Rhetorical Devices

Checklist: Rhetorical Devices

1. Sentence Structure

Are the sentences long or short? Why do they change?

Are they often fragments? Are there any interruptions?

Is the word-order straightforward or unconventionally crafted?

2. Pace

Is the writing heavily descriptive, with emphasis on setting and atmosphere, or does it focus on action and plot movement?

3. Diction

Is the writing tight and efficient, or elaborate and long-winded?

When does the author use one or the other mode, and why?

4. Vocabulary

Are the words simple or fancy? Are they technical, flowery, colloquial, cerebral, punning, obscure (and so on...)?

5. Figures of speech

Are there any metaphors?

Similes?

Symbols?

Hyperbole?

Analogy?(The comparison of two pairs that have the same relationship)

Are there any other uses of figurative language (personification, \and so on)?

What purpose do they serve?

6. Tone

What is the author’s attitude? Does the author seem sarcastic? Aggressive? Wistful? Pessimistic? Hopeful? Ironic? Bitter? (And so on...)

Whatever the tone, where is it visible in the text?

7. Imagery

Language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.

8. Paragraph Structure

Are paragraphs very short, or are they enormous blocks running across many pages? How many are there, how are they organized, and why is this important?

9. Sequencing / Chronology

How has the author organized the text? To what effect? What is the work’s structural “rhythm”?

10. Allusions

11 Repetition of certain words:

12.Flashback

13. Foreshadowing

14.Allusion

15. Logos

16. Ethos

17. Pathos

How and how often does the author refer to other texts, myths, symbols, famous figures, historical events, quotations, and so on?

Why, with all the words at his or her disposal, does a writer choose to repeat particular words?

Action that interrupts to show an event that happened at an earlier time which is necessary to better understanding.

The use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature.

A reference to something real or fictional, to someone, some event, or something in the Bible, history, literature, or any phase of culture.

Appeals to the head using logic

Appeals to the conscience, ethics, morals, standards, values, principles.

Appeals to the heart, emotions, sympathy, passions, sentimentality