Rhetorical Devices

Allegory: narrative in which characters and their actions are symbolic or personifications of qualities

Animal Farm

Zeugma: linking of a subject with two or more verbs, or linking a verb with two or more subjects

She broke his car and his heart.

“Yet time and her aunt moved slowly…” -Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Allusion: a reference to a historical / literary / religious event

Be a good Samaritan and help me out, would you?

Ambiguity: writing which can be interpreted in multiple ways and/or with different connotations

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting your husband.

Anadiplosis: repeating the last word in a clause in the beginning of the next one

“The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story!” -Gladiator, David Franzoni

Analogy: a comparison. synonymous with metaphor or similie

She's as blind as a bat.

Anaphora: parallel repetition in the beginning of two or more clauses

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair." -The Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

Anastrophe: when normal syntax is violated for emphasis

"Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes." -1984, George Orwell

Anecdote: a short story

Incorporating a fable to further a point or prove a moral

Antimetabole: repetition of words but reversed

"Fair is foul and foul is fair." -Macbeth, Shakespeare

Antithesis: juxtaposition of contrasting terms in the same sentence

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong.

Apostrophe: a speech said to a personified object or a person who is not present

"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" -Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare

Apposition: two noun phrases referring to the same subject

My dog, a rat terrier, is the cutest animal out there.

Asyndeton: sentence with no conjunctions to make it fast-paced

“I came, I saw, I conquered.” -Julius Caeser

Cliche: a commonplace or overused theme/plot/character/trope

“And they all lived happily ever after”

Colloquialism: informal but common words/phrases

“y’all”, “gonna”, “wanna”

Connotation: a word’s emotion/feeling it invokes

“unique” - special (+), peculiar (-), or different (neutral)?

Dialect: attempts to mimic speech via spelling and grammar

“If family and friend turn out good, is a bonus. Enjoy it. But don’t expect it.” -The Colour of Forgetting, Merle Collins

Diction: word choice

“ ‘Could you be so kind as to pass me the milk?' Vs. ‘Give me that!’ ”

Epanalepsis: emphasis on a word which is the first and last in the clause/sentence

“Nothing is worse than doing nothing."