Rhetorical Choices
Alliteration
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Allusion
an author makes a brief, indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or artwork, relying on the audience's shared cultural knowledge to understand the reference and its deeper meaning.
Contradiction
a general term for two opposing ideas placed together
Irony
highlights a contrast between appearance and reality, or between expectation and outcome, to create a meaning or understanding that goes beyond the literal.
Metaphor
compare two unlike things
Repetition
a literary device where words, phrases, or lines are deliberately repeated within a text to create emphasis, rhythm, or memorability.
Understatement
a literary device where something is intentionally described as less important, serious, or significant than it truly is, often to create a specific effect like humor, irony, or emphasis.
Personal Testimonial
a first-hand account of an individual's experience used as a rhetorical device to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions and credibility, or as a literary genre focusing on personal narratives of social struggles and injustices
Shifts (Tone or Pronouns)
A shift in tone is when the author's attitude or the mood of the text changes, often signaled by transition words, a change in verb tense, or shifts in style. A pronoun shift occurs when the writer switches from one pronoun to another (e.g., "I" to "you," or singular to plural) within a sentence or text, which can be a grammatical error or a deliberate rhetorical choice to alter perspective or focus.
Apostrophe
a character speaks directly to an absent or nonexistent person, an inanimate object, or an abstract idea, as if it were present and able to understand
Parallelism
using repeated grammatical structures in successive phrases, clauses, or sentences to create rhythm, emphasis, and a memorable effect
Imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
Anecdote
a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
Justaposition
a device that places two or more elements, such as ideas, characters, images, or settings, next to each other to highlight their differences, reveal surprising similarities, or explore their relationship and create meaning.
Anaphora
the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.