how to write a speech using rhetorical devices

4 Ways to Use Rhetorical Devices to Make Powerful Speeches (with Examples)

Hrideep barot.

• Speech Writing

I am certain all of us have come across powerful speeches, novels, or presentations that left us speechless at some point. But have you wondered how the speaker or the author managed to do so?

How did they manage to make almost everyone in the audience riveted? You might have attributed this skill of captivating the audience to good public speaking, which is partially true but the other half of this lies in their use of magic tools which are referred to as rhetorical devices.

A rhetorical device is a technique that is used by a speaker or an author for conveying a particular message to the audience in such a way that it provokes an emotional response to a particular action. It is a linguistic tool, whose employment can be used to construct an argument or make an existing one more compelling .

To put it simply, rhetorical devices are devices used to spice up your conversations, work presentations, and speeches. They are often used to provoke an emotional response and make the matter of the speech more compelling, with the goal of persuading the audience.

Why are rhetorical techniques important?

Why should rhetorical devices be used? What impact do they have? Well, here’s why,

There is one common thing between the world’s famous speeches and presentations, which is their ability to create an emotional connection with the audience. The way in which a speaker makes the audience feel is very important as that feeling will stay with the audience long after the speech or the presentation is over. This emotional response is evoked with the help of rhetorical devices.

Apart from this, rhetorical devices help you become more persuasive. It also aids in composing successful presentations and writings. It helps you make your speech crisp and improves the understanding of the audience.

Moreover, with the correct rhetorical devices, it enables you to make stronger arguments and a way of handling controversial topics. It also has a powerful impact on the audience helping them remember the ideas better through repetition or grammatical manipulation.

Most used rhetorical devices

In order to know how to use these magic tools, it is crucial to know some of these most used rhetorical devices and also its application in a speech.

1. Alliteration

This is the repetition of sounds of two or more neighboring words. This is usually used to put emphasis and to draw attention. For instance, safety and security Ate apples all afternoon

2. Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word in a phrase at the beginning of the next phrase or sentence. For example, Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering –Yoda, Star Wars

3. Antistrophe

This is repetition of words at the end of consecutive phrases/clauses. It can be termed as a specific type of repetition. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us.”

The above sentence is quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a prominent essayist. Here, the words ‘What lies’ is repeated leading to the creation of a poetic effect.

4. Antithesis

In this, two opposite and contrasting ideas are juxtaposed. For example, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Here, two contrasting ideas are proposed in the same sentence in such a way that it shows the strikingly different ideas showing a compare and contrast kind of situation.

A repeated word or phrase split up by another word, to display strong emotion. Understanding it with an example, Free at last! Free at last! Thank god we are free at last!

6. Ellipsis

In this, few words are depicting an event is omitted making the readers ponder about the narrative gaps. For instance, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth…the proposition that all men are created equal.”

This is the start of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, where the three dots are ellipsis points suggesting a time lapse.

This is a simple method of double negatives that present a positive statement. It is often used to express irony. This is commonly used in conversations as well.

For example, ‘She is not thin’ OR ‘You are not unfamiliar with poetry’.

8. Hyperbole

This is an expression of mere exaggeration, often used to draw attention to the severity of the matter or to make a strong point. This is also frequently used in day to day language.

For instance,

‘I called her a thousand times’

‘It raining cats and dogs’.

9. Epistrophe

Repetition of words at the end of successive phrases for a poetic effect. An example of this could be the famous definition of democracy given by Abraham Lincoln, “… and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

10. Personification

Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects. It aids in a better explanation of ideas and concepts.

For instance, ‘The thunder roared in the evening’

‘The brutal wind bullied the trees compelling them into giving up their leaves’

11. Epiphora

Repetition of a word/phrase at the end of every clause. An instance of this could be a speech given by Steve Jobs where this technique is effectively used,

“Well, these are their home screens . And again, as you recall, this is the iPhone’s homescreen. This is what their contacts look like . This is what iPhone’s contacts look like .”

12. Anaphora

This is slightly different from Epiphora in the sense that the repetition of the word/phrase is at the beginning of the two or more sentences or clauses.

For instance, “They’re the women whose names we’ll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working in factories and they work in restaurants and in academia, and engineering, medicine and science. They are part of the world of tech and politics and in business. They are athletes in the Olympics and they are soldiers in the military.”

This is a small chunk of a speech made by Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globes awards. Here, she tries to draw attention of the audience by emphasising on the word ‘They are’ highlighting the role of women in different parts of life.

13. Germinatio

This is repetition of a word in the same sentence for more than once. For instance, “And so I’ve got voice mail how I wanna listen to it, when I wanna listen to it, in any order I wanna listen to it with visual voicemail.”

The technique of germinatio was used by Steve Jobs in his speech in order to create a compelling effect on the listeners.

These are just a few commonly used rhetorical devices from an ocean of such magic tools. (Take a guess at what device is used here!)

How to use rhetorical devices in speeches?

Before we dive in to how to use rhetorical devices, we made a fun video on how these tools are the one simple thing that helps take your speech to the next level. There are a bunch of examples and tips here that will help you incorporate rhetorical devices for your next presentation. Highly recommend you check it out:

To know how to implement these rhetorical devices in your speech is also of utmost importance, apart from knowing them. Here’s a way of incorporating them in your speech.

1. Know the rhetorical appeals

It is important to know the types of rhetorical appeals as rhetorical devices fall into these categories. Make a rough draft and then insert rhetorical devices accordingly depending on the tone of the speech. Figure out the mode of persuasion, that is, whether it is Logos, Pathos, Ethos or Kairos.

This refers to giving logical and intellectual arguments and reasoning, supporting it with credible evidence. An example of logos can be a speech by Donald Trump, where he states a few figures regarding the illegal immigration,

“So here are just a few statistics on the human toll of illegal immigration. According to a 2011 government report, the arrests attached to the criminal alien population included an estimated 25,000 people for homicide, 42,000 for robbery, nearly 70,000 for sex offenses, and nearly 15,000 for kidnapping. In Texas alone, within the last seven years, more than a quarter-million criminal aliens have been arrested and charged with over 600,000 criminal offenses. … Sixty-three thousand Americans since 9/11 have been killed by illegal aliens. This isn’t a problem that’s going away; it’s getting bigger.”

This refers to making an appeal to the audience’s emotions. This includes using language in such a way that creates an empathetic feeling towards the speaker. Given below is an example of Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream” speech.

“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

This refers to persuading the audience about the speaker’s credibility and the fact that his arguments carry weight.

An example of this could be the speech made by Mitt Romney, senator of the United States. In this speech, accepting the presidential nominee Mitt Romney points out to the fact that his business success would prove useful if he were to take the office.

“I learned the real lessons about how America works from experience. When I was 37, I helped start a small company. My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses. So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on ourselves and on our advice. So we started a new business called Bain Capital…That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you know. An office supply company called Staples – where I’m pleased to see the Obama campaign has been shopping; The Sports Authority, which became a favorite of my sons. We started an early childhood learning center called Bright Horizons that First Lady Michelle Obama rightly praised.”

This involves an appeal to the timing of the argument, meaning that the argument has to be made in a suitable context making the audience receptive to it. An instance of Kairos can be Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,

“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to make to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.”

One can use these rhetorical appeals in such a way that a combination of all 4 appeals is made simultaneously.

Making the speech highly logos specific, that is giving only facts, will make the audience bored, whereas making it too pathos oriented will make the speech very emotional and lacking in rational thinking.

If you would like some more information on ETHOS, PATHOS and LOGOS, you can check out the same in this short video we made:

2. A rhetorical question

Rhetorical questions can be used to control the thoughts of the audience. These questions may have obvious answers or may not have a clear cut answer.

One technique of using such questions is inserting them in the start of the speech and then carrying on with the speech in such a way that the rhetorical question is answered in the content of your presentation.

Another way is by inserting a rhetorical question, which as an obvious answer to it at the end of the speech- making sure that the question is related to what the speech entails.

The election speech of Ronald Reagan for the 1980 presidential debate between Governor Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter, where the governor ended with a bunch of rhetorical questions is a perfect example for this,

“Next Tuesday is Election Day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.”

Check it out in action, here:

3. A powerful beginning

It is rightly said that the first impression is the last impression and hence a powerful beginning is very important. To capture the audience it is important to insert some rhetorical devices at the start of your speech which create some poetic effect that helps you engage the audience. It may also include the use of diacope or anadiplosis which focus on repetition of the words of phrases creating emphasis and a strong display of emotions.

An example of anadiplosis can be: “Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.” This was used by the George W. Bush

4. A powerful end

Climax is the most important part, be it a speech or a movie! What you say in the end is what stays with the audience hence, ending the speech with impactful rhetorical devices is advisable.

These may include inserting a rhetorical question making the audience ponder a little as mentioned above. It may also include the use of Epistrophe.

For instance, while addressing the nation about terrorism George Bush ends his speech in a powerful way assuring people that he will take the necessary actions to prevent terrorism, with appropriate use of Epistrophe:

“I will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.”  

Watch the full speech here:

Use of rhetorical devices by Frederick Douglass

The credit for developing the basics of rhetoric goes to Aristotle and since then there has been extensive use of these literary tools. A prominent figure who is well known for his use of rhetorical devices is also Frederick Douglass, who was a slave who had escaped and went on to become an activist, author and public speaker.

He is known not only for his idea of abolition of slavery but also his superior skill of rhetoric and the art of persuading the audience. In his memoir called the ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’, a number of rhetorical devices are used to argue against the heinous act of slavery.

Here is a look at how he used some of them to make his communication all the more poewrful:

It involves persuading the audience about the author’s qualifications and credibility pointing to the fact that the speaker’s arguments carry weight.

In the memoir, Frederick Douglass talks about his first-hand experience with slavery by talking about being oblivious about his birthday unlike other people in the first chapter itself, building his ethos.

In order to make an appeal to the audience’s emotions, Douglass talks about his experience of watching his aunt being whipped by the slaveholder until she is covered in blood.

Frederick writes, ‘He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cow skin.’

Frederick talks about how animals were treated better than humans by the slaveholder.  

He writes about the condition of the slaves by saying:

‘Everything depended upon the looks of the horses, and the state of Colonel Lloyd’s own mind when his horses were brought to him for use. If a horse did not move fast enough, or hold his head high enough, it was owing to some fault of his keepers. It was painful to stand near the stable-door, and hear the various complaints against the keepers when a horse was taken out for use. To all the complaints, no matter how unjust, the slave must answer never a word. Colonel Lloyd could not brook any contradiction from a slave. When he spoke, a slave must stand, listen, and tremble; and such was literally the case. I have seen Colonel Lloyd make old Barney, a man between fifty and sixty years of age, uncover his bald head, kneel down upon the cold, damp ground, and receive upon his naked and toil-worn shoulders more than thirty lashes at the time.’

In Fredrick Douglass’s speech- “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, he also makes a similar appeal through the use of ethos, pathos and logos . To begin with, he makes an appeal to ethos, by initiating his speech with modesty and meekness. For example, “He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have.”

To steer emotions among the audience, he also uses metaphors such as “A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic . “

“From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen.” This is an example of an extended metaphor where he is comparing the United States to a ship at sea and the dark and threatening clouds are compared to the ongoing threats and troubles.

There has also been use of simile , where the speaker makes a direct comparison of the slaves to animals sold in the market. For example, “I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave-markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine.”

Other Rhetorical Devices used by Douglas

Moreover, through the phrase ‘ doleful wail of fettered humanity ’ the speaker is trying to give the human quality of being fettered to an abstract noun of humanity, pointing out to the use of personification .

Apart from these rhetorical devices, Frederick Douglass also uses rhetorical questions to make the audience ponder about the situation of slavery by asking them, “Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? Or is it in the temple?”

“What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a tract of land, in which no mention of land was made?”

Another important rhetorical device used by him was that of allusion . Allusion is when the author or the speaker refers to an event, object, person or to a work of art either directly or indirectly. In his speech, Frederick alludes to biblical material, knowing that the audience mostly comprises of Christians.

For instance, “ The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain.” Through this, the speaker makes an analogy between the Lord sending the Israelites back to their homeland and the hope that slavery will perish. Frederick Douglass has made such allusions in order to support his arguments, knowing that words from the bible would carry weight and have a strong impact.

Use of rhetorical devices in famous speeches

1. michelle obama – anaphora.

“I trust Hillary to lead this country because I’ve seen her lifelong devotion to our nation’s children – not just her own daughter, who she has raised to perfection but every child who needs a champion: Kids who take the long way to school to avoid the gangs. Kids who wonder how they’ll ever afford college. Kids whose parents don’t speak a word of English but dream of a better life. Kids who look to us to determine who and what they can be.”

This is a small part of a speech made by Michelle Obama. In this, it is seen the word “ Kids ” is used more than once to start sentences that follow each other, pointing out to the use of anaphora.

Here’s the video for the speech made by the former first lady:

2. Steve Jobs – Germination

“That’s 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.”

This is an instance from the speech of Steve Jobs, where he puts emphasis on the word “ every ” by repeating it frequently in the same sentence.

See the entire speech here:

3. Barack Obama – Antistrophe

“It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.”

Here, the phrase “Yes, we can” is used repeatedly at the end of every sentence in order to put emphasis on the subject.

Watch the video of the speech here:

4. Martin Luther King, Jr – Antithesis

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Here, the speaker uses antithesis by inverting the statements to show that America will have a day when people are judged by their character and not their skin colour.

Given below is the historic speech made at the Lincoln Memorial by Martin Luther King Jr :

5. John Kennedy – Ellipsis

“This much we pledge — and more.”

Here the former President uses “and more” instead of listing more ideas. He also compels the audience to keep thinking about the ideas they should pledge to, instead of listing them.   

In order to use a wide variety of rhetorical devices, it is important to know the different types of these literary techniques. A powerful speech is not just about a good orator or good public speaking skills but much more than that! And these rhetorical devices constitute an integral part of the components which make your speech extraordinary.

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31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

What is a rhetorical device and why are they used.

As with all fields of serious and complicated human endeavor (that can be considered variously as an art, a science, a profession, or a hobby), there is a technical vocabulary associated with writing. Rhetoric is the name for the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion, and though a writer doesn’t need to know the specific labels for certain writing techniques in order to use them effectively, it is sometimes helpful to have a handy taxonomy for the ways in which words and ideas are arranged. This can help to discuss and isolate ideas that might otherwise become abstract and confusing. As with the word rhetoric itself, many of these rhetorical devices come from Greek.

Ready, set, rhetoric.

The repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables

wild and woolly, threatening throngs

Syntactical inconsistency or incoherence within a sentence especially : a shift in an unfinished sentence from one syntactic construction to another

you really should have—well, what do you expect?

Repetition of a prominent and usually the last word in one phrase or clause at the beginning of the next

rely on his honor—honor such as his?

A literary technique that involves interruption of the chronological sequence of events by interjection of events or scenes of earlier occurrence : flashback

Repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect

we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground

The repetition of a word within a phrase or sentence in which the second occurrence utilizes a different and sometimes contrary meaning from the first

we must all hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately

The usually ironic or humorous use of words in senses opposite to the generally accepted meanings

this giant of 3 feet 4 inches

The use of a proper name to designate a member of a class (such as a Solomon for a wise ruler) OR the use of an epithet or title in place of a proper name (such as the Bard for Shakespeare)

The raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it

we won't discuss his past crimes

An expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty especially for rhetorical effect

to be, or not to be: that is the question

Harshness in the sound of words or phrases

An inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases

working hard, or hardly working?

A disjunctive conclusion inferred from a single premise

gravitation may act without contact; therefore, either some force may act without contact or gravitation is not a force

The substitution of a disagreeable, offensive, or disparaging expression for an agreeable or inoffensive one

greasy spoon is a dysphemism for the word diner

Repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect

of the people, by the people, for the people

Emphatic repetition [ this definition is taken from the 1934 edition of Webster's Unabridged dictionary ]

An interchange of two elements in a phrase or sentence from a more logical to a less logical relationship

you are lost to joy for joy is lost to you

A transposition or inversion of idiomatic word order

judge me by my size, do you?

Extravagant exaggeration

mile-high ice-cream cones

The putting or answering of an objection or argument against the speaker's contention [ this definition is taken from the 1934 edition of Webster's Unabridged dictionary ]

Understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary

not a bad singer

The presentation of a thing with underemphasis especially in order to achieve a greater effect : UNDERSTATEMENT

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them ( Metaphor vs. Simile )

drowning in money

A figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated

crown as used in lands belonging to the crown

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

A combination of contradictory or incongruous words

cruel kindness

The use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense : REDUNDANCY

I saw it with my own eyes

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by "like" or "as"

cheeks like roses

The use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense

she blew my nose and then she blew my mind

A figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (such as fifty sail for fifty ships ), the whole for a part (such as society for high society ), the species for the genus (such as cutthroat for assassin ), the genus for the species (such as a creature for a man ), or the name of the material for the thing made (such as boards for stage )

The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one

opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy

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How to Use Rhetorical Devices In Your Writing and Speaking

• The Speaker Lab
• August 17, 2024

Table of Contents

Looking for ways to improve your writing and speaking skills? If so, then rhetorical devices are what you need. These powerful tools can transform your writing from bland to brilliant and make your message stick with your audience for a long time. But what exactly are rhetorical devices, and how can you use them to your advantage?

Rhetorical devices help authors to inspire, sway, and engage their readers. From the classic rhetorical question to the artful use of repetition, these devices have been used by everyone from ancient orators to modern-day marketers. And the best part? Mastering these doesn’t require you to be an author extraordinaire.

What Are Rhetorical Devices?

If you’ve ever found yourself moved by a powerful speech or convinced by a persuasive essay, chances are the speaker or writer was using rhetorical devices. But what exactly are these rhetorical devices?

Rhetorical devices are strategies used to convey a particular message or achieve a desired effect on the listener or reader. Harnessing the power of language, these techniques influence an audience’s thoughts or emotions. Through figurative language and literary devices , they can make a point more memorably or persuasively.

Typically, writers will use rhetorical devices to craft compelling arguments, memorable phrases, and impactful prose. Understanding rhetorical devices can help you better analyze the arguments of others and strengthen your own persuasive skills.

How Rhetorical Devices Work

Rhetorical devices work by tapping into different aspects of human psychology and communication. Some, like repetition or alliteration, use sound and rhythm to make a message stick in the listener’s mind. Others, like metaphors or analogies, help the audience understand complex ideas by relating them to more familiar concepts. Devices like rhetorical questions engage the audience directly, prompting them to reflect on the speaker’s message.

Common Examples of Rhetorical Devices

There are dozens of rhetorical devices, each with its own unique effect. Some common examples you might recognize include:

• Alliteration: Repeating the same sound at the beginning of words, as in “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
• Metaphor: Comparing two unlike things to highlight a similarity, like “His face was as red as a tomato.”
• Hyperbole: Exaggeration for emphasis or effect, as in “I’ve told you a million times.”
• Rhetorical question: Asking a question for effect, not expecting an answer, like “Who do you think you are?”

The key is that these devices aren’t just fancy ways of talking. They serve a purpose in making a message more impactful or memorable . In the hands of a skilled communicator, rhetorical devices are powerful tools for persuasion.

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Types of Rhetorical Devices

Now that we’ve covered the basics of what rhetorical devices are and how they work, let’s dive into some of the most common types you’re likely to encounter. These devices are staples in everything from political speeches to advertising slogans.

Rhetorical Questions

A rhetorical question is one that’s asked for effect, not to get an actual answer. It’s a way of making a point by getting the audience to think about the implied answer. For example, if someone asked you “Do you want to be successful?” your immediate thought is probably “Of course.” That’s the power of a rhetorical question—it engages the audience and gets them agreeing with your point without you having to state it outright.

Synecdoche is a device where a part of something is used to refer to the whole, or vice versa. It’s often used to make a message more concise or vivid. For instance, saying “We need all hands on deck” uses “hands” to refer to the whole person. Or describing a car as “a set of wheels” uses a part to represent the entire vehicle.

Similar to synecdoche, metonymy involves referring to something by a related concept. The difference is that metonymy doesn’t necessarily use a part to refer to the whole. An example would be saying “The White House issued a statement,” where “The White House” stands in for the president or the administration. The two concepts are related, but one is not a part of the other.

Hyperbole is exaggeration for the sake of emphasis. It’s not meant to be taken literally, but rather to make a description more vivid or impactful. Saying “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse” or “This bag weighs a ton” are examples of hyperbole. The speaker isn’t being literal, but using exaggeration to stress their point.

Litotes is a form of understatement, often using double negatives for ironic effect. It affirms something by denying its opposite. For example, you can say “She’s not a bad singer” to mean “She’s a very good singer” or “This task is no small feat” to emphasize the difficulty or impressiveness of the task.

Chiasmus is a verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. It’s a way of creating a memorable phrase through parallel structure. A famous example is John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” The reversal of the structure (country/you, you/country) makes the phrase stick in the mind.

These are just a few of the many rhetorical devices speakers and writers have at their disposal. Each serves a different purpose, but they all aim to make a message more persuasive, memorable, or emotionally impactful.

How to Use Rhetorical Devices Effectively

Understanding rhetorical devices is one thing, but using them effectively is another. Like any tool, they can be misused or overused. The key is to employ them strategically in order to enhance your message without detracting from it.

Identifying the Purpose

Before reaching for a rhetorical device, consider your purpose. Are you trying to inform, persuade, or evoke an emotional response? Different devices serve different ends. For example, if you’re trying to make a complex idea more relatable, an analogy or metaphor could help. If you want to drive home a point, repetition or a rhetorical question might be effective.

Choosing the Right Device

Not every rhetorical device works in every situation. The device should fit the tone and style of your message. For instance, hyperbole might work well in a humorous speech, but could undermine your credibility in a serious academic paper. Alliteration might be memorable in a slogan, but distracting in a eulogy .

Placing Devices Strategically

Rhetorical devices are most effective when used sparingly and placed strategically. Overusing them can make your message feel gimmicky or insincere. Consider placing them at key moments such as the opening or closing of a speech, the thesis statement of an essay, or the tagline of an advertisement. Used judiciously, they can make these pivotal points more impactful and memorable.

Avoiding Overuse

It’s important to remember that rhetorical devices are seasoning, not the main dish. As such, they should enhance your message, not overwhelm it. If every sentence contains a rhetorical device, they lose their impact. Your audience will become more focused on your clever phrasing than your actual point.

Use rhetorical devices to punctuate your message, not to saturate it. A well-placed metaphor, a dash of alliteration, or an occasional rhetorical question can go a long way. So include them in your writing, but don’t go overboard.

Mastering the art of rhetorical devices is a lifelong journey for any speaker or writer. But by understanding their purpose, choosing them wisely, placing them strategically, and using them sparingly, you can harness their power to make your message more persuasive and memorable.

Famous Examples of Rhetorical Devices in Literature and Speeches

Rhetorical devices are powerful enough that some of the most influential figures in history have used them to deliver powerful messages. These speeches continue to resonate with audiences long after they were first spoken or written.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

One of the most famous examples of rhetorical devices in action is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Throughout this powerful address, King employs anaphora, repeating the phrase “I have a dream” to emphasize his vision for a future of equality and unity. This repetition creates a sense of urgency and drives home the central message of his speech, making it one of the most memorable and impactful in history.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Another historic speech that masterfully employs rhetorical devices is Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In just 272 words, Lincoln uses antithesis to highlight the contrast between the sacrifices of the soldiers and the work that remains to be done, stating “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” This powerful juxtaposition emphasizes the importance of honoring the fallen and carrying on their fight for freedom and equality.

But rhetorical devices aren’t limited to speeches alone. In literature, authors like Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, and Ernest Hemingway have all used these techniques to create memorable and impactful works. Twain, known for his biting wit and social commentary, often employed hyperbole and irony to critique the world around him. In the same vein, Dickinson’s poetry is filled with metaphors and personification that bring abstract ideas to life, while Hemingway’s straightforward prose is a master class in the power of understatement.

And then there’s Oscar Wilde, whose clever, paradoxical statements have become legendary. Wilde’s famous quips, like “I can resist everything except temptation,” rely on rhetorical devices like antithesis and oxymoron to create a sense of humor and irony that continues to delight readers to this day.

Rhetorical Devices in Pop Culture and Media

Rhetorical devices aren’t just the stuff of high literature and historic speeches, however. They’re all around us in pop culture and media, from the catchy slogans of advertising campaigns to the memorable one-liners of our favorite movies.

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Advertisers have long relied on rhetorical devices to create slogans that stick in our minds and persuade us to buy their products. Alliteration, for example, is a popular choice for creating memorable phrases like “Capital One: What’s in your wallet?” This repetition of sounds makes the slogan fun to say and hard to forget, which is exactly what advertisers are aiming for.

Political Campaigns

Political campaigns are another arena where rhetorical devices are used to great effect. Candidates and their teams craft slogans, speeches, and ads that rely heavily on devices like loaded language, emotional appeals, and repetition to persuade voters and drive home their message. Whether it’s “Make America Great Again” or “Yes We Can,” these simple, powerful phrases are designed to stick in our minds and rally us behind a particular candidate or cause.

TV and Music

But rhetorical devices aren’t just for selling products or winning votes. They’re also an essential tool for storytelling in movies, TV shows, and music. Movie dialogue often employs devices like hyperbole, understatement, and irony to reveal character, create humor, and advance the plot. For instance, remember the iconic line “You can’t handle the truth” from A Few Good Men ? This line relies on hyperbole and irony to create a powerful moment of tension and revelation.

Similarly, song lyrics are filled with rhetorical devices that create rhythm, evoke emotion, and convey meaning. From the anaphora of “Let it Be” by The Beatles to the vivid metaphors in Taylor Swift’s love songs, these devices are an essential part of the songwriter’s toolkit.

Mastering Rhetorical Devices for Better Communication

So why should you care about rhetorical devices? Because mastering them can make you a more effective communicator in any context, whether you’re writing a persuasive essay, delivering a presentation, or just trying to win an argument with a friend.

At their core, rhetorical devices are all about persuasion. They help you appeal to your audience’s sense of logic, emotion, and perception of your credibility and authority. By using devices like analogies, metaphors, and repetition, you can make your arguments more compelling and your ideas more memorable.

Improving Clarity

Of course, rhetorical devices aren’t just about persuasion. They can also improve the clarity and impact of your message. Devices like hypophora, where you raise questions and then answer them, can help guide your audience through complex ideas and keep them engaged. Analogies and metaphors can make abstract concepts more concrete and relatable, while vivid descriptions can help your audience visualize and remember your key points.

Just remember not to overdo it, because overusing rhetorical devices can make your writing or speech feel gimmicky or insincere. It’s important to use them strategically and sparingly, choosing the right device for the right moment and the right audience.

When used effectively, rhetorical devices can be a powerful way to elevate your communication skills and make your voice heard. By studying the examples of great orators and writers, and practicing these techniques in your own work, you can develop a unique voice that persuades, inspires, and moves your audience to action.

So the next time you sit down to write a speech, craft an essay, or even just argue with a friend, remember the power of rhetorical devices. With a little practice and a lot of creativity, you can use these tools to become a master communicator and make your mark on the world.

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FAQs on Rhetorical Devices

What are rhetorical devices and examples.

Rhetorical devices are tools writers use to persuade or impact readers. Examples include metaphors, similes, and alliteration.

What are the e types of rhetorical appeals?

The three types encompass ethos (credibility), logos (logic), and pathos (emotion).

What is the strongest rhetorical device?

Depending on the context, different devices will be more or less powerful. Anaphora—the repetition of a word at the start of successive sentences—packs a powerful punch for emphasis.

What are the top three rhetorical devices?

Anaphora for emphasis, metaphor for vivid comparisons, and hyperbole to exaggerate points stand out as top picks.

Rhetorical devices are the secret sauce that can take your writing from mediocre to magnificent. Let’s not forget how throwing in a few “what ifs”, echoing important phrases, or comparing concepts to something unexpected can really make what you’re saying pop off the page. So long as you don’t overdo it, your writing is about to level up.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and sprinkle some rhetorical devices into your writing. Your readers will thank you for it.

• Last Updated: August 7, 2024

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My Favorite Speeches for Rhetorical Analysis: 10 Speeches for Middle School ELA and High School English

Teaching rhetorical analysis is one of my absolute favorite units to complete with my students. I love teaching my students about rhetorical strategies and devices, analyzing what makes an effective and persuasive argument, and reading critical speeches with my students. Here is a quick list of some of my favorite speeches for rhetorical analysis.

I absolutely LOVE teaching rhetorical analysis. I think it might be one of my favorite units to teach to my high school students. There are just so many different text options to choose from. Here is a list of some of my favorite speeches to include in my rhetorical analysis teaching unit.

10 Speeches for Teaching Rhetorical Analysis

1. the gettysburg address (abraham lincoln).

Some notable things to mention in this speech include allusion and parallel structure. To make your analysis more meaningful, point out these devices to students and explain how these devices enhance the meaning of the text.

Teaching Resource : The Gettysburg Address Rhetorical Analysis Activity Packet

2. Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech (Lou Gehrig)

This speech is one that many of my athletes love to analyze, and it is an excellent exemplar text to teach pathos. And like The Gettysburg Address, it is short. This is another speech that you can read, analyze, and even write about in one class period.

When I use this speech in my class, I have students look for examples of pathos. Mainly, I have them look at word choice, tone, and mood. How does Lou Gehrig’s choice of words affect his tone and the overall mood of the speech?

3. I Have a Dream (Martin Luther King,  Jr.)

In the classroom, it is important to point out the sermonic feel to the speech and also to have your students look for calls to action and pathos. Have your students look for tone, allusions, and word choice to help them notice these rhetoric expressions throughout it.

Teaching Resource : I Have a Dream Close Read and Rhetorical Analysis

4. Speech at the March on Washington (Josephine Baker)

This is another important speech that held a lot of importance for the changes that needed to be made in America. The speech is a shorter one, so in the classroom, it will not take as long to analyze it, and students can understand the significance of the use of rhetoric in a shorter amount of time than some other speeches.

When teaching this speech, I like to remind my students to search for devices that portray an excellent example of the pathos that is so present in this speech. Some of these devices could be mood, repetition, and diction.

5. Steve Jobs’ Commencement Speech (Steve Jobs)

In class, it is good to have your students annotate and analyze the speech just as they have done for the others. The organization of the speech will help them to notice the similarities and differences between each point Jobs makes.

6. Space Shuttle Challenger (Ronald Reagan)

This speech represents a strong sense of pathos as a movement to help the American people cope with loss after the deaths of the astronauts aboard the Challenger. It is another speech that is not too long, so it should not take a long time to both analyze and annotate the entire speech.

When teaching this speech in class, be sure to mention how pathos is the driving force behind the speech, through the tone and the diction. How does Reagan use emotion to focus on the astronauts as humans, rather than solely focusing on the tragedy?

7. The Perils of Indifference (Elie Wiesel)

This speech is a good one to teach because it both makes students question their own lives, but also how the world works. The speech relies on pathos, and a little ethos too, to get the audience to feel the full effect of the tragedy of the Holocaust and what the speaker went through. It is a long speech so it may take longer for the students to fully grasp all the details that make it such a persuasive speech.

When I teach this speech, I like to have students annotate every place they notice an example of pathos, and then have them explain why in their annotations this makes them feel an emotion. The same with the ethos, and then we can further analyze the rest together.

8. 9/11 Address to the Nation (George W. Bush)

This speech shows another example of the use of pathos in the midst of a tragedy. The President wanted to show the American people how much he was feeling for those lost in the tragedy of 9/11. It is not a long speech, but the amount of emotion within the words is significant for students to notice.

When teaching this speech, it is essential that students look very closely at each part of it, noticing each piece that reveals tone, mood, and other literary devices. How do the different devices add to the pathos of the speech?

FREE TEACHING ACTIVITY : September 11 Address to the Nation Sampler

Teaching Resource : September 11 Address to the Nation Rhetorical Analysis Unit

9. We are Virginia Tech (Nikki Giovanni)

This speech is probably the shortest speech on this list but provides one of the most emotional and pathos-filled rhetoric. This describes another tragedy that is spoken about with pathos to give the audience a safe feeling after such an emotional thing. Students can spend time analyzing the different devices that make the piece so strong in its emotion.

In the classroom, make sure your students make a note of the repetition, and what that does for the speech. Does it make the emotion more impactful? How does it make the audience feel like they are a part of something bigger?

10. Woman’s Right to the Suffrage (Susan B. Anthony)

This is another short speech that holds a lot of power within it. A lot of students will enjoy reading this to see how much the country has changed, and how this speech may have some part in influencing this change. It is a great speech to help teach logos in the classroom, and it will not take a long time to analyze.

Make sure your students notice, and they also understand, the use of allusions within the speech. These allusions help to establish the use of logos, as Anthony wants the use of American historical documents to show how logical her argument is.

Ready-For-You Rhetorical Analysis Teaching Unit

You might also be interested in my blog post about 15 rhetorical analysis questions to ask your students.

Teaching rhetorical analysis and speeches in the classroom is a great way to teach informational text reading standards.

Rhetorical Analysis Teaching Resources:

These resources follow reading standards for informational text and are ideal for secondary ELA teachers.

• Rhetorical Analysis Unit with Sticky Notes
• Ethos, Pathos, Logos: Understanding Rhetorical Appeals\
• Rhetorical Analysis Mini Flip Book

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The 20 Most Useful Rhetorical Devices

General Education

Rhetoric is the art of effective communication; if you communicate with others at all, rhetorical devices are your friends!

Rhetorical devices help you make points more effectively, and help people understand you better. In this article, I'll be covering some important rhetorical devices so you can improve your own writing! 

What Are Rhetorical Devices?

A lot of things that you would think of as just regular everyday modes of communicating are actually rhetorical devices That’s because ‘rhetorical devices’ is more or less a fancy way of saying ‘communication tools.’

Most people don’t plan out their use of rhetorical devices in communication, both because nobody thinks, “now would be a good time to use synecdoche in this conversation with my grocery clerk,” and because we use them so frequently that they don’t really register as “rhetorical devices.”

How often have you said something like, “when pigs fly!” Of those times, how often have you thought, “I’m using a rhetorical device!” That’s how ubiquitous they are!

However, being aware of what they are and how to use them can strengthen your communication , whether you do a lot of big speeches, write persuasive papers, or just argue with your friends about a TV show you all like.

Rhetorical devices can function at all levels: words, sentences, paragraphs, and beyond. Some rhetorical devices are just a single word, such as onomatopoeia. Others are phrases, such as metaphor, while still others can be sentence-length (such as a thesis), paragraph-length (hypophora), or go throughout the entire piece, such as a standard five-paragraph essay.

Many of these (such as the thesis or five-paragraph essay) are so standard and familiar to us that we may not think of them as devices. But because they help us shape and deliver our arguments effectively, they're important to know and understand.

The Most Useful Rhetorical Devices List

It would be impossible to list every single rhetorical device in one blog post. Instead, I've collected a mixture of extremely common devices you may have heard before and some more obscure ones that might be valuable to learn.

Amplification

Amplification is a little similar to parallelism: by using repetition, a writer expands on an original statement and increases its intensity .

Take this example from Roald Dahl’s The Twits :

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

In theory, we could have gotten the point with the first sentence. We don’t need to know that the more you think ugly thoughts, the uglier you become, nor that if you think good thoughts you won’t be ugly—all that can be contained within the first sentence. But Dahl’s expansion makes the point clearer, driving home the idea that ugly thoughts have consequences.

Amplification takes a single idea and blows it up bigger, giving the reader additional context and information to better understand your point. You don’t just have to restate the point— use amplification to expand and dive deeper into your argument to show readers and listeners how important it is!

Anacoluthon

Anacoluthon is a fancy word for a disruption in the expected grammar or syntax of a sentence. That doesn’t mean that you misspoke—using anacoluthon means that you’ve deliberately subverted your reader’s expectations to make a point.

For example, take this passage from King Lear :

“I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall—I will do such things, What they are, yet I know not…”

In this passage, King Lear interrupts himself in his description of his revenge. This has multiple effects on the reader: they wonder what all the world shall do once he has his revenge (cry? scream? fear him?), and they understand that King Lear has interrupted himself to regain his composure. This tells us something about him—that he’s seized by passion in this moment, but also that he regains control. We might have gathered one of those things without anacoluthon, but the use of this rhetorical device shows us both very efficiently.

Anadiplosis

Anadiplosis refers to purposeful repetition at the end of one sentence or clause and at the beginning of the next sentence or clause. In practice, that looks something like a familiar phrase from Yoda:

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Note the way that the ending word of each sentence is repeated in the following sentence. That’s anadiplosis!

This rhetorical device draws a clear line of thinking for your reader or listener—repetition makes them pay closer attention and follow the way the idea evolves. In this case, we trace the way that fear leads to suffering through Yoda’s purposeful repetition.

Antanagoge is the balancing of a negative with a positive. For example, the common phrase, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” is antanagoge—it suggests a negative (lots of lemons) and follows that up with a positive (make lemonade).

When writing persuasively, this can be a great way to respond to potential detractors of your argument. Suppose you want to convince your neighborhood to add a community garden, but you think that people might focus on the amount of work required. When framing your argument, you could say something like, “Yes, it will be a lot of work to maintain, but working together will encourage us all to get to know one another as well as providing us with fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers.”

This is a little like procatalepsis, in that you anticipate a problem and respond to it. However, antanagoge is specifically balancing a negative with a positive, just as I did in the example of a garden needing a lot of work, but that work is what ultimately makes the project worth it.

Apophasis is a form of irony relating to denying something while still saying it. You’ll often see this paired with phrases like, “I’m not saying…” or “It goes without saying…”, both of which are followed up with saying exactly what the speaker said they weren’t going to say.

Take this speech from Iron Man 2 :

"I'm not saying I'm responsible for this country's longest run of uninterrupted peace in 35 years! I'm not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a phoenix metaphor been more personified! I'm not saying Uncle Sam can kick back on a lawn chair, sipping on an iced tea, because I haven't come across anyone man enough to go toe to toe with me on my best day! It's not about me."

Tony Stark isn’t saying that he’s responsible for all those things… except that’s exactly what he is saying in all of his examples. Though he says it’s not about him, it clearly is—all of his examples relate to how great he is, even as he proclaims that they aren’t.

A scene like this can easily be played for humor, but apophasis can also be a useful (albeit deceptive) rhetorical tool. For example, this argument:

Our neighborhood needs a community garden to foster our relationships with one another. Not only is it great for getting to know each other, but a community garden will also provide us with all kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables. It would be wrong to say that people who disagree aren’t invested in others’ health and wellness, but those who have the neighborhood’s best interests in mind will support a community garden.

That last sentence is all apophasis. Not only did I imply that people who don’t support the community garden are anti-social and uncaring (by outright stating that I wouldn’t say that, but I also implied that they’re also not invested in the neighborhood at all. Stating things like this, by pretending you’re not saying them or saying the opposite, can be very effective.

Assonance and Alliteration

Assonance adds an abundance of attractive accents to all your assertions. That’s assonance—the practice repeating the same vowel sound in multiple words in a phrase or sentence, often at the beginning of a word, to add emphasis or musicality to your work. Alliteration is similar, but uses consonant sounds instead of vowel sounds.

Let’s use Romeo and Juliet as an example again:

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.”

Here, we have repetition of the sounds ‘f’ and ‘l’ in ‘from forth...fatal...foes,’ and ‘loins...lovers...life.’

Even if you don’t notice the repetition as you’re reading, you can hear the effects in how musical the language sounds. Shakespeare could easily have just written something like, “Two kids from families who hate one another fell in love and died by suicide,” but that’s hardly as evocative as the phrasing he chose.

Both assonance and alliteration give your writing a lyrical sound, but they can do more than that, too. These tools can mimic associated sounds, like using many ‘p’ sounds to sound like rain or something sizzling, or ‘s’ sounds to mimic the sounds of a snake. When you’re writing, think about what alternative meanings you can add by emphasizing certain sounds.

Listen, asterismos is great. Don’t believe me? How did you feel after I began the first sentence with the word ‘listen?’ Even if you didn’t feel more inspired to actually listen, you probably paid a bit more attention because I broke the expected form. That’s what asterismos is—using a word or phrase to draw attention to the thought that comes afterward.

‘Listen’ isn’t the only example of asterismos, either. You can use words like, ‘hey,’ ‘look,’ ‘behold,’ ‘so,’ and so on. They all have the same effect: they tell the reader or listener, “Hey, pay attention—what I’m about to say is important.”

Dysphemism and Euphemism

Euphemism is the substitution of a more pleasant phrase in place of a familiar phrase, and dysphemism is the opposite —an un pleasant phrase substituted in place of something more familiar. These tools are two sides of the same coin. Euphemism takes an unpleasant thing and makes it sound nicer—such as using 'passed away' instead of 'died'—while dysphemism does the opposite, taking something that isn't necessarily bad and making it sound like it is.

We won’t get into the less savory uses of dysphemism, but there are plenty that can leave an impression without being outright offensive. Take ‘snail mail.’ A lot of us call postal mail that without any real malice behind it, but ‘snail’ implies slowness, drawing a comparison between postal mail and faster email. If you’re making a point about how going electronic is faster, better for the environment, and overall more efficient, comparing email to postal mail with the phrase ‘snail mail’ gets the point across quickly and efficiently.

Likewise, if you're writing an obituary, you probably don't want to isolate the audience by being too stark in your details. Using gentler language, like 'passed away' or 'dearly departed' allows you to talk about things that might be painful without being too direct. People will know what you mean, but you won't have to risk hurting anyone by being too direct and final with your language.

You’ve no doubt run into epilogues before, because they’re a common and particularly useful rhetorical device! Epilogues are a conclusion to a story or work that reveals what happens to the characters in the story. This is different from an afterword, which is more likely to describe the process of a book’s creation than to continue and provide closure to a story.

Many books use epilogues to wrap up loose ends, usually taking place in the future to show how characters have changed as a result of their adventures. Both Harry Potter and The Hunger Games series use their epilogues to show the characters as adults and provide some closure to their stories—in Harry Potter , the main characters have gotten married and had children, and are now sending those children to the school where they all met. This tells the reader that the story of the characters we know is over—they’re adults and are settled into their lives—but also demonstrates that the world goes on existing, though it’s been changed forever by the actions of the familiar characters.

Eutrepismus

Eutrepismus is another rhetorical device you’ve probably used before without realizing it. This device separates speech into numbered parts, giving your reader or listener a clear line of thinking to follow.

Eutrepismus is a great rhetorical device—let me tell you why. First, it’s efficient and clear. Second, it gives your writing a great sense of rhythm. Third, it’s easy to follow and each section can be expanded throughout your work.

See how simple it is? You got all my points in an easy, digestible format. Eutrepismus helps you structure your arguments and make them more effective, just as any good rhetorical device should do.

You’ve probably used hypophora before without ever thinking about it. Hypophora refers to a writer or speaker proposing a question and following it up with a clear answer. This is different from a rhetorical question—another rhetorical device—because there is an expected answer, one that the writer or speaker will immediately give to you.

Hypophora serves to ask a question the audience may have (even if they’re not entirely aware of it yet) and provide them with an answer. This answer can be obvious, but it can also be a means of leading the audience toward a particular point.

Take this sample from John F. Kennedy’s speech on going to the moon:

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

In this speech, Kennedy outright states that he’s asking questions others have asked, and then goes on to answer them. This is Kennedy’s speech, so naturally it’s going to reflect his point of view, but he’s answering the questions and concerns others might have about going to the moon. In doing so, he’s reclaiming an ongoing conversation to make his own point. This is how hypophora can be incredibly effective: you control the answer, leaving less room for argument!

Litotes is a deliberate understatement, often using double negatives, that serves to actually draw attention to the thing being remarked upon. For example, saying something like, “It’s not pretty,” is a less harsh way to say “It’s ugly,” or “It’s bad,” that nonetheless draws attention to it being ugly or bad.

In Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave , he writes:

“Indeed, it is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending for the superior goodness of his own over that of the others.”

Notice the use of “not uncommon.” Douglass, by using a double negative to make readers pay closer attention, points out that some slaves still sought superiority over others by speaking out in favor of their owners.

Litotes draws attention to something by understating it. It’s sort of like telling somebody not to think about elephants—soon, elephants becomes all they can think about. The double negative draws our attention and makes us focus on the topic because it’s an unusual method of phrasing.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia refers to a sound represented within text as a mimicry of what that sound actually sounds like. Think “bang” or “whizz” or “oomph,” all of which can mean that something made that kind of a sound—”the door banged shut”—but also mimic the sound itself—”the door went bang .”

This rhetorical device can add emphasis or a little bit of spice to your writing. Compare, “The gunshot made a loud sound,” to “The gun went bang .” Which is more evocative?

Parallelism

Parallelism is the practice of using similar grammar structure, sounds, meter, and so on to emphasize a point and add rhythm or balance to a sentence or paragraph.

One of the most famous examples of parallelism in literature is the opening of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities :

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

In the beginning, every phrase begins with “It was,” which is itself a parallelism. But there are also pairs of parallelism within the sentence, too; “It was the ___ of times, it was the ___ of times,” and “it was the age of ___, it was the age of ___.”

Parallelism draws your reader deeper into what you’re saying and provides a nice sense of flow, even if you’re talking about complicated ideas. The ‘epoch of incredulity’ is a pretty meaty phrase, but Dickens’ parallelism sets up a series of dichotomies for us; even if we don’t know quite what it means, we can figure it out by comparing it to ‘belief.’

Personification

Personification is a rhetorical device you probably run into a lot without realizing it. It’s a form of metaphor, which means two things are being compared without the words like or as—in this case, a thing that is not human is given human characteristics.

Personification is common in poetry and literature, as it’s a great way to generate fresh and exciting language, even when talking about familiar subjects. Take this passage from Romeo and Juliet , for example:

“When well-appareled April on the heel Of limping winter treads.”

April can’t wear clothes or step on winter, and winter can’t limp. However, the language Shakespeare uses here is quite evocative. He’s able to quickly state that April is beautiful (“well-appareled”) and that winter is coming to an end (“limping winter”). Through personification, we get a strong image for things that could otherwise be extremely boring, such as if Shakespeare had written, “When beautiful April comes right after winter.”

Procatalepsis

Procatalepsis is a rhetorical device that anticipates and notes a potential objection, heading it off with a follow-up argument to strengthen the point. I know what you’re thinking—that sounds really complicated! But bear with me, because it’s actually quite simple.

See how that works? I imagined that a reader might be confused by the terminology in the first sentence, so I noted that potential confusion, anticipating their argument. Then, I addressed that argument to strengthen my point—procatalepsis is easy, which you can see because I just demonstrated it!

Anticipating a rebuttal is a great way to strengthen your own argument. Not only does it show that you’ve really put thought into what you’re saying, but it also leaves less room for disagreement!

Synecdoche is a rhetorical device that uses a part of something to stand in for the whole. That can mean that we use a small piece of something to represent a whole thing (saying ‘let’s grab a slice’ when we in fact mean getting a whole pizza), or using something large to refer to something small. We often do this with sports teams–for example, saying that New England won the Super Bowl when we in fact mean the New England Patriots, not the entirety of New England.

This style of rhetorical device adds an additional dimension to your language, making it more memorable to your reader. Which sounds more interesting? “Let’s get pizza,” or “let’s grab a slice?”

Likewise, consider this quote from Percy Bysshe Shelly’s “Ozymandias”:

“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them.”

Here, Shelly uses ‘the hand’ to refer to the sculptor. The hand did not sculpt the lifeless things on its own; it was a tool of the sculptor. But by using just the hand, Shelly avoids repeating ‘the sculptor,’ preserves the poem’s rhythm, and narrows our focus. If he had referred to the sculptor again, he’d still be a big important figure; by narrowing to the hand, Shelly is diminishing the idea of the creator, mirroring the poem’s assertion that the creation will outlast it.

Tautology refers to using words or similar phrases to effectively repeat the same idea with different wording. It’s a form of repetition that can make a point stronger, but it can also be the basis of a flawed argument—be careful that your uses of tautology is the former, not the latter!

For example, take this section of “The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe:

“Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme… From the bells, bells, bells, bells.”

Poe’s poetry has a great deal of rhythm already, but the use of ‘time, time, time’ sets us up for the way that ‘bells, bells, bells, bells’ also holds that same rhythm. Keeping time refers to maintaining rhythm, and this poem emphasizes that with repetition, much like the repetitive sound of ringing bells.

An example of an unsuccessful tautology would be something like, “Either we should buy a house, or we shouldn’t.” It’s not a successful argument because it doesn’t say anything at all—there’s no attempt to suggest anything, just an acknowledgment that two things, which cannot both happen, could happen.

If you want to use tautology in your writing, be sure that it’s strengthening your point. Why are you using it? What purpose does it serve? Don’t let a desire for rhythm end up robbing you of your point!

That thing your English teachers are always telling you to have in your essays is an important literary device. A thesis, from the Greek word for ‘a proposition,’ is a clear statement of the theory or argument you’re making in an essay. All your evidence should feed back into your thesis; think of your thesis as a signpost for your reader. With that signpost, they can’t miss your point!

Especially in longer academic writing, there can be so many pieces to an argument that it can be hard for readers to keep track of your overarching point. A thesis hammers the point home so that no matter how long or complicated your argument is, the reader will always know what you’re saying.

Tmesis is a rhetorical device that breaks up a word, phrase, or sentence with a second word, usually for emphasis and rhythm . We often do this with expletives, but tmesis doesn’t have to be vulgar to be effective!

Take this example from Romeo and Juliet :

“This is not Romeo, he’s some other where.”

The normal way we’d hear this phrase is “This is not Romeo, he’s somewhere else.” But by inserting the word ‘other’ between ‘some’ and ‘where,’ it not only forces us to pay attention, but also changes the sentence’s rhythm. It gets the meaning across perfectly, and does so in a way that’s far more memorable than if Shakespeare had just said that Romeo was somewhere else.

For a more common usage, we can turn to George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion , which often has Eliza Doolittle using phrases like “fan-bloody-tastic” and “abso-blooming-lutely.” The expletives—though mild by modern standards—emphasize Eliza’s social standing and make each word stand out more than if she had simply said them normally.

What’s Next?

Rhetorical devices and literary devices can both be used to enhance your writing and communication. Check out this list of literary devices to learn more !

Ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos are all modes of persuasion—types of rhetorical devices— that can help you be a more convincing writer !

No matter what type of writing you're doing, rhetorical devices can enhance it! To learn more about different writing styles, check out this list !

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Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

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44 Rhetorical Devices: Complete Guide to Effective Rhetoric

In the world of writing, the difference between a forgettable sentence and a memorable one often lies in the subtle art of rhetoric.

Rhetorical devices are the tools that give language its power, transforming ordinary prose into something that resonates with readers.

For freelance writers, aspiring authors, and seasoned wordsmiths alike, mastering these devices can elevate your work, making it not just read but remembered.

What are rhetorical devices?

Rhetorical devices are techniques that writers use to craft their language in ways that enhance the impact of their message.

These tools play with the structure, sound, and meaning of words to create effects that engage, persuade, or evoke emotions in the reader.

Whether used in speeches, nonfiction books , articles, or advertisements, rhetorical devices help writers connect with their readers on a deeper level, making their words more compelling and memorable.

Why are rhetorical devices used?

Writers use rhetorical devices to add depth and persuasion to their work.

These techniques can make arguments more convincing, descriptions more vivid, and narratives more engaging.

By skillfully applying rhetorical devices, writers can influence how their audience perceives their message, guiding their thoughts and emotions.

Whether the goal is to inform, entertain, or persuade, rhetorical devices are key to effective communication.

1 – Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of closely connected words.

Writers use alliteration to create rhythm, enhance mood, and make phrases more memorable, often adding a lyrical quality to their writing.

Example : “She sells seashells by the seashore.”

2 – Allusion

Allusion is a reference to a well-known person, event, or work of art, often used to make a comparison.

This device evokes a particular image or idea in the reader’s mind by drawing on something familiar, adding depth and layers of meaning to the writing.

Example : “He met his Waterloo.”

3 – Anacoluthon

Anacoluthon is a break in the grammatical sequence within a sentence for rhetorical effect.

Writers use anacoluthon to convey emotion, create suspense, or reflect a character’s stream of consciousness.

Example : “I was going to tell him—well, it doesn’t matter now.”

4 – Anadiplosis

Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause.

It emphasizes a point and creates a sense of continuity, leading the reader smoothly from one idea to the next.

Example : “Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.”

5 – Analogy

Analogy is a comparison between two things to explain or clarify an idea.

This technique helps make complex or unfamiliar ideas more relatable and understandable by drawing parallels with something the reader already knows.

Example : “Life is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get.”

6 – Anaphora

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

By repeating a phrase, anaphora creates emphasis and rhythm, drawing attention to a central theme or idea.

Example : “I have a dream… I have a dream… I have a dream…”

7 – Anastrophe

Anastrophe is the inversion of the usual order of words for emphasis or rhetorical effect.

This reversal draws attention to specific parts of a sentence, often creating a dramatic or poetic impact.

Example : “Strong in the force, you are.”

8 – Antanaclasis

Antanaclasis is a rhetorical device in which a word is repeated and used in different senses.

This device adds layers of meaning and wit to writing by playing with the multiple meanings of a word.

Example : “Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”

9 – Antanagoge

Antanagoge involves placing a good point or benefit next to a fault or criticism in order to reduce the impact of the negative point.

By balancing criticism with something positive, antanagoge softens the impact and helps maintain a more favorable tone.

Example : “The car is not pretty, but it runs well.”

10 – Antimetabole

Antimetabole is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order.

This structure creates memorable, impactful statements that highlight contrasts or contradictions in a way that sticks with the reader.

Example : “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

11 – Antithesis

Antithesis is the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses.

Using antithesis emphasizes the difference between two ideas, adding depth and contrast to the writing.

Example : “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

12 – Aporia

Aporia is the expression of doubt, often feigned, by which a speaker appears uncertain about what they should say or think.

This technique engages the reader by inviting them to ponder the question, adding a layer of introspection.

Example : “To be, or not to be, that is the question.”

13 – Aposiopesis

Aposiopesis is a sudden breaking off in the middle of a sentence, leaving it unfinished.

Writers use this to convey intense emotion or suspense, allowing the reader to fill in the gaps.

Example : “I’m so angry, I could—!”

14 – Apostrophe

Apostrophe is the act of addressing an absent person, an abstract idea, or an inanimate object as if it were present and capable of responding.

This device allows writers to convey deep emotions or create a sense of immediacy by bringing abstract concepts or distant entities to life.

Example : “O Death, where is thy sting?”

15 – Asyndeton

Asyndeton is the omission of conjunctions between parts of a sentence to create a concise, impactful statement.

This technique speeds up the rhythm of a passage, creating a sense of urgency or emphasizing each element equally.

Example : “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

16 – Chiasmus

Chiasmus is a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.

Writers use chiasmus to create balance and symmetry in a sentence, often highlighting a significant contrast.

Example : “Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.”

17 – Climax

Climax involves arranging words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance.

This structure builds intensity, leading the reader towards a powerful conclusion or the peak of a narrative.

Example : “He risked truth, he risked honor, he risked life itself.”

18 – Conduplicatio

Conduplicatio is the repetition of a key word from a preceding clause or sentence at the beginning of the next.

This device reinforces a particular idea and strengthens the connection between consecutive thoughts.

Example : “She loved him; loved him with all her heart.”

19 – Diacope

Diacope is the repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words.

Writers use diacope to create emphasis and rhythm, adding a dramatic or poetic touch to their sentences.

Example : “The horror! The horror!”

20 – Epanalepsis

Epanalepsis is the repetition of the initial part of a clause or sentence at the end of the same clause or sentence.

This technique emphasizes a key idea and can create a sense of completeness or closure.

Example : “The king is dead, long live the king.”

21 – Enthymeme

Enthymeme is a rhetorical syllogism in which one premise is left unstated.

This method engages the reader by encouraging them to fill in the logical gaps, making the argument more interactive.

Example : “He must be a good man, he is a priest.”

22 – Epistrophe

Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences.

This repetition creates emphasis and rhythm, reinforcing the central idea in a memorable way.

Example : “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”

23 – Epizeuxis

Epizeuxis is the repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession for emphasis.

This device intensifies the impact of a statement, making the repeated word stand out sharply.

Example : “The horror, the horror!”

24 – Euphemism

Euphemism is a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt.

Writers use euphemisms to soften the impact of difficult or uncomfortable topics, making them more palatable for the reader.

Example : “He passed away” instead of “He died.”

25 – Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally.

This technique is used to create a dramatic effect or to emphasize the extent of a situation.

Example : “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”

26 – Hypophora

Hypophora is a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question and then immediately answers it.

This approach is used to engage the reader and guide them toward a particular line of thought or argument.

Example : “What’s the secret to success? Hard work and perseverance.”

27 – Irony

Irony is the expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing but mean another.

This device is often used to convey sarcasm, humor, or to highlight a contrast between expectations and reality.

Example : “Oh, great! Another rainy day. Just what I needed.”

28 – Litotes

Litotes is a form of understatement in which a positive statement is expressed by negating its opposite.

Writers use litotes to express modesty, soften the impact of a statement, or add a subtle, understated tone.

Example : “It’s not exactly a walk in the park.”

29 – Metaphor

Metaphor is a figure of speech that refers to one thing by mentioning another, implying a comparison without using “like” or “as.”

This device creates vivid imagery and deepens the reader’s understanding by equating one idea with another.

Example : “Time is a thief.”

30 – Metonymy

Metonymy is the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.

Writers use metonymy to create a more poetic or concise expression by referring to something closely related to the concept they mean to convey.

Example : “The pen is mightier than the sword.”

31 – Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the natural sound of a thing.

This technique enhances descriptions by appealing to the sense of sound, making the writing more vivid and engaging.

Example : “The bees buzzed.”

32 – Oxymoron

Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.

This device reveals a deeper truth or creates a dramatic effect by juxtaposing opposites.

Example : “Deafening silence.”

33 – Paradox

Paradox is a statement that contradicts itself but may reveal a hidden truth.

Writers use paradox to provoke thought and highlight the complexities or contradictions in a situation.

Example : “This is the beginning of the end.”

34 – Paralipsis

Paralipsis involves giving emphasis by professing to say little or nothing about a subject.

This device draws attention to something by deliberately pretending to pass over it, often for ironic or persuasive effect.

Example : “I won’t even mention the fact that he was late.”

35 – Parallelism

Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same or similar in construction, sound, meaning, or meter.

This technique creates balance, rhythm, and clarity, making the writing more persuasive and memorable.

Example : “Easy come, easy go.”

36 – Pleonasm

Pleonasm is the use of more words than necessary to convey meaning, either as a fault of style or for emphasis.

Writers might use pleonasm to reinforce an idea or to add a particular tone or rhythm to their writing.

Example : “I saw it with my own eyes.”

37 – Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some could otherwise be omitted.

This technique slows down the pace of the sentence, adding weight and emphasis to each element listed.

Example : “We lived and laughed and loved and left.”

38 – Prolepsis

Prolepsis is the anticipation and answering of possible objections within a speech or text.

By addressing counterarguments before they arise, writers can strengthen their position and make their argument more convincing.

Example : “You might say that this is a bad idea, but I believe it will work because…”

39 – Simile

Simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by “like” or “as.”

Writers use similes to create vivid imagery and make descriptions more relatable by drawing direct comparisons.

Example : “As brave as a lion.”

40 – Syllepsis

Syllepsis is a figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses.

This device adds wit and complexity to writing by using a single word to link different ideas or meanings.

Example : “He stole my heart and my wallet.”

41 – Synecdoche

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

Writers use synecdoche to add depth or symbolism, often making statements more impactful by focusing on a specific element.

Example : “All hands on deck.”

42 – Tautology

Tautology is the repetition of an idea in different words, phrases, or sentences, often without adding additional meaning.

This device can be used intentionally for emphasis or to reinforce a point, though it is often seen as redundant.

Example : “It’s deja vu all over again.”

43 – Understatement

Understatement is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.

This technique is often used to create irony or humor by downplaying the significance of something.

Example : “It’s just a scratch” (referring to a large dent).

44 – Zeugma

Zeugma is a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses or to two others of which it semantically suits only one.

This device creates a unique, often humorous effect by linking different ideas with a single word.

Example : “She broke his car and his heart.”

Are you ready to use these rhetorical devices in your writing?

Mastering rhetorical devices is your key to crafting unforgettable prose.

Whether you’re working on a gripping novel, an inspiring memoir , or even a powerful blog post, these tools can elevate your writing to new heights.

Start weaving alliteration into your dialogue, using metaphor to create vivid imagery, or building suspense with aposiopesis.

Whatever your next project, these devices will help you captivate your readers and leave a lasting impact.

Now, it’s time to put them into practice and transform your writing from the mundane to the memorable.

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Tap into the power to persuade by using these 6 techniques of clear and compelling speech

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Politicians and other public figures deploy particular rhetorical devices to communicate their ideas and to convince people, and it’s time that we all learned how to use them, says speechwriter Simon Lancaster.

This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.

There is a secret language of leadership — and it’s one that anyone can learn, says UK speechwriter Simon Lancaster in a TEDxVerona talk . He has made a career out of crafting addresses, remarks and talks for top politicians and CEOs of international corporations such as Nestle and Unilever, and continues to do so . Refreshingly, rather than clinging Gollum-like to what he’s learned and knows, he believes everyone should have access to the same tools that he and his colleagues use.

By tools, he’s not talking about special software or databases — he’s referring to rhetoric. Rhetoric has its roots in ancient Greece ( think: Aristotle ) as clear, convincing speech was seen as an essential component of communication and participation in a democracy. Instruction in rhetoric remained part of the curriculum in many secondary schools in Europe and the US until the 19th century.

“The reason we all used to learn rhetoric at school was because it was seen as a basic entry point to society,” explains Lancaster, who is based in London. “How could society be fair, unless everyone had equal ability to articulate and express themselves? Without it, your legal systems, your political systems, your financial systems are not fair.”

Yes, the power to persuade is just that — power.

Lancaster states there is only one school in England that still teaches rhetoric: Eton, the alma mater of 20 Prime Ministers (including current officeholder, Boris Johnson). He adds, “It should be of intense concern to all of us that education in this has been narrowed to a very small … elite.”

While Lancaster can’t send the world to Eton, he can share the 6 rhetorical building blocks needed to speak persuasively. Here they are:

Building block #1: Breathless sentences or phrases

Barack Obama gave an acceptance speech for the ages in 2008 after he was first elected president of the US. He spoke vividly of the challenges that lay ahead for the country: “Even as we celebrate tonight, we know that the challenges tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime: Two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.”

Lancaster wants us to pay special attention to the last part of that sentence, the “two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century” part. Yes, it’s a stressful mouthful — not just because of the content but because of how it’s delivered. Short, staccato phrases like these mimic how we speak when we’re anxious and in a hurry. This technique helps communicate urgency to an audience.

Building block #2: Speaking in 3s

What’s the other rhetorical trick underlying “two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century”? The rule of 3.

Humans are accustomed to things coming in 3s: whether it’s judges on American Idol , bowls of porridge in a fairy tale , or sides in a triangle. Our minds and ears have been trained by speeches (Abraham Lincoln’s “government of the people, for the people, by the people”); slogans (reduce, reuse, recycle); and book titles ( Elizabeth Gilbert ‘s memoir Eat, Pray, Love ). “You put your argument in 3s, it makes it sound more compelling, more convincing, more credible. Just like that,” says Lancaster.

Recall British PM Winston Churchill’s stirring triplet from the speech he delivered to Parliament on June 4, 1940 : “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets.” Besides the rule of 3, he gave the line additional rhetorical firepower by repeating the opening clause.

Lancaster explains, “When we are emotional about things, our perspective distorts, and this then manifests in our speech. So this is the authentic sound of passion.” Doing this can catch an audience in the speaker’s enthusiasm.

Building block #3: Balanced statements

“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” It’s a line from president John F Kennedy’s inspiring 1961 inaugural address , and one that’s stood the test of time. Why? Its balanced construction, says Lancaster. “If the sentence sounds as if it’s balanced, we imagine that the underlying thinking is balanced and our brain is tuned to like things that are balanced.”

Grouping balanced statements in 3s further amplifies the effect:

“We’re looking to the future, not the past.

We’re working together, not against one another.

We’re thinking about what we can do, not what we can’t.”

Building block #4: Metaphor

According to Lancaster, people use a metaphor once every 16 words on average ( side question: Where do statistics like this even come from? ). He declares, “Metaphor is probably the most powerful piece of political communication.”

Metaphors are rich in imagery and awake immediate feelings in people, so it follows that politicians love them and sprinkle them like birdseed (“like birdseed” is a simile, not a metaphor , and similes are other strong rhetorical tools to have in your kit). At times, they can employ them to point us to an ideal or aspiration. For example, in his farewell address , president Ronald Reagan movingly invoked America, h/t to John Winthrop, as a “shining city upon the hill.”

Too often, however, metaphors are used to manipulate, incite and denigrate. Politicians and talking heads could have called the 2015-16 refugee encampment in Calais, France, a “refugee camp” or “refugee settlement.” Instead, they deployed this loaded word: “jungle.” Lancaster says,“It’s planting in your mind the idea that migrants are like wild animals to be afraid of, that they are dangerous, that they represent a threat to you. This is a very dangerous metaphor because this is the language of genocide; it’s the language of hate.” Unfortunately, media outlets picked up “Calais jungle” and used it as their shorthand identifier of the camp, extending the metaphor’s reach.

Building block #5: Exaggeration

In the same way that we get breathless when they’re speaking with passion, our speech distorts in another significant way. We exaggerate. So when we’re sitting down to a meal after having eaten little that day, we tell our family and friends: “I love this pizza.” But when we say things like this to each other, we also realize it’s a bit of distortion: We do not love the pizza in the same way that we love our children or parents or the planet, and everyone present knows that.

Similarly, politicians and leaders might say things like “I’ve waited my whole life to say these words” or “I will work to achieve this with all my heart and soul.” These utterances are indeed over the top, but because they’re acceptable and even welcome since they echo how we speak.

Building block #6: Rhyming

Starting from childhood, many of us are taught concepts through rhymes — such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” or “i before e except after c.” With their musicality, they’re a pleasing informational snack that sticks in memories like a musical earworm .

Rhymes can seem corny, but sprinkled in at the right time, they can be incredibly potent. We all  remember the pithy “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” from defense attorney Johnnie Cochran during O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial.

Rhyming’s appeal comes “down to what linguists talk about as the processing fluency of language — how easy is language to swallow?” says Lancaster. “If you speak using long words and long sentences, it’s like giving someone a steak and asking them to swallow it. Whereas if you give them something pithy, like a rhyme, it’s like asking them to just sip on some Prosecco.”

These six tricks can help us speak directly to people’s instinctive, emotional and logical brains, and they are extremely effective, says Lancaster. There’s no need for us to be in the public eye to use them in order to sway others or make our words stay in people’s minds. Even if we never employ them in our own lives, it’s equally important for us to recognize them. Politicians, con artists and advertisers utilize them to win votes, spread opinions, or sell products people don’t need. By being alert to these rhetorical devices, we can be better citizens and consumers.

To learn more about rhetoric, watch this:

Watch Simon Lancaster’s TEDxVerona talk here:

About the author

Daryl Chen is the Ideas Editor at TED.

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Rhetorical Devices Make Speeches Spring To Life

A rhetorical device is a verbal technique a speaker or writer uses to make their presentation more compelling to the audience so that listeners are persuaded to accept their position. They can evoke an emotional response, although this is not the main reason why the speaker chooses the device.

Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade, inform, or entertain an audience. It has been studied and practiced for thousands of years and has produced a variety of techniques and devices that speakers and writers use to achieve their goals.

One such device is the rhetorical device, a technique that creates a memorable and effective message. Rhetorical devices include  figures of speech , such as  similes and metaphor s, as well as techniques like  repetition and parallelism .

This article explores the different types of rhetorical devices and how they can be used in written and spoken communication to enhance the impact of a message.

Table of Contents

What Is A Rhetorical Device?

A speaker or writer uses  a rhetorical device  to convey meaning and persuade their audience. These devices can include figures of speech, such as metaphors and similes, as well as techniques like repetition and parallelism.

The purpose of rhetorical devices is to make language more memorable, persuasive, or entertaining. Using these techniques effectively, a speaker or writer can create a more impactful message that resonates with their audience.

How Does This Compare With A Literary Device?

Rhetorical devices focus primarily on persuasion and communication, while literary devices create artistic effects in literature. They are straightforward and often used in non-fiction writing and speeches, while literary devices are more commonly used in fiction, poetry, and drama. 

Literary devices may be more subtle and complex. Some literary devices include allegory, symbolism, and imagery, while rhetorical devices center around the use of words.

What Are The Four Modes Of Persuasion Aided by Rhetorical Devices?

The four modes of persuasion, also known as the rhetorical appeals, are ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos. These modes are aided by various rhetorical devices to create a persuasive message.

• Ethos  appeals to the audience’s sense of  ethics and credibility . Rhetorical devices that aid ethos include using expert testimony, presenting a speaker’s or writer’s credentials, and establishing trustworthiness.
•   Logos  appeals to the audience’s  logic and reasoning . Examples of logos include statistics and facts, logical arguments, analogies, and illustrations.
•   Pathos  appeals to the audience’s  emotions . Pathos uses vivid imagery, personal stories, and figurative language to create an emotional impact.
•   Kairos  appeals to the  timing and context  of the message. It would use current events and news stories to make a persuasive case, as well as timing and urgency to make the audience feel compelled to act.

Aristotle’s Setup

Aristotle’s Setup , also known as  Aristotle’s dramatic or narrative arc , is a structure used in storytelling first described by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work “Poetics.” The system consists of three parts: the beginning or exposition, the middle or complication, and the end or resolution.

The beginning or exposition sets the stage for the story by introducing the characters, setting, and conflict. The middle or complication builds tension and develops the competition through rising action, leading to a climax or turning point. The end or resolution resolves the conflict and ties up loose ends.

Aristotle’s Setup is still used today as a framework for storytelling in various forms of media, including literature, film, and television. It provides a clear structure for creating a compelling narrative that engages the audience and keeps them invested in the story.

How Do A Rhetorical Device And A Rhetorical Technique Differ?

A rhetorical device is a specific technique a speaker or writer uses to create a particular effect, such as a metaphor or repetition. It is a specific tool in the writer or speaker’s toolbox that achieves a particular goal.

Rhetorical technique, on the other hand, refers to the strategies and methods a speaker or writer employs to persuade or communicate effectively. It encompasses a broader range of tools and techniques, including rhetorical devices.

In other words,  rhetorical technique is the larger umbrella under which rhetorical devices fall.  Rhetorical devices are specific examples of the techniques used in rhetoric, but they only encompass a partial range of strategies used to communicate effectively.

What is A Rhetorical Strategy

Here are 10 examples of  rhetorical strategies :

• Appeal to emotion: “Don’t you want to keep your family safe?”
• Appeal to authority: “As the leading expert in this field, I can tell you that this product is the best.”
• Call to action: “Join our cause and help make a difference in the world!”
• Comparison and contrast: “This product is not only more effective but also more affordable than our competitors.”
•  Testimonial: “I tried this product, and it completely changed my life.”
•  Cause and effect: “If we don’t take action now, the consequences will be catastrophic.”
•  Humor: “Why did the tomato turn red? Because it saw the salad dressing!”
•  Narration: “Let me tell you a story about how this product changed my life.”
•  Logical appeal: “Based on the evidence presented, it’s clear that this is the best choice.”
•  Storytelling: “Once upon a time, a young girl dreamed of changing the world.”

What Are The Most Common Rhetorical Devices?

Rhetorical Devices are  powerful tools that add emphasis, clarity, and emotion to written and spoken language.  From the time of Shakespeare to the famous speeches of John F. Kennedy, rhetorical devices have played a crucial part in shaping the way we communicate.

Ten examples of rhetorical devices are as follows:

• Metaphor  – using a comparison to make a point or create an image in the audience’s mind
•   Simile  – the comparison of two things using “like” or “as” to create a vivid picture.
•   Alliteration  – the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of multiple words in a phrase or sentence to create rhythm and emphasis.
•   Hyperbole  – using exaggeration to create a dramatic effect or to emphasize a point.
•   Personification  – attributing human qualities or actions to non-human objects or ideas to make a point or create a vivid image.
•   Irony  – using language to convey the opposite of its literal meaning for humorous or dramatic effect.
•   Repetition  – the most commonly used device involves repeating a word or phrase to create emphasis or to reinforce a point.
•   Onomatopoeia  – using words that imitate the sound they represent to create a vivid image.
•   Oxymoron  – using two contradictory words together to create a paradoxical effect.
•   Rhetorical question  – asking a question to make a point or to emphasize a message without expecting a direct answer.

Consonant sounds can also be emphasized through devices like  consonance and alliteration. Metonymy and synecdoche  are two devices that involve substituting one word or phrase for another, with the former using a related term and the latter using a part to represent the whole.

Which Rhetorical Device Is Most Often Used In Speeches?

The most commonly used rhetorical device in a speech is  repetition .

Anaphora i nvolves  repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.  This can create a rhythmic effect and draw attention to the repeated phrase. John F. Kennedy’s famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” is a great example of anaphora.

Another device is  chiasmus,  which involves repeating words or ideas in reverse order. For example, “Do not let your schooling interfere with your education” is a famous quote by Mark Twain that uses chiasmus.

Repetition of a word or phrase can be used to reinforce a point or idea and can be seen in famous speeches like Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. As seen in Yoda’s unique speech pattern, sentence structure and syntax can also be manipulated for emphasis.

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Writing an effective speech using rhetoric

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• In this lesson, we will focus on writing speeches. Drawing upon spectacular speakers of the past, we will explore how rhetoric is used to build instant trust with a crowd. We will use this inspiration to create our own professional speeches, to secure our powers of persuasion for any scenario.

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The Top 41 Rhetorical Devices That Will Make Your Words Memorable

• What Are Rhetorical Devices?
• Top Rhetorical Devices
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For many, public speaking is one of the most terrifying things imaginable. Thankfully, we can rely on the many, many rhetorical devices to give us a helping hand.

What are rhetorical devices ?

A rhetorical device is typically defined as a technique or word construction that a speaker or writer uses to win an audience to their side, either while trying to persuade them to do something or trying to win an argument.

As you are about to see, the majority of rhetorical devices have names that come from Greek or Latin. While the concept of public speaking developed early around the world, much of what we know about the art of public speaking comes to English speakers from the ancient Greeks. The Greeks cultivated the art of rhetoric and many great philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, thoroughly studied it. The ancient Romans greatly valued rhetoric as well and they continued to build on the Greek rhetorical traditions that came before them.

What worked for the ancient Greeks and Romans still works wonders today. Rhetorical devices are effective tools that any writer or speaker can use to make their words more impactful to an audience. Rhetorical devices make speeches more persuasive, writing more memorable, and are just what you need if you are trying to really take advantage of ethos, pathos, and logos .

Rhetorical devices vs. literary devices

Literary and rhetorical devices are sometimes discussed separately, but it’s important to note the relationship and occasional overlap between the two. A l iterary device is an element, like a metaphor, imagery, and others, that draws us into a story . Have you ever been so wrapped up in a story, book, song, or poem, that you just couldn’t walk away from it? If so, there’s a good chance the writer has mastered the art of using literary devices.

To compare, rhetorical devices are often described as those elements that are incorporated intentionally to invoke responses in the reader, as well as influence the tone of a work.

Our comprehensive guide to literary devices is chock full of examples from masterful writers.

Often, rhetorical devices emphasize a specific language pattern, word, sentence structure, or rhyming pattern. They include formative techniques, like repetition or hyperbole , that accentuate certain elements of a work for the purpose of getting the reader’s attention, persuading them, or drawing out an emotional response. It is often said rhetorical devices are used to elicit a certain emotion via persuasion, whereas literary devices may be primarily used to enhance storytelling.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular, effective, and interesting rhetorical devices that turn our words into award-winning speeches and writing.

✒️ Want to try a quiz first?

We have a quick quiz for you if you want to see how far your knowledge of rhetorical devices goes. Or review the terms below first so you can test what you’ve learned.

List of 41 top rhetorical devices

1. metaphor.

A metaphor is a comparison in which something is said to figuratively be something else.

Example: He was a wolf among sheep.

2. hyperbole

A hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration.

Example: The plate exploded into a million pieces.

3. alliteration

Alliteration is repeating the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words.

Example: She sells seashells by the sea shore.

An analogy is a comparison between two similar things, typically using figurative language. Metaphors and similes—more on them later—are usually considered to be types of analogies. Sometimes, analogies are considered to be a unique device that is a comparison that explains itself; basically, a complex metaphor or long simile.

Example: Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you are going to get.

5. onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it refers to.

Example: The thunder boomed and the lightning crashed.

6. allusion

Allusion is the act of casually referencing something, usually a work of popular culture.

Example: Finishing his memoir was his white whale.

7. oxymoron

Oxymoron is a figure of speech that uses two opposite words together.

Example: The treaty led to a violent peace.

Satire is using humor to criticize public figures.

Example: When Senator Jackson said “numbers don’t lie,” he forgot that his first name wasn’t “Numbers.”

In rhetoric, the word paradox refers to making a statement that seems self-contradictory or impossible but actually makes sense.

Example: Youth is wasted on the young.

A simile is a comparison in which something is said to figuratively be like something else.

Example: It was as hot as a desert this morning.

Learn about different types of poems (and see what rhetorical devices they may use).

In rhetoric, the notoriously confusing word irony means to use words to mean the opposite of their literal meaning.

Example: Ashley said it was a beautiful day while drying off from the drenching rain. (Ashley ironically referred to poor weather as “beautiful.”)

12. personification

Personification is the act of giving human elements to non-human things.

Example: The beautiful valley spread its arms out and embraced us.

13. anecdote

An anecdote is a brief story about something that happened to the speaker, usually something funny or interesting.

Example: Five years ago, I went to the store and met some clowns. Those clowns gave me the advice I am sharing with you now.

14. euphemism

Euphemism is using alternative language to refer to explicit or unpleasant things.

Example: The baseball struck him in a sensitive area.

15. connotation

Connotation is using words to suggest a social or emotional meaning rather than a literal one.

Example: This is a house, but I want a home.

16. meiosis

As a rhetorical device, meiosis means using euphemism to minimize the importance or significance of something.

Example: We must put an end to this peculiar institution. (“Peculiar institution” is a euphemism for slavery.)

17. apostrophe

In rhetoric, apostrophe occurs when a writer or speaker directly addresses an absent person, a concept, or an inanimate object.

Example: You have made a fool out of me for the last time, washing machine!

18. antithesis

Antithesis is using parallel sentences or clauses to make a contrast.

Example: No pain, no gain.

19. sarcasm

Sarcasm is using irony to mock something or to show contempt.

Example: Oh, yeah, John is a great guy. A great guy who took the last slice of pizza.

20. consonance

Consonance is a repetition of consonants or consonant sounds.

Example: Mike likes Ike’s bike.

21. rhetorical question

A rhetorical question is a question that isn’t intended to be answered. The point of asking the question is to make an audience think or to cause an emotional reaction.

Example: Can we really know what our place in the universe is? We have asked ourselves this question for millennia.

22. epithet

An epithet is a nickname or descriptive term used to refer to someone.

Example: You need to listen to me and not Clueless Kevin over there.

23. anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or words at the start of phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Example: I came, I saw, I conquered.

Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech is a classic example of anaphora. Read about it here.

In rhetoric, climax is ordering words so that they build up in intensity.

Example: Look at the sky! It’s a bird! A plane! Superman!

25. cacophony

Cacophony is the act of purposefully using harsh sounds.

Example: The gnashing of teeth and screeching of bats kept me awake.

26. assonance

Assonance is the repetition of the same vowel sound with different consonants.

Example: She and Lee see the bees in the tree.

A person is making a pun when they humorously use words with multiple meanings or words with similar sounds to create wordplay.

Example: The farmer tried to get his cows to get along, but they insisted on having a beef with each other.

28. parallelism

Parallelism is using grammatically similar phrases or sentences together.

Example: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

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29. aphorism

An aphorism is a short sentence that presents truth or opinion, usually in a witty or clever manner.

Example: A penny saved is a penny earned.

30. synecdoche

Synecdoche is when a part of something is used to refer to a whole.

Example: The commander had an army of 10,000 swords. (The people holding the swords were there, too.)

Parody is an imitation of something with the intent to poke fun at it.

Example: If Edgar Allen Poe had written this speech, it might have opened with “Here we are, weak and weary, gathered on a Monday dreary.”

32. colloquialism

A colloquialism is an instance of informal language or a local expression. The act of using such language is also called colloquialism .

Example: Here in Philly, we love to eat hoagies and all kinds of tasty jawns.

33. understatement

Understatement is using language to intentionally lessen a major thing or event.

Example: The erupting volcano was a little problem for the neighboring city.

34. syllogism

Syllogism is an argument based on deductive reasoning that uses generalizations to reach specific conclusions. Usually, a syllogism follows the format of “A is B. B is C. So, A is C.”

Example: Dogs are mammals. Biscuit is a dog. Therefore, Biscuit is a mammal.

Learn more about deductive and inductive reasoning.

An eponym can refer to “a word based on or derived from a person’s name,” such as the Gallup poll , named after statistician G.H. Gallup, or Reagonomics (a combination of the last name Reagan and economics ). As a rhetorical device, an eponym can be an allusion to a famous person.

Example: Nick is the LeBron James of birding.

36. metonymy

Metonymy is when the name of something is replaced with something related to it.

Example: He loved music from the cradle (birth) to the grave (death).

37. parenthesis

In rhetoric, parenthesis is an interruption used for clarity.

Example: The audience, or at least the paying members of the audience, enjoyed the show.

38. expletive

In rhetoric, an expletive is an interrupting word or phrase used for emphasis.

Example: The eggs were not, in any sense of the word, delicious.

39. metanoia

In rhetoric, metanoia refers to any instance of self-correction. Metanoia can involve things like retracting a previous statement to replace it with a new one or amplifying a previous statement by using stronger language.

Example: We’ll work on it on Sunday. No, let’s make that Monday—it’s the weekend after, all!

40. chiasmus

Chiasmus is reversing the grammatical order in two otherwise parallel phrases or sentences.

Example: Dog owners own dogs and cats own cat owners.

41. asyndeton

Asyndeton is the removal of conjunctions from a sentence.

Example: Get in, cause a distraction, get out.

Take the quiz

Are you ready to write with these rhetorical devices? You can review them using our Rhetorical Devices Word List , where you can practice with flashcards and practice quizzes. And when it’s time, fit in this quiz to quickly distinguish which terms you now know before you apply them to your next project.

Learn more about the modes of persuasion known as ethos, pathos, and logos.

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What is a rhetorical device (and how to use them).

By Meera Shah

Rhetorical device. It’s not really a phrase that rolls off the tongue, is it?  

That said, it’s an important linguistic tool that’s used by pretty much everyone, from business people to politicians – and of course authors . You may not have heard of rhetorical devices by name but whether you’ve realised it or not, you’ve probably come across at least some of these devices before, and maybe even used them yourself!  

In this guide, I’m going to be delving into the ins and outs of a rhetorical device, including what a rhetorical device is (in common use and in literature), the different types of rhetorical devices, and the purpose of a rhetorical device in a novel.  

What Are Rhetorical Devices? 

A rhetorical device (otherwise known as a stylistic device, a persuasive device or more simply, rhetoric) is a technique or type of language that is used by a speaker or an author for the purpose of evoking a particular reaction from the listener or reader or persuading them to think in a certain way.  

As mentioned above, rhetoric can be used by pretty much anyone in day-to-day communication. For example, any time you try to inform, persuade or debate with someone, you’ll be engaging in rhetoric. Or if you’ve ever found yourself being moved emotionally by someone’s speech or changed your mind about a certain topic, you’ve experienced the power of rhetoric in practice. Rhetorical devices in speech can be used in many different ways: your tone of voice, emphasis on certain words, sentence structure and repetition, or even asking questions for emphasis rather than for the answer.  

In literature, you will have seen rhetoric devices used abundantly in the form of similes, alliteration and metaphors which are woven beautifully into prose. But rhetoric can be written into dialogue as well, although this is somewhat trickier as you will need to find a way of integrating it naturally so as not to disturb the authenticity of speech.  

Now, let’s move on to consider the different types of rhetorical devices.  

Types Of Rhetorical Devices 

Rhetorical devices are sometimes confused with literary devices . And no wonder because there is plenty of overlap between the two, and they both seek to serve the same ultimate purpose: to elevate one’s writing from good to magnificent. And what writer wouldn’t want that as their goal?  

There is, however, one significant difference between the two. While literary devices express ideas artistically, rhetoric devices are confined to the following four specific ways.  

• Logos. A rhetorical device that falls within this category will seek to convince and persuade via logic, and will usually make use of statistics, facts or statements in support of their position.  
• Ethos. Ethical rhetorical devices will try and convince the reader/listener that they are a credible source, and that their words should be trusted because they have the experience and judgment necessary to make that decision/statement.  
• Pathos. This type of rhetorical device is grounded in emotion. For example, this could involve the writer/speaker invoking sympathy or pity, angering their audience or inspiring them to change their perspective.  
• Kairos. The final type of rhetoric device is quite a difficult concept to grasp, but the English translation of ‘opportune moment’ might be able to shed some light. Essentially, Kairos asks you to consider the context and atmosphere of the argument you are making to ensure that you are delivering it at the right time. As Aristotle famously said, “Anybody can become angry—that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” 

List Of Common Rhetorical Devices 

Now that we’ve considered the four types of rhetorical device, let’s look at some common rhetorical devices so we can understand how they can be used in practice.  

Be prepared for some complicated and hard-to-pronounce words!  

Alliteration. Let’s start with one that you will be familiar with . This is a sonic device, involving the repetition of the initial sound of each word (e.g. Maya melted marzipan in the microwave).  

Anacoluthon. A mouthful of a word, which involves the unexpected shift or change in the syntax or structure of a sentence. This can be used to grab the reader’s attention and shift it in another direction.  

Apophasis. This device creates irony. The narrator will attempt to deny something while still saying that exact thing. For example, a phrase that begins with “it goes without saying’’ and is followed by the exact thing that the narrator says they are not going to say is an apophasis.  

Litotes. This is an ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary. “He’s no fool” is a great example of a litotes in action.  

Meiosis. Now a word that is less commonplace. It is a type of euphemism that is used intentionally to undermine the size or importance of its subject and is the opposite of hyperbole or exaggeration. An example of this is if someone who was badly injured (with a broken leg or deep wound etc) proclaimed “it’s just a scratch”. 

Oxymoron. A word that might take you back to English class at school, this is a device that is used where two things are placed in direct comparison to one another, even though they are complete opposites. This is a powerful figure of speech that can emphasise a specific point in your writing. A classic example is “the silence was deafening”. Hands up if you’ve used that one!  

Syllepsis. The use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the same context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense. “He blew his nose and then he blew my mind.” 

Zeugma. This is the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words, usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one. For example, “she opened the door to him and to her soul”. 

Examples Of Rhetorical Devices 

Can you think of any examples where rhetorical devices have been used in literature?  

Here are a few that come to my mind.  

Logos – Othello By William Shakespeare

“ On, beware, my lord, of jealousy!   It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock   The meat it feeds on…   Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger,    But, oh, what damned minutes tell he o’er   Who dotes, yet doubts – suspects, yet soundly loves…   She did deceive her father, marrying you…   She loved them most…   I humbly beseech you of your pardon   For too much loving you… ’’ 

In this excerpt, Lago convinces Othello with logic and reasoning to make him doubtful of the secret relationship between Desdemona and Cassio. 

Pathos – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou 

“If growing up is painful for the South Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.’’  

Angelou’s memoir focuses on the emotional events of her life from early childhood through to adolescence. She uses pathos throughout to appeal to the reader’s emotions and to evoke sympathy for her experiences, especially of trauma, abuse and racism.  

Ethos – East of Eden By John Steinbeck

“ And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.’’  

In this extract, the author is trying to create a sense of familiarity with the audience, who he hopes will agree with his opinions on freedom. By suggesting similarities of opinion, Steinbeck builds credibility as a narrator . 

Kairos – Animal Farm By George Orwell

“Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.’’  

This is Old Major’s speech where he addresses the animals, calling them his comrades, saying that he has a dream and that the moment has arrived that he should relate this dream to them. The timing of his speech is important as he stresses that he may not live long, so now is the right time to pass on his wisdom. This is the best use of Kairos in a practical way. 

How To Use Rhetorical Devices In Your Writing 

So now that we’ve seen how famous authors have used rhetorical devices in their writing, how can we mere mortals do the same?  

I’m going to share my top three tips for doing so.  

1. Adding Emphasis

Rhetorical devices can be used to create emphasis in your story. There are a number of different ways you can do this, from analogies, such as similes and metaphors, to repeating words or phrases within a sentence while adding more detail (amplification) and repeating an idea using different words (commoratio). An example of the latter is, “She was done. Finished. Dead.’’ 

2. Creating Rhythm   

We can strengthen a character’s voice by paying attention to the rhythm of our writing. Rhythmic prose can be more lyrical, smooth, or driving depending on how we decide to use rhetorical devices. We can repeat a word or phrase at the beginning of two or more phrases (anaphora), or at the end of the phrase (epistrophe). For example, “She would die. He would die. They’d all die.” 

3. Adding Humour

We can use rhetorical devices to add touches of humour to our prose, even if we’re not writing a romantic comedy. Use pleonasm (using more words than necessary), tmesis (splitting a word and adding a word in the middle), antonomasia (using a description as a proper name) or zeugma (using an out-of-sync phrase for the last item of a list). For example, “before meeting up with her boss, she grabbed her diary, her laptop and her big-girl panties”. 

So, there we have it, your crash course in rhetorical devices! 

I hope that this article answers any questions you may have on rhetorical devices and has inspired you to play with them to strengthen your writing. If it’s good enough for the greats, then it’s good enough for the rest of us!  

About the author

Meera Shah is a North London based psychological suspense writer. Her debut novel is due to be published in Spring 2023 by Hodder Studio, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, and her second novel is due to be published in Spring 2024. She is a former City lawyer and now works full time as a legal editor for an international training company. In her (very) spare time, she can be found being walked by her three dogs on Hampstead Heath, reading in the bath until the water turns cold or watching the latest TV drama. Meera is represented by Camilla Bolton of Darley Anderson Literary Agency. For more on Meera, see her author website , Twitter and Instagram profiles.

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Nine Rhetorical Devices For Your Next Speech

Many speakers are good at conveying information to their audiences. But how many of them are actually interesting ?

Rhetorical devices are too often cast aside as the province of the great Roman orators. They shouldn’t be. When executed well, they can spice up your speeches, presentations, even your one-on-one conversations.

Here are nine of my favorite rhetorical devices. Instead of just reading this article, try inserting a few of these devices in your next speech!

1. Alliteration: The repetition of a sound in the first syllable of each phrase. In the example below, you will see one string of three words beginning with “f,” and another with three words beginning with “d.”

“They are part of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known. They have served tour after tour of duty in distant, different, and difficult places.” – President Barack Obama

  2. Anadiplosis: The last word or phrase is repeated to begin the next.

“Suffering breeds character; character breeds faith.” – Rev. Jesse Jackson “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda

    3. Antimetabole: The repetition of words or phrases in successive clauses, but in reverse order.

“Not all schooling is education nor all education, schooling.” – Economist Milton Friedman “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” – Scientist Carl Sagan

    4. Antithesis:  A word, phrase, or sentence opposes the original proposition.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong

5. Asyndeton: Omits conjunctions, which helps to increase the tempo and highlight a specific idea.

“…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln “He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac.” – Jack Kerouac

6. Diacope: A repeated word or phrase split up by other words; typically used to express a strong emotion.

“Put out the light, and then put out the light.” – William Shakespeare, Othello “For the love of God, man, for the love of God.” – Me, all the time “You’re not fully clean unless you’re Zest fully clean .” – Zest Soap commercial  

  7. Litotes: You’ve probably heard this if a friend ever told you her first date was “not bad.” Litotes is essentially a double negative, expressed by denying an opposite idea; often used ironically.

“She’s no dummy” (she’s smart) “This is no small problem” (this is a big problem)

  8. Metaphor: An analogy that compares one thing or idea to another, using a term or phrase it literally isn’t to suggest similarity.

“Homeowners are the innocent bystanders in a drive-by shooting by Wall Street and Washington.” – Sen. John McCain “It’s raining men.” – The Weather Girls

  9. Simile: A comparison between two unalike things, usually using the words “as” or “like.”

“We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. “You’re as cold as ice.” – Foreigner

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Comments (9)

Useful list, but I’m rather surprised by your use of all these obscure Greek words to describe the techniques. I’ve been teaching people how to use rhetorical devices for more than 25 years and have found it perfectly possible to describe them in instantly accessible modern English that anyone can easily understand. For the same reason – instant accessibility so that people can benefit from using them – also did this in my book ‘Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know About Making Speeches and Presentations’ http://amzn.to/g7NgAL

Hi Max, Thank you for your comment, and you raise a fair point. I certainly agree that jargon is lousy for all forms of communication. Would you mind sharing a few of the terms you use to replace the ancient Greek words? Thank you, Brad

I think it’s important to note that it’s not necessary to use ALL of these devices in a speech or presentation. Two similes, a bunch of alliteration and some antimetabole can be too much. It’s a presentation, not Shakespeare. Don’t let the message get muddied in order to show how clever you are. Simplicity, in many cases, is the best rhetorical device.

Hi Betsy, Thank you for making that point – you’re exactly right. Rhetorical devices should be used to help achieve a specific purpose, such as making a key point more memorable. Speakers should feel free to experiment with a device or two in every speech, but should be careful not to go over-the-top. If you’re unsure how many devices to use, I’d err on the side of too few (at least at first). As you suggested, a little goes a long way. Thanks for stopping by the blog! Brad

AWESOME AND EDUCATIONAL

I would like to point out, that I am fairly certain that your second example for alliteration, given by Martin Luther King Jr., is not alliteration at all. I believe it is actually an example of anaphora.

First commenter (Max) is clearly self promoting and not adding value here. Why say that and then not offer examples? Thank you author Brad for providing these examples and the names that are used for them.

Jack is correct! H.S. was 10 years ago for me (I took a public speaking class), but I DO recall falling in love with anaphora, particularly when I was crafting a rousing speech. It gets me FIRED UP! BTW, is there any way in which an apposition can be qualified as a rhetorical device? I feel in love with them from about age 9– I read a lot. I do love them in informative pieces, but it would be fun to see them used convincingly in a persuasive piece. I faintly recall trying to squeeze A FEW into just one sentence for a particularly militant English professor, just to piss her off. . . IT WORKED. She loved me by the end of the semester, however.

For those who did not appreciate the technical terms for the devices. I loved It, as it helped focus my attention. I got a real kick out of it, the specific terms, the love of language for the sake of language. Mmm. A rhetorical device?

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Reading Skills

Analyzing rhetorical devices.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: December 22, 2023

What We Review

Introduction

Welcome to an exciting exploration of rhetoric and its powerful tools, known as rhetorical devices. Rhetoric is the art of using language effectively to persuade and communicate. Rhetorical devices are like special tricks that speakers and writers use to make their messages more convincing and impactful. These techniques are crucial because they shape the way we understand what people say or write, whether it’s in old speeches and books or in things we see and hear today.

Understanding rhetorical devices is crucial for anyone looking to enhance their analytical skills, as it allows for a deeper understanding of how arguments are constructed and what makes them effective. This knowledge is not just academic; it’s a practical tool that can improve your critical thinking, reading, and writing abilities.

In this guide, we will delve into the most common rhetorical devices, break down why they’re used, and show you how to spot them in different texts. We’ll also explore the principles of ethos, pathos, and logos, which are the foundation of persuasive communication. To make these ideas come to life, we’ll analyze Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a text that’s filled with rhetorical strategies.

Get ready to embark on a journey that will deepen your understanding of language and its incredible power to persuade, inform, and move people. Let’s begin by unlocking the secrets of rhetorical devices and their role in shaping compelling communication.

Why Is Rhetoric Important?

Rhetoric is a very old skill that goes back to ancient Greece, where thinkers like Aristotle first talked about it. It’s all about using language in a smart way to achieve different goals, like convincing, informing, entertaining, or motivating people. What makes it important is that you can use it in many different situations, whether you want to shape what people think about something or just talk to someone.

In today’s world, where we have a lot of information, knowing about rhetoric is super useful. It helps us make messages that are interesting and strong, and it also helps us look carefully at what others are saying and decide if it makes sense. Understanding rhetoric isn’t just about talking well; it’s also about listening carefully and being part of good conversations. It’s a basic skill for talking effectively, thinking carefully, and being an active member of society.

When we study rhetoric, we learn not only how to say things in a way that convinces others but also how to figure out when others are trying to convince us. This double skill is really important in today’s world, where there’s a lot of talking and sharing ideas. It helps us understand and take part in important discussions.

What are Rhetorical Devices?

Rhetorical devices are tools and techniques that writers, speakers, and everyday people use to make their messages more effective. These tools are important because they help us build strong arguments, stir up emotions, and make complex ideas easier to understand. They’re not just fancy tricks; they’re essential for good communication.

Rhetorical Devices Examples

Rhetorical devices are the tools used to enhance persuasion and understanding in communication. They can add clarity, depth, and emotional impact to your message. Here’s a look at some widely recognized and powerful rhetorical devices, each with its unique influence on the audience.

Ethos is all about making the person who’s talking or writing seem believable and trustworthy. It’s like showing that they know what they’re talking about and that they’re honest. When people do this, it helps convince others that they can be trusted. For instance, when a doctor talks about health, they might mention their medical degree to show that they really know what they’re talking about, and that way, people will trust what they say.

Pathos is when you try to make the people you’re talking to feel something. It’s about making a connection by sharing emotions, wants, or fears. When you make people feel something, it can really change how they think and what they do. For instance, think about a commercial for a sports brand. It might tell a story about an athlete who faced tough challenges and came out on top. This story can make you feel inspired and determined. When you feel that way, you start to like the brand because it gave you those good feelings. That’s how pathos works.

Logos is all about using logic and good reasoning. It means showing information like data, facts, or numbers to make a strong and clear argument. For example, imagine a climate activist who wants to convince people that we need to take care of the environment. They might use facts and statistics about how global temperatures are going up to logically explain why we should take action. This way, they’re using logos to make their point.

Metaphors and Similes

These devices compare one thing to another, often in a way that helps clarify complex ideas or make a message more memorable. A writer might say, “Injustice is a poison that corrupts society,” using a metaphor to liken injustice to poison to emphasize its harmful effects.

This involves deliberate exaggeration to emphasize a point or evoke strong feelings. For instance, a person might say, “I’ve told you a million times.” This hyperbole highlights their frustration or repeated efforts.

Repeating words, phrases, or ideas can reinforce a message and make it more memorable. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech is an excellent example of repetition. The phrase “I have a dream” is reiterated multiple times throughout the speech, powerfully underscoring his vision for equality and justice. Each repetition of this phrase reinforces his hopeful message and leaves a lasting impact on the audience

Identifying Rhetorical Devices in a Text

Recognizing rhetorical devices in text is an essential reading skill that deepens your understanding of how authors convey meaning and persuade their audience. Here’s how you can sharpen your ability to identify these devices as you read:

1. Familiarize Yourself with Common Devices

Start by building a strong foundation. Understand the definitions, purposes, and effects of common rhetorical devices like ethos, pathos, logos, metaphors, hyperbole, and repetition. Knowing what each device looks like and how it typically operates in text will prepare you to spot them more easily.

• Practice Tip: Create a reference chart of devices with definitions and examples. Refer to this chart as you read, and try to match passages with the relevant device. You can also refer to this handy list for a great starting point!

2. Read Actively and Critically

Engage with the text on a deeper level. As you read, be mindful of the author’s word choice, sentence structure, and the overall tone. Ask yourself why the author might have chosen a particular word or phrase and what effect it creates.

• Practice Tip: Highlight or note down sentences or passages where you suspect a rhetorical device is at play. Then, analyze why you think a device is used and what it’s achieving.

3. Look for Patterns and Anomalies

Rhetorical devices often manifest as patterns in the text. Repetition of words, phrases, or ideas; patterns in imagery or metaphors; or even a sudden change in tone or style can all be clues. Conversely, anomalies or deviations from the norm can also signal rhetorical emphasis.

• Practice Tip : As you read, mark recurring themes or language patterns. Consider how these repetitions or anomalies contribute to the text’s persuasive or emotional impact.

4. Consider the Context

Every text exists within a specific context that influences its content and style. Understand the historical, cultural, and personal background of the text. Consider the intended audience and the author’s purpose. This context can provide valuable clues about why certain rhetorical devices are used.

• Practice Tip: Before diving into a text, do a quick research on its background. As you read, keep the context in mind and think about how it might shape the choice of rhetorical devices.

5. Analyze the Structure

The organization of a text can reveal a lot about its rhetorical strategies. Look at the structure of arguments, the progression of ideas, and the placement of particularly persuasive or emotional sections.

• Practice Tip: Create an outline of the text’s structure as you read. Note where key devices appear and how they contribute to the overall argument or message.

By focusing on these specific reading strategies, you’ll become more adept at noticing and understanding the subtle ways authors use rhetorical devices to enhance their messages. Remember, like any skill, identifying rhetorical devices improves with regular practice and thoughtful engagement with a wide range of texts.

Analyzing the Effectiveness of Rhetorical Devices

After you’ve identified rhetorical devices in a text, the next step is to analyze their effectiveness. This involves understanding not just how these devices are used, but why they’re used, and what impact they have on the audience. Here’s how you can approach this analysis:

1. Assess the Context

 Understanding when and where a piece of writing was created is key to knowing why the author used certain words or phrases. Think about the time period and the place it comes from. Also, consider who the author was speaking to and what was going on at that time. These details can help you understand why the writer chose to use certain language and how well it worked.

2. Evaluate the Purpose

Next, ask yourself what the writer wanted to achieve. Did they want to convince the readers, give them information, entertain them, or inspire them? Writers use different ways of speaking to reach their goals. By figuring out the writer’s main goal, you can better judge if they used the right approach and how effective it was.

3. Consider the Audience’s Reaction

4. check how the rhetorical devices fit in.

See how well the rhetorical devices fit into the writing. Do they blend in smoothly, or do they stick out awkwardly? When used well, these tools should make the writing better and clearer. If they don’t fit well, they might make the writing hard to understand or take away from the main point.

5. Think About Right and Wrong

Think about whether the language tools are used in a good and honest way. Are they used to share the truth and respect the readers, or are they used to trick or mislead them? Using these tools in the right way can make the writer seem more believable and trustworthy. But using them in the wrong way can make people doubt what the writer is saying.

6. Compare Other Texts

To put your analysis into perspective, compare the use of rhetorical devices in the text with their use in other well-known works. How are the strategies different? What makes some more effective than others? This comparative approach can deepen your understanding of rhetorical effectiveness.

7. Reflect on Personal Impact

Finally, think about your own reaction to the text. Were you persuaded, moved, or inspired? Your personal response can be a powerful indicator of the rhetorical devices’ effectiveness

By closely looking at these parts, you’ll learn more about how language tools work and what makes them good or not so good. This skill is useful for school and helps you think more about the different ways people talk and write in everyday life.

Analyzing Rhetorical Devices in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail ” by Martin Luther King, Jr

Analyzing rhetorical devices isn’t just an academic exercise; it’s a way to deepen your understanding of influential texts and the strategies that make them powerful. A prime example for this kind of analysis is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an important text in the Civil Rights movement. Here’s how you can use this letter to practice your reading skills through rhetorical analysis:

Before you read “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” know the background. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote it in 1963 while he was in jail in Birmingham, Alabama. He was there because he was protesting for equal rights. He wrote the letter to respond to some church leaders who didn’t agree with his protests. Understanding this time and why King was in jail helps you see why he wrote what he did.

King wrote the letter to explain why he believed protesting against unfair laws was right and needed. He wanted to convince his critics and others that not fighting against racism was wrong. Knowing what King wanted to achieve with his letter helps you understand why he chose certain words and ways of explaining his thoughts.

Think about how the people King was writing to, the eight church leaders, and others might have felt when they read his letter. King used religious references and talked about moral issues because he thought these points would really hit home for them. Also, think about how others who were for or against equal rights at the time might have reacted to his words

4. Check How the Rhetorical Devices Fit It

Look at how King uses rhetorical devices in his letter.

Ethos (Credibility/Trustworthiness):

• King’s Role and Experience: King tells readers he’s the leader of an important group that works all over the south. He says, “I am the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.” This makes people see him as a leader with a lot of experience.
• Moral Standing: King talks about his strong beliefs and compares himself to people from the Bible to show he’s doing the right thing. He mentions famous religious figures, making people see him as someone with good values. He mentions, “Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their home towns…” highlighting the comparison between him and other religious figures the clergy would have respected.

Pathos (Emotional Appeal)

• The Pain and Struggle: King vividly describes the experiences of African Americans, evoking emotions to make the readers feel the urgency and pain of the racial situation.He talks about families being hurt and people living in fear.
• Hope and Despair: He contrasts the hope of the civil rights movement with the despair caused by racism, creating an emotional rollercoaster that compels the audience to empathize and act. He expresses, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

Logos (Logical Appeal)

• Reasons for Protests: King explains clearly why they need to protest. He says they’re protesting because promises are broken and people are treated unfairly. He makes it clear that they have to stand up for what’s right.
• Counterarguments: He thinks about what his critics say and answers them. For example, when people call him an “outsider,” he responds by saying, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This phrase emphasizes his right to be involved in these matters because injustice is a universal issue that needs to be addressed.
• Phrasal Repetition: King repeats certain phrases to make his message stronger. For instance, he starts many sentences with “When you” to show how often immoral actions happen to the African American community. This helps make his point clearer and stick in the reader’s mind.
• Anaphora (Repeating the start of sentences): He often starts sentences with the same words, like “I am here because,” to stress his reasons for being in Birmingham. This makes his reasons stand out and easier to remember.

Reflect on how King uses his words in a fair and honest way. He makes strong points about what’s morally right and wrong but does it respectfully. He’s not trying to trick anyone; he’s trying to show them the truth and get them to think differently about the situation.

6. Compare with Other Texts

Look at King’s letter and compare it with other important writings or speeches from the same time or even other works by King himself. Notice how they are similar or different in the way they try to convince and inspire people. This can help you understand more about how words can be used to make a big impact.

Lastly, think about how the letter makes you feel. Are there certain parts that stand out to you or make you feel strongly? Thinking about your own reactions can help you see just how powerful King’s words are and why they are still remembered and talked about today.

By looking closely at “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” you not only improve your ability to notice and analyze the rhetorical devices King uses but also grow to appreciate this powerful and important letter in a new way. This study will help you become a better reader who understands and thinks more about what you read, seeing beyond just the words on the page.

Practice Makes Perfect

Like any skill, proficiency in identifying and analyzing rhetorical devices comes with practice. It’s one thing to understand these strategies in theory, but it’s another to apply this knowledge actively and see it in action. That’s why we encourage you to take what you’ve learned here and put it into practice.

Albert provides many opportunities for you to practice these rhetorical analysis skills. Whether you want to improve before the AP® Language and Composition Exam or gain a deeper understanding of how authors used rhetoric in essential historic texts , Albert has you covered! Every question includes a detailed explanation of the correct answer and the distractors so you can learn as you go.

Remember, the more you practice, the more intuitive and insightful your rhetorical analysis will become. Rhetorical devices are not just academic concepts; they are practical tools that can enhance your reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. So, take advantage of Albert’s resources, and start practicing today. With dedication and practice, you’ll soon find yourself mastering the art of persuasion and the nuances of effective communication.

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• How to write a rhetorical analysis | Key concepts & examples

How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis | Key Concepts & Examples

Published on August 28, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A rhetorical analysis is a type of essay  that looks at a text in terms of rhetoric. This means it is less concerned with what the author is saying than with how they say it: their goals, techniques, and appeals to the audience.

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Table of contents

Key concepts in rhetoric, analyzing the text, introducing your rhetorical analysis, the body: doing the analysis, concluding a rhetorical analysis, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about rhetorical analysis.

Rhetoric, the art of effective speaking and writing, is a subject that trains you to look at texts, arguments and speeches in terms of how they are designed to persuade the audience. This section introduces a few of the key concepts of this field.

Appeals: Logos, ethos, pathos

Appeals are how the author convinces their audience. Three central appeals are discussed in rhetoric, established by the philosopher Aristotle and sometimes called the rhetorical triangle: logos, ethos, and pathos.

Logos , or the logical appeal, refers to the use of reasoned argument to persuade. This is the dominant approach in academic writing , where arguments are built up using reasoning and evidence.

Ethos , or the ethical appeal, involves the author presenting themselves as an authority on their subject. For example, someone making a moral argument might highlight their own morally admirable behavior; someone speaking about a technical subject might present themselves as an expert by mentioning their qualifications.

Pathos , or the pathetic appeal, evokes the audience’s emotions. This might involve speaking in a passionate way, employing vivid imagery, or trying to provoke anger, sympathy, or any other emotional response in the audience.

These three appeals are all treated as integral parts of rhetoric, and a given author may combine all three of them to convince their audience.

Text and context

In rhetoric, a text is not necessarily a piece of writing (though it may be this). A text is whatever piece of communication you are analyzing. This could be, for example, a speech, an advertisement, or a satirical image.

In these cases, your analysis would focus on more than just language—you might look at visual or sonic elements of the text too.

The context is everything surrounding the text: Who is the author (or speaker, designer, etc.)? Who is their (intended or actual) audience? When and where was the text produced, and for what purpose?

Looking at the context can help to inform your rhetorical analysis. For example, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech has universal power, but the context of the civil rights movement is an important part of understanding why.

Claims, supports, and warrants

A piece of rhetoric is always making some sort of argument, whether it’s a very clearly defined and logical one (e.g. in a philosophy essay) or one that the reader has to infer (e.g. in a satirical article). These arguments are built up with claims, supports, and warrants.

A claim is the fact or idea the author wants to convince the reader of. An argument might center on a single claim, or be built up out of many. Claims are usually explicitly stated, but they may also just be implied in some kinds of text.

The author uses supports to back up each claim they make. These might range from hard evidence to emotional appeals—anything that is used to convince the reader to accept a claim.

The warrant is the logic or assumption that connects a support with a claim. Outside of quite formal argumentation, the warrant is often unstated—the author assumes their audience will understand the connection without it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still explore the implicit warrant in these cases.

For example, look at the following statement:

We can see a claim and a support here, but the warrant is implicit. Here, the warrant is the assumption that more likeable candidates would have inspired greater turnout. We might be more or less convinced by the argument depending on whether we think this is a fair assumption.

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Rhetorical analysis isn’t a matter of choosing concepts in advance and applying them to a text. Instead, it starts with looking at the text in detail and asking the appropriate questions about how it works:

• What is the author’s purpose?
• Do they focus closely on their key claims, or do they discuss various topics?
• What tone do they take—angry or sympathetic? Personal or authoritative? Formal or informal?
• Who seems to be the intended audience? Is this audience likely to be successfully reached and convinced?
• What kinds of evidence are presented?

By asking these questions, you’ll discover the various rhetorical devices the text uses. Don’t feel that you have to cram in every rhetorical term you know—focus on those that are most important to the text.

The following sections show how to write the different parts of a rhetorical analysis.

Like all essays, a rhetorical analysis begins with an introduction . The introduction tells readers what text you’ll be discussing, provides relevant background information, and presents your thesis statement .

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how an introduction works.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is widely regarded as one of the most important pieces of oratory in American history. Delivered in 1963 to thousands of civil rights activists outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech has come to symbolize the spirit of the civil rights movement and even to function as a major part of the American national myth. This rhetorical analysis argues that King’s assumption of the prophetic voice, amplified by the historic size of his audience, creates a powerful sense of ethos that has retained its inspirational power over the years.

The body of your rhetorical analysis is where you’ll tackle the text directly. It’s often divided into three paragraphs, although it may be more in a longer essay.

Each paragraph should focus on a different element of the text, and they should all contribute to your overall argument for your thesis statement.

Hover over the example to explore how a typical body paragraph is constructed.

King’s speech is infused with prophetic language throughout. Even before the famous “dream” part of the speech, King’s language consistently strikes a prophetic tone. He refers to the Lincoln Memorial as a “hallowed spot” and speaks of rising “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation” to “make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The assumption of this prophetic voice constitutes the text’s strongest ethical appeal; after linking himself with political figures like Lincoln and the Founding Fathers, King’s ethos adopts a distinctly religious tone, recalling Biblical prophets and preachers of change from across history. This adds significant force to his words; standing before an audience of hundreds of thousands, he states not just what the future should be, but what it will be: “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” This warning is almost apocalyptic in tone, though it concludes with the positive image of the “bright day of justice.” The power of King’s rhetoric thus stems not only from the pathos of his vision of a brighter future, but from the ethos of the prophetic voice he adopts in expressing this vision.

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The conclusion of a rhetorical analysis wraps up the essay by restating the main argument and showing how it has been developed by your analysis. It may also try to link the text, and your analysis of it, with broader concerns.

Explore the example below to get a sense of the conclusion.

It is clear from this analysis that the effectiveness of King’s rhetoric stems less from the pathetic appeal of his utopian “dream” than it does from the ethos he carefully constructs to give force to his statements. By framing contemporary upheavals as part of a prophecy whose fulfillment will result in the better future he imagines, King ensures not only the effectiveness of his words in the moment but their continuing resonance today. Even if we have not yet achieved King’s dream, we cannot deny the role his words played in setting us on the path toward it.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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The goal of a rhetorical analysis is to explain the effect a piece of writing or oratory has on its audience, how successful it is, and the devices and appeals it uses to achieve its goals.

Unlike a standard argumentative essay , it’s less about taking a position on the arguments presented, and more about exploring how they are constructed.

The term “text” in a rhetorical analysis essay refers to whatever object you’re analyzing. It’s frequently a piece of writing or a speech, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, you could also treat an advertisement or political cartoon as a text.

Logos appeals to the audience’s reason, building up logical arguments . Ethos appeals to the speaker’s status or authority, making the audience more likely to trust them. Pathos appeals to the emotions, trying to make the audience feel angry or sympathetic, for example.

Collectively, these three appeals are sometimes called the rhetorical triangle . They are central to rhetorical analysis , though a piece of rhetoric might not necessarily use all of them.

In rhetorical analysis , a claim is something the author wants the audience to believe. A support is the evidence or appeal they use to convince the reader to believe the claim. A warrant is the (often implicit) assumption that links the support with the claim.

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Rhetoric: How to Inform, Persuade, or Motivate your Audience

June 12, 2018 - Gini Beqiri

Persuasive speaking is needed in a wide range of situations; from arguing with a colleague, to haggling down a price, to performing a speech. Rhetoric is the key to developing this skill. In this article, we discuss how to use rhetoric for effective public speaking.

What is rhetoric?

Rhetoric is the study and art of writing and speaking persuasively. Its aim is to inform, educate, persuade or motivate specific audiences in specific situations. It originates from the time of the ancient Greeks.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men  – Plato

Rhetoric is not just a tool used only in speeches, you use it in everyday life when, for example, you only disclose certain parts of your weekend to certain people.

Treatise of rhetoric

Aristotle stated that there are three types of persuasive speech:

• Forensic / judicial rhetoric  – looks at the justice or injustice of accusations and establishes evidence about the past. It’s used mainly in a court of law.
• Epideictic / demonstrative rhetoric  – praises or blames and makes a declaration about the present situation. It’s used in, for example,  wedding  and retirement speeches etc.
• Symbouleutikon / deliberative rhetoric  – tries to get the audience to take action by talking about a possible future. Politicians often use this approach and Martin Luther’s “I have a dream” speech is a good example.

Rhetorical situations

To use rhetoric you must first:

• Analyse the rhetorical situation you are in – an effective speech is one that responds to its rhetorical situation (context)
• Identify what needs to be communicated
• Provide a strategic response using rhetorical tools

When you analyse the rhetorical situation think about the following:

The rhetor (yourself)  – the person speaking to the audience. Your personal characteristics and beliefs will influence what you decide to say, such as:

• Geographical location
• Previous experiences
• Socio-economic status, etc

The audience  – the people you are  trying to persuade . Usually the same factors that affect the rhetor affect the audience. Think about what they already know. What questions or reservations might they have? What expectations do they have? Where should you conform to and stray from these expectations?

The setting  – the situation which causes the need for your speech, for example, current events, location, time period, political situation etc. Where is the speech happening and when? How do these this impact you? For example, speeches may need to differ between countries.

The topic  – needs to be relevant to the rhetorical situation you are in. How does your topic limit what you can do for the audience? Depending on your audience, what should you include or exclude?

The purpose  – why are you saying this? Is it to:

• Instigate action, etc

Five canons and three appeals

The five canons of rhetoric.

The Five Canons of Rhetoric are tools for creating persuasive speeches:

• Invention  – the process of developing an argument. For this you need to pick effective content and sort through everything you could say and decide what should be included or excluded. There needs to be a balance between what the audience needs to hear and what you need to say.
• Arrangement  – once you have determined the content you must organise and order your speech to create the most impact, such as thinking about how long each section should be and what should follow on from one point etc.
• Style  – deciding how to present your chosen arguments, including thinking tactically about how your audience will respond to your word choices. Perhaps include visualisation or other techniques to evoke emotions. (See rhetorical devices and tools)
• Memory  – memorising your speech.
• Delivery  – this includes your projection,  gestures ,  eye contact , pronunciation, tone and  pace .

The three appeals

According to Aristotle, rhetoric rests on the three appeals:  ethos, logos and pathos . They are modes of persuasion used to convince an audience.

• Ethos : your credibility and character
• Pathos : emotional bond with your listeners
• Logos : logical and rational argument

Ethos – the ethical appeal

Ethos consists of convincing your audience that you have good character and you are credible therefore your words can be trusted. Ethos must be established from the start of your talk or the audience will not accept what you say. In fact, ethos is often established before your presentation, for example, you may be the CEO of the company you’re presenting to so you’re already perceived as a specialist.

Characteristics of ethos

There are four main characteristics of ethos:

• Trustworthiness and respect
• Similarity to the audience
• Expertise and reputation/history

Improve ethos

• Ensure that people know about your expertise by promoting yourself, for example, ensure that people can easily access testimonials, reviews, papers etc.
• In your introduction draw attention to your ethos.
• Tell personal stories  that show the audience that you follow your own recommendations because they are more likely to believe you on other points that cannot easily be confirmed.
• Facts, stats and quotes should be up-to-date and from reputable sources, for example, between choosing from social media or Mind’s website to  quote a statistic  about anxiety, you would choose Mind’s website as this has high ethos which in turn increases your ethos.
• Be unbiased by admitting that you and your opposition’s side agree on at least one matter. This highlights that you are credible because you are treating the topic with consideration and fairness.
• Stick to your promises, for example,  during the Q&A  you may have agreed to find out an answer to a question and tell everyone – ensure that you do this to be seen as honest.

Pathos – the emotional appeal

Pathos is to persuade by appealing to the audience’s emotions. Pathos is more likely to increase the chances of your audience:

• Understanding your point of view
• Accepting your arguments
• Acting on your requests

Improving pathos

• Use  analogies and metaphors  – linking your ideas with something your listeners already know about and feel strongly about can trigger emotional responses. For example, “They are terrible” compared to “They are poisonous.” This will use the audience’s knowledge that poison is bad and therefore this issue needs to be dealt with.
• Use emotionally charged words, for example, say “This brush is a life-saver” rather than “This brush is amazing.”. Another way to make a statement more emotional is to use vivid and sensory words which allow the audience to experience the emotion. For instance, “The smell of your grandparent’s house” will increase the recollection of, hopefully warm memories, and therefore will trigger certain emotions.
• Positive emotions, such as joy, should be linked with your claims.
• Negative emotions, such as anger, should be linked to your rival’s claims.
• Visual aids can sometimes be more powerful than words
• Storytelling is a quick way to form an emotional connection
• Match what you’re saying with your body language, face and eyes
• You may target the audience’s hopes by describing a positive future situation if your proposed actions are followed

Logos – logical appeal

Logos is to appeal to logic by relying on the audience’s intelligence and offering evidence in support of your argument. Logos also develops ethos because the information makes you look knowledgeable. Logos is important because logical arguments are not easily dismissed.

Improving logos

Be comprehensive : Make sure your points and arguments can be understood

• Use language that your audience will understand. Avoid jargon and technical terminology
• Use figures and charts
• Make the relationships between your evidence and conclusions clear
• Use analogies and metaphors

Be logical : Ensure that your arguments make sense and that your claims and evidence are not implausible. Have a plan for dealing with opposing viewpoints that your listeners may already believe.

• Ensure that the  audience is involved  by asking them engaging questions.
• Talk about opposing views as this allows you to explain why your logical arguments are more reasonable.
• Build your argument on the audience’s widely held beliefs – commonplaces. For example, a company’s main value and therefore commonplace may be “Compassion makes us the best company”. Use the audience’s commonplace like a fact and apply it to a new situation. So if you want to encourage your staff to join a committee, use their commonplace, for example, rather than your belief say: “This committee needs considerate and kind-hearted people.”

Be specific : Base your claims on facts and examples as your arguments will be accepted quicker than something nonspecific and non-concrete. The more easily the evidence is accepted, the more easily the conclusions will be accepted.

• Facts and stats cannot be debated and they signify the truth.
• Visual evidence, such as, objects and videos are hard to challenge.
• Citing specialists and authorities on a topic increases the quality of your evidence and therefore your claims.
• Tell stories, such as, case studies or personal experiences. The audience would like to hear your own stories if you’re a specialist, for example, “When I was excavating in Nottingham…”

There is uncertainty over which pillar is the most important – Aristotle thought that logos was vital but when used by itself it lacks impact. So ensure that you treat all three pillars with equal importance to succeed in persuading your audience.

Rhetorical modes

Rhetorical modes are patterns of organisation used to produce a specific effect in the audience. They assist in increasing the speaker’s ethos, pathos and logos.

• Telling a story or narrating an event.
• Uses facts – what happened, where it happened, when it happened and who was there.
• It helps put information into a logical order – usually chronological order.
• Purpose : to evoke certain emotions in the audience.

Description

• Re-create, inventing or visually presenting a person, place, object, event or action through words
• This helps the audience imagine what is being described
• Use precise verbs and nouns and vivid adjectives
• Using the five senses is especially useful
• Purpose : to evoke certain emotions in the audience

Argumentation/Persuasion

• Articulating your opinion about an issue – proving or contesting a point or view or an issue.
• Consists of presenting the evidence.
• Inductive arguments- Forming generalisations from the evidence. For example: “All the theme parks I have been to have been safe. This is a theme park. So it must be safe.”
• Deductive arguments – Forming conclusions from generalisations. For example. “I don’t like busy places. That shopping centre is really busy. So I won’t like that shopping centre.”
• Persuasion is a type of argumentation with a call to action directed at the audience.
• Purpose : the speaker tries to get the audience to agree with their opinion and in the case of persuasion the speaker tries to get the audience to take action.
• Informing, instructing or presenting ideas objectively. Exposition can use the following techniques:

Illustration/Example

• Using evidence to explain a general idea or statement.
• The stronger your evidence, the more likely the audience will consider your points.
• Usually used to support an argument.
• Use evidence suitable for your topic and audience.
• How complex the topic is
• The audience’s knowledge
• Purpose : gives your statements/arguments more credibility and helps the audience understand more quickly.
• Explaining what a word, idea etc means to your audience and/or to explain what it is not.
• This is more difficult than looking up the term in a dictionary because you may be re-defining a common term or explaining a term that is commonly used incorrectly, such as, the word depression.
• By reshaping what the audience thought a concept meant they can see and think about that concept in a different way.
• There are multiple ways you can define something, it doesn’t have to be in a clinical way – you can use the rhetorical strategies discussed later.
• Purpose : helps the audience see things from your point of view.

Process analysis

• Explaining how a particular event occurs or how something is done or how something works, for example, how to sew, or how to move on from the death of a loved one.
• This procedure is usually explained in clear steps.
• Purpose : to provide clear information so the audience can fully understand – the more the audience understands, the more likely they will be persuaded.
• Dividing one concept into smaller ones.
• This can be helpful for you, the speaker, as it can provide the audience with an insight of how you view a concept.
• Purpose : to help the audience understand a complex issue.

Classification

• Often looking at a diverse group of objects and finding similarities.
• The rhetor creates categories based on the similarities and gives each category a name.
• Purpose : useful for organising complex issues.

Cause and effect

• Examining the causes of a situation and the consequences of it.
• Causes help you understand why something happened and effect helps you understand what could happen or what has happened.
• Especially useful when the rhetor can show a cause and effect relationship the audience haven’t noticed before because this helps the audience see the situation in a different way.
• Often leads to debates as it’s not always easy to determine this relationship.
• Purpose : to determine how concepts are related to each other.

Comparison and contrast

• Comparison looks at similarities and contrast looks at differences.
• The more divergent the two things initially appear the more interesting it will be to look at the similarities.
• Purpose : generally to show something is more superior to another, to show unexpected similarities or to help the audience understand a person, place, idea etc in relation to another.

Rhetorical devices and tools, with examples

Rhetorical devices can be useful for assisting with the above modes of persuasion:

Adynaton  – a type of hyperbole (exaggeration) in which the exaggeration is taken to such extreme lengths to suggest impossibility.

• Example: “When pigs fly!”

Alliteration  – the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of several words that are close in proximity to each other.

• Example: “The dog dived deeply.”
• Example: “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe its Maybelline.”

Allusion  – a reference to an event, literary work, person etc usually within popular culture.

• Example: “It’s only £10, you’re acting like Scrooge.”

Anaphora  – repeating a word or phrase in successive phrases.

• Example: “As you know, we’ve got the iPod, best music player in the world. We’ve got the iPod Nanos, brand new models, colours are back. We’ve got the amazing new iPod Shuffle.” – Steve Jobs

Antanagoge  – when a negative point is followed by a positive one to reduce the impact.

• Example: “It’s expensive but it’s unbreakable”

Antimetabole  – a phrase or sentence is repeated in reverse order.

• Example: “It is not even the beginning of the end but is perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – Winston Churchill

Antiphrasis  – a phrase or word that is opposite to its literal meaning to create an ironic or comic effect.

• Example: Calling your friend Tiny even when they are 6 foot 5.

Antithesis  – two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence for contrast.

• Example: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong

Appositive  – places a noun or phrase next to another noun for descriptive purposes.

• Example: “Your friend Sam is waiting outside for you.”
• Example: “The neurologist, a well-renowned expert in Paediatric Neurology, looked at the scans.”

Epanalepsis  – repeating the initial part of a sentence at the end of the same sentence.

• Example: “Today, I want it done today.”

Epithet  – using an adjective or phrase to emphasises a person’s characteristics. Often, this adjective or phrase becomes linked to the person and can be used with their name or instead of their name.

• Example: Eddie the Eagle

Epizeuxis  – repeats one word in immediate succession for emphasis.

• Example: “That film was great, great, great.”

Hyperbole  – an exaggeration not meant to be taken literally.

• Example: “I’ve got tons of work to get through.”
• Example: “I’m freezing.”

Metanoia  – correcting a statement you just made deliberately to strengthen or soften it.

• Example: “This has made my day, no, my month.”

Metaphor  – a comparison made by stating one thing is the other.

• Example: “This cake is heaven.”

Metonymy  – where something is referred to by the name of something closely associated with it.

• Example: Referring to business professionals as “suits.”
• Example: Referring to royals as “Crown.”
• Example: Referring to a plate of food as a “dish.”

Onomatopoeia  – words that are similar to the sound they describe.

• Example: Drip, pop, buzz, bang

Oxymoron  – a combination of contradictory words.

• Example: Cruel kindness, definitely maybe, open secret

Parallelism  – uses components in a sentence that are similar grammatically or in their construction, sound or meaning. It makes sentences flow better by adding rhythm.

• Example: “The dog was barking, the bell was ringing and the children were shouting.”

Personification  – The attribution of human characteristics to something non-human.

• Example: “The traffic slowed to a crawl.”

Simile  – compares one thing to another to make a description more vivid, usually uses “as” or “like”.

• Example: “As light as a feather.”

Understatement  – deliberately making a situation sound less important or serious than it is. You can use it for humour, to be polite or to remain modest over something.

• Example: You won an award for a piece of artwork but you say “It’s no big deal.” (Modest)
• Example: Your friend is worried about people staring at a stain on his T-shirt, you say “I wouldn’t have even noticed if you hadn’t said anything.” (Polite)
• Example: You walk outside with your coat on and realise it’s very hot – “I may be a little over-dressed.” (Humour)

Criticisms of rhetoric

Some people believe that rhetoric is a type of lying or false behaviour and manipulation. However, even when you’re criticising rhetoric, you are engaging in an act of rhetoric because you are trying to get others to agree with you.

Rhetoric works well in many situations, such as, in business presentations, lectures etc. So rhetoric is a good tool but, like with other tools, it’s up to you how to use it effectively.

Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking

Gain critical communication skills in writing and public speaking with this introduction to American political rhetoric.

Associated Schools

Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences

What you'll learn.

When and how to employ a variety of rhetorical devices in writing and speaking

How to differentiate between argument and rhetorical technique

How to write a persuasive opinion editorial and short speech

How to evaluate the strength of an argument

How to identify logical fallacies in arguments

Course description

We are living in a contentious time in history. Fundamental disagreements on critical political issues make it essential to learn how to make an argument and analyze the arguments of others. This ability will help you engage in civil discourse and make effective changes in society. Even outside the political sphere, conveying a convincing message can benefit you throughout your personal, public, and professional lives.

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of rhetoric, the art of persuasive writing and speech. In it, you will learn to construct and defend compelling arguments, an essential skill in many settings. We will be using selected addresses from prominent twentieth-century Americans — including Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Margaret Chase Smith, Ronald Reagan, and more — to explore and analyze rhetorical structure and style. Through this analysis, you will learn how speakers and writers persuade an audience to adopt their point of view.

Built around Harvard Professor James Engell’s on-campus course, “Elements of Rhetoric,” this course will help you analyze and apply rhetorical structure and style, appreciate the relevance of persuasive communication in your own life, and understand how to persuade and recognize when someone is trying to persuade you. You will be inspired to share your viewpoint and discover the most powerful ways to convince others to champion your cause. Join us to find your voice!

Course Outline

Introduction to Rhetoric

• Define the term "rhetoric."
• Articulate the importance of effective communication.
• Summarize the history of rhetorical study, from the ancient Greeks to the modern-day.
• Identify the parts of discourse.
• Define the three modes of appeal.
• Identify tropes and schemes, and explain their use in composition.
• Compose an opinion editorial on a topic of your choice.

Civil Rights - Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Analyze Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream…” speech
• Define inductive reasoning and some of its associated topics
• Identify instances of inductive reasoning in writing and speech
• Define deductive reasoning and some of its associated topics
• Identify instances of deductive reasoning in writing and speech
• Recognize and evaluate the strength of an argument's refutation
• Apply the elements of rhetoric you have learned so far into the final draft of your op-ed

Gun Control - Sarah Brady and Charlton Heston

• Analyze Sarah Brady’s Democratic National Convention Keynote Speech.
• Analyze Charlton Heston’s speech on the Second Amendment.
• Define “inductive reasoning” and some of its associated topics
• Define “deductive reasoning” and some of its associated topics
• Recognize and evaluate the strength of an argument’s refutation
• Apply the elements of rhetoric you have learned so far in the final draft of your op-ed

Introduction to Oratory

• Describe the origins of the practice of oratory.
• Recognize ways in which orators tailor their writing for the spoken word.
• Describe techniques for effective public speaking, both prepared and extemporaneous.
• Brainstorm ideas for your own short speech.

The Red Scare - Joseph McCarthy and Margaret Chase Smith

• Analyze Joseph McCarthy’s “Enemies Within” speech.
• Analyze Margaret Chase Smith’s "A Declaration of Conscience" speech.
• Identify the modes of appeal and the logical reasoning of the featured speeches.
• Identify both common and special topics used in these speeches, like cause and effect, testimony, justice and injustice, and comparison, and begin to recognize their use in other speeches.
• Identify examples from these speeches of logical fallacies including the either/or fallacy, the fallacy of affirming the consequent, the argument ad hominem, the argument ad populum, begging the question, the complex question, and the use of imprecise language.
• Discuss the importance of winning and keeping an audience’s trust and the pros and cons of attempting to tear down their confidence in an opponent.
• Define for yourself the definition of "extremist rhetoric," debate its use as a political tool.
• Consider the moral responsibilities of those who would seek to persuade others through language.

Presidential Rhetoric - John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan

• Discuss how the audience and the desired tone for a speech can influence diction (word choice).
• Compare the effects of using passive vs. active voice, and first-person vs. other tenses in a speech.
• Discuss the effectiveness of the use of symbolism in writing and speech.
• Define hyperbole, antimetabole, and polysyndeton, and identify when these devices might be appropriate and useful in terms of persuasion.
• Describe techniques for connecting with your audience, including storytelling and drawing on shared experience.

Instructors

James Engell

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8 Rhetorical Strategies to Persuade Your Audience

If you’ve ever had a conversation with someone who thinks the opposite of you, then you know how challenging it is to persuade them. Even when addressing a receptive audience, having people join your side takes skill and precision. Persuasion is far from an exact science, but influential leaders know how to weave different rhetorical strategies together to create a compelling argument. Their rhetorical choices form the backbone of their persuasion technique, which you can emulate to perfect your own skills. Whether preparing a new speech or writing an article, you can use these strategies to move people closer to your point of view.

What Are Rhetorical Strategies?

Common rhetorical choices, 1. similes and metaphors, examples of similes, examples of metaphors, 2. euphemisms, examples of euphemisms, 3. chiasmus, examples of chiasmus, 4. cause and effect.

You can also use ethos to convince people of your opinion. This rhetorical device involves appealing to others’ sense of  ethical values  by showing your credibility, reliability, and good character. This isn’t always a simple feat to pull off, especially when people have little familiarity with you. However, establishing that you’re trustworthy helps sway people to your side.

How to gain the audience’s trust:

8. narration.

Narration, which is essentially storytelling, is another strategy you can use to connect with your audience. People identify with stories more than they do statistics, even in academic writing. The best storytellers seamlessly incorporate their evidence and arguments into the stories they share. That doesn’t mean an entire speech or article should consist of one or multiple stories, but they can back up the central point of your argument. The right story at the right time can serve as the exclamation point of your persuasive piece, whether it’s real or a rhetorical situation. It’s a powerful strategy that helpfully places issues in perspective.

Avoid Logical Fallacies

The power of persuasion is yours.

The above rhetorical strategies can help you start writing or practicing a verbal argument that persuades people to come to your side of the fence. In business, the power to influence others through  assertive communication  is essential once you know what course you want to take. No matter the debate, also show respect and courtesy and don’t let arguments become personal. For example, you might want to ask the other person genuine questions about their position. Through a healthy and polite discourse, you’ll eventually reach an agreement that both sides can appreciate.

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