Rhetorical Devices

Source: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vPC-NM7l1ogOSApFJvlPzrm-fNkDFkRa5cK1jpg2zw0/edit?slide=id.g22a4f3b7fc4_0_6#slide=id.g22a4f3b7fc4_0_6

Ethos

The qualities of character, intelligence, and goodwill in an arguer that contribute to an audience’s acceptance of the claim.

Logos

Argument based on reason (on the logical qualities of an argument, e.g., details, statistical data, historical facts, logical relationships, etc.) 

Pathos

Emotional appeal: the ability of the speaker to evoke feelings–such as pity, sadness, anger, jealousy, fear, and mirth–in an audience

How is an emotional appeal (pathos) created?

Through word choice, imagery, and figurative language that is emotionally charged.  

Allusion

A reference made for the sake of comparison. They generally do not fully describe what they refer to; they hint at it.

Analogy

When a writer compares two similar situations, implying that the outcome of one will resemble the outcome of the other; compare the unfamiliar to the familiar. 

Figurative Language

Language that is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense.

Examples of Figurative Language

Similes, metaphors, personification, etc.

Hypophora

A rhetorical device in which speaker raises a question and then immediately answers it (common at the beginning of a paragraph)

Parallel Structure (Parallelism)

The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical structures to emphasize ideas, to contrast ideas, and to connect ideas.  

Word: I like skiing, kayaking, and hiking.  

Phrase: I ran into the house, up the stairs, and along the balcony.  

Clause: We battle for justice, we strive for freedom, and we struggle for peace.  

Examples of Parallel Structure (Parallelism)

Anaphora

The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the BEGINNING of successive phrases or clauses.

I remember six cabins….I remember Mr. Quirion….I remember the anchor…. (Ron Currie)

Example of Anaphora

What is the opposite of an Anaphora?

Epistrophe

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word at the END of successive phrases or clauses.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  (Corinthians)

Example of an Epistrophe

Antithesis

The contrast of thoughts in two phrases or clauses.

During the early part of my stay I had been struck by the contrast between the vitality of the climate and the deadness of the community.

Example of an Antithesis

Antimetabol

The identical or near identical repetition of words in one phrase or clause in reverse order in the next phrase or clause.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.  

Example of an Antimetabol

What structure is produced by an Antimetabol?

ABBA

Zeugma

A construction in which a word (usually a verb) modifies or governs—often in different, incongruous ways—two or more words in a sentence.

Zeugma’s use is often ___ and ___.

humorous and ironic

You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit.

Example of a Zeugma

Climatic Order

The arrangement of details or ideas in order of increasing importance or force: the principle of saving the best for last.

Tell me and I forget.  Teach me and I remember.  Involve me and I learn.

Example of Climatic Order

Tricolon

A series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses. 

I came, I saw, I conquered.  

Example of a Tricolon

Aphorism

A brief statement—usually one sentence—that expresses some truth about life in terse, easily remembered form.

Aphorisms employ ___ and ___.

Parallel structure and concrete imagery

Fish and visitors smell in three days.

Example of an Aphorism

Periodic Sentence

A sentence in which the main clause, or the completion of the main clause, is left to the end (often creating the effect of suspense). 

Pondering, reflecting, ruminating, brainstorming, staring, squirming, shaking, panicking–I finally wrote the opening sentence.  

Example of a Periodic Sentence

Cumulative Sentence (or “Loose” Sentence)

A sentence that begins with the main clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions (such as phrases and clauses) that gather details about a person, place, event, or idea

Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewelweed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine.

Example of a Cumulative Sentence

Inverted Sentence

Places the verb before the subject. Oftentimes it slows the reader down and stands out within a paragraph.

Rarely have I eaten better food.

Example of an Inverted Sentence

What is the name of the Star Wars character that often uses an inverted sentence?

Yoda

Polysyndeton

The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions.

In that long ago somewhere very near this place he’d watched a falcon fall down the long blue wall of the mountain and break with the keel of its breastbone the midmost from a flight of cranes and take it to the river below all gangly and wrecked and trailing its loose and blowsy plumage in the still autumn air.  

Example of a Polysyndeton

Asyndeton

The deliberate omission of conjunctions.