MASTERING RHETORIC

1. MASTERING RHETORIC Rhetorical Strategies 101

2. DICTION Diction is the exact words that you choose and the settings in which you use them. “An aged man is but a paltry thing A tattered coat upon a stick . . .” --W. B. Yeats “Sailing to Byzantium” · What picture is created by the use of the word tattered? ·The author’s choice of diction affects how the audience interprets the writing.

3. The emotional associations that a word may carry. • The connotation is what you think of when you hear that word. • Definition of that word • VS. • The literal meaning of a word • The word home denotes the house where one lives, but connotes privacy, intimacy, and coziness Connotation & Denotation

4. Statement heavily loaded with scholarly knowledge; usually implying that he/she/it's so precise that it's boring. • Is often used to describe someone as an annoying perfectionist. • Pedantic speakers often talk down to or lecture others, while emphasizing their own knowledge. Pedantic & Simple VS. Simple diction consisting of small, easy to understand words

5. One syllable VS. more than one syllable. Monosyllabic & Polysyllabic • Monosyllabic: Cats eat meat. • Polysyllabic: Felines are carnivorous mammals.

6. Something euphonious sounds beautiful and pleasant. • Words with soft consonants and vowels tend to be seen as euphonious, such as melody, pleasure, symphony, atmosphere or harmony. • VS. • Harsh sounding or Cacophonic Euphonious & Cacophonic • Generally words with hard consonant sounds are considered cacophonous, such as crackle, wrangler, Baghdad, dragon or crunchy.

7. Literal language means exactly what it says VS. Figurative language that contains figures of speech Literal & Figurative • Figurative Descriptions • The grass looks like • spiky green hair. (simile) • Sand is solid water. (metaphor) • The flower has the • sweetest smelling petals • in the world. (hyperbole) • Literal Descriptions • Grass looks green. • Sand feels rough. • The flower smells sweet.

8. In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action. • "Steve loves Amy." Steve is the subject, and he is doing the action: he loves Amy, the object of the sentence. • VS. Active & Passive • In passive, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. • Instead of saying, "Steve loves Amy," you would say, "Amy is loved by Steve." • The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy.

9. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement. • "I nearly died laughing." VS. A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. Overstated & Understated • "A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty." • (Mark Twain)

10. Informal language that is not rude, but would not be used in formal situations • "This food is the real deal" instead of "This food is really good." VS. Formal, proper language Colloquial & Formal • “Please refrain from smoking” instead of “Please don't smoke.”

11. Words that have meanings but are not considered proper language • Calling women "chicks" and men "dudes". Slang & Jargon VS. Aspecific set of words and phrases which are unique to a small group of people. • Johns Creek students use jargon such as “Care” and “Prolly”.

12. SoundDevices The author’s creation of sound through the devices and language used in a piece

13. The repetition of the initial consonant sounds in nearby words. • The purpose of an alliteration is to draw attention to specific words. Alliteration • "Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary. " • In this line, there is the repetition of the "w" sound in the words "while," "weak" and "weary."

14. A word that imitates the sound it represents. • For example, "meow" sounds like the noise a cat makes. "Ring" is the sound produced by a telephone. "Woof" is the sound produced by a dog. Onomatopoeia

15. Syntax The way in which words and phrases are arranged to form grammatical structure.

16. Subject+Verb + Object Basic • Mary likes Dave • Kaitlin ate Cake

17. A sentence that is interrupted by a parenthetical aside • "Long term, car loans and--you guessed it--home loans will be much harder to come by." Interrupted

18. Reversing the normal word order of a sentence • Whose woods these are I think I know. - Robert Frost Inverted • “It was always pleasant “crossing bridges in Paris.” -Ernest Hemingway

19. A sentence with multiple phrases that create a list. • “Never in his entire life, not as a son, a husband, a father, even as an employer, had he given way to anything so alien to the emotional rules by which he was governed.” Listing

20. Begins with subject and verb and adds modifying elements at end. Cumulative/Loose • "I could live two days in a den, curled, leaning on mouse fur, sniffing bird bones, blinking, licking, breathing musk, my hair tangled in the roots of grasses."

21. A sentence in which the main clause or is withheld until the end Periodic • Despite heavy winds and nearly impenetrable ground fog, the plane landed safely.

22. Establishing a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. ParallelismAntithesis • 'And so my fellow Americans, ask not, what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.

23. A verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed. • "I lead the life I love; I love the life I lead." • "In the end, the true test is not the speeches a president delivers; it’s whether the president delivers on the speeches." • "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget." Parallelism Chiasmus

24. In a balanced sentence, phrases or clauses parallel each other by virtue of their likeness of structure, meaning, or length. Think of a balanced sentence as a see-saw in which equal weights are placed on each end. Parallelism Balanced • Unbalanced: She doesn’t like washing clothes or housework. • Balanced: She doesn’t like washing clothes or doing housework. • Unbalanced: Janet researches cell membranes and walls. • Balanced: Janet researches cell membranes and cell walls.

25. A sentence that “declares” or states something. • The sole purpose of a declarative sentence is to give information. Declarative • Tonight, the Lakers will play the Knicks. • Katie and I rode our bikes to school.

26. Commands, requests, or instructs. • The subject is most often you—unstated, but understood. • "Go feed the cat." • "Shut the door." • "Go away!" • "Come here right now." Imperative

27. A type of sentence that expresses strong feelings by making an exclamation. Exclamatory • "It's alive! It's alive!" • "What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!"

28. Word that functions to ask a question that can't be simply answered with yes or no. Interrogative • Who was the contestant most recently fired by Donald Trump? • How did it get so late so soon?

29. Contains a least one subject and at least one predicate • It can stand alone because it expresses a complete thought. Simple • Tom and Phil made the pizza. • I love AP Language. • Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Koch are the best.

30. Contains two or more independent clauses • We were exhausted, but we arrived in time for my father's birthday party. Compound • Meg brought the food, so Kate set the table.

31. Contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses • Although he is now 79 years old,he still claims to be 65. Complex • "Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything." • Consumers buy fewer goods when prices rise.

32. Contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses • Although I like to go camping, I haven't had the time to go lately, and I haven't found anyone to go with. CompoundComplex • We decided that the movie was too violent, but our children, who like to watch scary movies,thought that we were wrong.

33. When one or more words are omitted • Device used when you're quoting material and you want to omit some words • The ellipsis consists of three evenly spaced dots (periods) with spaces between the ellipsis and surrounding letters or other marks. Ellipsis "The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes from the Caribbean who were visiting the U.S." “The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes … visiting the U.S.”

34. Omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (the opposite of polysyndeton) • "Joona walks through the Christmas market in Bollnäs Square. Fires are burning, horses are snorting, chestnuts are roasting. Children race through a stone maze, others drink hot chocolate." Asyndeton • "He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac."

35. The use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause (Opposite of Asyndeton) • Sam is so puzzled, so perplexed, so bewildered, so befuddled by English grammar! Polysyndeton • He pursues his way, and swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. *Employs conjunctions such as like and, or, but, for, nor, so.

36. The repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next • "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you." Anadiplosis • "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

37. The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses • "It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place." Anaphora * “I have a dream” is repeated in eight successive sentences, and is one of the most often cited examples of anaphora in modern rhetoric.

38. The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses • "And close your eyes, child, and listen to what I'll tell you. Follow in the darkest night the sounds that may impel you. And the song that I am singing may disturb or serve to quell you.“ Epistrophe

39. A break in a sentence where there is an aside statement in a set of parentheses • Our leader—a fearless man whom we all respect—was hiding in the library. ParentheticalAside • One day, I was walking down the street in the rain (which I don't normally do, but today was an odd day) and then out of nowhere, I saw my friend walking down the street toward me.

40. Connects two independent clauses • I bought shiny, ripe apples; small, sweet, juicy grapes; and firm pears. Semi-Colon • The sun lit up the wall; I shielded my eyes from the glare.

41. Used after a statement that introduces a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a series. • Divides distinct but related sentence • components such as clauses in which the second elaborates on the first Colon • I walked close to the left wall when I entered, but it was a empty: just the stairs curving up into shadows. • "There are three choices in this life: be good, get good, or give up."

42. A punctuation mark (—) used to indicate a sudden break in thought, to set off parenthetical material Dashes • Abby gave me a terrible haircut—and she expected a tip! • Except for the Marabar Caves—and they are twenty miles off—the city presents nothing extraordinary.

43. Genre A literary genre is a recognizable and established category of written work employing such common conventions as will prevent readers or audiences from mistaking it with another kind.

44. Form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. • The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. • Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Allegory In literature, a classic example is Herman Melville's Moby Dick, where the sea and the whale, and Ahab's actions, all represent elements of life and human behavior.

45. The story of one's life written by oneself • A literary work about the writer's own life. • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa are autobiographical. Autobiography

46. An account of a person’s life as written or told by another. • Narrates the most important facts of someone’s life, his or her childhood, adolescence, military service, wars he or she lived through, educational background, professional life, marriage, children, and most outstanding achievements. Biography

47. An extended account of historical events without interpretation or comment. • It is a series of small real stories put in order in the correct series of the events. Basically a historical recorded story. Chronicle

48. A daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations. • The Diary of Anne Frank Diary

49. A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author; analytic or interpretive. Essay

50. A literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact • HarryPotter • Scarlet Letter Fiction