Rhetorical Devices
Logical Fallacies
Allusions
Argument Terms
Grammar as Rhetoric
100
"You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit." (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
What is zeugma?
100
...[I]f once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time. Thomas De Quincey, "Second Paper on Murder"
What is slippery slope?
100
"I violated the Noah rule: predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does." (Warren Buffett)
What is Noah and the flood from the Old Testament Bible (Genesis)?
100
When the speaker attempts to move the audience's emotions.
What is pathos?
100
The words "Denny Davies" in the sentence: It turned out that one of the top students, Denny Davies, had learned of this rule.
What is an appositive?
200
"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun." (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940)
What is anaphora?
200
According to Trump: Bernie Sanders is a “socialist whack job,” Ted Cruz is “maniac,” and Ben Carson is “pathological.” He has publicly insulted Marco Rubio for being sweaty at least eight times. Source: The Silver Tongue, March 2016
What is ad hominem?
200
Is Big Brother listening in on iphone apps?
What is 1984?
200
The three corners of the rhetorical triangle.
What is rhetor, audience, and subject?
200
This sentence is an example of what term: Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. -Thoreau
What is parallel structure?
300
The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our savings.
What is metonymy?
300
Northeastern University documented that after the gun law was passed handgun homicides in Massachusetts fell 50% and the number of armed robberies dropped 35%. (Implied: the gun law must have let to the drop in crime.) "Fact Card", Handgun Control, Inc.
What is post hoc ergo propter hoc?
300
"I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth." (Senator Barack Obama, speech at a fund-raiser for Catholic charities, October 16, 2008) (Must name both.)
What is Jesus' birth and Superman?
300
The ideas or concepts a speaker assumes his audience already agrees with.
What is a warrant?
300
It is a wilderness that is beautiful, dangerous, abundant, oblivious of us, mysterious, never to be conquered or controlled or second guessed, or known more than a little.
What is a cumulative sentence?
400
"Children make nutritious snacks."
What is double entendre?
400
Abortion can't be a private issue...how humans treat each other is a public issue. Of course there are private aspects of public relations, but allowing people to harm each other is not one of them. So, abortion is an inescapably public matter. Source: Helen M. Alvaré, The Abortion Controversy, Greenhaven, 1995, p. 23.
What is begging the question?
400
“I thought the software would be useful, but it was a Trojan Horse.”
What is the Odyssey or Iliad?
400
When a speaker takes a moment to acknowledge the areas in which the opposing argument is correct.
What is a concession?
400
Everywhere was a shadow of death.
What is an inverted sentence?
500
"She's not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed." (Allison Janney as Bren in Juno, 2007)
What is litotes?
500
Last week a storm hit California with winds never before seen in May, let alone on the west coast. Clearly El Nino is here and won't be leaving any time soon.
What is hasty generalization?
500
Lisa Simpson: "Ms. Rowling, I love your books. You've turned an entire generation on to reading." Rowling: "Thank you, young Muggle." Lisa: "Could you tell me what happens at the end of the series?" Rowling: [Exasperated] "He grows up and he marries you! Is that what you want to hear?" Lisa: [Dreamily] "Yes."
What is Harry Potter?
500
Ethos, logos, and pathos are all types of this and were developed by this man.
What is appeals developed by Aristotle?
500
Although the book was not entirely free of the stereotypes of contemporary British colonial writing, it was in some ways remarkably advanced for its time. The portion of the sentence "Although...writing"
What is a subordinate clause?
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