Rhetorical Devices
Terms
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- antimetabole
- repetition of words in successive clauses that are reversed in grammatical order
- aphorism
- a short statement of general truth
- appeal to tradition
- it's always been this way, let's keep it this way
- inductive reasoning
- reasoning from specific to general
- polysyndeton
- use of many conjunctions in successive clauses
- tricolon crescendo
- climax with 3 phrases/ideas/clauses
- anastrophe
- inversion of word order (yoda speak)
- oversimplification
- reduction of a complex issue to too simple idea
- either/or reasoning
- tendency to see something as only having 2 sides
- concession
- reluctant acknowledgment
- pathos
- appeal to emotion
- slippery slope
- one thing will lead to another (worst-case scenario)
- chiasmus
- reverse grammatical order with different words
- epanalepsis
- repetition of a word at beginning and end of same clause
- two wrongs don't make a right
- just because someone else did something wrong doesn't mean you can do something wrong
- ad populem
- "to the crowd" a misconception that an occurrence is widespread to make it seem right
- pedantry
- a display of narrow-minded and trivial scholarship; an arbitrary adherence to specifics of an argument
- ad hominem
- "to the individual" targets individuals' characteristics, not the argument
- anachronism
- error in chronology
- apposition
- use of appositive
- anaphora
- repetition of same word at beginning of successive clauses
- hasty generalization
- drawing a premature conclusion based on only a few cases
- propaganda
- writing or images that seek to persuade through emotional appeal
- ignoring the question
- don't try to address the question
- rhetorical question
- asking a question to assert or deny something, not to get an answer
- deductive reasoning
- reasoning from general to specific
- counterargument
- challenge to a position
- straw man
- instead of attacking opponents argument, they attack a similar argument that is easier to attack
- asyndeton
- lack of conjunction in successive clauses
- faulty authority
- reference to people who aren't actually authority
- begging the question
- taking for granted something that needs to be proven
- antithesis
- parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas
- circular reasoning
- trying to prove something with another idea that is too similar
- non sequitur
- an inference or conclusion that doesn't follow established evidence
- false analogy
- analogy that doesn't word
- parallelism
- repetition of similar grammatical patterns
- logos
- appeal to logic
- climax
- arrangement of words/phrases/clauses in order of increasing importance (min. 3)
- post hoc ergo propter hoc
- assuming that an incident that precedes another is the cause of the second incident
- anadiplosis
- repetition of last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause
- epistrophe
- repetition of word at end of successive clauses
- ethos
- character of person