Rhetorical Strategies

Flashcards covering key rhetorical strategies and their definitions.

Ethos

The power and credibility of the speaker.

Pathos

The power of the audience’s emotions and values.

Logos

The power of logic and reason.

Exemplification

Providing specific examples to support an assertion.

Enumeration

Organizing a list of categories or details.

Analogy

Making direct comparisons between the subject and similar circumstances.

Asyndeton

The lack of conjunctions between phrases, clauses, or words.

Cause to Effect

Presents the source that led to the problem.

Effect to Cause

Presents the problem and then what caused it.

Process

Organized in step-by-step order.

Repetition

The conscious replication of words or phrases to make a point.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases.

Epistrophe

Repetition of the last word in successive sentences or phrases.

Polysyndeton

The repetition of conjunctions in a series of clauses.

Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word of one sentence at the beginning of the next.

Parallelism

Giving parts of the sentences similar grammatical form.

Paradox

An assertion that seems opposed to common sense, but may have truth.

Euphemism

Substitution of a non-offensive expression for a harsh or unpleasant one.

Antimetabole

Words in one phrase are replicated in reverse order in the next phrase.

Expletive

A short phrase used to lend emphasis to the words around it.

Epizeuxis

Repetition of the same word two or more times in immediate succession.