ENG2D Unit 1: Literary Terms

Rhetorical Devices

Instructions:

For each Literary Term box, fill in all of the missing sections. Write the title of the term in the top section; write a definition/description in the left column. In the bottom row, write an example. In the right column, sketch an image or jot down any kind of connection you can make to the term to help you remember it (optional).

Literary Term: Rhetorical Devices
Definition/Description:
- Techniques that are used to create a certain effect on an audience;
- Ways of arranging words and ideas to help achieve your purpose (to emphasize, shock, add humour,etc).
- Also referred to as Literary Devices. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Figurative Language
Definition/Description:
- A word or phrase that differs from everyday usage for the sake of comparison, emphasis or clarity – not meant to be taken literally. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Simile
Definition/Description: / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another;
- An indirect comparison, NOT using “like” or “as”.
- A type of figurative language – not meant to be taken literally / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- The attribution of human qualities to animals or things;
- Giving humanlike qualities or human form to objects and abstractions.
- Personification is a form of metaphor. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- A gentler, more politically correct way of saying something that could be offensive or upsetting. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Imagery
Definition/Description: / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- When there is a contrast between what happens and what was expected (or what would seem appropriate). / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- An instance of indirect casual reference – can be a reference to a person, event, place, literary piece, or work of art. It can be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Analogy
Definition/Description:
- A comparison of an unfamiliar object or idea to a familiar one in an attempt to explain or illuminate the unfamiliar. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- A very brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature.
- A short narrative of an interesting or funny event.
- A little story, often amusing, inserted in an essay or a speech to help reinforce the thesis. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- Imitative harmony à the sound that a word makes imitates the sound it describes.
- Words that sound like the objects they name or the sounds those objects make. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Oxymoron
Definition/Description: / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- A play on words wherein a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time. / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Satire
Definition/Description:
- Ridicule, irony, or sarcasm in speech or writing (or media)
- A novel, play, etc. that ridicules people’s hypocrisy or foolishness in this way / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Alliteration
Definition/Description: / Image/Connection:
Example:
Literary Term: Assonance
Definition/Description: / Image/Connection:
Example: “Because of his fleet feet and a quick sweep, the Greek easily won the martial arts meet.”
Literary Term: ______
Definition/Description:
- putting two contrasting ideas side by side
- the arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development / Image/Connection:
Example: A war scene shown in a documentary with the song “It’s a Beautiful Life” playing in the background.
Literary Term: Any others you can think of? ______
Definition/Description: / Image/Connection:
Example:
Sentence Structure à The composition of a sentence has a significant impact on how a reader/listener is affected
Parallel Structure (Parallelism): refers to the use of the same form for words, phrases, or clauses that have equal value and function.
- the similarity of structure may convey equality of ideas, or emphasize contrast, or set up climactic order, or create aesthetic form and balance and rhythm, or pile up evidence, or create a memorable beginning or end to a work—or all of these. / Example #1: Abraham Lincoln’s “government of the people, by the people, for the people” (preposition, definite article, and noun are repeated in a series)
Example #2: “Let us consider the origin and development of medicine.”
Example #3: Her voice was low, soft, and pleasant.”
Sentence Fragment: A sentence that is incomplete (it is missing either a subject or a verb); places emphasis on key words to create an overall effect, such as humour or suspense. / Example: “A cold room. A lonely room. A bare room. No place to spend twenty years of a life.”
Short Sentences: A complete sentence that is very short; used to present strong feelings, create dramatic effect, or for emphasis. / Example: “The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)
Long Sentences: used to develop suspense, show contrast, provide description, create mood, etc. / Example: “The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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