Literary Devices
A comparison using “like” or “as.”
Simile
Aristotle’s appeal to emotion.
Pathos
This artist recently got embroiled in controversy over his vocal support of Palestine.
Macklemore
The specific group a message is designed to reach.
Target audience
This English playwright wrote Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.
William Shakespeare
Giving human characteristics to something non-human.
Personification
An appeal based on the credibility of the speaker.
Ethos
Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” speaks out in support of this community.
LGBTQ+
Selecting evidence that supports what you already believe while overlooking contradictory evidence.
Confirmation bias
This author created the dystopian world of 1984 and introduced readers to Big Brother.
George Orwell
An object, character, place, or image that represents an idea beyond itself.
Symbolism
Misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.
Straw Man
Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright” became closely associated with protests following the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police and with this movement.
Black Lives Matter
A deliberately provocative or sensational headline designed primarily to attract clicks.
Clickbait
This American author wrote The Great Gatsby, a novel set during the Jazz Age.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Placing contrasting ideas or images beside one another to emphasize their differences.
Juxtaposition
This fallacy involves dropping an unrelated topic into a discussion to distract people from the core issue.
A Red Herring
Freddie Mercury’s death helped bring worldwide attention to this disease, and the surviving members later created a charity bearing his name to fight it.
HIV/AIDS
Saying something that is technically true, but creates a false impression because crucial information has beenleft out.
Lying/misleading by omission.
This Canadian author wrote The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake.
Margaret Atwood
This author created one of literature’s most famous monsters, Frankenstein, while still a teenager. Her 1818 novel is often considered one of the earliest works of science fiction.
Mary Shelley