Rhetorical Devices

Front 1

antimetabole

Back 1

The repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. Ex: you can take boy out of the fight, but you can’t take the fight out of the boy.

Front 2

anecdote

Back 2

A brief narrative offered in a text to capture the audience’s attention or to support a generalization or claim

Front 3

anaphora

Back 3

The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses

Front 4

anadiplosis

Back 4

The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. Ex: we must at all costs have liberty. Liberty, the fountain from which all true, free men drink.

Front 5

alliteration

Back 5

The repetition of initial consonant sounds at the beginning or in the middle of two adjacent words

Front 6

allegory

Back 6

A story taking place on more than one level at a time...like Babe.

Front 7

zeugma

Back 7

A trope in which one word, usually a noun or the main verb, governs two other words not related in meaning. “he maintained a business and his innocence”

Front 8

verisimilitude

Back 8

The quality of a text that reflects the truth of experience.

Front 9

trope

Back 9

An artful variation from expected modes of expression of thoughts and ideas

Front 10

tone

Back 10

The writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject matter

Front 11

tautology

Back 11

A group of words that merely repeats the meaning already conveyed
-circular reasoning

Front 12

syntax

Back 12

The order of words in a sentence. Sentence length, etc.

Front 13

synecdoche

Back 13

A part of something used to refer to the whole

Front 14

syllogism

Back 14

Logical reasoning from inarguable premises

Front 15

subordinate clause

Back 15

A group of words that includes a subject and verb but that cannot stand on its own as a sentence. Aka dependent clause

Front 16

style

Back 16

The choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect

Front 17

soliloquy

Back 17

Dialogue in which a character speaks aloud to him or herself

Front 18

scheme

Back 18

An artful variation from typical formation and arrangement of words or sentences

Front 19

rhetorical question

Back 19

A question posed by the speaker or writer not to seek an answer but instead to affirm or deny a point simply by asking a question

Front 20

rhetorical choices

Back 20

The particular choices a writer or speaker makes to achieve meaning, purpose, or effect.

Front 21

rhetorical intention

Back 21

Involvement and investment in and ownership of a piece of writing

Front 22

rhetoric

Back 22

The art of analyzing all the choices involving language that a writer, speaker, reader, or listener might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective; the specific features of texts, written or spoken, that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners in a situation

Front 23

rhetor

Back 23

The speaker who uses elements of rhetoric effectively in oral or written text

Front 24

point of view

Back 24

The perspective or source of a piece of writing.

Front 25

petito principi

Back 25

Begging of the question, disagreeing with premises or reasoning

Front 26

personification

Back 26

The giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects

Front 27

persona

Back 27

The character that a writer or speaker conveys to the audience

Front 28

peroratio

Back 28

the part of the dispositio in which the speaker draws together the entire argument and includes material designed to compel the audience to think or act in a way consistent with the central argument

Front 29

periodic sentence

Back 29

A sentence with modifying elements included before the verb and or complement

Front 30

pathos

Back 30

The appeal of a text to the emotions or interests of the audience

Front 31

parallelism

Back 31

A set of similarly structured words, phrases, or clauses that appear in a sentence or paragraph

Front 32

paradox

Back 32

A statement that seems untrue on the surface but is true nevertheless

Front 33

oxymoron

Back 33

Juxtaposed words with seemingly contradictory meanings

Front 34

onomatopoeia

Back 34

A literary device in which the sound of a word is related to its meaning

Front 35

mood

Back 35

The feeling that a text is intended to produce in the audience

Front 36

mnemonic device

Back 36

A systematic aid to memory Every Good Boy Does Fine

Front 37

metonymy

Back 37

An entity referred to by one of its attributes or associations

Front 38

metaphor

Back 38

An implied comparison that does not use the word like or as

Front 39

logos

Back 39

The appeal of text based on the logical structure of its argument or central ideas

Front 40

litotes

Back 40

a particular form of understatement, is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the word which otherwise would be used. Depending on the tone and context of the usage, litotes either retains the effect of understatement, or becomes an intensifying expression

Front 41

jargon

Back 41

Specialized vocabulary of a particular group

Front 42

irony

Back 42

an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

Front 43

inductive reasoning

Back 43

Reasoning that begins by citing a number of specific instances or examples and then shows how collectively they constitute a general principle

Front 44

genre

Back 44

A piece of writing classified by type

Front 45

figurative language

Back 45

Language dominated by the use of schemes and tropes

Front 46

exordium

Back 46

In ancient Roman oratory, the introduction of a speech; literally, the “web” meant to draw the audience into the speech

Hint 46

dispositio

Front 47

narratio

Back 47

the exposition or statement of the facts in the case

Hint 47

dispositio

Front 48

divisio

Back 48

the outline of the point or steps in the argument

Hint 48

dispositio

Front 49

confirmatio

Back 49

the proof or chief persuasive appeal of the speaker (usually including appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos)

Hint 49

dispositio

Front 50

confutatio

Back 50

the refutation of arguments that might be advanced against the speaker

Hint 50

dispositio

Front 51

euphemism

Back 51

An indirect expression of unpleasant information in such a way as to lessen its impact

Front 52

ethos

Back 52

The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator

Front 53

epithet

Back 53

A word of phrase adding a characteristic to a person’s name “Peter the Magnificent”

Front 54

epistrophe

Back 54

The repetition of a group of words at the end of successive clauses- for example: “they saw no evil, the spoke no evil, they heard no evil”

Front 55

enthymeme

Back 55

Logical reasoning with one premise left unstated

Front 56

ellipses

Back 56

The omission of words, the meaning of which is provided by the overall context of a passage. Circular description. (elliptical)

Front 57

double entendre

Back 57

The double or multiple meanings of a group of words that the speaker or writer has purposely left ambiguous

Front 58

diction

Back 58

Word choice, which is viewed on scales of formality/informality, concreteness/abstraction, Latinate derivation/anglo-saxon derivation and denotative value/connotative value

Front 59

denotation

Back 59

The “dictionary definition” of a word, in contrast to its connotation

Front 60

deductive reasoning

Back 60

Reasoning that begins with a general principle and concludes with a specific instance that demonstrates the general principle

Front 61

data

Back 61

Facts, statistics, and examples that a speaker of writer offers in support of a claim, generalization or conclusion

Front 62

connotation

Back 62

The implied meaning of a word, in contrast to its directly expressed “dictionary meaning"

Front 63

compound-complex sentence

Back 63

A sentence with two or more independent clauses

Front 64

complex sentence

Back 64

A sentence with one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses

Front 65

claim

Back 65

The ultimate conclusion, generalization, or point that a syllogism or enthymeme expresses. The point, backed up by support, of an argument

Front 66

casual relationship

Back 66

if X is the cause then Y is the effect. Or if Y is the effect then X is the cause.

Front 67

canon

Back 67

if X is the cause then Y is the effect. Or if Y is the effect then X is the cause.

Front 68

begging the question

Back 68

circular reasoning; built conclusion into premise (similar to “tautology”)

Front 69

asyndeton

Back 69

the omission of conjunctions between related causes “I came I saw I conquered”

Front 70

assonance

Back 70

the repetition of vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of two or more adjacent words

Front 71

Aristotelian triangle

Back 71

a diagram showing the relations of writer or speaker or audience, in a rhetorical situation

Front 72

appositive

Back 72

a noun or noun phrase that follows another noun immediately or defines or amplifies its meaning

Front 73

apology

Back 73

an elaborate statement justifying some controversial, even contentious position

Front 74

apologist

Back 74

a person or character who makes a case for some controversial, even contentious position

Front 75

Antihimeria

Back 75

the substitution of one part of speech for another. ex: “we milestone our lives”

Front 76

antithesis

Back 76

the juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas, often in parallel structure. Ex: place your virtues on a pedestal; put your vices under a rock

Front 77

ad hominem

Back 77

appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason.

Front 78

either/or fallicy

Back 78

you're either with us, or with the terrorists

Front 79

non sequitur

Back 79

an inference or a conclusion that does not follow from the premises. "that which does not follow"

Front 80

equivocation

Back 80

a fallacy caused by the double meaning/vagueness of a word.

Front 81

rebuttal

Back 81

the speech act of refuting by offering a contrary contention or argument

Front 82

argument

Back 82

an address or composition intended to convince or persuade; persuasive discourse.

Front 83

aphorism/epigram

Back 83

a short, often satirical poem dealing concisely with a single subject and usually ending with a witty or ingenious turn of thought.

Front 84

anathema

Back 84

a person or thing detested or loathed

Front 85

inversion

Back 85

any change from a basic word order or syntactic sequence, as in the placement of a subject after an auxiliary verb in a question or after the verb in an exclamation

Front 86

balanced sentence

Back 86

Two parallel clauses or phrases are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale

Front 87

periodic sentence

Back 87

Builds through one or more dependent words, phrases or clauses to a main clause.- inductive…such and such and such…THEREFORE…