English 11 / Unit 7: Rhetorical Analysis
7.3 Rhetorical Devices
Notes
Writers use specific devices to carry out their purpose.
- Anaphora: repeating words at the start of successive clauses ("We shall fight on the beaches...").
- Parallelism: repeating a grammatical structure ("of the people, by the people, for the people").
- Antithesis: placing contrasting ideas in balanced structure ("Ask not what... but what...").
- Rhetorical question: a question asked for effect, not for an answer.
- Analogy / metaphor: comparing to make an idea clear or vivid.
- Allusion: a reference to a well-known person, text or event.
- Repetition, hyperbole (exaggeration), understatement, imagery, juxtaposition (placing contrasting things side by side).
- Worked example: "Not a drop of pity, not a grain of mercy, not a shred of regret" is parallelism with repetition of "not a."
Practice
"We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground." The repeated "we cannot" is:
The words repeat at the start of successive clauses.
"The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." The contrast between "what we say" and "what they did" is:
Balanced, opposing ideas.
Which sentence uses an allusion?
The reference to David and Goliath is an allusion.
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