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Rhetorical Devices

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Anaphora
Repetition of one or more words at the head of consecutive phrases, clauses, or sentences: “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
Analogy The comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining and clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one."Pupils are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and persistence."
Amplification
An expansion of detail to clarify a point: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”
Asyndeton
Absence of conjunctions: “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.”
Distinctio
A definition or clarification of a term: “What we will be seeking . . . will be large, stable communities of like-minded people, which is to say relatives.”
Epistrophe
The repetition of a word at the end of each phrase or clause: “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Expletive
A single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis to the words immediately proximate to the expletive. "In short, the cobbler had neglected his soul."
Hypophora
A figure of speech in which the speaker asks a question and then answers the question; “What is George Bush doing about our economic problems? He has raised taxes on the people driving pickup trucks and lowered taxes on the people riding in limousines.”
Procatalepsis Statement followed by immediate refutation. “You can take off pounds safely with diet alone. No, you cannot, the only healthy method involves both exercise and moderate restriction of calories.”
Understatement A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. “Well, that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?" (Dinner guest, after a visit from the Grim Reaper, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life)

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