Rhetorical Devices
Year Non-Fiction Texts
Icons key:
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Extension activities
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Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page
Accompanying worksheet
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Learning objectives
In this unit you will…
Discuss the different purposes a writer may
have
Learn about the rhetorical devices used by
writers
Analyze famous texts and speeches to see
which rhetorical devices are used
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RhetoricalWriters
devices
write with a purpose.
Brainstorm the different purposes non-fiction writers
have in the box below.
Here are some ideas:
To explain something
To persuade you
To amuse you
To give you information
To entertain you
To shock you
To make you feel strongly about something
Look at your own answers and the list above.
Can you think of an example of each type of writing?
Understanding rhetoric
 There
are different ways a speaker or
writer can appeal and seek to persuade
his or her audience:



1) logic or reason (logos)
2) emotion (pathos)
3) ethics and morals (ethos)
ETHOS
 "Ethical
Appeal"
 Credibility
and Character
 Through...
•
Appropriate language, sounding unbiased,
using expertise, correct grammar and
syntax
PATHOS
 "Emotional
 Greek
 The
Appeal"
for "suffering" and "experience"
reader has to TRUST the writer
 Through...
•
sympathy, pity, anger
LOGOS
 "Appeal
to Logic"
 Through...
•
Facts, statistics, historical and literal
analogies, citing authorities
Rhetorical devices
Writers often use rhetorical devices to
communicate.
 figures
of speech (metaphor, simile,
personification)
 sound
devices (alliteration, assonance,
consonance)
Do you know what rhetorical devices are?
Rhetorical means to do with
persuasion and effective
speaking and writing.
Device is just another
way of saying
‘technique’.
We use rhetorical devices to write or speak persuasively.
Rhetorical devices include:
Repetition
Alliteration
Metaphor and simile
Audience involvement
Quotes
Facts and statistics
Repetition
Repeating important words or phrases can indicate to the
reader that they are important. They help to make the
writing more persuasive and make certain words or
phrases stick in the reader’s head.
The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe:
Meant in croaking
"Nevermore.”
Quoth the raven,
"Nevermore!"
Shall be lifted--nevermore!
© HMSO
Alliteration
Alliteration is where two or more words begin
with the same letter.
You should take up
juggling because it is
fantastic fun.
Can you fill in these sentences with alliterative words?
1. The ____ weather made me feel _____ _______!
2. ____________ is a ______ _______ _________
3. I can’t believe how _______ ______ ______ was!
Metaphor and Simile
A simile is where one thing is
A metaphor is where one said to be the same as or like
something else.
thing is said to be
something else.
Decide whether the quotes below contain metaphors
or similes.
I wandered
lonely as a cloud
(Wordsworth)
simile
Juliet is the sun
(Shakespeare,
Romeo and Juliet)
metaphor
Audience involvement
Your writing can be more effective if you draw the audience
into the topic.
I know that many of you have
endured the misery of over-cooked
school dinners…
Why do you think it is
so much more effective
to talk directly to your
audience/reader?
Quotes
Using the words of famous people can enhance
your meaning.
As John F. Kennedy once said:
Ask not what your country
can do for you; ask what you
can do for your country.
However, you have to make sure that your quote is relevant
and that it makes sense to begin with! You should also
choose someone to quote from whom your audience is likely
to know and respect.
Facts and statistics
Facts and statistics help to show that what you are saying
is backed up by more than just your opinion.
Opinion of homework
A University of
Neasden study
showed that 85%
of people surveyed
thought that
homework was a
waste of time.
useful
quite
useful
waste of
time
Rhetorical devices
You can combine these devices.
A University of Neasden
study showed that 85%,
I repeat, 85% of people
surveyed thought that
homework was as dull as
a dreary, dirty dungeon.
Which devices has Megan
used above?
Martin Luther King
In this famous speech, how has Martin Luther King made
his meaning so effective?
repetition
including
rhetorical question
the audience
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 our cities. We cannot
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
fact long as the 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
simile
righteousness like a mighty stream.
Find the Rhetorical Devices in
MLK’s Speech
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 our cities. We cannot 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 the 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
In this famous speech, how has Martin Luther King made
his meaning so effective?
repetition
including
rhetorical question
the audience
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 our cities. We cannot
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
fact long as the 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
simile
righteousness like a mighty stream.
Martin Luther King
How effective would Martin Luther King’s speech have
been if he hadn’t used rhetorical devices?
Here is an edited version of the speech with some of the
rhetorical devices removed.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights
when they will be satisfied. They say they can never be
satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of police
brutality, as long as their bodies, tired after travel, cannot
gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of
the cities, as long as their children are faced with signs
stating ‘For whites only’. The Negro in Mississippi still
cannot vote and a Negro in New York still believes he has
nothing to vote for. They will not be satisfied until they
get justice.
Which version is more powerful?
Can you name the rhetorical devices Churchill
uses in the speeches below?
…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…
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…
repetition
audience
involvement
rhetorical
question
metaphor
Macbeth’s soliloquy
Read Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1.
Which rhetorical devices does Shakespeare use?
What effect do they have?
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch theeI have thee not and yet I see thee still!
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw…
Activity
Choose your speech topic!
You will write a speech (roughly 250 words long) which
aims to convince your audience of your point of view on
the subject. Use at least 5 rhetorical devices – refer to
the handout.
•Aliens might be real
•Convince voters to elect you as Class President
•Reality TV is making us stupid
•The school day should start later