Name: ________________________
/12
Rhetorical devices quiz
In the table below, write the rhetorical device that matches each example or description.
abnormal word order
anaphora
sentence fragment
satire
Rhetorical device
parallelism
periodic sentence
balanced sentence
alliteration
reversal
onomatopoeia
repetition
rhetorical question
Example or description
1. It was a strange night, a hushed night, a moonless night, and all you could do
was go to a movie.
2. A cold room. A lonely room. A bare room. No place to spend twenty years of a
life.
3. Whether playing a young wild adventurer, a fugitive from the law, or a U.S.
president, there is one actor whose films always make money – Harrison Ford.
4. Waiting at the top of the stairs was her prince charming.
5. Michael Moore’s documentary film Bowling for Columbine uses humour to
comment on the issue of gun control in the United States.
6. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from
the Earth.” - Abraham Lincoln
7. Can anyone deny that the microchip has revolutionized communication?
8. “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”
9. You can take the gorilla out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of
the gorilla.
10. As Rocky, Sylvester Stallone, rambled, raged and roared.
11. "But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years
later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation
and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity…” –
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
12. Today’s films are as likely to feature the beeps and buzzes of computers as the
chirps of birds.
Bonus question
Many studies show that print
advertisements containing visual
rhetorical devices are more successful
than those that do not use these
devices.
 This Givenchy ad uses a visual
rhetorical device. Identify the device.
Hint: It is not a device used in the
above section.
Answer: