Rhetorical Devices
The placing of two elements side by side with the explicit purpose to present a comparison or contrast.
What is juxtaposition?
This is the specialized language or vocabulary of a particular group or profession.
What is jargon?
This rhetorical device involves the direct usage of conjunctions. ex: "The frenzied fields, and doghouses and hills and trees and ditches and gardens."
What is polysyndeton?
This rhetorical device is a subtype of parallelism. It is defined as the exact repeition of words at the beginning of phrases. ex: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall..."
What is anaphora?
This is used to describe pieces that have the primary purpose of teaching or instructing.
What is didactic?
This rhetorical device involves comparing two unalike things in order to make a pointed or powerful comparison to increase the reader's understanding of an idea.
What is a metaphor?
This is a brief narrative that focuses on a particular incident or event.
What is an anecdote?
This is an indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant
What is a euphemism?
Using one part of an object to represent the entire object (referring to a car as “wheels”)
What is synecdoche?
This rhetorical device involves the deliberate exaggeration of a situation. ex: He ate everything in the house.
What is hyperbole?
This is the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs
What is irony?
This is the use of corresponding grammatical or syntactical forms.
What is parallelism or parallel structure?
This rhetorical device involves the usage of one word to govern two or more other words. ex: To wage war and peace....
What is zeugma?
This rhetorical device involves a direct or indirect reference to something which is commonly known. ex: Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities'..
What is an allusion?
This employs an A-B-B-A structure and features mirrored, inverted parallelism. It focuses on reversal of ideas: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
What is chiasmus?
This rhetorical device involves the direct omission of conjunctions often producing a rapid tempo. ex: "They dove, splashed, floated, splashed, swam, snorted." (James T. Farrell, Young Lonigan)
What is asyndeton?
This rhetorical device focuses on opposites -- it involves the second part of a sentence meaning the exact opposite than the first part. ex: "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more."
What is antithesis?
A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity
What is a paradox?
This rhetorical device involves an understatement in the negative. ex: "I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives." (Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, May 7, 1776) or "It wasn't a pretty picture."
What is litotes?
This rhetorical device involves the substitution of a name with another idea/thing closely associated to it. ex: "Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood." (Conan O'Brien)
What is metonymy?
An insincere or overly sentimental quality of writing/speech intended to invoke pity.
What is bathos?
This device refers to the way an author chooses to join word into phrases and sentences.
What is syntax?