Rhetorical Analysis
Vocabulary list 6
Rhetorical Tools—words to help analyze rhetoric
Consonance
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The repetition of the same or similar consonant
sounds on accented syllables or important
words.
EX: ticktock; singsong.
Assonance
The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by
different consonant sounds in words that are close together.
EX: A line from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”:
“By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown.”
Metonymy
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A figure of speech in which one thing is represented
by something closely related to it. “The relationship is
not one of similarity, as with metaphor, but of common
association.”
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Ex. “Two daiquiris / withdrew into a corner of the
gorgeous room / and one told the other a lie”
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Ex. “The students put blood and sweat into their
essays.”
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Ex. “No French bob touched Gatsb’y shoulder” (50).
Synecdoche
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A figure of speech in which a whole thing is
represented by a part of that thing.
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EX: “Washington is engaging in talks with Tehran,”
where “Washington” represents the entire United
States.
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“I should have been a pair of ragged claws /
Scuttling across floors of silent seas.”
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“I have known the arms already, known them all”
Anaphora
A form of repetition, specifically the repetition of a word or
phrase at the beginning of two or more successive
sentences or lines of poetry.
EX: “And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? Be gone!"
Epistrophe
Ending a series of lines, phrases, sentences, or clauses with
the same word or words.
EX: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny
compared to what lies within us.” – Emerson.
Apostrophe
A figure of speech in which some absent, inanimate, or
nonexistent thing or person is addressed as if it/they could
understand.
EX: “O, brave desk, how bravely you bare my burden!”
Antithesis
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The rhetorical strategy of stating the exact opposite of
the main claim.
Also known as counterargument.
Imperative Sentence
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A sentence that gives a command or request. In
these sentences the subject is not stated because it is
implied.
EX: “Sit down!”