Introduction to Rhetorical
Techniques
“The duty and office of rhetoric is to apply
reason to imagination for the better moving of
the will.” – Francis Bacon
Devices of Repetition
Anaphora: repetition at the beginning of a
series of clauses or sentences.
“ …a time to be born, and a time to die; a
time to plant,and a time to pluck up that
which is planted; a time to kill, and a
time to heal; a time to break down, and a
time to build up…” –Ecclesiastes
Can you think of other famous examples?
Devices of Repetition
Epistrophe: repetition at the end of
multiple clauses or sentences.
“In old age we laugh at our past, sigh for
our past, cry out over our past.”
Devices of Repetition
Anadiplosis: takes the last word of a
sentence or phrase and repeats it near
the beginning of the next sentence or
phrase.
“In education we find the measure of our
own ignorance; in ignorance we find
the beginning of wisdom.”
? Devices of Questioning ?
Rhetorical Question: a question whose
answer is implied
“For what can war but endless war breed?”
--John Milton
Devices of Questioning
Anthypophora: the technique of asking a
question, then proceeding to answer it.
“You may well ask: ‘Why direct action?
Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t
negotiation a better path?’ Indeed, this is
the very purpose of direct action.”
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
= Devices of Comparison =
Metaphor, Simile, Allusion
Antithesis: makes use of a contrast in language
to bring out a contrast in ideas.
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap
for mankind.” –Neil Armstrong
“I am not interested in punishing banks, I'm
interested in protecting our economy.”
– President Obama
Devices of Syntax
Parallelism: using the same general
structure for multiple parts of a sentence
in order to link them all.
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the
unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent
virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of
miseries.” –Winston Churchill
Devices of Syntax
Telegraphic Sentence: 6 words or fewer
Asyndeton: leaves out conjunctions in a list or between
clauses
Polysyndeton: inclusion of grammatically unnecessary
conjunctions in a list or between clauses.
“America’s main streets and malls now boast the same
Pizza Huts and Taco Bells, Gaps and Banana
Republics, Starbucks and Jiffy-Lubes, Foot Lockers,
Snip N’Clips, Sunglass Huts, and Hobbytown USAs.”
– Eric Schlosser