Tropes

Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical Devices

​TROPS	​ SCHEMES
​A TROPES is an artful variation from the typical or extended way a word or idea is expression it is the figurative use of a word.	​A SCHEMES is an artful variation from typical arrangement of word in a sentence. (

Tropes

Tropes

• Tropes involving comparison

• Tropes involving word play and sounds

• Tropes involving over statement or understatement

Remember: Tropes focus on the significance of word choice (diction)

Tropes Involving Comparison

Tropes Involving Comparison

These Tropes have the effect of Using imagery to create and enhance meaning

• Allusion

• Apostrophe

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Personification

Allusion

Allusion

A brief reference to a real or fiction person, place, event, or word, of art

EXAMPLE: A reference to Eden. scrooge, or Picasso in work is and allusion.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe

Addressing a person in a speech or composition who is not present.

EXAMPLE: " OH Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"

Metaphor

Metaphor

​An expression of meaning that compares two unlike things.

​Example: "But there are many mountaintops yet to climb. We will not rest until every American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as our birthright."

Simile

A comparison of two unlike things using the words “like” or “as.

​Example: The young girl is as brave as a lion.

Personification

Personification

Giving inanimate objects human characteristics.

Example: The lightning danced across the night sky.

Tropes Involving Word Play & Sounds

Tropes Involving Word Play & Sounds

• Alliteration

• Assonance

• Consonance

• Onomatopoeia

These tropes have the effect of using sounds to create and enhance meaning.

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition

The placing of two things closely together to emphasize the comparisons or contrasts.

Example: dark and light, life and death, beauty and ugliness, poverty and wealth

Schemes Involving Omission

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Duplicate this text as many times as you would like.

Schemes Involving Omission

Schemes involving omission are when writers purposefully leave things out in order to highlight an idea.

• Asyndeton

• Polysyndeton

Asyndeton

Asyndeton

Example: “I came, I saw, I conquered?”

The purposeful omission of words by which the meaning is still clear because of the context.

Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton

Example: “It’s got awesome security. And the right apps. It’s got everything from Cocoa and the graphics and it’s got core animation built in and it’s got the audio and video that OSX is famous for. It’s got all the stuff we want.”

A literary technique that uses conjunctions in repeated succession -oftentimes with no commas.

Schemes Involving Repetition

Schemes Involving Repetition

Schemes involving repetition occur when writers use repetition for emphasis to make a text memorable, forceful, and artistic.

• Anadiplosis 

• Anaphora

• Chiasmus

Anadiplosis

Anadiplosis

The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next.

Example: "They call for you: The general who became a slave; the slave who became a gladiator; the gladiator who defied an Emperor. Striking story. Now the people want to know how the story ends."

Anaphora

Anaphora

The repetition of a phrase for emphasis.

Example: “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 …”

Chiasmus

This occurs when the first clause or phrase is reversed in the second. Sometimes it will repeat the same words.

Example: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask now what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Schemes

Schemes

​BALANCE	​OMISSION	​REPETITION
​Parallel Structure	​Asyndeton	​Anadiplosis
​Juxtaposition	​Polysyndeton	​Anaphora Chiasmus