This document defines and provides examples of various rhetorical devices including: - Personification - giving human attributes to non-human objects - Onomatopoeia - forming words from associated sounds - Euphemism - substituting embarrassing words with milder phrases - Anaphora - repeating the beginning of sentences for effect - Brachylogia - abbreviated construction by omitting words - Kairos - delivering the right message at the right time It also outlines different types of organizational patterns for writing like subject development, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and enumeration/sequence. Examples are provided to illustrate each device and organizational structure.

1. RHETORICAL DEVICES

2. Personification
◦ Personification a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea, or an animal is given human
attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they can act like
human beings.
◦ Examples:
◦ “New York is the city that never sleeps”.
◦ “Death doesn’t care how old you are”.

3. ONOMOTAPEIA:
◦ The rhetorical effect that is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is
named.
◦ Examples:
◦ “The wind roared all through the night”.
◦ “The cow mooed all morning long”

4. Euphemism
◦ Saying an embarrassing expression by substituting the words in a more harsh or blunt phrase
◦ Examples:
◦ I blew guts everywhere (I threw up everywhere)
◦ Bethany dropped a stink bomb in class (Farted)
◦ Jenny had a bat in the cave. (Boogers)

5. Anaphora
◦ purposely repeating the first part of a sentence in writing to create a dramatic or artistic effect.
◦ Examples:
◦ "Every day, every night, in every way i am getting older"
◦ "To raise a child, it takes love, it takes community, it takes family, it takes all of us"
◦ "I want to leave this town, I want to travel the world, I want to eat exotic foods, I want to live"

6. Brachylogia
◦ the brevity of diction; abbreviated construction; words of words omitted. any condensed form of
expression.
◦ examples
◦ 1.) Lunch break - a time to go and have lunch
◦ 2.) night - abbreviated from goodnight
◦ 3.) morning - abbreviated from good morning

7. Kairos
◦ Kairos: is a writing discipline in which the writer or speaker creates a perfect moment to deliver
a message; knowing to say the right thing at the right time.
◦ Examples:
◦ A coach who rallies his team together after loosing a big game and delivering an inspiring
speech to boost morale and confidence of his players.
◦ In the movie Braveheart, the main character William Wallace delivers his most epic speech and
ends it with his most famous line "…they may take our lives, but they'll never take…OUR
FREEDOM!"

8. Organization (1 of 3)
◦ Organization: Depending on the topic and purpose, each form of writing is organized in a
particular way with its own set of transition or signal words. There are four types of
organizations patterns for rhetorical writing.
◦ 1). Subject development organization is used in narrative writing and is organized with a clear
topic sentence and then the supporting ideas follow. Some signal or transition words used are
after, as long as, and frequently.
◦ 2) Comparison/contrast organization is used to inform the reader and show a relationship
between concepts. It is organized with a single idea stated first and then the corresponding
comparison or all the ideas are stated and then all the comparisons are stated. Some
transition/signal words are similarly, likewise, and however.
◦ 3) Cause/effect organization explains to the reader what type of event happened and why the
event happened. Some signal/transition words are therefore, this, because, and as a result.

9. Organization (2 or 3)
◦ 4) Enumeration/sequence (problem/solution) organization is used to influence the reader to
take some sort of action on a topic. Some signal/transition words are first, then, next, and finally.
◦ Examples:
◦ Subject development: Explaining the steps to enlisting in the U.S. Army: As soon as someone
turns 18, they are of legal age to join the armed uniformed services if he or she chooses. The
first step in this process is to meet with a recruiter at a local recruiting station. Once this
meeting occurs, the perspective candidate is given a few tests and forms to fill out. The
candidate must pass a written test called an ASVAB, the preliminary height and weight
requirements, a background check, and a drug screening test. As soon as the candidate passes
this, he or she is sworn into the armed uniformed services and is then shipped off to basic
training for 11 weeks. As long as the candidate is successful after these 11 weeks of the rigorous
physical and mental training, he or she

10. Organization (3 of 3)
advances to train in their respective specialty school to learn a job in which he or she will serve as. Each
occupational military speciality has specific lengths of time to complete, however, if the candidate is
successful in this school, he or she will graduate as this job and then will be sent to his or her first duty
assignment. When this finally occurs the candidate is no longer a candidate and has become a United
States Army Soldier.
Compare/contrast: Compare and contrast two differences of the Army medics and the Naval corpsman:
I served 12 ½ years as an Army medic and my younger brother served 3 years as a naval corpsman.
Although our jobs’ main purpose was to save lives our specialty schools were light years apart. As an Army
medic our school is 16 weeks long, with the first 4 weeks focused on civilian EMT-Basic and the last 12
weeks focused on combat medicine and trauma. Naval corpsman also attend school, however the school
is 19 weeks long with more emphasize on hospital support/medicine and they do not receive any level of
EMT.

11. Take the quiz!
◦ https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/rhetorical-devices/exam-103387