Rhetorical Devices and Appeals

Useful Rhetorical Appeals and Devices

First, a recap:

What is rhetoric?

Rhetoric is a term for how you build an argument and persuade others.

​

It was developed by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, and his four rhetorical appeals--logos, pathos, ethos, and kairos--have inspired everyone from world leaders to car salesmen and helped make arguments more effective.

Kairos is an appeal to timeliness or urgency.​

Fill in the Blank

"Rhetoric" is the art of _____ (one word).

Multiple Select

What might persuasion entail? (Check all that apply.)

• Making someone believe what you want them to believe.

• Making someone do what you want them to do.

• Preventing someone from doing something that you don't want them to do.

• Preventing someone from believing what you don't want them to believe.

Multiple Choice

Kairos is an appeal to...

• emotion

• timeliness

• logic

• trustworthiness

Fill in the Blank

This example primarily appeals to: [one word]

Multiple Choice

"Don’t be the last person on the block to have their lawn treated – you don’t want to be the laughing stock of your community!"

• logos
• ethos
• pathos

Multiple Choice

"More than one hundred peer-reviewed studies have been conducted over the past decade, and none of them suggests that this is an effective treatment for hair loss."

• logos
• ethos
• pathos

​Rhetorical devices

• ​Rhetorical devices = word-tools 😏 used to persuade.

  • allusion: refer to history, literature, or famous figures

  • ​anecdote: short story

  • simile: compare with like or as

  • metaphor: compare w/o

  • ​anaphora: repetition @ beginning of successive phrases / sentences

  • epistrophe: repetition @ end of successive phrases / sentences

  • ​rhetorical Q?: no A is expected

  • understatement: to downplay a situation

  • parallelism: phrases following similar grammar forms

  • euphemism: use a more pleasant word instead

Common Rhetorical Devices

Write these down!

Antithesis

A contrast of ideas by

means of parallel

arrangements of words

or phrases

Asyndeton

Omitting conjunctions

that ordinarily join
words or clauses

Chiasmus

words, phrases, or

concepts are repeated
in reverse order, in the
same or a modified form

Synecdoche

When a part is put for

the whole

Metonymy

the use of a linked term
to stand in for an object

or concept

Zeugma

a word applies to two

others in different

senses or to two others
of which it semantically

suits only one

Examples

Antithesis: “Go big or go home.”

●“Big” and “home” are contrasting each other.

○Going big would be putting everything on the line while going home would be giving up

Asyndeton: “They observe, they take up, they complete it.”

●Notice how “they” is being placed in between each action.

Chiasmus: ““Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”

●By reversing “eat and drink” and “live”, the author distinguishes bad men and good men

Synecdoche: ”I want a new set of wheels.”

●Wheels are just part of a car but in this sentence, “wheels” is being used to represent the whole car

Metonymy: “The President wants to put boots on the ground to stop this conflict.”

●“Boots on the ground” represents soldiers.

Zeugma: “John lost his coat and his temper”

●Here, “lost” refers to John’s coat and his temper

These rhetorical devices are new so here are some examples.

Multiple Select

Which of the following are similes?

• My single story of Fide was like trying to paint a realistic portrait with only one color.

• She shouted "NO!" as stubbornly as a child in bed on the first day back to school.

• Single stories are thorns pressed into the skin of those they stereotype.

• She howled out her grievances, clawing wildly at the opponent's lawyer.

Fill in the Blank

Is this a simile, a metaphor, or neither?

Ms. Lauren's curiosity grew until it erupted in an explosion of endless questions.

Multiple Choice

"We came, we saw, we conquered." This is an example of...

• Metonymy
• Synecdoche
• Asyndeton
• Zeugma

Multiple Choice

"Carla lost her car keys and her mind last night." This is an example of...

• Zeugma

• Metonymy

• Rhetorical Question

• Chiasmus

Multiple Choice

Hollywood has created another mind-blowing masterpiece. is an example of

• Synechdoche

• Personification

• Hyperbole

• Metonymy

Multiple Choice

2. The ocean has a decent amount of water in it. This is an example of

• Understatement

• Hyperbole

Multiple Choice

"She grabbed the gun, pulled the trigger, and ended the threat to her life" is an example of:

• Slippery Slope

• Euphemism

• Ethos

• Logos

Multiple Choice

There are hungry mouths to feed. is an example of

• Hyperbole
• Metaphor
• Metonymy
• Synecdoche

Multiple Choice

Which of these is most likely a rhetorical question?

• Where do you keep the pencil sharpener?

• What's the equivalent of Grab delivery in India?

• How does one calculate the square root of pi?

• How can we call ourselves free when we are still enslaved?

Multiple Choice

Example: "There is darkness and light within all of us."

• metaphor
• allusion
• juxtaposition
• alliteration

Multiple Choice

Which of the following best shows anaphora?

• We will fight on the beaches. We will fight on the hills. We will fight in the streets.

• This government is of the people, for the people, by the people.

• Patience, my friend. Waiting is the name of the game.

• The rotund superintendent sat beside the K4 child, laying a massive hand on her tiny shoulder.

Multiple Select

An anecdote can be used as an appeal to:

• ethos

• pathos

• logos

• kairos

Multiple Choice

Consider the following idiom: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” How is this a juxtaposition example?

• In this case, dogs are being personified as able to learn tricks

• The reverse psychology of this proverb implies that you can indeed learn new things when you’ve gotten older.

• The contrast between old and new demonstrates the difficulty of learning new things at an old age or after getting stuck in one’s ways.

Poll

Which rhetorical device will you add to your argument to make it more persuasive? (Pick one!)

• anecdote

• metaphor / simile

• exemplification

• rhetorical question

• anaphora / repetition