Rhetorical Devices
How to Write an Effective
Speech or Essay
What is Rhetoric?
A technique or art of persuasion in speaking
or writing.
Rhetoric uses:

ethos

pathos

logos
More on Rhetoric

Rhetoric convinces you to feel a certain
way about a topic.

Rhetoric makes some writing beautiful and
other writing bland.

Presentation is as important as facts.
History of Rhetoric

Rhetoric began with Aristotle in Ancient
Greece, when speakers began to practice
the art of persuasion in courts of law.
 Aristotle:
Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in
any particular case all of the available means of
persuasion.”
 Quintillian:
"Rhetoric is the art of speaking well."
Rhetorical Devices

Examples include but are not limited to:
 Irony
 Paradox
 Rhetorical
 Metaphor
 Simile
 Allusion
Questions
More Rhetorical Devices
Other examples are:
 Periodic
Sentences
 Repetition
 Parallelism
 Italics
Irony
Expression of something which is contrary
to the intended meaning.
 Verbal Irony is saying one thing and
meaning another.

 “Yet
Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.”
Shakespeare's Mark Antony in "Julius
Caesar"
Irony in cartoons
Types of Irony

Situational irony is an incongruity between the
actual result of events and the normal or
expected results.

Incongruity between a situation developed in a
drama and the accompanying words or actions
that is understood by the audience but not by the
characters in the play —called also dramatic
irony, tragic irony
Isn’t It Ironic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnec6Sm
jHP0
More irony

Simply stated: Irony signals a difference
between the appearance of things and
reality. For instance, verbal irony often
conveys a meaning exactly opposite from
the literal meaning. In ironic situations
(situational irony), actions often have an
effect exactly opposite from what is
intended.”
Ironic cartoons
Paradox

An assertion seemingly opposed to
common sense, but that may yet have
some truth in it.
 “What
a pity that youth must be wasted on the
young."
George Bernard Shaw
Examples of Paradox
Paradox is a seemingly contradictory
statement that may nonetheless be true!
 For instance, "Standing is more tiring than
walking." Paradox exhibits inexplicable or
contradictory aspects or it may be an
assertion that is essentially self
contradictory.

More Examples
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish
playwright, critic was one of the great master of
paradox.

“I'm only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller.”

“Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered,
and it wrings one's heart; but death is a splendid thing-a warfare
accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can
always see that in their faces.”
And more…


"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal
than others." - Animal Farm by George Orwell
‘Take some more tea,’ the March Hare said to Alice, very
earnestly.
‘I’ve had nothing yet,’ Alice replied in an offended tone,
‘so I can’t take more.’
‘You mean you can’t take less,’ said the Hatter: ‘it’s very
easy to take more than nothing.’
‘Nobody asked your opinion,’ said Alice.
‘Who’s making personal remarks now?’ the Hatter asked
triumphantly. - Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
Shakespeare’s Works & Paradox



"For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do
touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss." Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb;" Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
"I must be cruel to be kind.” Shakespeare in
Hamlet
Paradox in cartoons
Rhetorical Questions

Its answer is obvious and implied, and usually
just a yes or no. It is used for effect, emphasis,
or provocation, or for drawing a conclusion from
the facts at hand.


“. . . For if we lose the ability to perceive our faults, what is the
good of living on?” --Marcus Aurelius
“Is justice then to be considered merely a word? Or is it whatever
results from the bartering between attorneys?”
More on Rhetorical Questions

Often the rhetorical question and its
implied answer will lead to further
discussion:
 Is
this the end to which we are reduced? Is
the disaster film the highest form of art we can
expect from our era?
Rhetorical Questions in Advertising
Geico Rhetorical Questions Compilation –
YouTube
Does Your Man Smell Like an Old
Spice Man?

http://www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice?v=
gzowzUsq6iY&feature=pyv&ad=70839235
37&kw=funny#p/c/B9F260CE56D04E73/2/
uLTIowBF0kE
Pink’s Lyrics to Mr. President

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn14_y2
euzM
Metaphor

Implied comparison achieved through a
figurative use of words; the word is used not in
its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.
 “Life's
but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”
Shakespeare, Macbeth
 “From
Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an
iron curtain has descended across the continent.”
W. Churchill
Simile

An explicit comparison between two things using “like” or
“as”.

“My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease.“ Shakespeare,
Sonnet CXLVII

“Reason is to faith as the eye to the telescope” D. Hume

“Let us go then, you and I,
While the evening is spread out against the sky,
Like a patient etherized upon a table...” T.S. Eliot, The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Similes in Song et al

Literary Devices - YouTube
Allusion

Allusion is a short, informal reference to a famous person or event

If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over
again.

Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing

Our examination of the relation of the historian to the facts of history
finds us, therefore, in an apparently precarious situation, navigating
delicately between the Scylla of an untenable theory of history as an
objective compilation of facts . . . and the Charybdis of an equally
untenable theory of history as the subjective product of the mind of the
historian . . . . --Edward Hallett Carr
Allusions to…
Allusions in cartoons
Periodic Sentence

The most common type of periodic sentence involves a long phrase
in which the verb falls at the end of the sentence after the direct
object, indirect object and other grammatical necessities.




"For the queen, the lover, pleading always at the heart's door, patiently
waits."
In a non-periodic sentence, we would normally write, "Always
pleading at the heart's door, the lover waits patiently for the queen."
The non-periodic sentence is clearer in English. It tends to follow the
subject-verb-object pattern we are accustomed to.
The periodic sentence is more exotic and arguably more poetic, but
initially confusing.
“Basketball is what I play.” Josef Delk
Repetition

Repetition of the same sound beginning
several words in sequence, as in
alliteration
 “Let
us go forth to lead the land we love.” J. F.
Kennedy, Inaugural
 *Veni,
vidi, vici. Julius Caesar
Repetition (Again!)

Assonance – repeating the same sound in
the middle of the word; central sounds,
 Holy
Moley!
 Fast
pass
 Moody
Blues
Parallelism

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning
of successive phrases, clauses or lines.
 “We
shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas
and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence
and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our
island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on
the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall
fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” Churchill
More on Parallelism

Nouns should be coordinated with nouns,
verbs with verbs, adjectives with
adjectives, adverbs with adverbs, phrases
with phrases, and clauses with clauses.
Italics


To stress a certain word (similar to the way
people stress words when speaking)
Use italics for emphasis as little as possible.
Clear sentence structure and exciting word
choice make writing dramatic; too many italics
look amateurish and unprofessional.
 "I
said nice, not rice!"
More on Italics

Italicize the titles of novels, books, movies, and plays,
and the names of newspapers, magazines, and journals.


The Toronto Star newspaper is doing a review of the movie The
Dark Knight. The reporter said it was one of the best Batman
movies yet!
Names of ships are italicized.

TheTitanic sailed the ocean in 1912.
When making a title plural by adding s, do not italicize the s.
Devices of Satire

Mockery – To make fun of something
– “Man is the only animal that
blushes—or needs to.” Mark Twain
 Example
Other Devices of Satire

Sarcasm – A harsh, personally directed
comment; to use praise to mock someone
 Example—To
refer to a 98-pound weakling as
a “real he-man.”
 Example—To thank someone for something
they did that was not generous or kind
Satirical Devices Continued

Overstatement—To say more than you
mean to say; to exaggerate
 “I’m

so hungry that I could eat a horse!”
Understatement—To say less than you
mean to say
 “Mount
Everest is not small.”
Satirical Devices Continued

Parody—Mockery of a specific, known
person, literary work, movie, or event
MacArthur said, “Old
soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
Parodies: “Old blondes never fade, they just
dye away;” “Old soldiers never die, but young
ones do.”
 Example—General
Satirical Devices Continued

Irony—To say one thing, yet mean another
Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet, when Romeo tells Mercutio that his
wound is slight, Mercutio says, “No, it’s not so
deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door;
but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve.”
 Example—In
Satirical Devices Continued

Pathos—To go from the serious to the
ridiculous quickly
love my country, my wife, my job,
and chocolate candy.”
 Example—”I
Satirical Devices Continued

Mock-Heroic—Imitates, yet exaggerates
and distorts, the literary epic and its style
garbage man, tall and strong,
lifted his glittering can of rubbish high, as if it
were a feather, and with the strength of Thor,
hurled it into the dumpster.”
 Example—”The