Rhetorical Devices A technique used by an author

Rhetorical Devices A technique used by an author to convey to the reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective

The goal of rhetoric • To persuade towards a particular frame of view • appropriate rhetorical devices are used to construct sentences designed both to make the audience receptive through emotional changes and to provide a rational argument for the frame of view or course of action.

Examples: Irony • The use of irony in rhetoric is primarily to convey to the audience an incongruity that is often used as a tool of humor in order to deprecate or ridicule an idea or course of action.

Metaphor • The use of metaphor in rhetoric is primarily to convey to the audience a new idea or meaning by linking it to an existing idea or meaning with which the audience is already familiar.

Metaphor • An example of rhetorical device is this passage attributed to a speech by Abraham Lincoln about a political adversary in which Lincoln said that his adversary had "dived down deeper into the sea of knowledge and come up drier than any other man he knew". • This attributed quote uses a body of water as a metaphor for a body of knowledge with the ironical idea of someone who gained so little from his education that he achieved the impossible of jumping into a body of water and climbing back out without getting wet.

List of some rhetorical devices • Diction irony hyperbole point of view ethical appeal logical appeal emotional appeal humor metaphors simile allusion imagery anecdote analogy metonymy (can’t fight city hall. . . King/crown) paradox fallacies (false notion) satire sarcasm