Rhetorical Analysis
Terms
(90/90 Terms #2)
Expository
Highly organized prose which
presents a viewpoint supported by
fact and explanation
Characteristics: clear thesis,
examples, analysis, structured,
formal
Examples:
Essay
Research project
Allegory (adj. Allegorical)
The use of fictional
characters and actions to
represent truths about
human nature
Is
an “extended analogy”
Two
levels of meaning-the surface-level story and
the deeper meaning (moral,
political, philosophical, or
religious)
Parable
A brief story which teaches a moral and
often a religious lesson
Is
a type of allegory
Interest
lies in what things stand for rather than
exactly what happens
Example:
Stories in the New Testament
Parody (verb- Parodies)
A piece of writing or music that
deliberately copies another work in a
comic or satirical way
Weird Al- A master of parody
Satire (Adj- satirical; verb- satirizes)
A work that attacks human vice or
foolishness using irony, wit, and
sarcasm
 Primary
purpose is to provoke a response or a
reform (rather than just for entertainment)
 Has
a purpose
 Tone:
humorous, critical, sarcastic, sardonic
(disdainfully or ironically mocking), tongue-incheek (gentle irony; meant as a joke), hyperbolic
(exaggerated)
Satire of Star Wars
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Example of Satire
QuickTime™ and a
MPEG-4 Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
What is this
satirizing??
What is this satirizing??
QuickTime™ and a
MPEG-4 Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Irony (adj.- Ironic)
Device used to convey a meaning
opposite of what is expected
Examples of Irony:
Paradox (adj. paradoxical)
A statement that seems self-contradictory
but contains an underlying truth

Examples:
 We
 He
had to destroy the village in order to save it.
is guilty of being innocent.
 The
past in the prologue.
Oxymoron
Two contradictory words used together
Examples:
Sweet pain
Cheerful pessimist
Civil war
Special curse
Anecdote
A short personal account or story used
to illustrate a point
Anecdotal evidence= proof derived
from observation (stories one can tell
to prove an assertion)
Allusion (Verb- alludes
; The author alluded to
WWI as an illustration of youth being “ruined” by war…
References to material outside of the work
(Usually are just mentioned rather than
explained as an example; must be familiar
to reader to work)
1) Literary
2)Historical
3)Current events
4)Pop culture
5)Personal
How many allusions can you find in this short
clip?
Write bullet notes of the allusions as you
watch the clip.
Show Shrek clip
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part of
something represents the whole.
Examples of Synecdoche:
Metonymy
A figure of speech which substitutes a
suggestive word for what is actually meant.
Examples:
Using “crown” for royalty
“Bottle” for booze
“Bread” for food
Very
closely related to synecdoche
Analogy (adj.- analogous)
A comparison of related ideas or things
 Extended
analogy- analogy that is used throughout
a passage- Murder analogy in Gregory Peck’s
speech and Prayer analogy in Danny DeVito’s
speech in movie Other People’s Money
 Two
types: Metaphor and simile
Epithet
A word or phrase which is used as a
name to describe a person’s special
characteristic
Examples of Epithets:
“Magic” Johnson
(For his “magical skills on the
court)
Barbara BushThe Silver Fox
(For her silver hair)
(Epithet
in other contexts is an
insulting word or phrase (curse words)
She used an epithet before
leaving him at the altar.
Idiom
An expression which is understood by a
group of people because it has become an
accepted saying; usually does not mean
what it literally says
Idioms
are especially difficult for nonnative speakers
Idioms
are different in every language
Examples of idioms:
Take a hike.
Are you pulling my leg?
It’s raining cats and dogs.
Break a leg.
Take it easy.
Mending fences
Don’t choke.
Chew on it
Basketcase
“It’s raining cats and dogs!”
Where does this idiom come from?
This phrase's origin is unknown. Possible
explanations include:
• Lightning and thunder sounds like that of a
cat/dog fight
• Cats had a big influence on the weather,
and the sky dog Odin was attended to by
wolves according to Norse Mythology.
• Another theory is that in old England, they
had hay roofs on their houses and the cats
and dogs would sleep on the roof. When it
rained, the roofs got slippery and the cats
and dogs would slide off of the roofs.
Therefore, it was "Raining Cats and Dogs".

A scapegoat is someone who gets the blame for a
scandal/mistake; typically, the scapegoat is either completely
innocent, or at least is only one of many guilty people. This
originates from the Old Testament of the Bible, in which a
goat was sent into the wilderness for the sins of its owner. Lev
16:10: "But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell
shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement
upon it, to send it into the wilderness as a scapegoat."
Rhetorical question (erotema)
A question which is asked for effect
rather than for an answer.
Aphorism
A statement that reveals a truth or
principle that can be attributed to a
specific person
Examples of aphorisms
“A rose by any other
name would smell as
sweet.” -Shakespeare
“Life is like a box of
chocolates.” - Forrest Gump
Proverb
The same as an aphorism, but is so
generally known that the authorship
is lost
Examples:
“Still waters run deep.”
“A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
Money is the root of all evil.
Maxim
A statement that gives behavioral
advice
Examples:
“The early bird gets the worm.”
“Practice makes perfect.”
Apostrophe
Addressing or speaking to a non-living thing
or an absent person
Examples:
“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean,
roll.”
“I said to Love…”
“O eloquent, just and mighty Death!”
A
form of personification
Anachronism
A reference to something which did not
exist at the time of the story.
Example:
The clock that strikes in Julius Caesar
even though clocks did not exist in Rome
during the time of Caesar
THE END
90/90 #1 next Tuesday!
**Incentive points will be awarded
again!