Rhetorical Terms Review

A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

• Rhetorical device

• Allusion

• Anecdote

Answer explanation

Ex: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” (Dr. MLK Jr.'s reference to Abraham Lincoln)

An instruction to the audience to provoke an immediate response, usually using an imperative verb such as "call now", "find out more" or "visit a website today".

• Charged words

• Call to Action

• Anticipate the Opposition

Answer explanation

Ex: “You must join me in making your community a safer place to live for yourself and your children by supporting the Mothers Against Drunk Driving campaign.”

A word or combination of words that are meant to make the reader feel a strong emotion

• Charged words

• Call to Action

• Anticipate the Opposition

Answer explanation

Ex: "Thugs taunt a victim after a brutal mugging."

An appeal using one’s reputation or credibility

• Ethos

• Pathos

• Logos

Answer explanation

Ex: “During my past eight years in office, I’ve proven myself as someone who stands up for the common man…”

An exaggeration

• Hyperbole

• Onomatopoeia

• Metaphor

Answer explanation

Ex: “Imagine a world where our oceans were unusable due to enormous piles of trash…”

An appeal using logic, reasoning, data, and facts

• Ethos

• Pathos

• Logos

Answer explanation

Ex: “To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year’s space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year–a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year.” (John F Kennedy)

An appeal using emotion

• Ethos

• Pathos

• Logos

Answer explanation

Ex: “The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.” (John F Kennedy)

A question that does not require an answer because the answer is obvious

• Rhetorical question

• Rhetorical devices

• Rhetoric

Answer explanation

Ex: Isn’t it rational to think so?

What rhetorical device is used in the following quote:

"We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne..."

• antithesis

• parallelism

• apposition

• epistrophe

What rhetorical device is being used in the following quote:

"So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania..."

• antimetabole

• epistrophe

• anaphora

• rhetorical question