Rhetorical Devices

1. %%Antithesis%%- Literally means opposite; establishing a clear contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure; %%organizing ideas into a clear contrast within a sentence.%%
2. %%Allegory%%- A story with two levels of meaning (one literal and the other symbolic, moral, or political); often in allegories, characters stand for various concepts and are given names that make their symbolic meaning clear; %%a work with the primary aim of delivering a message about humanity.%%
3. %%Alliteration%%- The repetition of the initial sounds in two or more neighboring words; done for emphasis; often, alliterative sound correlates with intended meaning or effect.
4. %%Allusion%%- %%A brief reference to something famous: literature, geographical locations%%; historical events, legends, myths, religion, traditions, and/or elements of popular culture; used to link history/ classics or make ideas more universal.
5. %%Apostrophe%%- %%A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or thing or a personified abstraction%%, such as love or liberty; the effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity; in older poetry, often indicated by “O! So and so…”
6. %%Colloquial%%- Using slang or informalities in speech or writing; (noun is colloquialism); includes local or regional dialects.
7. %%Connotation%%- The implied or suggested meaning of a word; association; any emotions, ideas, or situations associated with a word.
8. %%Denotation%%- The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word.
9. %%Diction%%- %%Word choice%%; an author’s diction my be formal or informal, ornate or plain; an author’s choice of diction contributes to the tone and mood of the piece depends on his/her purpose.
   10. %%Dysphemism%%- Substitution for a more offensive or disparaging word or phrase for one considered less offensive; can often create an insult.
   11. %%Euphemism%%- A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for an unpleasant word or concept; often obscures or softens the harsh truth.
   12. %%Figurative Language%%- %%Any language not meant to be taken literally%%, with a deeper, secondary meaning; appealing to the imagination, figurative language provides new ways of looking at the world; it often makes use of a comparison between different things; metaphors, imagery, metonymy are all examples of figurative language.
   13. %%Genre%%- %%The major category into which a literary work fits%%; the basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry and drama, but within those larger genres exist other smaller genres: autobiography, memoir, criticism, etc; each genre has its own unique generic conventions (traditions and attributes of each genre).
   14. %%Homily%%- %%A sermon or serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice%%; consider MLK’s “I have a dream” or parental and religious homilies.
   15. %%Hyperbole%%- Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis; can be comedic or serious, also known as overstatement.
   16. %%Imagery%%- %%Any writing that appeals to the five senses or describes something so it can be pictured%%; imagery can have an emotional effect on the reader: pay attention to HOW an author creates imagery and the EFFECT of the imagery.
   17. %%Invective%%- An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong or abusive language.
   18. %%Irony%%- Irony can take many forms and is notoriously difficult to define, but it virtually always involves some sort of contrast between two layers of something: between a surface layer and an underlying layer, or between two opposites; generally, the %%contrast between what is expected and reality OR what is stated and what is meant%%.
   19. %%Verbal Irony%%- “verbal irony” occurs when a speaker’s literal words (and their surface meaning) are at odds with his or her actual meaning.
   20. %%Situational Irony%%- “situational irony” involves %%a difference between expectation (what appears to be about to happen) and actual events or a difference between a character’s intentions and the actual result of their actions%%; for instance, you have situational irony in a story in which a character purchases a hand gun to protect his family, and one of the children is fatally shot while playing with it.
   21. %%Dramatic Irony%%- “dramatic irony” occurs when a character natively speaks what he or she believes to be the truth, and/or acts on what he or she believes to be the truth, while the audience knows that he or she has got it all wrong; the tensions between a a character’s view of the world and the audience’s view.
   22. %%Metaphor%%- %%Compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other%%, exposing a deeper similarity; unlike a simile or analogy, a metaphor assert that something IS a thing, not just that it’s LIKE another thing; through this identification of dissimilar things, a figurative comparison is implied.
   23. %%Extended metaphor%%- %%A metaphor which is drawn out way beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout an entire poem, throughout a passage, or across chapters in a novel%%, usually by using multiple comparisons between unlike objects or ideas; note how the metaphor subtly shifts throughout the piece.
   24. %%Metonymy%%- A term from the Greek meaning %%“changed label”%% or %%“substitute name;%%” a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as “crown” for “royalty”).
   25. %%Mood%%- The feeling created by the text in the reader; the emotional ‘climate’ of a passage created through the author’s choice of emotionally loaded words.
   26. %%Pun%%- %%A play on words in which words that are either identical in sound (homonyms) or similar in sound%%, but that are sharply different in meaning are deliberately confused; exploiting double or ambiguous meaning for comedic effect.
   27. %%Rhetoric%%- The art of writing and speaking effectively and persuasively; refers to the voices an author or speaker makes to do so.
   28. %%Satire%%- A work (literature, music, film) that %%uses irony, wit, parody, caricature, hyperbole, understatement and sarcasm to target human vices and follicles or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule%%; does NOT necessarily imitate, as in a parody.
   29. %%Symbol%%- %%Anything that represents or stands for something else%%; generally, a symbol is something concrete (an object) that stands for something more abstract (a feeling, idea, etc.); there are certain conventional symbols that persist through literature and culture, but most literary symbols must be decoded in context.
   30. %%Syntax%%- %%Sentence construction%%: short, medium long; flowing rhythmically with few breaks or very choppy; syntax treats a purposeful effect; some sentences are written with a short and choppy cadence to parallel an intense action in the text; the sentence structure in this case would contribute to the text’s intensity.
   31. %%Theme%%- %%The central idea or message of a text%%; the insight about life the author wishes to convey; theme is not typically stated by the author directly and must be stated in an entire sentence, not one word.
   32. %%Tone%%- The author’s attitude toward his or her subject and/or toward the audience; %%must use an ATTITUDE WORD.%%
   33. %%Understatement%%- %%The minimizing of fact or presentations of something as less significant than it is%%; opposite of hyperbole; understatement is used to be comedic or to actually stress the seriousness of an issue.
   34. %%Oxymoron%%- A figure of speech wherein the author puts together seemingly contradictory terms to draw attention to the phrase.
   35. %%Paradox%%- A statement that appears to be self contradictory, foolish, or false, but upon closer inspections contains some deeper truth.
   36. %%Parallelism%%- %%To give two or more parts of the sentences a similar form%% so as to give the whole a definite pattern; May also be known as parallel structure or parallel construction; Adds readability, rhythm, emphasis and organization; (With three parallel clauses, phrases or words in quick succession, it is a tricolon).
   37. %%Parody%%- A work (literature, music, film) that closely %%imitates the style or content%% of another work with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule; seeks to use the conventions of the original work in order to make fun of it.
   38. %%Personification%%- %%A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions%%; often is inherent in the verb used in the description.
   39. %%Point of View%%- %%The perspective from which a story is told%% (or an essay is written); first person (I,we), second person (you), or third person (he, she, it, they); also can mean the author’s position about the object.
   40. %%Prose%%- One major division of the major divisions of genre, prose %%refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms%%, because they are written in ordinary language and most closely resemble everyday speech; anything that isn’t poetry or drama is prose.

(simplified Definitions)


 1. Antithesis- Placing two opposing words near each other in the same phrase with the purpose of showing the reader what the author is trying to emphasize.
 2. Allegory- The expression of hidden morals or generalizations through the plot (character, place, or event) of a story.
 3. Allusion- An allusion is a literary device that is used to make an indirect reference and/or call an idea to mind without saying it explicitly.
 4. Apostrophe- “A speech or address to an absent person or a thing that is personified” (Webster Merriam Dictionary).
 5. Paradox- A statement that appears at first to be contradictory, but upon reflection then makes sense.
 6. Connotation- Connotation is an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its primary denotation.
 7. Dysphemism- The usage of an offensive or derogatory term in place of a pleasant one.
 8. Euphemism- A euphemism is a method of dulling the severity or harshness of your speech/writings, it is when you take a word that is harsh or vulgar or unpleasant, adn you swap that word out with a word or phrase that is less offensive, or is more kind, or less severe.
 9. Homily- A homily, commonly used religiously or spiritually, is an extended explanation in which it is used to explain and influence moral correction and a change in thought. Usually used in regard to influencing one’s ways of living.
10. Imagery- The usage of language to create a mental image that adds to the reader's understanding of the writing.
11. Verbal Irony- When something is said with the opposite or different meaning of what is meant to be said.
12. Satire- Exaggerating or fabricating writing about a subject in order to ridicule, discredit, or make fun of the subject.
13. Situational Irony- When the opposite of what was meant to happen occurs due to specific actions or events.
14. Dramatic Irony- Dramatic irony is when the author’s writing reveals the difference between the character’s knowledge of the circumstance and the reader or audience’s knowledge.
15. Extended Metaphor- A version of a metaphor that is not only used in one line but is shown throughout a certain length in a piece of literature.
16. Invective- Harsh and derogatory language
17. metonymy- A larger concept represented by a word that is closely related to the subject
18. Oxymoron-  A figure of speech where two contradictory words are used together.
19. Mood- A device that creates emotion or feeling in the reader.
20. Parallelism- Parallelism is when a writer makes a point through repetition using that repetition to reinforce a view or emotion into the audience.
21. Personification- Personification is a type of figurative language that gives human related characteristics and actions to non living objects or any ideologies.
22. Parody- A deliberately comical imitation of a work or genre (derisive in tone)
23. Symbol- A recurring idea or object that is used to represent something else such as a message or theme
24. Tone- the author's attitude towards the subject or theme of their writing
25. Understatement- A device that depicts its subject as less important or of smaller scale. Used in polite, comedic, and modest manners.

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