Rhetorical Devices

Alliteration

Repetition of the same letter or sound

Anaphora

repetition of the first part of the sentence through-out piece

Antithesis

Two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect

Diction

Choice of words, which influence mood, attitude, dialect, and style of writing

Hyperbole

exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor

Imagery

Language that appeals to the senses

Inference

A conclusion based on evidence and reasoning

Irony

Use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts

Metaphor

A comparison without using like or as

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech consisting of two apparently contradictory terms

Personification

A nonhuman object being given human qualities; similar to metaphor

Pun

A play on words

Rhetorical Question

A question that is asked in order to make a point rather than to elicit an answer

Sarcasm

Verbal irony

Simile

Makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things, using like or as

Symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else

ethos

an appeal to ethics -- credibility of source

pathos

an appeal to emotions -- evoking an emotional response

logos

an appeal to logic -- using facts, statistics to prove argument

rhetoric

the art of persuasion

tone

an author's attitude towards his/her subject

CAPSTone

Context, audience, purpose, stylistic features, tone -- the way a piece of rhetoric is crafted

allusion

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

Characterization

Actions, dialogue, and narrative description that reveal a sense of a character's personality to the reader. Can be direct or indirect.

Theme

The author's message about life or human nature. In literature, the reader must infer what the writer's message is. NOTE: a theme is a complete sentence, not a word or phrase.

Point of view

The position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted (e.g., first person, third person limited, third person omniscient, etc). The perspective from which a speaker or author recounts a narrative or presents information. The author's manner in revealing characters, events, and ideas; the vantage point from which a story is told.

Foreshadow

An organizational (narrative) device used in literature to present action that occurred before current (present) time of the story. Flashbacks are often introduced as the dreams or memories of one or more characters.

Pathetic fallacy

Human attributes given to an inanimate object of nature and reflect a mood, e.g. "The somber clouds darkened our mood". The difference between pathetic fallacy and personification is that this is only applicable to inanimate objects

Motif

A recurrent image word phrase represented object or action that tends to unify the literary work or that may be elaborated into a more general theme.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole, or occasionally, the whole is used to represent a part.