AP LANG TEST REVIEW:RHETORICAL DEVICES

APPEALS

LOGOS (LOGICAL)--

ETHOS (ETHICAL)--

PATHOS (EMOTIONAL)—

Aphorisms—general truths (not appeals, but they usually appeal to audiences)

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGEYou probably already know…

• SIMILES AND METAPHORS• PERSONIFICATION, ALLITERATION,

AND ONOMATOPOEIA• HYPERBOLE• APHORISM• RHETORICAL QUESTIONS• PARADOX• UNDERSTATEMENT

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGEWords that you may not know…

• Metonymy—

• Synecdoche—

• Bombast—

• Malapropism—

• Pun—

Tone

Author’s attitude or sentiments revealed by the writer’s style.

A writer’s tone ISN’T informative! Try to decide if it’s positive or negative….

THEN, choose a more precise word

Ex. Didactic, compassionate, sardonic, pedantic, etc.

**Look for tone shifts in passages!

DICTION

“WORD CHOICE”Don’t say, “The writer uses diction…”

Duh! Let’s say, “The diction in…proves…”or jump right to a rhetorical device.“The juxtaposition of ____ proves____”

Identifying diction:Formal? Informal? Slang? Colloquial? Jargon?

Precise? Metaphorical? Think—how do you define the words?

SYNTAX

“Sentence Structure”

Types, purposes, lengths,

Structure—normal word order? Inverted?

Punctuation—use of commas, exclamation marks, questions, semi-colons—for what effect?

Parts of Speech—notice a lot of adj? nouns? Verbs? WHY? To what effect?

Author’s Purpose

“to + verb”

To persuade…

To entertain…

To show…

To explain…

Be sure you can add to these infinitives!

Repetitiona.k.a. Transformers and Diseases

• Polysyndeton--

• Asyndeton—

• Anaphora—

• Anadiplosis—

• Epanalepsis—

• Epistrophe—

Parallel Structure• Parallelism--• Antithesis—• Juxtaposition—contrasting ideas, images• Chiasmus—Inversion of parallel ideas within a sentence.

Ex. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” JFK

• Zeugma—a controlling idea to describe 2 ideas but only applies to 1 logically

Ex. He carried the light for men and the responsibility of a nation.

Ex. “You held your breath and the door for me.” (Thanks Alannis!)

Comedic Devices"A eugooglizer. One who speaks at funerals. Or did you think I'd be to stupid to

know what a eugoogly was?"-Zoolander

• Pun

• Litote

• Sarcasm

• Malapropism

• Irony

• Satire

• Wit

Comedic Devices, take 2!

• Burlesque

• Hyperbole

• Mockery

• Parody

• Tautology

• Lampoon

FALLACIESJust the top 12…

• Ad hominem—

• Misleading Statistics—

• Ad populum—

• Red Herring-

• Ad Verecundiam—

• Begging the Question—

• Post Hoc

FALLACIES, again

• Scare Tactics

• Either/Or Fallacy

• Oversimplification

• Hasty Generalization

• Non Sequitur