Rhetorical Schemes and Tropes

 

Aesthetic: Relating to beauty or to a branch of philosophy concerned with art, beauty, and taste

Example: Many see aesthetic beauty folded between the petals of a rose.

 

Allegory: A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds directly with symbolic meaning.

Example: Animal Farm is an allegory (pigs represent tyrannical Soviet leaders).

 

Ambiguous References: A word, phrase or attitude that has double or even multiple meanings, resulting in multiple interpretations.

Example: He ate the cookies on the couch

 

Analogy: A comparison between two things to show they are alike.

Example: Some people live their lives like a sheet of scrap paper blowing along a windy street.

 

Anadiplosis: Repetition of an important word from one phrase or clause (usually last word) at the start of the next phrase or clause.

Example: “The love of wicked men converts to fear, that fear to hate, and hate turns one or both to worthy danger and deserved death” – Shakespeare

 

Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.

Example:        I told them he’s quiet and never does bark

                        I told them he’d do all his stuff in the park

                        I told them he’s cuddly and friendly and yet

                        They won’t allow any pets

 

Antithesis:  Juxtaposition of strongly contrasting words or ideas (often, but not always in parallel structure)

Example: It can’t be wrong if it feels so right or Man proposes; God disposes

 

Aphorism: A brief pithy (short, direct, and memorable) saying, usually characterized by striking logic and/or imagery.

Example: Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult.

 

Apostrophe: An apostrophe is addressing a person who is not there or addressing an abstraction such as death or a tree.

Example: “O eloquent, just, and might Death!” or “Out, damned spot!”- Shakespeare’s Macbeth

 

Archetype: A theme, motif, symbol or stock character that holds a familiar place in a culture’s consciousness

Example: Frankenstein . . . Dracula . . . Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . . . the archetypes that have influenced all subsequent horror stories

 

Authorial Aside: Also called editorializing.  It is a written digression, a time in a novel, when the author steps outside the story, speaking directly to the reader. 

Example: "The silence of the forest was more oppressive than the heat, and at this hour of day there was not even the whine of insects."  William Golding  Lord of the Flies 

 

Baroque: A grand and exuberantly ornamental style of writing

Example: The ornately craved molding on the vaulted ceiling gave the habitually gregarious person a secluded feeling.

 

Catachresis: a harsh metaphor involving the use of a word beyond its strict sphere.

Example: I listen vainly, but with thirsty ear. – MacArthur’s Farewell Address

 

Catalogue: The use of a list in writing

Example:  I hear the birds chirping, bees buzzing, children playing, all on my perfect summer day.

 

 

Catharsis: A cleansing or purification of one’s emotions

Example: He experienced a total catharsis after the priest absolved his sins.
Admitting his guilt served as a catharsis for the man.

 

Chiasmus: A figure of speech by which the order of terms in the first two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas.

Example: “It’s not the men in my life; it’s the life in my men.” – Mae West or “Why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?” – Richard Lederer            or When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

 

Citations from well-known authorities:  Persuasive device in which the speaker cites famous people to lend more credence to an assertion made. 

Example: "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the Earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free. The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights." Those are undeniable truths

 

Colloquialism: An informal expression, or slang term; acceptable in conversation, but not in formal writing .

Example: His master plan was a no-brainer

 

Conceit:  A juxtaposition that makes a surprising connection  between two seemingly different things.  An elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or image, such as an analogy or metaphor in which, say a beloved is compared to a ship, planet, etc. The comparison may be brief or extended.  

Example: Eyes like stars or the sun, hair like golden wires, lips like cherries, etc. are common examples. Oxymorons are also common, such as freezing fire, burning ice, etc.

 

Concession: Admitting the point made in an argument

 

Contrasts:     A literary technique in which the author examines two opposites to create an attitude.

Example: the energy of youth and the infirmity of age, worldly possessions and democratic idealism, academic success and extracurricular activities, a speaker's sophistication and the student's naiveté, or a group's smug views and the speaker's implied disapproval of them.

 

Cumulative Sentence: A sentence which begins with a main idea, which is followed by phrases and clauses which elaborate on the main idea.

Example: Jane ran; however, no matter how fast she ran she could not escape the terror of the man that was following her for five blocks.

 

Cliché: An idea or expression that has become tired and trite from overuse, its freshness and clarity having worn off.

Example: Her lips were as red as roses; her hair as black as midnight or a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

Determinism: Philosophy that suggests people’s actions and all other events are determined by forces over which human beings have no control.

Example:  God who determines all that humans will do, either by knowing their actions in advance, via some form of omniscience or by decreeing their actions in advance. The problem of free will, in this context, is the problem of how our actions can be free, if there is a being who has determined them for us ahead of time.

 

Dialectic: Discussion and reasoning by dialogue.

Example: Socratic method of trying to resolve a disagreement through rational discussion. Socratic seminars

 

 

Didactic: Intended to instruct or to educate

Example: lecture and textbook instruction

 

Diatribe: Violently bitter attack

Example: During her divorce hearing, in an emotional tone, she went on an on about the abuses her husband inflicted upon her day after day, and year after year.

 

Digression: To turn or move away from the main subject of discussion or the main argument in a piece of writing.

Example: novels that use flashback

 

Ellipsis: A figure of speech in which a word or short phrase is omitted, but easily understood from the context; also the marks (. . .) indicate the omission of a word or phrase.

Example: "The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes from the Caribbean who were visiting the U.S." and leave out "from the Caribbean who were":

The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes … visiting the U.S.

 

Enthymeme: An informal method of argument in which one of the major premises is implied or assumed rather than stated.

Example: We can’t trust this article because it’s actually an advertisement –assumes, rather than states, that advertisements cannot be trusted.

We cannot trust this man, for he has perjured himself in the past.
In this enthymeme, the major premise of the complete syllogism is missing:

• Those who perjure themselves cannot be trusted. (Major premise - omitted)
• This man has perjured himself in the past. (Minor premise - stated)
• This man is not to be trusted. (Conclusion - stated)

Epanalepsis: Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that appeared at the beginning of the clause.

Example: “Possessing what we were still unpossessed by /Possessed by what we now no more possessed.” – Robert Frost

"Control, control, you must learn control."

 

 

Epistolary: Narrated through letters.

Example: Suzanne’s Letters to Nicholas

 

Epistrophe: The repetition of a word or group of words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, verses, or sentences.

Example: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 Epizeuxis: Repetition of the same word with no other words in between for emphasis

Example: “Words, words, words. . .” – Hamlet

 

Euphemism: the use of a word or phrase that is less direct, but that is also less distasteful or less offensive than another.

Example: He is at rest is a euphemism for he is dead.

 

Euphony: A pleasing arrangement of sounds.

Example: “Oh star, the fairest one in sight.”

 

Existentialism: a philosophical movement that focuses on the individual human being’s experience of, recognition of, and triumph over the meaninglessness of existence.

Example: someone who believes fundamentally only in existence, and seeks to find meaning in his life solely by embracing existence

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (philosophers)

 

 

 

Expressionism: Presents life not as it appears on the surface, but as it is passionately felt to be by an author or character.

Example: In literature, the characters and scenes are presented in a stylized, distorted manner with the intent of producing emotional shock.

 

False Dilemma: a fallacy of logical argument which is committed  when too few of the available alternatives are considered, and all but one are assessed and deemed impossible  or unacceptable.

Example: A father speaking to his son says, “Are you going to college or are you going to end up a bum like me.” The dilemma is the son’s supposed choice limitation: either he goes to college or he will be a bum. The dilemma is false, because the alternative of not going to college but still being employable has not been considered.

 

Generic Conventions: This term describes traditions for each genre. These  conventions help to define each genre.

Example: autobiography, journalistic writing, essay

 

 

Hedonism: the pursuit of pleasure above all else

Example: some romance novels

 

Idiom: A way of speaking that is peculiar to a region, group, or class or the conventional forms peculiar to a language.

Example: Cute as a button, Doubting Thomas, hoagie/sub/grinder

 

In Medias Res: Latin for “in the middle of things,” refers to the technique of starting a narrative in the middle of the action.

Example: John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which narrates the war among the angels in heave, opens after the fallen angels are already in hell; only later does it deal with the events that led to their expulsion from Heaven.

 

Invective: Direct denunciation or name calling

Example: The fight between Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump

 

Inverted Syntax: Reversing the normal word order of a sentence

Example: Whose woods these are I think I know

 

Juxtaposition: The side by side comparison of two or more objects or ideals for the purpose of highlighting their similarities or differences.

Example: The noisy public feast and the private whispers of the lovers were evident in Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting.

 

Litotes: Deliberate understatement, in which an idea or opinion is often affirmed by negating its opposite.

Example: It is nothing. I am just bleeding to death is all.

It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.

Moreover, the attempt is not unsuccessful.

 

Malapropism: The comic substitution of one word for another word that sounds similar in meaning.

Example: There father was a civil “serpent” instead of civil servant. When my daughter had surgery and was recuperating, someone called on the phone and asked to speak with her. My son-in-law said she couldn’t come to the phone right now because she was “decapitated.” He meant to say incapacitated.

 

Metonymy: A type of metaphor in which something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it.

Examples: the “silver screen” to mean motion pictures, “the crown” to stand for king, “the White House” to stand for the activities of the president.

 

 

Motif: A recurring idea, structure, contrast, or device that develops or informs the major themes of a work of literature.

Example: Scarlet Letter Civilization versus the Wilderness. The Crucible: Empowerment

 

Naturalism: style of writing that rejects idealized  portrayals of life and attempts complete accuracy, disinterested objectivity, and frankness in depicting life as a brutal struggle for survival.

Example: When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples. 
--Stephen Crane, "The Open Boat"; 

 

Pacing: Rhythm in your writing

Example: Your pulse races, hands clenching your ticket as she comes flying into the homestretch. Whispering a prayer, you watch her cross the line. A photo finish. Too close to call. Eternal silence. Bated breath. The announcement crackles in your ear. She lost. By a nose.

 

 

Pantheism: The identification of God with the universe

Example: “For all that lives is Holy” – William Blake

 

Paradox: Seemingly contradictory but nevertheless true

Example: “We know too much for one man to know” – J. Robert Oppenheimer or “All men kill the thing they love.” – Oscar Wilde

 

Parataxis: Juxtaposition of short simple sentences without use of conjunction

Example: I came; I saw; I conquered – Julius Caesar

 

Parallelism (or parallel structure): When the author establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length. Especially strong when used at the beginnings of a sequence of sentences or phrases.

Example: Some cried, some wept, some remained hushed, but all felt the loss. “That government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

 

Paralipsis: a kind of irony in which the speaker proposes not to speak of a matter, but still somehow reveals it.

Example: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” – Wizard of Oz

 

Parody: a literary composition which imitates the characteristic style of a serious work or writer and uses its features to treat trivial , non-sensical material in attempt at humor or satire.

Example: “A Modest Proposal”

 

Pedantry: a display of narrow-minded and trivial scholarship or arbitrary adherence to rules and forms.

Example: Everything that bored you to death in high school

 

Periphrasis: The substitution of a proper noun in place of a description (Periphrasis can also apply to the reverse-the substitution of an illustrative or descriptive word or phrase in place of a proper noun.

Example: I am no Martha Stewart but I can bake a decent pie.

The big man upstairs hears your prayers

 

Polysyndeton: Employing many conjunctions between clauses, often slowing the tempo or rhythm.

Example:

I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water.
—Ernest Hemingway, "After the Storm."

 

Pun: A pun is a play on words.

Example: Let’s make like a bakery truck and move our buns out of here.

 

Post hoc fallacy: The assumption that an earlier event caused a later event, where there may be no connection.

Example: I had been doing pretty poorly this season. Then my girlfriend gave me this neon laces for my spikes and I won my next three races. Those laces must be good luck...if I keep on wearing them I can't help but win!

 

Primitivism: the belief that nature provides a truer and more healthful model that culture: the noble savage.

Example: Ishmael

Daniel Quinn uses a gorilla as an outsider looking in and perceiving the reality of civilization - of cultures using intensive agriculture to dominate the world. His conclusions are for the most part negative: he concludes that civilization is not sustainable in the long term (that is, over millions of years).

 

Regionalism: the tendency in literature to focus on a specific geographical region or locality, re-creating as accurately as possible its unique setting, speech, customs, manners, beliefs, and history.

Example: Mark Twains’ Adventures of Huck Finn

 

Rhetorical Question: A question that does not require an answer because the answer is obvious.  They are usually stated to make a point.

Example: How can we understand our racial problems if we don’t even understand each other?

 

Romanticism: Literature depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form. Characteristics include: individuality, subjectivity, freedom from rules, solitary life versus life in society, the belief that the imagination is superior to reason, devotion to beauty, worship of nature, fascination with the past.

Example: Scarlet Letter

 

 

Stream-of-consciousness: a technique that allows the reader to see the continuous, chaotic flow of half-formed and discontinuous thoughts, memories, sense impressions, random associations, images, feelings and reflections that constitute a character’s consciousness.

Example: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

 

Surrealism: Employs illogical dreamlike images and events to suggest consciousness.

Example: The fog rising from the swamp made me feel as though I was drifting above the clouds from dream to dream.

 

Synaesthesia (Sin es Thee si a ): Mixing one type of sensory input with another in an impossible way, such as speaking of how a color sounds, or how a smell looks.

Example: The scent of the rose rang like a bell through the garden. I caressed the darkness with cool fingers.

They had a great taste for viewing new paintings.

 

Syllogism: A formal argument involving deductive reasoning, in which a specific conclusion is inferred from a general statement. In this type of argument, the speaker offers a general and a specific premise.

Example: All citizens are subject to the law

                He is a citizen

                Therefore, he must obey the law

 

Synecdoche: Where a part stands for the whole.

Example: All hands were summoned to the quarter-deck, where hands is used to describe sailors.

One thousand sails pursued Paris when he fled with Helen of Troy

 

Verisimilitude: Realistic; reader senses what is happening in the story is real

 

Zeugma: Use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use is grammatically or logically correct with only one.

Example: "He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men."
(Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried)

 

Common Fallacies in Logic

 

Ad Hominem:  A fallacy that attacks a person’s motive or character instead of his or her stand on an issue.

Example:

Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong."
Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest."
Bill: "What about the arguments I gave to support my position?"
Dave: "Those don't count. Like I said, you're a priest, so you have to say that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just a lackey to the Pope, so I can't believe what you say."

 

Ad Populum fallacy: a fallacy of logic in which the widespread occurrence of something in assumed to make it true or right

Example: The Escort is the most widely sold car in the world; therefore, it must be the best

 

Ad Verecundiam: An appeal to an improper authority, such as a famous person or a source that may not be reliable. This fallacy attempts to capitalize upon feelings of respect or familiarity with a famous individual.

Example: to cite Darwin, an authority on biology, on religious matters is fallacious.

Appeal to authority: This fallacy is committed when the person in question is not a legitimate authority on the subject

Example: I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the hit series "Bimbos and Studmuffins in the OR." You can take it from me that when you need a fast acting, effective and safe pain killer there is nothing better than MorphiDope 2000. That is my considered medical opinion.

 

Begging the Question: A fallacy that presents a premise as if it were a fact, when it is actually debatable.

Example: "The belief in God is universal. After all, everyone believes in God."

 

Circular Reasoning: An error in persuasion which involves repeating the assertion endlessly without support. 

Example: "Gregory always votes wisely." "But how do you know?" "Because he always votes Libertarian."

 

Either or Fallacy: a fallacy that asserts that a situation can have only two possible outcomes, one of which is definitely preferable.

Example: A mother says, “Eat your vegetables or you will not grow up to be big and strong like your father.”

 

Hasty Generalization Fallacy: A fallacy that bases a conclusion on too little evidence.

Example: Sam is riding her bike in her home town in Maine, minding her own business. A station wagon comes up behind her and the driver starts beeping his horn and then tries to force her off the road. As he goes by, the driver yells "get on the sidewalk where you belong!" Sam sees that the car has Ohio plates and concludes that all Ohio drivers are jerks.

 

Misleading Statistics: A fallacy that uses statistical evidence in order to mislead.

Example: An individual argues that women must be incompetent drivers, and he points out that last Tuesday at the Department of Motor Vehicles, 50% of the women who took the driving test failed. He failed to mention that only two women took the test.

 

Non-Sequitur Fallacy: a fallacy that attempts to relate two or more ideas which are not related; one idea does not logically lead to the other.

Example: Bill lives in a large building; therefore, his apartment must be large.

 

Oversimplification Fallacy: a fallacy that tries to provide a simple solution to a complex problem

Example: "Unemployment would cease to be a major problem if we got rid of illegal aliens."

 

Post hoc Fallacy: This fallacy of logic occurs when the writer assumes that an incident  that precedes another is the cause of the second incident.

Example: Governor X began his first term in January. Three months later, the state suffered severe economic depression. Therefore, Governor X causes the state’s depression. The chronological events do not establish a cause-effect relationship.

 

 

Red Herring Fallacy: Something that is used to distract attention from the real issue

Example: "I think there is great merit in making the requirements stricter for the graduate students. I recommend that you support it, too. After all, we are in a budget crisis and we do not want our salaries affected."

 

Appeals:

 

Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience's emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning. This will be the most important technique we will study, and Aristotle's favorite. We'll look at deductive and inductive reasoning, and discuss what makes an effective, persuasive reason to back up your claims. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation, and cannot be emphasized enough. We'll study the types of support you can use to substantiate your thesis, and look at some of the common logical fallacies, in order to avoid them in your writing.

 

Examples of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos