Rhetorical techniques

If you look hard enough, rhetorical devices can be fun. Logos, Ethos, and Pathos, the three techniques of Rhetoric, are most often associated with boring essays and annoying television ads. Quite often, these assumptions are true. But if you open your mind, the art and science of speech can be used for entertainment. For instance, all three of the techniques of Rhetoric can be used to build up towards the punch line of a joke. Even storywriters use Rhetoric to get you invested in the characters and plot of their books. The possibilities are endless! In this essay, I will give you some more specific examples of Rhetoric in fun places. By the end, I hope you will have more fun when writing your next college essay. The first example is a video provided by the Comedy Central Network entitled “Drunk History - Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks”. The…

Even a century long time after his death, Wilfred Owen is still famous for his war poetry written during World War 1. In his poem, Owen uses various language techniques to vividly illustrate the horrendous reality of the war. Hence, he communicates his own anti-war feelings implied beneath his techniques. However, although he is now known as an anti-war poet, for once, he had been a naive boy, who had volunteered to fight in war. At first, he was thrilled to fight for one’s country. But soon,…

Martin Luther King, a black civil right campaigner, gave an unforgettable speech called “I Have a Dream” on August 28, 1963, commemorating the centennial of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and urging President John F. Kennedy to pass civil rights bill. King’s purpose of giving this speech is to eliminate the inequality of treatment to black people, to express the necessities of eradicating racial inequality and to pursue the improvement of future changes. He adopted a dramatic tone in order…

Samuel Johnson uses many rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices in his essay “Rambler”. Rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices can be used in many different ways to argue a point, persuade, and make something memorable. The devices and strategies that Johnson uses include appeal to logos, and high diction. The first rhetorical strategy that Johnson uses is an appeal to logos. An appeal to logos is when an author appeals to the reader’s sense of logic to make the reader see their point…

Mei Vandervelde, the author, develops the thematic conflict by using rhetorical devices to emphasize certain points, project the feelings of the character and to keep the reader moving through the piece in a way that they end up focusing on key, intentional points. The authors goal in this piece is to build to a specific climax. In the beginning there is a small climax, a foreshadowing of what is to come and to show the conflict between the character and the river. Vandervelde uses polysyndeton…

The use of excessive STEM will not increase our knowledge, but it will prepare us and possibly our educational system. In We Can’t All Be Math Nerds and Science Geeks, Fareed Zakaria uses statistics, rhetorical questions, and hyperboles to convey how society is obsessed with STEM; he argues about how intricate it’ll be for America to be creative. Zakaria’s position is strong, and the strength of his argument is persuasive because of the rhetorical devices he applies to express his opinion about…

The formal definition of a dummy is a representation or copy of something, as for displaying to indicate appearance:The word dummy has numerous definition and can be used in many ways. The word dummy doesn't always carry a pleasant connotation; in fact, nowadays, calling someone a dummy brings this image of a stupid person and can be an insult. The word dummy has evolved throughout history. In the 1590’s a dummy was defined as a mute person. In the 1500’s Geronimo Cardano’s son would be…

In literature, authors use rhetorical devices and strategies to relay important information to the reader as well as an underlying point they want the reader to remember after finishing the piece. Depending on the authors audience as well as their attitude towards the matter at hand, affects which rhetorical devices they choose to employ. Throughout the article, “There’s More to Life than Being Happy”, the author deploys many rhetorical devices and strategies such as logos, pathos, ethos, and…

Author, Richard Wright, in his autobiography, “Black Boy” reflects back on the struggle he had to go through during his early childhood. Wright’s purpose is to inform the readers about the struggles he had had to go through as a black boy in the South during the Jim Crow era. Wright’s other purpose is to express his feelings about what happened to him and what he saw along the way. In order to write the novel “Black Boy,” Richard Wright uses many rhetorical devices. Some of the many rhetorical…

Perfume Genius’s track “Hood” is a song of intense complexity, as well as beautiful, simple tragedy. Perfume Genius, the stage name of Mike Hadreas, is a one-man solo artist, and “Hood” is the ninth song on a twelve track album called Put Your Back N 2 It, released in 2012. Hadreas is openly gay, and sexuality plays a large part in many of his works, “Hood” being a prime example, although not the central focus of the song. With various interpretations and subjective relatability, the true…