Alliteration

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

• A sound device in which several words close together all begin with the same sound

Allusion

“My friend’s laptop is the Einstein of computers. I am sad to say that mine, on the other hand, would have to be called the Frankenstein.”

• A passing reference the author makes assuming the reader understands the context of the reference

Analogy

“Life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you are going to find until you bite one!”

• A comparison, usually a paragraph or longer

• Differs from a metaphor in terms of length of development

Anaphora

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

• The same word of phrase is repeated in successive lines or sentences, or parts of a sentence

Anecdote

“My childhood friend ran into me yesterday… literally!”

• A short, usually humorous account of an interesting incident usually expressed in a narrative (story) form

Anti-Climax

“I have learned, as a result of years of careful research, much arduous labour, and great personal sacrifice, to brew the perfect cup of tea.”

• A sudden decent in a sentence from an apparently serious climactic build to the unexpectedly ridiculous

Antithesis

“Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise.”

• A balanced sentence which contains a contrast

• Contains ideas or images that are sharply contrasting

Balanced Structure (Balance)

“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

• Words repeated in a sentence or in closely consecutive sentences in a similar arrangement of words, mirroring the same grammatical structure

• Both halves of the sentence are equal in structure

• Often contains semi colons

Chiasmus

“No one plans to fail except those who fail to plan!”

• An intentional inversion or crisscross arrangement of pairs of keywords in two successive groups of phrases

• The order in the second group of words must be an inversion of the first

Climax

“A word from his lips might influence their passions, might change their opinion, might affect their destiny.”

• Arranging words, phrases, or clauses in an ascending order of importance or emotional force

Hyperbole

“My feet are killing me.”

• Deliberate exaggeration for the sake of effect

Irony

“The police station got robbed yesterday.”

• The opposite of what you’d expect happens

• Ironic Overstatements and Understatements

Metaphor

“You have a heart of gold.”

• An implied comparison where one things is described in terms of another

• NO ‘like’ or ‘as’

Oxymoron

“Suddenly the room filled with a deafening silence.”

• The juxtapositioning of seemingly opposite words

• Juxta Positioning: The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect

Paradox

“If I know one thing, it’s that I know nothing.”

• The Juxtapositioning of seemingly opposite concepts

• A self-contradictory statement

Periodicity:

“Over the sleeping city through the darkened sky thundered fifteen bomber planes.”

• The delayed placement of a part of the sentence that is crucial for understanding

• Usually the bare verb or the subject

Parallel Sentence Structure (Parallelism)

“There was no unity. There was no vision. There was no progress.”

• Parts of a sentence that are equal in importance and written with the same grammatical structure.

• Usually with commas, reads like a list

Position

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

• To place an important idea where it will most catch the attention of the reader

• Most emphatic words can be placed in the first and last position, or simply out of their natural position (ex. middle)

  • “The city--noisy, strident and discordant--grated on my nerves.”

Rhetorical Question

“Do you want to live in your parent’s home for the rest of your life?”

• A question in which the answer is implied

• Used to create tone

Simile

“They fought like cats and dogs.”

• An explicit comparison which uses ‘like’ or ‘as’