RHETORICAL DEVICES



Rhetorical Devices and Literary Techniques

Rhetorical devices and literary techniques are closely related to tone and style. In fact, an author’s style partly consists of selecting and using certain devices; an author’s tone is partially determined by the type of techniques an author uses.

Rather than bombard you with dozens of unfamiliar terms, we’ll categorize and clump the most common types of devices and techniques below and provide some examples and commentary. As we said, you won’t be specifically tested on these concepts, but they do lurk beneath the surface in the passages. Focus on absorbing the similarities and differences between and among them. As you read through the list, note the one key feature all of these techniques and devices share: they allow words and sentences to carry more than only their literal meaning. Here is a list of the most important devices and techniques.

1. Expletive is a single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis to the words immediately proximate to the expletive. (We emphasize the words on each side of a pause or interruption in order to maintain continuity of the thought.) Compare:

• But the lake was not drained before April.

• But the lake was not, in fact, drained before April.

2. Asyndeton consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account:

• On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame.

The lack of the "and" conjunction gives the impression that the list is perhaps not complete. Compare:

• She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates, pretzels.

3. Understatement deliberately expresses an idea as less important than it actually is, either for ironic emphasis or for politeness and tact. When the writer's audience can be expected to know the true nature of a fact which might be rather difficult to describe adequately in a brief space, the writer may choose to understate the fact as a means of employing the reader's own powers of description. For example, instead of endeavoring to describe in a few words the horrors and destruction of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, a writer might state:

• The 1906 San Francisco earthquake interrupted business somewhat in the downtown area.

4. Parallelism (parallel structure) is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.

Any sentence elements can be paralleled, any number of times (though, of course, excess quickly becomes ridiculous). You might choose parallel subjects with parallel modifiers attached to them:

• Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness.

5. Repetition is the conscious and purposeful replication of words or phrases in order to make a point.

• Duty does not trump honesty. Duty does not trump common sense. And duty, my friends, does not

trump morality.

Anaphora is a type of repetition in which the same word or words are repeated at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism:

• Finally, we must consider what pleasantness of teaching there is in books, how easy, how secret! How safely we lay bare the poverty of human ignorance to books without feeling any shame! --Ibid.

6. Rhetorical question (erotesis) is one not answered by the writer, because its answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no. It is used for effect, emphasis, or provocation, or for drawing a conclusionary statement from the facts at hand.

• But how can we expect to enjoy the scenery when the scenery consists entirely of garish billboards?

• . . . For if we lose the ability to perceive our faults, what is the good of living on? --Marcus Aurelius

7. Amplification involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to emphasize what might otherwise be passed over. In other words, amplification allows you to call attention to, emphasize, and expand a word or idea to make sure the reader realizes its importance or centrality in the discussion.

• In my hunger after ten days of rigorous dieting I saw visions of ice cream--mountains of creamy, luscious ice cream, dripping with gooey syrup and calories.

8. Hyperbole, the counterpart of understatement, deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect. In formal writing the hyperbole must be clearly intended as an exaggeration, and should be carefully restricted. That is, do not exaggerate everything, but treat hyperbole like an exclamation point, to be used only once a year. Then it will be quite effective as a table-thumping attention getter, introductory to your essay or some section thereof:

• There are a thousand reasons why more research is needed on solar energy.

The opposite device is understatement: I’m a little tired is a purposeful understatement if the speaker has been up for 48 hours

9. Oxymoron is a paradox reduced to two words, usually in an adjective-noun ("eloquent silence") or adverb-adjective ("inertly strong") relationship, and is used for effect, complexity, emphasis, or wit.

10. Similes are explicit comparisons that uses like or as to compare unlike things.

• Her eyes were like stars.

• He is as big as a bear.

11. Metaphors compare unlike things without explicitly stating the comparison – the comparison is implied.

• Her eyes were pools of liquid light.

12. Personification is when an inanimate object is given human qualities or abilities.

• Her eyes followed me up the stairs.

• The waves devoured the shoreline.

13. Symbolism uses an object or person to stand for something else – a larger whole, a concept, or a bigger idea.

A motif is a symbol that is carried through an entire work of fiction. The motorcycle symbolized death throughout both stories. In the Lord of the Rings, the One Ring is a motif for the corrupting nature of power.

14. Sound Patterns

• Her eyes were rippling pools of liquid light in which I splashed playfully.

This metaphor also uses sound patterns to underscore its meaning. Note that the letters l and p repeat: rippling pools of liquid light…splashed playfully. The author may have repeated “l” and “p” sounds to evoke the sound of water (like in the word splash itself) or simply to link together the words that make up the metaphor—or both. There are many types of sound-pattern devices.

15. Allusion is a short, informal reference to a famous person or event:

• You must borrow me Gargantua's mouth first. 'Tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size. --Shakespeare

• If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over again.

• Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing

Notice in these examples that the allusions are to very well known characters or events, not to obscure ones. (The best sources for allusions are literature, history, Greek myth, and the Bible.) Note also that the reference serves to explain or clarify or enhance whatever subject is under discussion, without sidetracking the reader.

Allusion can be attractive in your writing because it can introduce variety and energy into an otherwise limited discussion (an exciting historical adventure rises suddenly in the middle of a discussion of chemicals or some abstract argument), and it can please the reader by reminding him of a pertinent story or figure with which he is familiar, thus helping (like analogy) to explain something difficult. The instantaneous pause and reflection on the analogy refreshes and strengthens the reader's mind.

16. Irony

• [Said to a mean boss]: “You’ve been so kind to me.”

The SAT loves irony. A statement is ironic if it expresses something different from or opposite to the literal meaning of the words. This example is called verbal irony or sarcasm, which can be thought of as “heavy-handed irony”.

• The overuse of antibiotics has led to the rise of resistant strains of many diseases.

A statement or situation can be ironic or paradoxical when the words accurately report events that seem to be contradictory but which have actually occurred, as in the example above.

• A soldier has returned from a war. He crashes his motorcycle and dies. His war experiences are told in

flashback. Whenever he thinks about death, a motorcycle drives by.

A specific literary use of irony is called dramatic irony. In the example above, the audience knows that the soldier will die in a motorcycle crash. The soldier himself, of course, doesn’t know how he will die. (A flashback, by the way, is another literary device made popular by the movies. Flashbacks jump back in the story’s chronology to give background information. For example, the opening scene of the film Lord of the Rings: Return of the King shows Gollum before he found the ring.)

17. Foreshadowing

• A soldier goes to war. He survives many brutal battles, just barely missing being killed several times. The soldier becomes obsessed with his “good luck”—why does he survive when so many others die? Every time the soldier has a brush with death, the author makes some subtle mention of a black motorcycle. Eventually, the soldier’s best friend is killed in a motorcycle crash the day after the war has ended. The soldier himself comes home and not too long afterward, he dies by crashing his motorcycle.

In this example, the audience and character are equally ignorant about the outcome of the story. However, by using foreshadowing, the author begins to clue in his audience. The character’s fate is slowly revealed to the audience but not necessarily to the character himself. Note that the ending to this story is doubly ironic—was the soldier “meant” to die in a motorcycle crash or did he bring it about through his own guilt about surviving while others perished? The theme of free will versus predetermination underlies this little story.

18. Aristotlean Appeals – see NEXT PAGE on the 3 persuasive appeals

Strategies of Argument

Argument defined

• Argument is based on a rational appeal to the understanding and builds its case on a network of logical connections.

• Arguments seek to persuade a specific audience of the validity of a proposition or claim through logical reasoning supported by facts, examples, data, or other kinds of evidence.

• Arguments rest on evidence, not personal opinion, likes or dislikes.

• Argument also refers to the practice of giving reasons to convince or persuade an audience to accept a claim or proposition.

What is rhetoric?

• Rhetoric is concerned with the methods or strategies arguers use in seeking acceptance of their position from an audience.

• Aristotle identified three means by which people could persuade each other to adopt a certain point of view or approve a course of action:

(1) logos—the appeal to the audience’s reason

the argument is logical and includes the citation of relevant facts and objective evidence (statistics, case histories, surveys, facts, examples, precedents)

(2) pathos—the appeal to the audience’s emotion

the argument appeals to the audience’s deepest desires, needs, and values; appeals to the emotions (fear, greed, love of comfort, desire for status)

(3) ethos—the degree of confidence that the speaker’s character or personality inspires in the audience the speaker/writer establishes credibility as a person of good sense, good moral character, good intentions, or of having expertise and/or relevant experience with the subject

Logical Fallacies

Logical fallacies are arguments that give the appearance of being persuasive but use incorrect ways of reasoning or faulty logic.

Propaganda Techniques (refer back to definition sheet from the beginning of semester to define each):

1. Bandwagon:

2. Card stacking

3. Fear

4. Glittering Generalities

5. Transfer

6. Lesser of Two Evils

7. Name Calling

8. Plain Folks

9. Testimonial

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