1. AP LANG TEST REVIEW: RHETORICAL DEVICES

2. APPEALS LOGOS (LOGICAL)-- ETHOS (ETHICAL)-- PATHOS (EMOTIONAL)—
Aphorisms—general truths (not appeals, but they usually appeal to audiences)

3. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE You probably already know…
SIMILES AND METAPHORS
PERSONIFICATION, ALLITERATION, AND ONOMATOPOEIA
HYPERBOLE
APHORISM
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
PARADOX
UNDERSTATEMENT

4. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Words that you may not know…
Metonymy—
Synecdoche—
Bombast—
Malapropism—
Pun—

5. Tone Author’s attitude or sentiments revealed by the writer’s style.
A writer’s tone ISN’T informative! Try to decide if it’s positive or negative….
THEN, choose a more precise word
Ex. Didactic, compassionate, sardonic, pedantic, etc.
**Look for tone shifts in passages!

6. DICTION “WORD CHOICE” Don’t say, “The writer uses diction…”
Duh! Let’s say, “The diction in…proves…”
or jump right to a rhetorical device.
“The juxtaposition of ____ proves____”
Identifying diction:
Formal? Informal? Slang? Colloquial? Jargon? Precise? Metaphorical?
Think—how do you define the words?

7. SYNTAX “Sentence Structure” Types, purposes, lengths,
Structure—normal word order? Inverted?
Punctuation—use of commas, exclamation marks, questions, semi-colons—for what effect?
Parts of Speech—notice a lot of adj? nouns? Verbs? WHY? To what effect?

8. Author’s Purpose “to + verb” To persuade… To entertain… To show…
To explain…
Be sure you can add to these infinitives!

9. Repetition a.k.a. Transformers and Diseases
Polysyndeton--
Asyndeton—
Anaphora—
Anadiplosis—
Epanalepsis—
Epistrophe—

10. Parallel Structure Parallelism-- Antithesis—
Juxtaposition—contrasting ideas, images
Chiasmus—Inversion of parallel ideas within a sentence. Ex. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” JFK
Zeugma—a controlling idea to describe 2 ideas but only applies to 1 logically
Ex. He carried the light for men and the responsibility of a nation.
Ex. “You held your breath and the door for me.” (Thanks Alannis!)

11. Comedic Devices "A eugooglizer. One who speaks at funerals
Comedic Devices "A eugooglizer. One who speaks at funerals. Or did you think I'd be to stupid to know what a eugoogly was?" -Zoolander
Pun
Litote
Sarcasm
Malapropism
Irony
Satire
Wit

12. Comedic Devices, take 2! Burlesque Hyperbole Mockery Parody Tautology
Lampoon

13. FALLACIES Just the top 12…
Ad hominem—
Misleading Statistics—
Ad populum—
Red Herring-
Ad Verecundiam—
Begging the Question—
Post Hoc

14. FALLACIES, again Scare Tactics Either/Or Fallacy Oversimplification
Hasty Generalization
Non Sequitur