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| 10179594916 | Allusion A brief, informally introduced reference to a fairly well-known event, place, text, or person. Purpose: to help readers see a broader picture, to evoke a negative or positive feeling, or to add credibility to writing. (In this case, the title is taken from a monologue in Macbeth and thus alludes to Shakespeare's play.) | The title of William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury. | 0 | |
| 10179597647 | Amplification Repetition of something just said while adding more detail to the original description. Purpose: to add style to the phrase being amplified. | I ate a lot of ice cream - mountains of creamy, luscious ice cream, dripping with syrup. | 1 | |
| 10179612480 | Anadiplosis Repeating the last word of a sentence or phrase near the beginning or the next sentence or phrase; used this way words end up near one another, so their repetition becomes very apparent. Purpose: to create a beautiful sound while effectively putting the reader's focus on a key word. | Chicken for dinner? Dinner will be ruined! Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. | 2 | |
| 10179639383 | Analogy Makes use of something already well known to explain something less well known by comparison. Purpose: helps readers quickly see precisely what the writer means. | Appointing a Wall Street insider to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission is like telling a fox to guard the henhouse. Asking the wealthy nations of the world to feed the impoverished nations is like asking people on a full lifeboat to take on more passengers. | 3 | |
| 10179641465 | Anaphora The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. Purpose: to build a sense of climax. | "As Caesar loved me, I weep for him. As he was fortunate, I rejoice at it. As he was valiant, I honor him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him." (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 3.2.23-25) | 4 | |
| 10179674189 | Antanagoge A way of ordering points to downplay the negatives so that readers feels less strongly about them. Purpose: to suggest the benefits more than outweigh the costs of the subject. | True, he always forgets my birthday, but he buys me presents all year round. The new anti-pollution equipment will increase the price of the product slightly, I am aware; but the effluent water from the plant will be actually cleaner than the water coming in. | 5 | |
| 10179643666 | Antithesis The contrasting of ideas by the use of parallel structure in phrases or clauses. | "I came to bury Caesar, not to praise him." (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 3.2.71) "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 3.2.20-21) | 6 | |
| 10179696219 | Aporia Used to express doubt or ignorance--feigned or real—about an idea. Purpose: to show a variety of sides to an argument without personally committing to any, to give a personal opinion on something while appearing to express ignorance, or to seem to address a point while actually dismissing it. | I am not sure whether to side with those who say that higher taxes reduce inflation or with those who say that higher taxes increase inflation. I have never been able to decide whether I really approve of dress codes, because extremism seems to reign both with them and without them. | 7 | |
| 10179705411 | Apostrophe Interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified thing. Purpose: to express the force and emotion that the writer has become so caught up in that he/she must break free and speak directly to something or someone. | O books who alone are liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and enfranchise all who serve you faithfully! O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! | 8 | |
| 10179725815 | Asyndeton Leaving out conjunctions in a list or between words, phrases, or clauses. Purpose: gives the feeling of fast movement to the writing, rather than a list that drags out. | He was a winner, a hero. She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates, pretzels. | 9 | |
| 10179748161 | Chiasmus (form of parallelism) A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed, or flipped around; the crisscross figure. Instead of an A,B structure (e.g., "learned unwillingly") paralleled by another A,B structure ("forgotten gladly"), the A,B will be followed by B,A ("gladly forgotten"). So instead of writing, "What is learned unwillingly is forgotten gladly," you could write, "What is learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten." Purpose: to lend extra impact to a statement through the more ornate style. | "What is learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten." | 10 | |
| 10179766303 | Climax Organizing ideas in writing so that they proceed from the least to the most important. Purpose: to establish a progression of ideas rather than a list of individual items, driving home the buildup of ideas. | The concerto was applauded at the house of Baron von Schnooty, it was praised highly at court, it was voted best concerto of the year by the Academy, it was considered by Mozart the highlight of his career, and it has become known today as the best concerto in the world. | 11 | |
| 10179771432 | Conduplicatio Takes an important word from anywhere in one sentence or phrase and repeats it at the beginning of the next sentence or phrase. Purpose: to help guide the reader from one idea to the next by aiming directly at the key point of discussion. | If this is the first time duty has moved him to act against his desires, he is a very weak man indeed. Duty should be cultivated and obeyed in spite of its frequent conflict with selfish wishes. | 12 | |
| 10179778333 | Distinctio Elaborating on the definition of a word to make sure there is no misunderstanding. Purpose: to clarify for the reader exactly what the writer means to say. | To make methanol for twenty-five cents a gallon is impossible; by "impossible" I mean currently beyond our technological capabilities. Mr. Haskin describes the process as a simple one. If by simple he means easy to explain on paper, he is correct. But if he means there are no complexities involved in getting it to work, he is quite mistaken. | 13 | |
| 10179787402 | Enthymeme An informally-stated syllogism which omits either one of the premises or the conclusion. The omitted part must be clearly understood by the reader. Purpose: to simplify abstract concepts to obtain a better understanding of the validity of those ideas, especially when one premise is not particularly strong or might hurt the main point of the argument. | Since your application was submitted before April 10th, it will be considered. [Omitted premise: All applications submitted before April 10 will be considered.] He is an American citizen, so he is entitled to due process. [All American citizens are entitled to due process.] | 14 | |
| 10179798170 | Enumeratio Refers to the act of supplying a list of details about something. Purpose: used structurally to expand on a central idea, lending force to that idea by enumerating its many facets. | I love her eyes, her hair, her nose, her cheeks, her lips [etc.]. When the new highway opened, more than just the motels and restaurants prospered. The stores noted a substantial increase in sales, more people began moving to town, a new dairy farm was started, the old Main Street Theater doubled its showings and put up a new building... | 15 | |
| 10179806558 | Epistrophe Repeating the same word or phrase at the end of multiple clauses or sentences. Purpose: to build emphasis; the phrase becomes a sort of punctuation mark which the reader expects to find each time. | Where affections bear rule, there reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all things else that withstand evil, for ever are subdued. And all the night he did nothing but weep Philoclea, sigh Philoclea, and cry out Philoclea. | 16 | |
| 10179815514 | Epithet Attaching a descriptive adjective to a noun to bring a scene to life or evoke a particular idea or emotion. Purpose: English has a large selection of adjectives; this technique allows writers to craft the exact image they want. | laughing happiness sneering contempt untroubled sleep peaceful dawn life-giving water | 17 | |
| 10179824242 | Eponym Referring to a specific famous person to link his or her attributes with someone else. Purpose: to evoke specific emotions and add credibility to writing by proving the writer is informed and educated. | Is he smart? Why, the man is an Einstein. With a bow and arrow, Kathy is a real Diana. | 18 | |
| 10179835151 | Equivocation A common fallacy of ambiguity, where a word or phrase is used with two distinct meanings, but the conclusion is drawn as if there were only one meaning. This can create statements which are both compelling and incorrect, either by accident or by design. Purpose: subtle fallacies may be deliberate, designed to confuse an issue, to conceal an argument's weaknesses, or connect to unrelated points. Identifying and exposing these flaws can quickly tear down otherwise compelling arguments. | There is a Pink Panther movie in which Inspector Clouseau enters a quaint European hotel and, upon spying a cute little dog, asks the owner, "Does your dog bite?" The manager responds, "No," and Clouseau attempts to pet the dog, which growls and bites him. "You told me that your dog doesn't bite!" exclaims Clouseau. "That's not my dog," responds the owner. | 19 | |
| 10179862044 | Exemplum Simply providing the reader with an example to illustrate the writer's point; may be factual or fictional as long as fictional examples are presented as hypothetical rather than factual. Purpose: to support the point the writer is trying to make in a way that seems natural. | Let me give you an example. In the early 1920's in Germany, the government let the printing presses turn out endless quantities of paper money, and soon, instead of 50-pfennig postage stamps, denominations up to 50 billion marks were being issued. | 20 | |
| 10179869581 | Hortatory Speech or writing that urges or commands an audience to follow (or not follow) a particular course of action. Purpose: to persuade the audience to follow a particular course of action. | 21 |
