Rhetorical Analysis Vocabulary list 5 Rhetorical Tools—words to help analyze rhetoric

Analogy An extended comparison An analogy explains features of one thing by reference to features shared with something more commonly known or understood.

Verbal Irony Writing that says one thing while meaning something else, often the opposite of what is said. Sarcasm is one form of verbal irony. The speaker intends to be understood as meaning something that contrasts with the literal or usual meaning of what he says. Ex: Saying, “Oh, great!” when you find out your flight is cancelled.

Situational Irony When something occurs that is counter to what is expected. Ex: The end of Langston Hughes’ “Salvation.”

Dramatic Irony A contrast between a character's limited understanding of his or her situation in some particular moment of the unfolding action and what the audience, at the same instant, understands the character's situation actually to be.

Paradox A statement whose two parts seem contradictory yet make sense with more thought. A paradox gains the reader’s attention by forcing them to think about the truth in the seemingly contradictory statement. Ex. “Stone walls do not a prison make, / Nor iron bars a cage.” Ex: When Jesus says, “They have ears, but hear not.” Ex: When Emily Dickinson writes, “Much Madness is divinest Sense.” Ex: “We become connected to the entire universe—not unlike the individual drops of water creating and subsumed within a vast ocean. Separate and yet inseparable; fragile yet impossible to destroy.”

Oxymoron An oxymoron is just a highly condensed paradox: in two or three words. A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. EX: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

Hyperbole A figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration, or overstatement, for effect. Ex: In “Lost in the Kitchen” Dave Barry writes, “Surrounding Arlene are thousands of steaming cooking containers.”

Understatement A figure of speech that says less than what is meant, for effect.

Litotes A type of understatement where a statement is made by negating the opposite of what you mean. “A double negative that affirms the positive.” EX: “Not bad!” = Good “Hear, then, a noble Muse thy praise rehearse in no ignoble verse.”

Onomatopoeia The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. The word buzz is onomatopoeic; it imitates the sound it names.

Synaesthesia A deliberate confusing of the senses. For example, tasting a sound or color, smelling a feeling or sound. “The orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music” (40). “At last a soft and solemn breathing sound / Rose like a steam of rich, distill’d perfumes” “I am engulphed, and drown deliciously. / Soft music like a perfume, and sweet light / golden with audible odours exquisite, / Swathe me in cerements for eternity.”

Periodic Sentence A complex sentence where the main clause, the main idea, comes at the end of the sentence. They can be a powerful persuasive tool, because the reader will read the evidence before reading the conclusion, and will therefore read with an open mind before agreeing or disagreeing with the conclusion. Ex: Considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful springs, I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada.

Cumulative Sentence Also called “Loose Sentences,” they are sentences where modifiers “accumulate” after the main clause (subject + verb). I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada, considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful springs.