Introduction to Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical device #1: Parallelism

Parallelism: A repetition of a set of grammatical structures to show that a pair or list of ideas have equal weight or share equal importance.

"Veni, vidi, vinci " - Julius Caesar ("I came, I saw, I conquered")

Parallelism Examples

• "We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic" - George W. Bush, after 911

• "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn" - Benjamin Franklin

President Bush’s 911 Speech

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjarV_mN3QY

• Now try your own example of parallelism, and remember that there will be some repetition because you are repeating grammatical structure.

Rhetorical Device #2: Antithesis

• Antithesis: The rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences (as in “action, not words” or “they promised freedom and provided slavery”).

• Antithesis: Two opposing ideas are placed together and structured similarly in order to draw attention to their contrasting assertions

While I relished it, he retched onto his plate.

Antithesis: Definition-1.opposition;contrast 2. The placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas.Examples: "Give me liberty or give me death.“ "You're easy on the eyes, hard on the heart."

• Antithesis has to do with two opposite or contrasting ideas.

But wait, aren’t these all

examples of parallelism?!?

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Dr. King makes the point that no one's justice is safe as long as injustice is being practiced at any location. He contrasts justice with injustice, and anywhere with everywhere.

"We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was 'legal' and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was 'illegal'."Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Out of sight, out of mind," "Penny wise, pound foolish," "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”

• Well, yes. The definitions of parallelism and antithesis are not mutually exclusive (parallelism has to do with the grammatical structure; antithesis has to do with the contrast of the two ideas).

In fact most antithesis will be set up in parallel form, as is this classic examples from Patrick Henry

Another example of both parallelism and antithesis is…

• "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character"

• -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The contrast of the pair makes it antithesisThe grammatical similarity makes it parallelism

Gimmie More Antithesis!!!!• "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools" -

Martin Luther King, Jr

• "Reasonable men adapt to the world. Unreasonable men adapt the world to themselves . That's why all progress depends on unreasonable men" - George Bernard Shaw

• "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor bastard die for his country" - General George Patton

• "That's one small step for a man , one giant leap for mankind" --Neil Armstrong

• "To be or not to be , that is the question" - William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

• “The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity ...” - Barack Obama

Time for you to make someANTITHESIS

• Come up with two contrasting ideas

• Set them up in parallel form

• Hot/cold• Tasty/disgusting• Life/death• Tired/energized

Now let’s look at MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail

• Do you see any examples of antithesis or parallelism in his speech?

• Underline any examples you see.

Rhetorical Device #3: Rhetorical Question

• Rhetorical Questions:

Definition for your notes:• RHETORICAL QUESTION. A QUESTION that expects no answer. • The answer may be self-evident (If she doesn't like me why

should I care what she thinks?) • Or immediately provided by the questioner (What should be

done? Well, first we should …). The question is often asked for dramatic effect.

• Rhetorical questions are sometimes announced with such a phrase as I ask you (when nothing is in fact being asked):

Since a rhetorical question has the answer built into it, it could

actually be the answer to a real question…

• Hey, would you like to go to lunch with me?

• Is the sky blue?

Geico Rhetorical question commercialshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtp_mq2fO24

Well, then, why couldn’t you just say

• Because one of the powers of rhetorical questioning is that it reinforces the obviousness of the answer, as if the other person should have known it all along.

• There is an underlying sarcasm or playful condescension to it.

Sometimes you can answer rhetorical questions:

• Friend 1: Why do I always get stuck dating these losers? (rhetorical question, not meant to be answered)

• Friend 2: Because you are a terrible person, and you attract terrible people.

• Friend 1: But hey, who’s counting? (rhetorical question)

• Friend 2: I am. The answer is 42.

• Friend 1: Do I look like I was born yesterday? (rhetorical question)

• Friend 2: Not at all. Judging by those forehead wrinkles and bags under your eyes, I’d say its been a whole lot of years since you were born.

Classic examples of rhetorical questions

• You really didn’t expect me to go along with this crazy plan of yours, did you?

• Can't you do anything right?• Do you expect me to stay home and be

trapped here forever?

Who doesn’t like rhetorical questions?

This is the actual (unofficial) punctuation mark for a rhetorical question, a slight change from the classic question mark. (don’t use this on essays, though).

These are not meant to be answered!

•Man, can this day get any worse?

How does this affect us?• A carefully crafted question can, if delivered well,

persuade an audience to believe in the position(s) of the speaker.

• “Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?” –JFK Inaugural Address• Former President Kennedy includes this rhetorical

question to call the audience to action. By asking if they will join in the historic effort, Kennedy forces the audience to think about what they are willing to do for their country and at the same time, he inspires them to be more American.

This billboard demonstrates the power of the rhetorical question. These two questions are not supposed to be answered. They make a point. They reinforce what the audience is already predisposed to believe, and they do so in a striking and forceful fashion. The rhetorical question elicits a response from the audience. It makes the audience own the answer.

Placing this statement in question form is more powerful than just leaving it as a statement. The two questions are better and more forceful in question form than if the billboard were to say, "Obama's hope and change sucks!" or "I really miss George Bush!" Inviting audience participation makes the comment resonate on a personal level.

Rhetorical Question in action

Time for you to make someRHETORICAL QUESTIONS

• THINK OF A STATEMENT THAT IS REALLY OBVIOUS.

• REPHRASE IT AS A QUESTION IN A WAY THAT SOUNDS LIKE THERE IS ONLY ONE ANSWER.

Now let’s look at MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail Again

• Do you see any examples of rhetorical questions in his speech?

• Highlight any examples you see.

Rhetorical Device #4: Repetition

• Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition,

repetition, repetition

Strap yourselves in for some serious technical jargon:

• The following three slides show various forms of repetition used in speechmaking (and stories, and poetry). They are high-end academic terms meant to frighten and confuse you.

• Just remember that they are all versions of repetition, and that it is more important that you see their function and value, than for you to remember what they are precisely called…

Repetition special maneuver

1:AntistropheThe repetition of a word or a phrase at the END of successive phrases, clauses or lines.

• *We are born to sorrow, pass our time in sorrow, end our days in sorrow.

• "A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break the bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day . An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight!" - King Aragorn (from the movie 'The Return of the King'),

Repetition special maneuver 2:Anaphora

• The repetition of a word or phrase at the BEGINNING of successive phrases or clauses.

• *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, declaring war against Germany

The “I have a dream…” in MLK’s famous speech is an example of Anaphora.

"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun" - Raymond Chandler (Farewell, My Lovely)“

Arrghh, but isn’t this parallelism, too?

• “For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and travelled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and ploughed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn” - Barack Obama

YES! The above example is part parallelism, part repetition. When the words are exactly repeated, that part is repetition; when the words match in grammatical form (though the words themselves change), that part is parallel. The phrases “endured the lash” and “ploughed the hard earth,” for instance, are definitely in parallel form.

Repetition special maneuver 3:ANADIPLOSIS

• When the author repeats a word or phrase at the end of one phrase or sentence and uses them to begin another.

• "I am Sam, Sam I am" - Dr. Seuss (Green Eggs and Ham)

• "The love of wicked men converts to fear , That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both To worthy danger and deserved death" - William Shakespeare

• "Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business" - Francis Bacon

• "They call for you: the general who became a slave ; the slave who became a gladiator; the gladiator who defied an Emperor" - Joaquin Phoenix (from the movie Gladiator )

Time for you to make someREPETITION

• COME UP WITH A COOL WORD OR PHRASE

• SAY IT OVER AND OVER

Now let’s look at MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail Again

• Do you see any of these examples of repetition in his speech?

• Box any examples you see.• Then label the specific kind of repetition:• Antistrophe, Anaphora, Anadiplosis• If not one of the above, then don’t label it.

Rhetorical Device #5: ANALOGY

• ANALOGY is a kind of extended METAPHOR or long SIMILE in which a comparison is made between two things in order to develop a line of reasoning. While it is similar to simile, similes are generally more artistic and brief, while an analogy is longer and explains a thought process.

• "Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself" - Samuel Johnson

Another look at analogy:

• Shrek: Ogres are like onions.Donkey: They stink?Shrek: Yes. No!Donkey: They make you cry?Shrek: No!Donkey: You leave them out in the sun, they get all brown, start sprouting little white hairs?Shrek: No! Layers! Onions have layers!

• So if it isn't blatantly obvious what is meant, it has to be explained, and then ...... the simile becomes an analogy. So an analogy is an extended simile, or a simile with an explanation tagged on to it. This is a very effective way to explain something complex in simple, familiar terms.

Analogy in Persuasion: It’s a cool comparison technique that uses one idea to draw our attention to a similar (usually more complicated)

idea by the characteristics they share.

You see ANALOGY to explain or persuade all the time…

To win the big game in sports, you need to strengthen your muscles through training and practice. You need to run and push your limits to grow—any athlete can tell you this. Your brain is just like any of your muscles. Reading and writing challenging assignments is like going to the gym for your brain. Read every day—stories that make you think and keep you engaged—and you build endurance and muscle memory. And here…the “big game” is LIFE!

Comparisons, metaphorsSimiles, allegories When have you used ANALOGY before?

#4 ANSWER: B. A regular dose of laxatives is like a gift you give yourself.

Reading/Writing = Working out our brains The big game = life

Analogies are everywhere. We use them to explain complicated ideas in a simple, visual way. (teachers love

them!)

FREUD: “The structure of the human mind is like an iceberg”

From TV• For example, in the TV program House, Hugh

Laurie often has to explain complex medical conditions in simple terms non-medical people can understand.

• For example, if he just said "The liver is like a cruise ship taking in water," he would be using a simile. But it wouldn't make sense to 99% of people. It needs elaboration.

So he turns it into an analogy by adding, "As it starts to sink, it sends out an SOS. Only instead of radio waves, it uses enzymes. The more enzymes in the blood, the worse the liver is. But once the ship has sunk, there's no more SOS. You think the liver's fine, but it's already at the bottom of the sea"

Analogies can often be full, complex stories:(Here…designing a product is like building a tree swing)

HOWEVER, Be Careful of False Analogy!This is the real logical fallacy…

Allusions

• Allusion- when an author makes a reference to something the audience should know to compare what they are speaking about to the reference. For example: Biblical allusion, Shakespearean allusion, mythological allusion, or historical allusion.

• “Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” – MLK Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

• Unlike analogy, the reference is not explained.

FALSE ANALOGY is the real fallacy

• There’s nothing wrong with analogy…except when it is built wrong and manipulates us towards an illogical conclusion.

• If a writer uses a comparison that is very weak, inappropriate, or based on a misunderstanding, then s/he is using false analogy.

People are like dogs. They respond best to clear discipline.

• The problem is that people are being falsely compared to dogs to convince you to think about them in a certain way.

Common FALSE ANALOGY AS A LOGICAL FORMULA• A has X and Y• B has A's X, so B must also have A's Y.

IF…if the comparison is based on just a few

similarities (ignoring heaps of differences) or if the comparison is based on a misunderstanding of a term or idea (ambiguity), we then have a false analogy.

"College is much like high school. Each has 50 minute classes. Each has a different teacher for different subjects. So there is no difference between them."

• Employees and nails are the same; they hold a project together. As it is necessary to hit nails on the head in order to make them work, the same must be done with employees.

• “Bill Clinton has no experience of serving in the military. To have Bill Clinton become president, and thus commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States, is like electing some passer-by on the street to fly the space shuttle.”

• Clogged arteries require surgery to clear them. If this is true for arteries, so must it be true for our clogged highways which need measures that are as drastic.

• Most extremists follow Islam. Therefore, Islam is religion that propagates extremism.

• Governing a country is like governing a business. Therefore as businessmen are concerned about the bottom line, so must be government officials.

Time for you to make someANALOGY

• Compare to different ideas and make a conclusion based off your comparison.

• Make sure that you are not creating a false comparison.

Now let’s look at MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail One Last Time…

• Do you see any examples of analogies in his speech?

• Circle any examples you see.

Rhetoric Summary

• Repetition: say same words over and over• Parallelism: different words but in same

grammar pattern• Antithesis: two contrasting ideas set up

parallel• Rhetorical Questions: ask a question that is

really a statement• Analogy: an extended metaphor used to

explain

Brainstorming for future rhetorical

devices

Rhetorical Device #6

• Asyndeton: The practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.

Normally, before the last thing in a list of three or more, we would have an

“and”…

• *"He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing." • *“We shall pay any price, bear any burden,

meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

• ~J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural Speech

NORMAL: He went to the store and bought milk, eggs, and cheese.ASYNDETON: He went to the store and bought milk, eggs, cheese.

This has an interesting stylistic effect on a list.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

~ Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

• In a list, it gives a more extemporaneous effect and suggests the list may be incomplete.

Rhetorical Device #7

• Polysyndeton: a stylistic device in which several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect.

Uses of coordinating conjunctions like “and”, “or”, “but” and “nor” (mostly and and or) which are used to join

successive words, phrases or clauses in such a way that these conjunctions are even used where they might

have been omitted. • "In years gone by, there were in every community men and women who spoke the language

of duty and morality and loyalty and obligation."-- William F. Buckley • "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind,

cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind:and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind,and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."-- Genesis 1:24-25 (KJV)

• "They all tasted to me like undersexed morons who had blundered ortrickled into the wrong beds in automatic response to sexy advertisements, or to make themselves feel modern and emancipated,or to reassure themselves about their virility or their "normalcy," or even because they had nothing else to do."-- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Rhetorical Device Final Thoughts

• There are dozens of these, all of which help you use language to strengthen the force and elegance of your arguments.

• In fact, there are whole classes you can take in college to build and polish your skill at rhetoric.

• It is much more important for you to see how they are used and make them a part of your writing, than to remember their names for a quiz. However, on the AP test, you will be expected to know them by name.

• Often more than one of these devices is happening at the same time in any given example.