Rhetorical Strategies
AP English Language
“Rhetoric is the art of dressing up some unimportant matter so
as to fool the audience for the time being.”
~Ezra Pound
but really . . . RHETORIC is
. . . the
art of effective expression (speaking &
writing) and the persuasive use of language.
Writers and speakers use rhetorical devices
within the language in order to emphasize,
explain, and persuade.
Why Study Rhetoric?
We study rhetoric for two reasons:
1.
to perceive how oral and written language is at
work
2.
to become proficient in applying the resources of
language in our own speech and writing
DICTION: WORD CHOICE
Different kinds of diction include:
✓formal diction (sounds sophisticated)
✓informal diction (everyday speech)
✓jargon
✓slang
✓colloquial diction
✓dialect
Figurative Speech
figure of speech: a word
or phrase used in a
nonliteral sense to add
rhetorical force to a
spoken or written passage
: calling her a crab is just
a figure of speech.
Allegory
a narrative that serves as an extended
metaphor (w/ lots of symbols)
Verbal Irony (aka Sarcasm)
The expression of something which is contrary to the intended
meaning; the words say one thing and mean another.
Effects
Creates humor
Engages the reader on a personal level
Example
“Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man. “
(Shakespeare's Mark Antony in Julius Caesar)
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”
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 147
“...she tried to get rid of the kitten which
had scrambled up her back and stuck
like a burr just out of reach.”
Louisa May Alcott
Metaphor
An 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. "
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an iron curtain has descended across the
continent.”
Symbol
Any object, person, place or action that has a
meaning in itself and that also stands for
something larger than itself
Apostrophe
When a speaker addresses an absent person, an abstract
quality, or something non-human as if it were present
and capable of responding
"For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him".
(Mark Antony in Julius Caesar)
"Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art!"
Edgar Allan Poe
Paradox
a contradictory statement which is nevertheless
true or which reveals a truth
•"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery."
"Ignorance is strength."
(George Orwell, 1984)
•The Paradox of Catch-22
"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's
own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a
rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as
soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr
would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly
them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane
and had to."
(Joseph Heller, Catch-22, 1961)
Metonymy
a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word.
Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known
characteristic of the word.
"He writes a fine hand.”
"The pen is mightier than the sword.”
"The House was called to order.”
"We have always remained loyal to the crown.”
"He is a man of the cloth."
Hyperbole
Exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect.
"At that time Bogotá was a remote, lugubrious city where an insomniac rain had been
falling since the beginning of the 16th century.”
Gabriel García-Márquez, Living to Tell the Tale
"A man can have a belly you could house commercial aircraft in and a grand total of eight
greasy strands of hair, which he grows real long and combs across the top of his head so
that he looks, when viewed from above, like an egg in the grasp of a giant spider, plus this
man can have B.O. to the point where he interferes with radio transmissions, and he will
still be convinced that, in terms of attractiveness, he is borderline Don Johnson."
Dave Barry, “Revenge of the Pork Person”
Understatement
Deliberately making something seem less serious or important than
it is for rhetorical effect.
Personification
Attribution of human characteristics to a nonhuman thing or idea.
“The
only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your
mother! I call him Gamblor, and it's time to snatch your mother from
his neon claws!"
(Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)
"The operation is over. On the table, the knife lies spent, on its side,
the bloody meal smear-dried upon its flanks. The knife rests. And
waits."
(Richard Selzer, "The Knife." Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of
Surgery)
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds. Used to
call attention to a phrase and fix it in the
reader’s/listener’s mind.
“Let us go forth to lead the land we love.”
- John F. Kennedy Inaugural speech
"....we shall not falter, we shall not fail."
- G.W. Bush Address to Congress following 9-11-01
Terrorist Attacks.)
Assonance
Repetition of the same vowel sounds in words close to each other.
"In the over-mastering loneliness of that moment, his whole life
seemed to him nothing but vanity."
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light. . . .
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Consonance
Repetition of consonant sounds in words close to each other.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain . .
Onomatopoeia
water plops into pond
splish-splash downhill
warbling magpies in tree
trilling, melodic thrill
whoosh, passing breeze
flags flutter and flap
frog croaks, bird whistles
babbling bubbles from tap
Repetition
The technique of repeating the same word and phrase
Highlights key messages
Reinforces important points
Links different parts of the text
“Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day
than of the night.”
(Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)
Anaphora
The 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."
(British Prime Minister Winston Churchill)
Anaphora
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it
was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the
season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we
were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other
way...
Epistrophe
The repetition of a word or phrase at the END of successive phrases,
clauses or lines.
... this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth.
"There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is
no Northern problem. There is only an American problem."
Lyndon B. Johnson in "We Shall Overcome"
Asyndeton
Lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or
words.
"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the
survival and the success of liberty."
(J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural)
"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.“
(President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address)
Allusion
A brief (usually indirect) reference to a
person, place, or event, or to another literary
work or passage. Classical (from ancient
Greece and Rome) and Biblical allusions are
some of the most popular.
Allusion
By using allusion, you not only associate yourself with the
ideas of the original text but also create a bond with the
audience by evoking shared knowledge:
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's narrator (Scout Finch)
states that "Maycomb County had recently been told that it
had nothing to fear but fear itself."
Allusion
Oxymoron
A paradox reduced to two words:
honest thief
sweet sorrow
darkness visible
Pun
Definition
A joking use of a word sounding the same as another
Effects
Engages the reader’s attention through the use of humour
Can be used to highlight an important idea
Often an interesting way of starting a text e.g. a headline
Example
Deciding where to bury him was a grave decision
Epithet
an adjective phrase that qualifies a subject by naming a ke or
important characteristic of the subject:
sneering contempt
peaceful dawn
lazy road
Euphemism
Substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive
expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or
unpleasant.
Jargon
special words or expressions that are used by a particular
profession or group and are difficult for others to understand
:
Rhetorical Questions
Most rhetorical questions prompt thought or
focus discussion and are not meant to be
answered literally.
Rhetorical questions in persuasive texts
often are meant to sway audiences to agree
with the writers' arguments or opinions.
Rhetorical Questions
“Can we forge against these enemies a grand and
global alliance, North and South, East and West, that
can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will
you join in that historic effort?”
Kennedy’s rhetorical questions are addressed directly
to the audience.
The implied “yes” answer to each question, prompts
listeners to accept the challenges named in the speech.
Parallelism
• Writing structures that are
grammatically parallel
helps the reader
understand the points
better because they flow
more smoothly.
If there is anyone out
there who still
doubts…who still
wonders…who still
questions
Analogy
Comparison between two things that are alike in certain
respects. Used in persuasion to demonstrate the logic of one
idea by showing how it is similar to an accepted idea.
“Students are more like oysters than sausages. The job of
teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help
them reveal the riches within.”-Sydney Harris)
Juxtaposition
The arrangement of two or more
ideas, characters, actions, settings,
phrases, or words side-by-side or
in similar narrative moments for
the purpose of comparison,
contrast, rhetorical effect,
suspense, or character
development.
“Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?
That is hot ice, and wondrous strange snow!
How shall we find the concord of this
discord?”
- Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Act 5, Scene 1
Antithesis
a device that contrasts opposing ideas in a brief,
grammatically balanced statement to express a truth
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the
pursuit of justice is no virtue."
(Barry Goldwater - Republican Candidate for President 1964)
"Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more".
(Brutus in: " Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare)
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Synecdoche
a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word. (Wait,
wasn’t that what we just wrote for metonymy?) Very similar to
metonymy, a synedoche is a figure of speech using a word that is a
part to represent a whole, a whole to represent a part, or a material
to represent an object.
"Bug" for any kind of insect or spider
“Wheels” for a car
“Society” for the elite level of society
"Plastic" for a credit card
"Pigskin" for a football