The Rhetorical Devices
A understatement
Litotes
Used to emphasise contradictory arguments
Contrast
Antithesis
Juxtaposition
Used to link certain ideas together with ease - often adjectives or noun phrases
Parallelism
A direct opposite of something
Antithesis
Sentence Fragment
A part of something stands for the whole
Synecdoche
Used when the audience is sure to understand the reference being made
Allusion
Helps the audience remember and recognize the importance of the message
repetition
anaphora
Repeating the beginning of a clause or sentence (not just a word)
Highlights an important meaning by inverting the words
Chiasmus
A reference to something in popular culture
Allusion
Used to help clarify a point by making a comparison
Analogy
It creates suspense within the sentence and withholds information at the end of the sentence to create dramatic effect.
Periodic Sentence
Giving an object human qualities
Personification
Draws in the readers ear through repeated sounds
Consonance
Assonance
Maybe onomatopoeia / imagery
A play on words
Pun
Used to emphasise a key idea by changing the word order
Unusual Word Order
Adds humour to a text
Pun
Verbal Irony
A metaphor that repeats for multiple sentences or even paragraphs
Extended metaphor
Adds emotion by using a recognised object to stand in for a specific concept
Symbolism
Motif
A replacement of an idea with a word that is closely related
Metonymy
Can emphasize the symbolic importance of a part to the whole
Synecdoche
Metonymy
Makes its point by asking the listener to reflect
Rhetorical Question
Repeating the same letter at the beginning of each word
Alliteration
Helps the reader immerse themselves through their senses