1. Rhetorical Devices

2. Symbol
a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

3. Symbol Black is used to represent death or evil.
White stands for life and purity.
Red can symbolize blood, passion, danger, or immoral character.
Purple is a royal color.
Yellow stands for violence or decay.
Blue represents peacefulness and calm.

4. Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
I've told you to clean your room a million times!
It was so cold, I saw polar bears wearing hats and jackets.
If I can't buy that perfect PROM dress, I'll die!
He's as skinny as a toothpick.
The car went faster than the speed of light.
His new car cost a bazillion dollars.
We're so poor we don't have two cents to rub together.
That joke is so old, the last time I heard it I was riding a dinosaur.

5. Repetition
the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
'Now look what you did!'
Said the fish to the cat.
'Now look at this house!'
Or, this one from Green Eggs and Ham:
'I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat 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!'

6. This type of word play may seem silly or childish, but think about how many of these repeated phrases you can recall from your childhood without opening a single book. The beauty of using repetition, or repeating certain words or phrases in a work, is that it not only helps you remember those key passages, but it can drive an important concept or message home by adding impact or attention. Using repetition as a rhetorical device is simply the author's way of using key words or phrases to command attention or to say to the reader, 'Hey, pay attention!' It may also be used to convey or evoke certain emotions.

7. Onomatopoeia
he formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle ).
the use of onomatopoeia for rhetorical effect.
giggle
growl
grunt
gurgle
mumble
murmur
bawl
belch
chatter
blurt

8. Extended metaphor
The term “extended metaphor” refers to a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph, or lines in a poem. It is often comprised of more than one sentence, and sometimes consists of a full paragraph.

9. “Bobby Holloway says my imagination is a three- hundred-ring circus
“Bobby Holloway says my imagination is a three- hundred-ring circus. Currently I was in ring two hundred and ninety-nine, with elephants dancing and clowns cart wheeling and tigers leaping through rings of fire. The time had come to step back, leave the main tent, go buy some popcorn and a Coke, bliss out, cool down.”
(Dean Koontz, Seize the Night. Bantam, 1999)
Here, it can be seen that the “circus” has been compared to the author’s “imagination.”

10. Personification
the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
Personification gives human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, gestures and speech, often by way of a metaphor. Personification is much used in visual arts. Examples in writing are "the leaves waved in the wind", "the ocean heaved a sigh" or "the Sun smiled at us".

11. Analogy
a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
Example
A simple example of a simile is “Her hair is as dark as the night” and an example of a metaphor is “Her hair is the night”. However, analogy compares two completely different things and look for similarities between two things or concepts and it only focuses on that angle.

12. Allusion
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Examples
"I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchio's." ...
"When she lost her job, she acted like a Scrooge, and refused to buy anything that wasn't necessary." ...
"I thought the software would be useful, but it was a Trojan Horse." ...
"He was a real Romeo with the ladies." ...
"Chocolate was her Achilles' heel."

13. Parallel Structure
Parallel structure (also called parallelism) is the repetition of a chosen grammatical form within a sentence. By making each compared item or idea in your sentence follow the same grammatical pattern, you create a parallel construction.
Examples
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
We must be firm, be fair, and be consistent.
I want to invite my favorite teacher, my favorite coach, and my favorite friends.
The class took a quiz, went to lunch, and watched a video.
My mom enjoys cooking, gardening, and playing with her dog.

14. Metaphor
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
Example
"The curtain of night fell upon us."

15. Irony
the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
Examples
A fire station burns down. ...
A marriage counselor files for divorce. ...
The police station gets robbed. ...
A post on Facebook complaining how useless Facebook is. ...
A traffic cop gets his license suspended because of unpaid parking tickets. ...
A pilot has a fear of heights.

16. Imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
Examples
I could hear the popping and crackling as mom dropped the bacon into the frying pan, and soon the salty, greasy smell wafted toward me.
2. Glittering white, the blanket of snow covered everything in sight.
3. The golden yellow sunlight filtered down through the pale new leaves on the oak trees, coming to rest on Jessica's brown toes that were splayed in the red Georgia mud.

17. Oxymoron
a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g. faith unfaithful kept him falsely true ).

18. Alliteration
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Example
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. ...
A good cook could cook as much cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies.
Black bug bit a big black bear. ...
Sheep should sleep in a shed.
I saw a saw that could out saw any other saw I ever saw.

19. Connotation
an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
Example
For example, the words childish, childlike and youthful have the same denotative, but different connotative, meanings. Childish and childlike have a negative connotation, as they refer to immature behavior of a person. Whereas, youthful implies that a person is lively and energetic.

20. Anaphora
the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

21. There ARE many anaphora examples found in literature, and particularly in poetry, where the anaphora drives the pace of the poem. (In the following the anaphora is in italics):
tired with all these, for restful death I cry, As to behold desert a beggar Born, and needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, and purest Faith unhappily forsworn, and gilded honour shamefully misplac'd, and maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, and right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd, and strength by limping sway disabled and art made tongue-tied by authority, and folly - doctor-like - controlling skill, and simple truth miscall'd simplicity, and captive good attending captain Ill

22. Assonance
in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible (e.g., penitence, reticence ).
Example
We light fire on the mountain.
I feel depressed and restless
Go and mow the lawn.
Johnny went here and there and everywhere
The engineer held the steering to steer the vehicle.

23. Simile
Comparison using like or as

24. Euphemism
a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
Examples
Passed away instead of died. Correctional facility instead of jail. Departed instead of died.

25. Aphorism
a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”.
Examples
all for one and one for all. all that glitters is not gold. all the world's a stage. all things come to he who waits.