rhetorical devices ap

allegory

a narrative in which characters, behavior, and setting demonstrate multiple levels of meaning and significance. An allegory is a universal symbol or personified abstraction.

Cupid is often perceived as a chubby angel with a bow and arrow.

alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words, often consonants.

She sells seashells by the seashore.

allusion

a literary, historical, religious, or mythological reference.

I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchio's.

anaphora

the regular repetition of the same words or phrases at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses.

To raise a happy, healthful and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety; it takes all of us.

antithesis

the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structure, or ideas.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.

aphorism

a concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

apostrophe

the act of addressing some inanimate abstraction or person that is not physically present: It often helps the speaker to be able to express his or her thoughts aloud.

"Ingratitude! Thou marble-headed fiend, more hideous when though show'st thee in a child than a sea-monster." In this example, ingratitude is a personified concept; by addressing the abstract, it commands a significant rhetorical power.

appeals to...authority, logic or emotion

rhetorical arguments in which the speaker claims to be an authority or expert in a field, attempts to play upon the emotions, or appeals to the use of reason. Ethos (authority), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic).

97% percent of customers say they love this product

assonance

the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words.

GO and MOW the lawn.

asyndeton

a syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted in a series, usually producing more rapid prose.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

attitude

the sense expressed by the tone of voice or the mood of a piece of writing; the author's feelings toward his/her subject, characters, events or theme. It might even be his/her feelings for the reader.

How the author feels towards his characters.

begging the question

an argumentative ploy where the arguer sidesteps the question or the conflict, evading or ignoring the real question.

Presidential debates.

canon

The works considered the most important in a national literature or period; works widely read and studied.

Shakespeare

chiasmus

a figure of speech and generally syntactical structure wherein the order of the terms in the first half of a parallel clause is reversed in the second.

He thinks I am but a fool. A fool, perhaps I am."

claim

in argumentation, an assertion of something as a fact

He is guilty.

colloquial

a term identifying the diction the common, ordinary folks, especially in a specific region or area.

People into he south use y'all

comparison and contrast

a mode of discourse in which two or more things are compared, contrasted or both.

Finding similarities and/or differences between ice cream and yogurt.

conceit

a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out in a piece of literature, in particular an extended metaphor within a poem.

Richard Selzer's passage "The Knife" compares the preparation and actions of surgery to preparing and conduction a religious service or sacred ritual.

connotation

the implied, suggested, or underlying meaning of a word or phrase.

A dove implies peace and angelicness

consonance

the repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels

pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack.

convention

an accepted manner, model or tradition

Not eating meat on Sabbath day.

critique

an assessment or analysis of something

a passage of writing, for the purpose of determining what it is, what its limitations are, and how it conforms to the standard of the genre.

deductive reasoning

specific statements and conclusions are drawn from general principles

He's eating up the plan- he is gullible

dialect

the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, region or group.

Southerners refer to the gathering of folks as "y'all."

diction

the specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effort.

Cats roaming without leashes constituted "feline delinquency" and irritated citizen reactions were referred to as "small game hunts by zealous citizens."