, someone…”

Metaphor

A comparison without like/as/than.

Ex: “The world is a stage, and we are all actors.”

Metonymy

When something is represented by something closely associated with it, but not actually a part of it.

Ex: “The power of the Pen.” refers to the power of writing, something closely associated with a pen.

Simile

A comparison using like, as, or than.

Ex: “Her smile was as bright as the sun.”

Synecdoche

When a part of one thing represents its whole.
Ex: “Nice wheels!” or “Oh look, biceps just walked in.”

Antithesis

Making a connection using a contrast.
Ex: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Parallelism

Using words or phrases with a similar structure.
Ex: “Like father, like son.”

Chiasmus

AB and BA
Ex: “You can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”

Assonance

Opposite of dissonance, repetition of vowel sounds.
Ex: “The cat found a rat that chased someone with a bat.”

Dissonance

Opposite of assonance, choppy sounds.

Synesthesia

The blending of senses.

Ex: when you see a season and you summon your sense of smell and smell something related to that season.

Jargon

Terminological Vocabulary
Ex: Psychological language, legal language.

Oxymoron

Opposite

Colloquialism

Common expression.

Homonym

A word with multiple meanings.

Paradox

Outside of belief, belief outside of itself. Conceptual opposite.
Ex: “If I know one thing, it’s that I know nothing.”

Zeugma

A word applies to 2 others in different sense or to the others of which it semantically makes a difference.
Ex: “John’s license expired last week and so did he.”

Anadiplosis

A device in which the last word/phrase of a clause or sentence is repeated at the beginning of the next.
Ex: “You’re dead. Dead forever. Forever is a long time.”

Apostrophe

Addressing someone or something as if it’s in the room (concept, idea, etc.)
Ex: “Hello Darkness my old friend,” and “Democracy, you failed us.”