Spotlight on allusion, antithesis,
anaphora, erotema and hypophora.
Rhetorical devices
and their effects
When considering the effects of
rhetorical devices…
Ask yourself…is this being
used to…
Emphasize or amplify?
Contrast?
Connect?
Rhetorical question – AKA erotema
Let’s start basic – what is a question?
 Why ask one?
 When a writer asks a question in a
persuasive essay, the answer is implied.
 So, if the writer already knows the answer
and the reader does also (if the reader
gets the implication) then why ask?
 Can you tell me? ;)

Rhetorical question – What is the
effect?
Effect:
 In Composition, Literary and Rhetorical, Simplified (1850), David
Williams states that a rhetorical question is designed
“to awaken attention to the subject of discourse, and is a mode of
address admirably calculated to produce a powerful impression of
the truth of a subject, as it challenges the impossibility of
contradiction.”

A well-structured erotema will lead the audience to the conclusion
that the speaker wants them to reach and the reader (or listener)
will feel like a participant instead of simply an observer (or reader.)
 Since the listener/reader feels pulled into the conversation with
rhetorical questions, they can be used very effectively to build
consensus.

D’oh!
Lisa Simpson and her grandmother (singing
Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”): “How
many roads must a man walk down, before
you can call him a man?”
 Homer Simpson: “Seven!”
 Lisa: “No, Dad, it’s a rhetorical question.”
 Homer: “Rhetorical, eh? … Eight!”
 Lisa: “Dad, do you even know what
‘rhetorical’ means?”
 Homer: “Do I know what ‘rhetorical’
means?”
Hypo what?
Hypophora – Asking a rhetorical question and
immediately answering it.
 And the effect?
 There is a sense that the speaker is having a dialogue
with the audience. The answer is usually one that is
on the minds of his listeners already.
 Asking the question arouses the curiosity of the
audience about the answer.A well-timed pause
between the question and answer can heighten this
curiosity and completely engage the audience.


The speaker appears confident and in
control.

The question or questions in a hypophora will often
be used to set up a long answer, which contains an
important point that the speaker wishes to make.
Hypophora
“You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air,
with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war
against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue
of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in
one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory,
however long and hard the road may be.”
— Winston Churchill, 4 June 1940
 “There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When
will you be satisfied?’ We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the
victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied,
as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the
motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as
long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We
can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and
robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only.” We cannot be
satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York
believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we
will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a
mighty stream.”
 — Martin Luther King, Jr., 28 August 1963

Antithesis
The opposition or contrast of words in a
parallel structure.
 This can create a contrast to emphasize
the differences between the parts.
 It can also call attention to the
relationship between the parts.

Anaphora
This type of repetition can add emphasis
and make the part of the speech more
memorable and quotable.
 It can give the speech a musical quality
and add unity.

Allusion
This can give a speech depth and help
establish the speaker’s ethos.
 It may refer to something that represents
values the speaker shares with the
audience, and the audience shares with
each other.
