Rhetorical Devices1.1 Techniques Authors/Speakers Use to Manipulate Language in order to Persuade

A short reference to a famous person or event (the best sources for allusions are literature, history, Greek myth, and the Bible, as they must be easily understood). It is also important that it explains, or enhances the subject under discussion without sidetracking the listener. "If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over again" Allusion

A kind of extended METAPHOR or long SIMILE in which a comparison is made between two things in order to develop a line of reasoning. While it is similar to simile, similes are generally more artistic and brief, while an analogy is longer and explains a thought process. "Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself" - Samuel Johnson Analogy

One of the most common rhetorical devices, this deliberately contrasts two opposing ideas in consecutive phrases or sentences. "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor bastard die for his country" - General George Patton Antithesis

A figure of speech where words or phrases are arranged in order of increasing importance or emphasis. It is often used with PARALLELISM because it offers a sense of continuity, order, and movement-up the ladder of importance. "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth" - Frank Borman, Apollo 8 astronaut Climax (Gradatio)

A figure of reasoning in which one or more questions or objections is/are asked or stated and then answered by the speaker; reasoning aloud (i.e. the original 'rhetorical question)'. "'But there are only three hundred of us,' you object. Three hundred, yes, but men, but armed, but Spartans, but at Thermoplyae: I have never seen three hundred so numerous" - Seneca Hypophora

The repetition of the same words in the middle of successive sentences. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" —2 Corinthians 4:8-9 Mesodiplosis

A device which is a figure of balance identified by successive words or phrases with the same or very similar grammatical structure. "We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic" - George W. Bush Parallelism

A comparison between two different things that resemble each other, comparing an unfamiliar thing to some familiar thing known to the listener, usually prefaced with the word 'like’ "Seeing John Major govern the country is like watching Edward Scissorhands try to make balloon animals" - Simon Hoggart Simile