Aim: How do rhetorical devices decorate our writing

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Aim How do rhetorical devices decorate our
writing?

• Do Now/Quick Write 5
• Describe the style of Lincolns Gettysburg
  Address using only monosyllabic words.
• What is the effect of using this kind of diction?
• Which rhetorical form does it resemble?

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Rhetorical Devices The Gems of Writing

• Metonymy
• Synecdoche
• Apostrophe
• Anaphora
• Cataphora
• Polysyndeton
• Asyndeton
• Chiasmus
• Diacope
• Parallel structure

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Metonymy

• Another form of metaphor, in which the thing
  chosen for the metaphorical image is closely
  associated with (but not an actual part of) the
  subject for which it stands.
• Hint Closely associated with is the key
  concept here.
• You cant fight city hall (A metaphor for the
  mayor, or his subordinates)

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Synecdoche

• A type of metaphor in which a part of a subject
  stands for the whole subject
• I saw some new faces in the meeting today.
• The word faces is the synecdoche and is used
  instead of the word people.

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Apostrophe

• Interrupts the narrative and directly addresses a
  person (or idea, or deity). Its most common
  purpose in prose is to give vent to intense
  emotions. It is used as a kind of formal
  invocation.
• Hint The interjection O or Oh usually
  appears in this rhetorical device.
• O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
  prophets!

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Anaphora

• The deliberate repetition of the same word (or
  group of words) at the very beginning of several
  consecutive phrases.
• Mad world! Mad kings! Mad competition! (William
  Shakespeare, King John, Act 2.1)

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Cataphora

• Words or phrases like pronouns are cataphora when
  they point forwards to something later on in the
  text
• As he was unaccustomed to it, Jake found the
  pressure very hard to deal with.
• Here, it is cataphoric because it refers forwards
  to the noun pressure

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Polysyndeton

• The use of a conjunction between each phrase in a
  series of phrases, and is thus structurally the
  opposite of asyndeton. The rhetorical effect of
  polysyndeton, however, like asyndeton, creates a
  feeling of energetic enumeration, of building
  momentum.

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Example of Polysyndeton

• I said, Who killed? and he said, I dont know
  who killed him, but hes dead all right, and
  it was dark and there was water standing in the
  street and no lights or windows broke and boats
  all up in the town and trees blown down and
  everything all blown and I got a skiff and went
  out and found my boat where I had her inside
  Mango Key
• (Earnest Hemingway, After the Storm)

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Asyndeton

• Conjunctions are purposely omitted from a series
  of related phrases. The rhetorical effect is an
  energetic one.
• I have done it. You have heard me. The facts
  are before you. I ask for your judgment.
• (Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book III)

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Chiasmus

• A figure of speech employing two phrases (or
  clauses) whereby the order of key words in the
  first phrase (or clause) is then reversed in the
  second phrase (or clause).
• Ask not what your country can do for you, but
  what you can do for your country.

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Diacope

• Uninterrupted repetition of a word or phrase.
  Or, the repetition of a word or a phrase in which
  the repetition is briefly interrupted by one or
  two words.
• Hint The purpose of this device is to emphasize
  important words.

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Example of Diacope

• All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!
• (William Shakespeare, The Tempest)
• All lost is interrupted to prayers is
  uninterrupted. Both are examples of diacope.

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Parallelism

• A series of phrases that displays identical
  characteristics. If those phrases contain verbs,
  it is especially important that the tenses of the
  verbs within each phrase be identical in order
  for the entire sequence to be considered truly
  parallel.
• He walked down the aisle, through the door, and
  into the room.

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Can you identify the rhetorical devices?

• I came, I saw, I conquered (Julius Caesar).
• Asyndeton
• One should eat to live, not live to eat.
• Chiasmus

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What about these?

• It was the best of times, it was the worst of
  times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age
  of foolishness
• Anaphora
• One would have thought that we would find willing
  ears on the part of the newspapers.
• Synecdoche

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Can you handle a few more?

• O books who alone are liberal and free, who give
  to all who ask of you and enfranchise all who
  serve you faithfully.
• Apostrophe
• Patience, Iago, Patience.
• Diacope

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Your Rhetorical Toolbox is complete!

• Now that you know these terms, we will be using
  them throughout the year.
• The goal is more than just observation we want
  to be able to understand the EFFECT these devices
  have as apart of a larger analysis of the
  rhetoric in this years course.