Rhetorical Devices

Memorable and effective words

Writing records human speech
The better it sounds, the better it reads

There are techniques to make any writing more interesting and effective
What are some of these that we already know?

What use of language makes this song memorable and catchy?
We’ll listen to it again and look at the words as we go

Monday morning feels so bad
Everybody seems to nag me
Coming Tuesday, I feel better
Even my old man looks good

Wednesday just don't go
Thursday goes too slow
I've got Friday on my mind

Gonna have fun in the city
Be with my girl, she's so pretty
She looks fine tonight
She is out of sight to me

Tonight....I spend my bread
Tonight...I lose my head
Tonight...I got to get tonight
Monday I have Friday on my mind

Do the five-day grind once more
I know of nothing else that bugs me
More than working for the rich man
Hey, I'll change that scene one day

Today I might be mad
Tomorrow I'll be glad
Cos I've have Friday on my mind

I’m gonna have fun in the city
Be with my girl she's so pretty

Tonight....I spend my bread
Tonight...I lose my head
Tonight...I got to get tonight
Monday I have Friday on my mind

I’ll be with my girl she's so pretty

What is there in this song?

When we repeat words and phrases, they are more memorable.
What is repeated in this song?

“ Gonna have fun in the city...
... Monday I have Friday on my mind”
The whole chorus appears twice in this song.

“ Gonna have fun in the city
Gonna have fun in the city ”

The more you hear particular words, the more memorable they are.

Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy joy

This example is an extreme use of repetition, but it works

Be with my girl, she's so pretty

Phrases or words end with the same sound.
NOT the same letters, the same sound.
“ Rainbow” and “now”
“ Slow” and “go”

List the rhymes in Friday on My Mind.
Group them in rhyming groups

This works well in children’s book and pop songs.
Even then it can be overused and just sound silly.
Use it rarely in formal writing for adults.

Make up two and write down two rhymes of your own

Monday morning feels so bad Everybody seems to nag me

Repeated vowel sounds.
Like rhyming, this is about sounds not spelling.
For example, this old advertising slogan for a carpet cleaner: “it b ea ts and it sw ee ps as it cl ea ns”

Make a list of three assonant words.
Although rhyming words also assonate, make your choices assonant only.

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me?

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before.

Won't you please, please help me.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.

Help me , get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me?

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the start of successive clauses or lines.
Pronunciation: ah-NAF-oh-rah

“ There is freedom within,
there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup.” (Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over)

I do not like them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.

Create two examples of your own of anaphora
It’s doesn’t have to make a whole lot of sense; it just needs to start with the same words.

Two different things are compared
Sometimes to add meaning
Sometimes to make it memorable

Look for comparing words, like and as .
Pronunciation: SIM-i-lee

"Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." (Carl Sandburg)

"He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food." (Raymond Chandler)
How obvious was he?

Now that I've got my lovely fire, I'm as happy as a Frenchman who's just invented a pair of self-removing trousers . (Rowan Atkinson as Black Adder)
How happy is this?

1. Mr O’Meara’s classes are an exciting as...
2. The sky was like
3. He stood like a...

"The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner." (Cynthia Ozick, "Rosa," 1983 )
"Men's words are bullets, that their enemies take up and make use of against them." (George Savile, Maxims of State , 1692)

Implied comparison is made between two unlike things that have something important in common.
Pronunciation: MET-ah-for

“ The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas” The Highwayman – Alfred Noyes

1. Mr O’Meara’s classes are...
2. The sky was...
3. He was a...

Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in one sentence or phrase.
Pronunciation: an-TITH-uh-sis

“ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...” Charles Dickens – The Tale of Two Cities

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)

It was the best day...
He was a foolish boy...

“ But I would walk 500 miles And I would walk 500 more Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles To fall down at your door” (The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles))

Exaggeration used for emphasis
Pronunciation: hi-PURR-buh-lee

"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together." (Kent Brockman, The Simpsons )

I am so tired...
I was so hungry...
The class went for...

Consonant sounds at the beginning of words are repeated.
Pronunciation: ah-lit-err-RAY-shun

"You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife.“
(advertising slogan for Country Life butter)

"The s oul s elects her own s ociety." (Emily Dickinson)

Write a sentence with alliteration.
Not every word have to start with the same consonant sound, just lots of them.

Pronunciation: an-tee-meh-TA-bo-lee

"We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us.“
(Malcolm X)

The second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the words in reverse grammatical order (A-B-C, C-B-A).

"I can write better than anybody who can write faster , and I can write faster than anybody who can write better ." (A. J. Liebling)

"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance ." (Rad Bradbury)

Create just one of your own examples of antimetabole

"Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone Without a dream in my heart Without a love of my own." (Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon")

A talking about something non-living as if it is a person that can understand you.

"Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again . . .." (Paul Simon, "The Sounds of Silence")

"It's just a flesh wound." (Black Knight, after having both of his arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail )

"I am just going outside and may be some time." (Captain Lawrence Oates, Antarctic explorer, before walking out into a blizzard to face certain death, 1912)

Making a situation seem less important or serious than it is.
The intent is not to mislead, but to highlight.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."

"When it pours, it reigns." (slogan of Michelin tires)
“ When it rains, it pours’”

A play on words
Different senses of the same word, or
Different senses of similar sounding words

A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He sidles up to the bar and announces: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw.“
Shot my paw
Shot my pa

Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were cold so they lit a fire in the craft. It sank, proving that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.
“ You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.”

WARNING: Using puns rarely.

What techniques are being used here?
“ You’ve done a hundred things before half past nine.” (The Waifs, “Gillian”)
“ This is the winter of our discount tent” (Sign in front of a camping shop)

Words sound like what they represent.
Pronunciation: ON-a-MAT-a-PEE-a
Think of two examples you know of.

"One of these days, Alice. Pow! Right in the kisser!" (Jackie Gleason, The Honeymooners )

List five examples of words that are onomatopoeia

Irony is tricky to define.
It is not just bad luck.
Where there is a difference between what you write and what is understood.

“ I threw my umbrella away; it rained for a week”.

Ironic
Which of these things are really ironic?

"O western wind, when wilt thou blow That the small rain down can rain?“
“ She sells sea shells by the sea shore.”
“ Police were called to a day-care centre where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.”
“ I could not, would not in the rain. I could not, would not on a train”
“ My head feels like a watermelon”

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Rhetorical Devices

by Mark O'Meara on Apr 25, 2009

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Rhetorical Devices — Presentation Transcript