Rhetorical Devices –
Structures within language that appeal to readers or
listeners and communicate ideas.
• Rhetorical Question –
• A question to which no answer is expected
• Antithesis –
• Expressing contrasting ideas in parallel grammatical structures
• Repetition –
• Recurrence of phrases, words, or lines
• Parallelism –
• A kind of repetition in which words, phrases, or lines that connect
ideas within the same grammatical structure
• Rhetorical Appeals:
• Ethos - “ethics, credibility or trustworthiness” – Credentials, reputation
• Pathos - “emotional appeal” – Figurative language, personal
connections
• Logos - “logic or reasoning” – Facts, statistics, research
*This information originates from the Holt McDougal American Literature text, page 229.