Rhetorical Devices

How to Write an Effective Speech or Essay

What is Rhetoric?

A technique or art of persuasion in speaking or writing.

Rhetoric uses: ethos pathos logos

More on Rhetoric

Rhetoric convinces you to feel a certain way about a topic.

Rhetoric makes some writing beautiful and other writing bland.

Presentation is as important as facts.

History of Rhetoric

Rhetoric began with Aristotle in Ancient Greece, when speakers began to practice the art of persuasion in courts of law. Aristotle: Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in

any particular case all of the available means of persuasion.”

Quintillian: "Rhetoric is the art of speaking well." 

Rhetorical Devices

Examples include but are not limited to:

IronyParadoxRhetorical QuestionsMetaphorSimileAllusion

More Rhetorical Devices

Other examples are:Periodic SentencesRepetitionParallelism Italics

Irony

Expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning.

Verbal Irony is saying one thing and meaning another.“Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.”         Shakespeare's Mark Antony in "Julius Caesar" 

Irony in cartoons

Types of Irony

Situational irony is an incongruity between the actual result of events and the normal or expected results.

Incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

Isn’t It Ironic?http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Wnec6SmjHP0

More irony

Simply stated: Irony signals a difference between the appearance of things and reality. For instance, verbal irony often conveys a meaning exactly opposite from the literal meaning. In ironic situations (situational irony), actions often have an effect exactly opposite from what is intended.”

Ironic cartoons

Paradox

An assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.

“What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young."

        George Bernard Shaw

Examples of Paradox

Paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true!

For instance, "Standing is more tiring than walking." Paradox exhibits inexplicable or contradictory aspects or it may be an assertion that is essentially self contradictory.

More Examples

  George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic was one of the great master of paradox.  “I'm only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller.”

“Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one's heart; but death is a splendid thing-a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.”  

And more…

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - Animal Farm by George Orwell

‘Take some more tea,’ the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.‘I’ve had nothing yet,’ Alice replied in an offended tone, ‘so I can’t take more.’‘You mean you can’t take less,’ said the Hatter: ‘it’s very easy to take more than nothing.’‘Nobody asked your opinion,’ said Alice.‘Who’s making personal remarks now?’ the Hatter asked triumphantly. - Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

Shakespeare’s Works & Paradox

"For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss." - Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb;What is her burying grave, that is her womb;" - Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

"I must be cruel to be kind.” Shakespeare in Hamlet

Paradox in cartoons

Rhetorical Questions

Its answer is obvious and implied, and usually just a yes or no. It is used for effect, emphasis, or provocation, or for drawing a conclusion from the facts at hand.

“. . . For if we lose the ability to perceive our faults, what is the good of living on?” --Marcus Aurelius

“Is justice then to be considered merely a word? Or is it whatever results from the bartering between attorneys?”

More on Rhetorical Questions

Often the rhetorical question and its implied answer will lead to further discussion: Is this the end to which we are reduced? Is

the disaster film the highest form of art we can expect from our era?

Rhetorical Questions in Advertising

Geico Rhetorical Questions Compilation – YouTube

Does Your Man Smell Like an Old Spice Man? http://www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice?

v=gzowzUsq6iY&feature=pyv&ad=7083923537&kw=funny#p/c/B9F260CE56D04E73/2/uLTIowBF0kE

Pink’s Lyrics to Mr. President

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn14_y2euzM

Metaphor

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.” Shakespeare, Macbeth

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” W. Churchill

Simile

An explicit comparison between two things using “like” or “as”.

“My love is as a fever, longing stillFor that which longer nurseth the disease.“ Shakespeare, Sonnet CXLVII

“Reason is to faith as the eye to the telescope” D. Hume

“Let us go then, you and I,While the evening is spread out against the sky,Like a patient etherized upon a table...” T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Similes in Song et al

Literary Devices - YouTube

Allusion

Allusion is a short, informal reference to a famous person or event

If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over again.

Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing

Our examination of the relation of the historian to the facts of history finds us, therefore, in an apparently precarious situation, navigating delicately between the Scylla of an untenable theory of history as an objective compilation of facts . . . and the Charybdis of an equally untenable theory of history as the subjective product of the mind of the historian . . . . --Edward Hallett Carr

Allusions to…

Allusions in cartoons

Periodic Sentence

The most common type of periodic sentence involves a long phrase in which the verb falls at the end of the sentence after the direct object, indirect object and other grammatical necessities.

"For the queen, the lover, pleading always at the heart's door, patiently waits."

In a non-periodic sentence, we would normally write, "Always pleading at the heart's door, the lover waits patiently for the queen." The non-periodic sentence is clearer in English. It tends to follow the subject-verb-object pattern we are accustomed to.

The periodic sentence is more exotic and arguably more poetic, but initially confusing.

“Basketball is what I play.” Josef Delk

Repetition

Repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence, as in alliteration

“Let us go forth to lead the land we love.” J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural

*Veni, vidi, vici. Julius Caesar

Repetition (Again!)

Assonance – repeating the same sound in the middle of the word; central sounds, Holy Moley!

Fast pass

Moody Blues

Parallelism

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.” Churchill

More on Parallelism

Nouns should be coordinated with nouns, verbs with verbs, adjectives with adjectives, adverbs with adverbs, phrases with phrases, and clauses with clauses.

Italics

To stress a certain word (similar to the way people stress words when speaking)

Use italics for emphasis as little as possible. Clear sentence structure and exciting word choice make writing dramatic; too many italics look amateurish and unprofessional. "I said nice, not rice!"

More on Italics

Italicize the titles of novels, books, movies, and plays, and the names of newspapers, magazines, and journals. The Toronto Star newspaper is doing a review of the movie The

Dark Knight. The reporter said it was one of the best Batman movies yet!

Names of ships are italicized. TheTitanic sailed the ocean in 1912.

When making a title plural by adding s, do not italicize the s.

Devices of Satire

Mockery – To make fun of somethingExample – “Man is the only animal that

blushes—or needs to.” Mark Twain

Other Devices of Satire

Sarcasm – A harsh, personally directed comment; to use praise to mock someoneExample—To refer to a 98-pound weakling as

a “real he-man.”Example—To thank someone for something

they did that was not generous or kind

Satirical Devices Continued

Overstatement—To say more than you mean to say; to exaggerate“I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse!”

Understatement—To say less than you mean to say“Mount Everest is not small.”

Satirical Devices Continued

Parody—Mockery of a specific, known person, literary work, movie, or eventExample—General MacArthur said, “Old

soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Parodies: “Old blondes never fade, they just dye away;” “Old soldiers never die, but young ones do.”

Satirical Devices Continued

Irony—To say one thing, yet mean anotherExample—In Shakespeare’s Romeo and

Juliet, when Romeo tells Mercutio that his wound is slight, Mercutio says, “No, it’s not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve.”

Satirical Devices Continued

Pathos—To go from the serious to the ridiculous quicklyExample—”I love my country, my wife, my job,

and chocolate candy.”

Satirical Devices Continued

Mock-Heroic—Imitates, yet exaggerates and distorts, the literary epic and its styleExample—”The garbage man, tall and strong,

lifted his glittering can of rubbish high, as if it were a feather, and with the strength of Thor, hurled it into the dumpster.”