Oxymoron: A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradicting terms are combined

ex. "seriously funny", "to make haste slowly", "pretty ugly"

Paradox

Paradox: a statement that contradicts itself (wordnetweb.princeton.edu)

Example: "So foul and fair a day I have not seen." -Shakespeare, Macbeth

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony: (n) irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.

Example: In the story Romeo and Juliet, the audience knew Romeo and Juliet were going to die before the characters knew.

VERBAL IRONY

Definition: A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant.
Example: A woman talking about how much she dislikes messy people and her house is a mess.

Deductive Reasoning

Definition: Deductive reasoning is when you use a generalization to get a specific point.
Example: All men are mortal, therefore if someone is a man, he is mortal.

Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa






-General Motors announced cutbacks
-He was riding on a new set of Wheels

Metonymy

Definition: A figure of speech in which a word represents something else which it suggests.

Example: "The B.L.T. left without paying"

Whereas the B.L.T. has a deeper meaning. It refers to the customer who did not pay for the meal. Not the actual B.L.T.

Exclamation: a sharp or sudden utterance, or a spoken interjection.

Examples:

In a sentence: Lily's song was interrupted many times by rude exclamations from her enemy, Biff.

An exclamation itself: "Hey you! Come back!"

Anaphora

(click image for enlargement)

Parenthesis

Parenthesis: an amplifying or explanatory word, phrase, or sentence, inserted in a passage from which is usually set off by punctuation; remark or passage that departs from theme of discourse; one or both of the curved marks (  ) used in writing and printing  to enclose a parenthetical expression or to group a symbolic unit in a logical or mathematical expression

Example: "For the vagabond-voyeur (and for travelers voyeurism is irresistible), nothing is not for notice, nothing is banal, nothing is ordinary: not a rock, not the shoulder of a passer-by, not a teapot."
- Cynthia Ozick, "The Shock of Teapots"

parallelism

Parallelism: To give a two or more parts of a sentence similar form so as to give the whole sentence a pattern.

Ex: He ate all his spinach, ate all his carrots and ate all his green beans.

Euphemism

eu·phe·mism –(noun)

1. the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.
Examples: "Heavy set" vs. fat
"to pass away" vs. to die
"rest room" vs toilet

Antithesis

Antithesis: Contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses or sentences.
Easy on the eyes, hard on the heart.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia

the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it.

(Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary)

Situational Irony

Main Entry: iro·ny

Pronunciation: \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural iro·nies

Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirōnia, from eirōn dissembler

Date: 1502

1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

ex. It was ironic that Reagan was shot after the bullet ricocheted off of his "bulletproof" car.

Source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Understatement is pretty unnecessary in life..

(Scan was cropped at the bottom, so I added the text on my computer)

Understatement: noun 1 : a statement represented as less than is the case
2 : a statement stated or presented with restraint especially for effect

(Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary)

ex: To say that time travel is exciting would be an understatement.

Ellipsis

Definition: The omission from a sentence or other construction of one or more words that would complete or clarify the construction

Example: The New York Times calls Titanic "...a breathe taking drama".

Pun

The humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/)

Example:

inductive reasoning

inductive reasoning: reasoning from detailed facts to general principles - dictionary.com

ex above (since you can't really read it): 3 is an odd number, 5 is an odd number, and 3+5 = 8. The answer is an even number. Therefore, we can conclude that whenever two odd numbers are added together, the answer is always an even number.

Paradox

Paradox: a statement that contradicts itself. (wordnetweb.princeton.edu)

"So foul and fair a day I have not seen." -Shakespeare, Macbeth.

Situational Irony

Analogy

analogy: Similarity in some respects between two relationships. A comparison of two relationships between two things.

Ex. Father is to son as Sun is to moon.

Ex. Man is to money as the beast is to flesh.

What is Rhetoric?

Simple: It is the practice of using language effectively to please or persuade.
This is the blog/wiki for 6th period Honors English at Albany High School. This site will provide a common location for the class to define and explore all things rhetorical. All class members are contributors to the site.

Rhetoric Visual Assignment

The following is a list of key rhetorical strategies.  First, define your term.  Then create an 8 ½” x 11” illustration of your device that will be presented in class.  Do not write the device name on the illustration.  These will later be scanned in and can be used as a study guide for the AP test.  In addition to the illustration and definition, please come up with an additional written example of your device.  Within your class, every one of the below devices must be covered.
(Note: We will look at fallacies at a later date.)

Analogy

Anaphora

Antithesis
Deductive reasoning
Didactic
Ellipsis
Euphemism
Exclamation
Inductive reasoning
Situational Irony
Dramatic Irony
Verbal Irony
Metonymy
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Paradox
Parallelism
Parenthesis
Pun
Synecdoche
Understatement

This assignment is worth 40 points.