Rhetorical Devices 1.1

1. Rhetorical Devices1.1 Techniques Authors/Speakers Use to Manipulate Language in order to Persuade

2. Imagery The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. On a broader and deeper level, however, one image can represent more than one thing. For example, a rose may present visual imagery while also representing the color in a woman’s cheeks and/or symbolizing some degree of perfection.

3. Syntax The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is similar to diction, but you can differentiate them by thinking of syntax as groups of words.

4. Tone Similar to mood, tone describes the author’s attitude toward his material, the audience, or both. Considering how a work would sound if it were read aloud can help in identifying an author’s tone. Some words describing tone are playful, serious, businesslike, sarcastic, humorous, formal, ornate, sardonic, somber, etc.

5. Diction Related to style, diction refers to the writer’s word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. For the AP exam, you should be able to describe an author’s diction (for example, formal or informal, ornate or plain) and understand the ways in which diction can complement the author’s purpose. Diction, combined with syntax, figurative language, literary devices, etc., creates an author’s style.

6. Hyperbole The deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect. It must be clearly intended as an exaggeration, and should be used sparingly. Don’t exaggerate everything; treat hyperbole like an exclamation point, to be used only occasionally. "This chicken is so underdone a skilled vet could probably bring it back to life" Or you can exaggerate one thing to show how really different it is from something supposedly similar to which it is being compared "This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee at Starbuck's"

7. Irony The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, or the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true. Irony is often used to create poignancy or humor. In general, there are three major types of irony used in language: verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony

8. Assonance The successive use of different syllables with the same or similar vowel sounds in words with different consonants. It is similar to rhyme, but can be used with similar sounding words, as in the Churchill example. "The odiousapparatusof Nazi rule" - Winston Churchill

9. Alliteration A rhetorical device that repeats the same sound or letter beginning several words in sequence. "Let us go forth to lead the land we love" - J. F. Kennedy

10. Metaphor The comparison of two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other. Unlike a SIMILE or ANALOGY, a metaphor asserts that one thing actually is another thing, not just like it. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" - William Shakespeare

11. Denotation The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. “Example: The denotation of a knife would be a utensil used to cut”

12. Connotation The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. Connotations may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. “Example: The connotation of a knife might be fear, violence, anger, or foreboding”

13. Satire A work that targets human vices, follies, social institutions or conventions for reform or ridicule. Satire effectively employs irony, wit, parody, caricature, hyperbole, understatement, and sarcasm to be thought provoking and insightful “There warn’t anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn’t any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it’s cool. If you notice, most folks don’t go to church only when they’ve got to; but a hog is different.” - Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

14. Anaphora A repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, or sentences. "But one hundred years later, the Negrostill is not free. One hundred years later, thelife of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land" - Martin Luther King, Jr.