Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical Devices Write Down Everything!!

Alliteration • The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences” (Hart Crane). • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14BFmBsGmKc

Repetition • The act or process or an instance of repeating or being repeated. • For example, Rhianna… Shine bright like a diamondShine bright like a diamondShine bright like a diamondWe’re beautiful like diamonds in the skyShine bright like a diamondShine bright like a diamondShine bright like a diamondWe’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Anaphora • The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs • For example: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills” (Winston S. Churchill).

Antithesis • Direct contrast; opposition. The direct or exact opposite: Hope is the antithesis of despair. • A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure, as in “Hee for God only, shee for God in him” (John Milton). • Example: Iron Man and Captain America when it comes to moral values…

Rhetorical Question • A question to which no answer is expected, often used for rhetorical effect. • Geico

Metaphor • A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world's a stage” (Shakespeare). • One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: “Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” (Neal Gabler).

Simile • same as metaphor, just using “like” or “as”. • Lame…

Imagery • A set of mental pictures or images. The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.

Imagery Practice • I stepped onto the dusty porch and into the icy, cold wind. As I briskly walked along the deserted road, I couldn’t help but hear the leaves crunching steadily like bones beneath my feet. My heart beat wildly as I desperately looked around me for some kind of sign that I wasn’t alone. But I was alone. Completely isolated and desolate. The feeling hit me like a 50 pound weight had been dropped on my chest. It was up to me now. Only I could save what was left. Me. Alone.

Personification • A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form, as in Hunger sat shivering on the road or Flowers danced about the lawn. • Beauty and the Beast

Allusion • The act of alluding; indirect reference (making a reference to something or someone else, without actually saying who or what you are referring to) • For example: If I were to say, “Five points to Gryffindor!” What am I alluding to?

Chiasmus • A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures, as in “Each throat/Was parched, and glazed each eye” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).

Metonymy • A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated • For example, saying “Washington”for the United States government or of “the sword”for military power.

Red Herring • something that draws attention away from the central issue, a misleading clue

Fallacy • a statement or an argument based on false or invalid inference. • A false notion (idea).

Hyperbole • obvious and intentional exaggeration. An extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”

Generalization • a general statement, idea, or principle. • A proposition asserting something to be true either of all members of a certain class or of an indefinite part of that class.

Rhetorical Devices