Rhetorical Devices

1. Rhetorical Devices Seven Lakes High School

2. Ethos (p. 72) • Ethical appeals • How a speaker or writer produces TRUST and establishes CREDIBILITY • Example: “Our expertise in roofing contracting is evidenced not only by our 100 years in the business and our staff of qualified technicians, but in the decades of satisfied customers who have come to expect nothing but the best.” • The advertisers try to build up their credibility with their customers by mentioning the experience they have in the field and the technical expertise of their staff.

3. Pathos (p. 72) • Emotional Appeal • Uses language that involves the senses/imagery • Includes connotative language • Example: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suE_WJWUEVs • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKi2wjELK6A

4. Logos (p. 72) • Logical Appeal • Cites tradition and/or commonly held beliefs • Uses facts and statistics • Provides examples or evidence • Examples: • "The data is perfectly clear: this investment has consistently turned a profit year-over-year, even in spite of market declines in other areas." • "It’s a matter of common sense that people deserve to be treated equally. The Constitution calls it ‘self-evident.’ Why, then, should I have been denied a seat because of my disability?"

5. Alliteration • The repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words. (p. 8) • Examples: • Sally sells seashells by the sea shore. • Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

6. Allusion • A reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing. (p. 7) • Examples: • “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” • “This place is like a Garden of Eden.”

7. Anaphora • The repetition of a prominent word as the last and first word of two phrases or clauses (p. 6). • Examples: • “My life is my purpose. My life is my goal. My life is my inspiration.” • “O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?”

8. Anachronism • an error of chronology or timeline in a literary piece. In other words, anything that is out of time and out of place is an anachronism. • Example: • “Brutus: Peace! Count the clock.Cassius: The clock has stricken three.” • Julius Caesar

9. Anecdote • a short and interesting story or an amusing event often proposed to support or demonstrate some point and make readers and listeners laugh. • Example: • “You’ll never guess what happened to me on the way here. . .” • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kggwE_vAdOs

10. Appositive • Renames or identifies a noun or pronoun (p. 5). • Examples: • The insect, a large cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table. • During the dinner conversation, Clifford, the messiest eater at the table, spewed mashed potatoes like an erupting volcano.

11. Hyperbole • A deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration (p. 7). • Examples: “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!” “Your suitcase weighs a ton!”

12. Rhetorical Fragment • A sentence fragment used deliberately for persuasive purpose or to create a desired effect (p. 7). • Examples: • “Because it is the only choice you have.” • “Lights! Camera! Action!”

13. Parallelism • Refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence (p. 6). • Examples: • Joseph likes to go running, skiing, and hiking on the weekends. • Lucy only wears purple when it rains.

14. Colloquial Language • characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal. • Examples: • go bananas – go insane or be very angry • Wanna – want to • Gonna – going to

15. Antithesis • A rhetorical device in which two ideas are directly opposed (p. 6). • Examples: • Speech is silver, but silence is gold. • You are easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart.

16. Rhetorical shift • A shift used to influence or persuade • Usually done when moving to a different topic

17. Asyndeton • The deliberate omission of conjunctions (p. 6). • Examples: Without looking, without making a sound, without talking (Oedipus at Colonus by Sophecles) “This is the villain among you who deceived you, who cheated you, who meant to betray you completely…….” (Rhetoric by Aristotle)

18. Polysyndeton • The repetition of conjuctions in close succession for rhetorical effect (p. 6). • Examples: • “Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm andbig houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly–mostly–let them have their whiteness.” (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)

19. Metonymy • Changed label or substitute name or the name of one thing is applied to another (p. 7). • Examples: • Seven Lakes High School played Katy High School for the championship. • The White House declared and new ruling.