Literary

Devices for
AHMAD
 W H AT A R E L I T E R A RY D E V I C E S ?

Literary devices are ways of taking writing beyond its

straightforward, literal meaning. They help guide the
reader in how to read the piece.
METAPHOR,
SIMILE,
ANALOGY

They all are comparison

literary devices.
 METAPHOR
A metaphor is a statement in
which two objects, often unrelated,
are compared to each other.
Example of metaphor: ”This tree is
the god of the forest.”

Obviously, the tree is not a god—it

is, in fact, a tree. However, by
stating that the tree is the god,
the reader is given the image of
something strong, large, and
immovable. Additionally, using “god”
to describe the tree, rather than
a word like “giant” or
“gargantuan,” makes the tree
feel like a spiritual centre of the
forest.
METAPHOR

Metaphors allow the writer to pack multiple

descriptions and images into one short sentence.
The metaphor has much more weight and value
than a direct description. If the writer chose to
describe the tree as “the large, spiritual
centre of the forest,” the reader won’t
understand the full importance of the tree’s
size and scope.
 METAPHOR

• The grandfather’s clock is king of the family room furniture.

• The grandfather’s clock became a death knell for her
childhood.
• The grandfather’s clock had the face of an estranged lover.

Let’s address what each of these metaphors accomplish. The first

metaphor shows us the clock’s size and importance; the second
metaphor shows us the clock’s ominous presence, focusing on
its sound; the third metaphor treats the clock as forlorn and
solitary.
METAPHOR

• Metaphors rely on the suspension of disbelief—in

other words, the reader knows they’re
being lied to but accepts it anyway.
• Metaphors can be imaginative—magical, even!—
but they must be relevant.
• The metaphor is much more “complete” than the
simile.
METAPHOR

Use of metaphors:
• As verbs: ”The song ignited his lust but snuffed out her
interest.”
• As adjectives and adverbs: ”Her
carnivorous brush ate up the canvas.”
• As prepositional phrases: ”The old man considered the
scene with a blue-white vulture’s eye.”
• As appositives or modifiers: ”On the
stairs he stood, a gawking scarecrow.”
SIMILE

Similes, also known as indirect comparisons, are similar in

construction to metaphors, but they imply a different meaning.
Like metaphors, two unrelated objects are being compared to
each other. Unlike a metaphor, the comparison relies on the
words “like” or “as”, or another comparative
preposition.
Example of simile: ”This tree is like the god of the
forest.” OR: “This tree acts as the god of the forest.”
SIMILE

• My cat is as loud as Yankee Stadium.

• My cat is soft and fluffy, like a teddy bear.
• My cat destroys furniture the way bulldozers
destroy buildings.
These similes offer very different descriptions yet
coexist quite peacefully in my cat—who is, in fact,
loud and soft and destructive.
W H AT I S T H E D I F F E R E N C E B E T W E E N A S I MI L E AND A
METAPHOR?

The obvious difference between these two common literary

devices is that a simile uses “like” or “as,” whereas a
metaphor never uses these comparison words.
ANALOGY

An analogy is an argumentative comparison: it compares

two unalike things to advance an argument. Specifically, it argues
that two things have equal weight, whether that weight be
emotional, philosophical, or even literal. Because analogical
literary devices operate on comparison, it can be considered a
form of metaphor.

For example:
• “Making pasta is as easy as one, two, three.”
• “Gordon Ramsay is to cooking as Meryl Streep is to acting.”
ANALOGY

An analogy has two purposes:

• The identification of a shared relationship.

• The use of somethingfamiliar to describe

something unfamiliar.
ANALOGY

In other forms of creative writing, analogies aren’t as

formulaic but can still prove to be powerful literary devices.
In fact, you probably know this one:
“That which we call a rose / By any other name
would smell as
sweet” —Romeo G Juliet by William Shakespeare
To put this into the modern language of an analogy,
Shakespeare is saying “a rose with no name smells as a rose
with a name does.” The name “rose” does not affect
whether or not the flower smells good.
ANALOGY

• Finding a new species of fish is like finding a

needle in a haystack.
• “That which we call a rose / By any other name
would smell as sweet” —Romeo and Juliet by
Shakespea William
re
• As cold water is to a
thirsty So is good news from a far country. soul,
—Proverbs
25:25
SIMILE VS. METAPHOR VS. ANALOGY

Metaphor: Time is a thief.

Simile: Time is like a thief.
Analogy: Time is like a thief in that thieves steal physical objects and time
steals moments of our lives.

Metaphor: Joe is a pig.

Simile: Joe is as dirty as a pig.
Analogy: Joe's sense of personal hygiene is on the same level as a pig that
rolls around in dirt and mud all day.
IMAGERY

• Imagery can be both literal

and figurative, and it relies on
the interplay of language and
sensation to create a sharper
image in your brain.
• Imagery is what it sounds like—the
use of figurative language
to describe something. In
fact, we’ve already seen imagery
in action through the previous
literary devices: by describing the
tree as a “god”, the tree
looks large and sturdy in the
reader’s mind.
IMAGERY

• Imagery doesn’t just involve

visual descriptions; the
best writers use imagery to
appeal to all five
senses. By appealing to
the reader’s sense of
sight, sound, touch,
taste, and smell, writing
will create a vibrant world
for readers to live and
breathe in.
IMAGERY

Sight imagery: The tree

spread its gigantic, sun-
flecked shoulders. Sound
imagery: The forest was
the
hushed, tree’sresounding
stoic with
echoes
Touc of
imager silence. The
h smooth y: as tree
sandstone. Taste
felt
imagery: The tree’sleaves
tasted bitter, like
unroasted coffee beans.
Smell imagery: As we
approached the tree, the air
IMAGERY

There are two other, less discussed types of

imagery: organic and kinesthetic imagery.
Organic imagery refers to descriptions of internal
sensations—things happening within the body.
Kinesthetic imagery is imagery of motion and
movement—think of the sensations one might
feel when running against the wind.
IMAGERY

Organic imagery: The tree felt its xylem

collapse at the news. (This is also an example
of personification, since trees can’t “feel” the way
people feel.)
Kinesthetic imagery: The tree cooled down as
its own leaves rushed against its bark.
SYMBOLISM

• Symbolism combines a lot of the ideas

presented in metaphor and imagery. Essentially,
a symbol is the use of an object to represent
a concept—it’s kind of like a metaphor,
except more concise!
• Symbols are everywhere in the English language,
and we often use these common literary
devices in speech and design without realizing it.
 A few very commonly used
symbols include:
• “Peace” represented by a white
SYMBOLIS dove.
• “Love” represented by a red rose.
M
• “Conformity” represented by
sheep.
• “Idea” represented by a light
bulb switching on.
 • Personification, giving
human attributes to
nonhuman
powerful objects,
way is
to a foster
empathy in your readers.
• Think about personification as if
PERSONIFICATIO it’s a specific type of
N imagery. You can describe a
nonhuman object through the
five senses, and do so by giving
it
imputehuman thoughts
descriptions.andYou
emotions—
can even mental events—to a
nonhuman or even nonliving thing.
 • Personification (using sight): The
car ran a marathon down the
highway.
• Personification (using
sound): The car coughed,
hacked, and spluttered.
PERSONIFICATIO • Personification(using touch):
N The car was smooth
as a baby’s bottom.
• Personification (using taste):
The car tasted the
• Personificati
bitter asphalt. (using mental
on remembered its
• events):The
Personification(using smell):The
car needed a cold shower. first
car
owner fondly.
H Y P E R BO L
E

Hyperbole refers to any sort

exaggerated
of description or
statement. We use hyperbole all the
time in the English language, and
you’ve probably heard someone
say things like:
• “I’ve been waiting a billion years for
this.”
• “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
• “I feel like a million bucks.”
• “You are the king of the kitchen.”
HYPER BOLE

None of the examples mentioned

above should be interpreted
literally: there are no kings in the
kitchen, and I doubt anyone can
eat an entire horse in one sitting.
This common literary device allows us
to compare our emotions to
something extreme, giving the
reader a sense of how intensely we
feel something in the moment.
IRONY

• Irony is when the writer

describes something by using
opposite language. As a real-
life example, if someone is
having a bad day, they might say
they’re doing “greaaaaaat”,
clearly implying that they’re
actually doing quite un-greatly. Or
a story’s narrator might write:
“Like most bureaucrats, she
felt a boundless love for her job,
and was eager to share that good
feeling with others.”
IRONY

In other words, irony highlights the difference between “what

seems to
be” and “what is.”
In literature, irony can describe dialogue, but it also
describes ironic situations: situations that proceed in ways
that are elaborately contrary to what one would expect.
A clear example of this is in The Wizard of Oz. All of the
characters already have what they are looking for, so when
they go to the wizard and discover that they all have brains,
hearts, etc., their petition—making a long, dangerous journey to
beg for what they already have—is deeply ironic.
JUXTAPOSITIO
N

Juxtaposition refers to
the placement of contrasting
ideas next to each other, often
to produce an ironic or
thought-provoking effect.
Writers use juxtaposition in
both poetry and prose,
though this common literary
device looks slightly
different within each realm of
literature.
JUXTAPOSITIO
N
A famous example comes from
the opening A Tale of Two
Cities by Charles Dickens:
“It was the best of times, it
was the worst of time.”
Dickens opens his novel by
situating his characters into
a world of contrasts, which
is apt for the extreme
wealth disparities pre-
French Revolution.
PARADOX

A paradox is a juxtaposition of contrasting ideas

that, while seemingly impossible, actually reveals a
deeper truth. One of the trickier literary devices,
paradoxes are powerful tools for deconstructing
binaries and challenging the reader’s beliefs.
A simple paradox example comes to us from Ancient
Rome: Catullus 85 (translated from Latin)
“I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you
ask. I know not, but I feel it happening and I am
tortured.”
PARADOX
Often, “hate” and “love” are assumed to be opposing
forces. How is it possible for the speaker to both
hate and love the object of his affection? The poem
doesn’t answer this, merely telling us that the speaker
is “tortured,” but the fact that these binary forces
coexist in the speaker is a powerful paradox.
Catullus 85 asks the reader to consider the
absoluteness of feelings like hate and love, since
both seem to torment the speaker equally.
PARADOX
Another paradox example comes from Oscar
Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
“To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.”
Here, “natural” and “pose” are conflicting ideas.
Someone who poses assumes an unnatural state of
being, whereas a natural pose seems effortless and
innate. Despite these contrasting ideas, Wilde is
exposing a deeper truth: to seem natural is often
to keep up appearances, and seeming natural
often requires the same work as assuming any other
pose.
ALLUSION

Allusion is just a fancy word for a literary reference;

when a writer alludes to something, they are
either directly or indirectly referring to another,
commonly-known piece of art or literature.
The most frequently-alluded to work is probably the
Bible. Many colloquial phrases and ideas stem from
it, since many themes and images from the Bible
present themselves in popular works, as well as
throughout Western culture.
ALLUSION

Any of the following ideas, for example, are Biblical

allusions:
• Referring to a kind stranger as a Good Samaritan.
• Describing an ideal place as Edenic, or the Garden of
Eden.
• Saying someone “turned the other cheek”
when they were passive in the face of adversity.
• When something is describedas lasting
“40 days and 40
nights,” in reference to the flood of Noah’s Ark.
ALLUSION

• Of course, allusion literary devices aren’t

describe
just a woman You
Biblical. as being as beautiful
might as the Mona Lisa,
or you
might call a man as stoic as Hemingway.
• Allusions appeal to common experiences: they are
metaphors in their own right, as we understand what
it means to describe an ideal place as Edenic.
• Like the other common literary devices, allusions
are often metaphors, images, and/or hyperboles. And,
like other literary devices, allusions also have their
own sub-categories.
ALLEGORY

An allegory is a story whose sole purpose is to represent an

abstract concept or idea. As such, allegories are
sometimes extended allusions, but the two common
literary devices have their differences.
ALLEGORY

For example, George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory

for the
deterioration of Communism during the early establishment
of the
U.S.S.R. The farm was founded on a shared goal of
overthrowing the farming elite and establishing an equitable
society, but this society soon declines. Animal Farm
mirrors the Bolshevik Revolution, the overthrow of the
Russian aristocracy, Lenin’s death, Stalin’s execution of
Trotsky, and the nation’s dissolution into an amoral,
authoritarian police state. Thus, Animal Farm is an
allegory/allusion to the U.S.S.R.
EKPHRASIS

Ekphrasis refers to a poem or story that is directly

inspired by another piece of art. Ekphrastic literature
often describes another piece of art.
Ekphrasis can be considered a direct allusion because it
borrows language and images from other artwork.
 An onomatopoeia is a
sounds
word like the noise
that it
Conveying
describes. both a playfulness
ONOMATOPOEIA language
of and a
representation
serious of
everyday sounds,
onomatopoeias draw the
reader into the sensations of
the story itself.
ONOMATOPOEIA

Onomatopoeia words are most often used in poetry and in

comic books, though they certainly show up in works of
prose as well. Some onomatopoeias can be found in
the dictionary, such as “murmur,” “gargle,” and “rumble,”
“click,” and “vroom.” However, writers make up
onomatopoeia words all the time, so while the word “ptoo”
definitely sounds like a person spitting, you won’t find it in
Merriam Webster’s.
ONOMATOPOEIA

Here’s an onomatopoeia example, from the poem “Honky

Tonk in
Cleveland, Ohio” by Carl Sandburg.
“It’s a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes.
The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass
snorts. The banjo tickles and titters too awful.
The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.
The cartoonists weep in their beer.”
PUN

• A pun is a literary device that plays with the sounds and

meanings of words to produce new, often humorous
ideas. For example, let’s say you used too much butter in
your recipe, and it ruined the dish. You might joke that you
were “outside the margarine of error,” which is a play on
the words “margin of error.”
• Puns have a rich literary history, and famous writers like
Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, as well as famous texts
like The Bible, have used puns to add depth and gravity
to their words.
 TYPES OF
REPETITION
IN
L I T E R AT U R E
ANADIPLOSIS

• Anadiplosis is when a word or phrase is repeated in

successive
the clauses.
beginning of the next.
Usually, the phrase shows up at the end of one
• You’ll find anadiplosisoften in classic literature, clause and
and this
device is
especially prevalent in the Bible.
Take this excerpt from the Book of Genesis (1:1-2):
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth. And the
earth was without form, and void.”
ANAPHORA

For the most part, anaphora is an example of repetition in

poetry. This device involves the repeated use of a word or
phrase at the beginning of each line in a poem, or each
sentence in prose.
• In prose, consider this sentence from the novel Farewell, My
Lovely by
Raymond Chandler:
“I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a
vacation, I
needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat,
and a gun.”
ANTANACLASIS

One word can have many different meanings,

especially in the English language. Did you know that
the word “set” has 430 different usages described in
the Oxford English Dictionary?
Antanaclasis harnesses this facet of language so
that each repetition of words has a different meaning.
ANTANACLASIS

Take this example of repetition, from Robert Frost’s

poem “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening”:

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I
sleep, And miles to go
before I sleep.”
ANTANACLASIS

The repetition of the last line, and particularly the

phrase “I sleep,” clues the reader towards two
different meanings. The first “I sleep” is clearly
referring to rest, while the second “I sleep” probably
refers to the speaker’s death. This double meaning
of “sleep” suggests the speaker has much more work
to do before he can comfortably rest, both at night
and at the end of his life.
ANTIMETABOLE

Here, phrases or sentences are repeated in reverse order,

with the intent of juxtaposing different meanings. In
both clauses, the grammatical structure is exactly the same.
See the below repetition examples, each of which uses
inverted word order to emphasize a certain point:
“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”
This quote, spoken by Festes in Shakespeare’s Twelfth
Night, repeats “wit” and “fool” in inverse order. The effect is
that Festes underlines the importance of wit, and that
foolishness and wit are not mutually exclusive: a “fool” or
clown can be witty, which is far better than actually being a
foolish person.
ANTIMETABOLE
Here’s another example of antimetabole, from Zora Neale
Hurston’s
novel Their Eyes Were Watching God:
“Women forget all those things they don’t want to
remember, and remember everything they don’t want to
forget.”

Hurston’s novel frequently dwells on the themes of gender and

society, and this quote sums up the novel’s attitude nicely.
At a time when women were viewed as subservient to their
husbands, Hurston is saying that women are fully in control
of their fate, feelings, and thoughts, defying the typical
gender roles of that era. The antimetabole of “forget” and
“remember” reinforces that sense of control.
ANTISTROPHE

Antistrophe—also known
as epistrophe or epiphora—
is the successive repetition
of a word or phrase at the end
of lines or clauses. Like
anaphora, the eff ect of
antistrophe is the emphasis
of a recurring idea.
ANTISTROPHE
You’ll find an example of antistrophe in the short poem “We Real
Cool” by
Gwendolyn Brooks:
”The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden
Shovel. We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight.
We
Sing sin.
We Thin
gin. We Jazz
June. We
Die soon.”
ANTISTROPHE
The word “We” starts each sentence, but ends each line—
except the last line. This repetition emphasizes two things. First,
it shows the reader the speaker’s lack of identity: he can only
identify as a weak “we,” and that “we” centers itself around
youthful rebellion.

Second, it highlights the poet’s attitude towards the boys.

There is no “we” after the phrase “die soon,” which
underscores the poem’s finality and the poet’s belief that the
CHIASMUS

• Chiasmus, like antimetabole, is the repetition of a

phrase in reverse order. By inverting a phrase, the
writer juxtaposes different or opposite meanings.
• Unlike antimetabole, a chiasmus does not have to
invert a phrase grammatically. The two clauses can
have different lengths and structures. As such,
antimetabole is often viewed as a stricter form of
chiasmus.
CHIASMUS
The following example, from Shakespeare’s
Macbeth, is an example of both chiasmus and
antimetabole, because each inverted clause
preserves the same grammatical structure:
“Fair is foul and foul is fair.”
CHIASMUS
Now, this next quote, from Aeschylus, is an
example of chiasmus, but not of antimetabole,
because each inverted clause has a different
grammatical structure:
“It is not the oath that makes us believe
the man, but the man the oath.”

To summarize: a chiasmus is also an antimetabole,

but not every antimetabole is a chiasmus.
EPANALEPSIS

Epanalepsis refers to repetition of a word or phrase at the

beginning and end of a line, clause, or sentence. This is a
feature of some other types of repetition—chiasmus and
antimetabole, in particular, will often feature an epanalepsis.

This repetition device is just as useful for poets and

storytellers as it is for rhetoricians.
EPANALEPSIS

• “Beloved is mine; she is Beloved.” —Beloved by Toni

Morrison
• “Possessed by what we now no more possessed.” —”
The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost
• “Nothing can be created out of nothing.” —Lucretius
• “Music I heard with you was more than music.
And bread I broke with you was more than bread.” —“
Bread and
Music” by Conrad Aiken
• “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an
end to
EPIMONE

Epimone, a device most often used in dialogue, occurs

when the speaker repeats themselves for the purpose of
dwelling on a point. This repetition doesn’t contribute
anything new to the speaker’s argument, but it often
shows us how the speaker truly feels.
EPIMONE

•Here’s an example from Romeo S

Juliet: NURSE
“O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful
day. Most lamentable day, most
woeful day That ever, ever, I did
yet behold!
O day, O day, O day, O hateful
day.
Never was seen so black a day as
this.
O woeful day, O woeful day.”
EPIZEUXIS

• Epizeuxis, also known as diacope, is the repetition of words

in quick succession.
• There are countless examples of epizeuxis in the poem “
The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe. Each stanza ends with
some variation of the following:
“To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.”
POLYPTOTON

• Polyptoton is the use of two or more words that, though

different, share the same root. The words “bare & barely”
have the same root; so do the word pairs “battle &
embattled” and “lunar & lunatic.”
• Polyptoton was a common facet of Latin and Greek
poetry, since one word has hundreds of forms in
each language. However, modern literature has examples
of polyptoton, too.
POLYPTOTON

Take this excerpt from T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Dry Salvages”:

“There is no end of it, the voiceless wailing,

No end to the withering of withered flowers,
To the movement of pain that is painless and
motionless, To the drift of the sea and the
driftingwreckage,
The bone’s prayer to Death its God. Only the
hardly,
barely prayable
Prayer of the one Annunciation.”
SYMPLOCE

Symploce occurs when a writer uses both anaphora

and antistrophe at the same time. By using symploce,
the writer highlights nuances of meaning and the
differences between the two repeating phrases.
Because symploce happens at both the beginning and
end of a line or sentence, it most often occurs as
repetition in poetry.
SYMPLOCE
Here’s an example of a love poem, “Sonnet 62” by Bartholomew Griffin,
symploce
that has in each
line: true that I must fair Fidessa
“Most
Most true that I fair Fidessa cannot
love.
Most
love. true that I do feel the pains of
Most
love. true that I am captive unto
Most
love. true that I deluded am with
Most
love. true that I do find the sleights of
Most
love. true that nothing can procure her
Most true that I must perish in my
love.
Most
love. true that She contemns the God
Most
of true that he is snarèd with her
love.
Most
love. true that She would have me cease
Most
to true that She herself alone is
love.
Most true that though She hated, I would
Love.
Most
love! true that dearest life shall end with
love.”
W H AT I S T H E E F F E C T O F R E P E T I T I O N ?

• Emphasize key themes and ideas.

• Underscore the relationship between ideas.
• Emulate sounds and experiences.
• Invert ideas for emphasis.
• Juxtapose ideas to challenge the reader.
• Reveal or enhance the author’s writing style.
• Play with multiple meanings and ambiguities.
• Situate an important setting in the text, both figuratively and
literally.
• Suggest a character’s interiority.
PARALLELISM (PARALLEL PLOTS)

Parallelism refers to the plotting of events that are similarly

constructed but altogether separate. Someti mes these parallels
develop on accident, but they are powerful tools for highlighting
important events and themes.

A surprising example of parallelism comes in the form of the Harry

Potter series. As an infant, Harry is almost killed by Voldemort but is
protected by his mother’s love. Eighteen years later, Harry must die
in order to defeat Voldemort, thus shouldering the burden of love
himself.
FOIL CHARACTERS

A foil refers to any two characters who are “opposites” of each

other. These oppositions are often conceptual in nature: one
character may be even-keeled and mild, like Benvolio in Romeo &
Juliet, while another character may be quick-tempered and
pugnacious, like Tybalt.
Foil characters help establish important themes and binaries in
your work. Because Shakespeare wrote Benvolio and Tybalt as foils,
one of the themes in Romeo & Juliet is that of retribution: is it better
to fight for honor or turn the other cheek for love?
DICTION

You’ll often hear that “diction” is just a fancy term for

“word choice.” While this is true, it’s also reductive,
and it doesn’t capture the full importance of select
words in your story. Diction is one of the most
important literary devices in prose, as every prose
writer will use it.
MOOD

The mood of a story or passage refers to the overall

emotional tone it invokes. When writers craft a
mood in their work, they’re heightening the
experience of their story by putting you in the
characters’ shoes. Since mood requires using the
right words throughout a scene, mood can be
considered an extended form of diction.
FORESHADOWING

• Foreshadowing is a powerful literary device in fiction, drawing

readers ever-closer to the story’s climax. A foreshadow
refers to any time the writer hints towards later events
in the story, often underscoring the story’s suspense and
conflict.
• Sometimes foreshadowing is obvious, and sometimes you
don’t notice it until rereading the story. For example, the
foreshadowing in Harry Potter makes it fairly obvious that
Harry will have to die. Once the idea of horcruxes, or “split
souls,” was introduced in the books, it was only a matter of
time before readers connected these horcruxes to the
psychic connection Harry shared with Voldemort. His mission—
to die and be reincarnated—becomes fairly obvious as
the heptalogy comes to a close.
FORESHADOWING
• Sometimes foreshadowing is much more discreet.
In Jane Eyre, for example, it’s clear that many of the
people in Jane’s life are keeping secrets from her.
Rochester doesn’t let anyone know about his
previous marriage but it gets alluded to several
times, and St. John is reluctant to admit that he
does not actually love Jane, foreshadowing Jane’s
return to Rochester. All of this combines to reinforce
Jane’s uncertain place in the world and the journey
she must take to settle down.
IN MEDIA R E S

From the Latin “In the middle of things,” In Media Res

is one of the literary devices in prose chiefly
concerned with plot. In Media Res refers to writing a
story starting from the middle; by throwing the reader
into the center of events, the reader’s interest
piques, and the storytelling bounces between
flashback and present day.
IN MEDIA R E S
• Both fiction and nonfiction writers can use In
Media Res, provided it makes sense to do so. For
example, Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale begins
in the middle of a dystopian society. Atwood leads us
through the society’s establishment and the narrator’s
capture, but all of this is in flashback, because the focus
is on navigating the narrator’s escape from this evil world.
• In Media Res applies well here, because the reader feels
the full intensity of this dystopia from its start. Writers
who are writing stories in either alternate worlds or
very private worlds may benefit from this literary
device in fiction, as it helps keep the reader interested
and attentive.
DRAMATIC IRONY

• Dramatic irony is a literary device in prose in which the

audience understands more about the situation than the
story’s characters do. This is an especially important
literary device in fiction, as it often motivates the reader
to keep reading.
• We often see dramatic irony in stories which involve
multiple points-of-view. For example, the audience
knows that Juliet is still alive, but when Romeo
discovers her seemingly dead body, he kills himself in
grief. How ironic, then, for Juliet to wake up to her lover’s
passing, only to kill herself in equal grief. By using
dramatic irony in the story, Shakespeare points
towards the haphazardness of young love.
VIGNETTE

• A vignette (vin-yet) refers to a passage of prose that’s

primarily descriptive, rather than plot-driven. Vignettes
throw the reader into the scene and emotion, often
building the mood of the story and developing the
character’s lens. They are largely poetic passages with little
plot advancement, but the flourishes of a well-written
vignette can highlight your writing style and the story’s
emotions.
• The story snippets we’ve included are striking examples of
vignettes. They don’t advance the plot, but they push the
reader into the story’s mood. Additionally, the prose
style itself is emotive and poetic, examining the nuances
of life’s existential questions.
FLASHBACK

A flashback refers to any interruption in the story

where the narration goes back in time. The reader
may need information from previous events in order to
understand the present-day story, and flashbacks drop
the reader into the scene itself.
FLASHBACK
• Flashbacks are often used in stories that begin In Media Res,
such as The Handmaid’s Tale. While the main plot of the story
focuses on the narrator’s struggles against Gilead, this
narration frequently alternates with explanations for how
Gilead established itself. The reader gets to see the bombing
of Congress, the forced immigration of POC, and the
environmental/fertility crisis which gives context for Gilead’s
fearmongering. We also experience the narrator’s separation from
her daughter and husband, supplying readers with the story’s highly
emotive world.
SOLILOQUY

• Soliloquy comes from the Latin for self (sol) and talking
(loquy), and self-talking describes a soliloquy perfectly. A
soliloquy is a long speech with no audience in the story.
Soliloquies are synonymous with monologues, though a
soliloquy is usually a brief passage in a chapter, and often
much more poetic.
• As a literary device in prose, soliloquy offers insight
into the characters’ emotions. Soliloquy doesn’t have to
be in dialogue, it can also take the form of private
thoughts, but a soliloquy must be an extended
conversation with oneself that exposes the character’s own
feelings and ideas.
•
SOLILOQUY
Shakespeare’s plays abound with soliloquies.
Here’s an example, pulled from Scene
II Act II of Romeo and Juliet:
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious
moon, Who is already sick and pale
with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more
fair than she.”
Romeo isn’t talking to anyone in particular, but no
matter: his soliloquy is rife with emotion and metaphor,
and one can’t help but blush when he expresses how his
DIALOGUE LITERARY DEVICES

Writing dialogue in a story requires us to step into the

minds of our characters. When our characters speak, they
should speak as fully developed human beings, complete
with their own linguistic quirks and unique pronunciations.

Indeed, dialogue writing is essential to the art of

storytelling. In real life, we learn about other people
through their ideas and the words they use to express
them. It is much the same for dialogue in fiction.
W H AT IS D I A LO G U E IN A S TO RY ?

• Dialogue refers to any direct communication from one or more

characters in the text. This communication is almost always verbal,
except for instances of inner dialogue, where the character is
speaking to themselves.
• In works of Fantasy or Science Fiction, characters might
communicate with each other telepathically or through non-
human means. This would also count as dialogue in a story.
• The importance of dialogue in a story cannot be overstated. The
words that characters speak act as windows into their psyches: we
can learn lots about people by what they say, as well as what they
omit.
• Additionally, dialogue allows for the exchange of information,
which will advance the story’s plot. Any story that involves conflict
between two or more people must involve dialogue, or else the story
will never reach its climax and resolution.
INNER DIALOGUE

• Inner dialogue is a form of communication in which a

character speaks with themselves. This is, essentially, a
form of monologue or soliloquy. Inner dialogue allows
the reader to view the character’s thoughts as they
happen, transcribing their doubts, ideas, and emotions
onto the page.
• Inner dialogue can also be a memory or reminiscence,
even if the character is not consciously speaking to
themselves. If the narrator shows us a memory that
the character is currently thinking about, then that
character is still offering something to the narrative by
means of unspoken conversation.
INDIRECT DIALOGUE

• Indirect dialogue is dialogue, summarized. It is not

put in quotes or italics; rather, it neatly sums up
what a character said, without going into detail.
• In other words, we don’t get to see how the
character said something, we are only told what
they said. This is useful for when the information is
better summarized than told in excruciating
details, because the narrator wants to get to the
important dialogue, the dialogue that introduces
new information or reveals important aspects of the
character’s personality.
INDIRECT DIALOGUE
Haruki Murakami gives us a great example in Kafka
on the Shore:
“I tell her that I’m actually fifteen, in junior high, that
I stole my father’s money and ran away from my
home in Nakano Ward in Tokyo. That I’m staying in a
hotel in Takamatsu and spending my days reading at a
library. That all of a sudden I found myself collapsed
outside a shrine, covered in blood. Everything. Well,
almost everything. Not the important stuff I can’t talk
about.”
DEVICES FOR WRITING DIALOGUE IN
A STORY
COLLOQUIALISM

A colloquialism is a word or phrase that’s

specific to a language, geographical region,
and/or historical period. Mostly used in informal
speech, colloquialisms will rarely show up in the
boardroom or the courtroom, but they pop up all the
time in casual conversation.
We often use colloquialisms without realizing it.
Take, for example, the shopping cart. Someone in
the U.S. Northeast might call it a “cart,” while
someone in the South might call it a “buggy.”
COLLOQUIALISM
In fact, colloquialisms abound in the history of the
English language. When it rains but the sun is out, a native
Floridian might call it a sunshower. A Wisconsinite will
call a water fountain a “bubbler.” In the 1950s, a small
child might have been called an “ankle-biter.” Nowadays,
a New Yorker might describe cold weather as being
“brick outside.” (Yes, brick.)
Colloquialisms help define a character’s geographic
background and historical time period. They also help
signify when the character feels comfortable and
informal, versus when they are speaking in an
uncomfortable or professional situation.
VERNACULAR

Vernacular refers to language that is

simple and commonplace. When a character’s
speech is unadorned and everyday, they are speaking
in vernacular, using words that can be understood
by every person in that character’s time period. (A
colloquialism is often an example of vernacular.)
The opposite of vernacular would be dialect, which is
speech that is tailored to a specific setting, and
is therefore not commonplace or universally
understood.
DIALECT

• A dialect is a type of speech reserved for a particular

time period, geographical ___location, social class, group
of people, or other specific setting. It is language that
the entire population might not comprehend, as it
uses words, phrases, and grammatical decisions that
aren’t universally understood.
• Here’s an example of modern day vernacular. The same
sentence has been rewritten as though it were spoken
by someone with a Southern dialect.
• Vernacular: I am craving some coleslaw and a soft drink.
• Southern Dialect: I’m fixin’ for some slaw and soda pop.
SLANG

A slang is a word or phrase that is not part of

conventional language usage, but which is still used
in everyday speech. Generally, younger generations
coin slang words, as well as queer communities and
communities of color. (Some of the terms below
started in AAVE, or African American Vernacular
English.) Those words then become dictionary entries
when the word has circulated long enough in popular
usage. Slang is a form of colloquialism, as well as a
form of dialect, because slang terms are not
universally understood and are often associated with
a specific age group in a specific region.
SLANG
Some recent examples of slang words and phrases include:
• No cap—“no lie.”
• Boots—this is a sort of grammatical intensifier, placed after the
thing being
intensified. “I’m hungry, boots” is basically the same as “I’m so
hungry.”
• Bop—a catchy or irresistible song.
• Drip—a particularly fashionable or interesting style of clothes.
• It’s sending me—“that’s hilarious.”
• Periodt—a more “final” use of the word “period” when a salient point
has been
made.
• Snatched—used when someone’s fashion is impeccable. In
SLANG
• Pressed—“stressed” or “annoyed.”
• Slaps—“exceptionally good.”
• Stan—stan is a portmanteau of “stalker fan,” but
really what it means is that you enjoy something
intensely or obsessively. You “stan” a song or a
movie, for example.
• Werk—a term to describe something done
exceedingly well.
If you’re dancing tremendously, I might just yell
“werk!”
• Wig—when something shocks, excites, or moves you,
JARGON

• Jargon is a word or phrase that is specific to a

profession or industry. Usually, a jargon word
intentionally obfuscates the meaning of what it
represents, as the word is meant to be understood
solely by people within a certain profession.
• Often, people let jargon slip from their tongues
without realizing the word is inaccessible. For
example, a doctor might tell their friend they
have rhinitis, rather than a seasonal allergy.
IDIOM

• An idiom is a phrase that is specifically

understood by speakers of a certain language, and
which has a figurative meaning that differs from
its literal one. Idioms are incredibly hard to
translate, because the meaning conveyed by the
idiom does not appear within the words themselves.
• For example, a common idiom in the United States is
to say someone is “under the weather” when they’re
feeling ill.
IDIOM
An idiom can also reveal regionality, as some idioms
are only spoken in certain dialects. For example,
when it rains while the sun is shining, a common
idiom in the South is that “the devil is beating his
wife.” This phrase is understood in other parts of the
U.S. and might have its roots in folklore, but it is
primarily spoken by people in the American South.
PROVERB

• A proverb is a short, oft-repeated saying that bears a

wise and powerful message. Proverbs are often based
on common sense advice, but they use metaphors
and symbols to convey that advice, prompting the
listener to place themselves in the world of the proverb.
• For example, a common English proverb is “a bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush.” This means that it’s
better to take away modest gains than to sacrifice those
gains for something that may be unobtainable. Sacrificing
the bird in your hand for two birds which may be
impossible to own is a risky endeavour.
NEOLOGISM

• A neologism is a coined word that describes

something new. Some neologisms are coined by
authors themselves— Shakespeare, for example,
coined over 2,000 words, many of which we use
today. “Baseless,” “footfall,” and “murkiest” come from
The Tempest, just one of Shakespeare’s many plays
and poems.
• Nowadays, most neologisms describe
advancements in technology, medicine, and society.
“Doomscrolling,” for example, describes the act of
consuming large quantities of negative news, often to the
detriment of one’s mental health.
NEOLOGISM
Other modern-day neologisms
include:
• Google (as a verb: to google
something)
• Crowdsourcing
• Noob
• Staycation
• Webinar
• Vlogging
• Malware
• Podcast
• Ghosting
EUPHEMISM

• A euphemism is the substitution of one word for

another, more innocuous word. We often use
euphemisms in place of words and phrases that
are sexual, uncomfortable, or otherwise taboo.
• For example, when someone dies, you might
hear their family member say “they kicked the
bucket.” Or, if someone were unemployed but didn’t
want to say it, they might say they are
“between jobs” or “searching for better
opportunities.”
 W O R D P L AY

Word play, also written as wordplay, word-play, or a

play on words, is when a writer experiments with
the sounds, definitions, and/or construction of
words to produce new and interesting meanings.
In other words, the writer is twisting language to
say something unexpected, with the intent of
entertaining or provoking the reader.
ANTHIMERIA

• Anthimeria is a type of word play in which a word is

employed using a different part of speech than what is
typically associated with that word. (For reference, the
parts of speech are: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
pronouns, articles, interjections, conjunctions, and
prepositions.)
• Most commonly, a writer using anthimeria will make a
verb a noun (nominalization), or make a noun a verb
(verbification). It would be much harder to employ this
device using other parts of speech: using an adjective as
a pronoun, for example, would be difficult to read, even
for the reader familiar with anthimeria.
ANTHIMERIA
NOUNS TO V E R BS

“The thunder would not peace at my

bidding.”
—From King Lear, (IV, vi.) by Shakespeare
“I’ll unhair thy head.”
—From Antony and Cleopatra (II, v.) by
Shakespeare
ANTHIMERIA
V E R BS TO NOUNS
We use verbs as nouns all the time in everyday
conversation. If you “hashtag” something on social
media, you’re using the noun hashtag as a verb.
ANTHIMERIA

NOUNS AND V ER BS TO ADJECTIVES

“The parishioners about here,” continued Mrs. Day, not
looking at any living being, but snatching up the brown delf
tea-things, “are the laziest, gossipest, poachest, jailest
set of any ever I came among.”
—From Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
D O U BL E E N T E N D R E

A double entendre is a form of word play in which a word or

phrase is used ambiguously, meaning the reader can
interpret it in multiple ways. A double entendre usually
has a literal meaning and a figurative meaning, with
both meanings interacting with each other in some
surprising or unusual way.
D O U BL E E N T E N D R E

“Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an

institution.”
—Mae West, quoted in The 2,548 Best Things Anybody
Ever Said by
Robert Byrne
The repeated use of “institution” suggests a double
meaning. While marriage is, literally, an institution, West
is also suggesting that marriage is an institution in a
different sense—like a prison or a psychiatric hospital, one
that she’s not ready to commit to.
D O U BL E E N T E N D R E

“On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life
the vital importance of being Earnest.”
—The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
by Oscar Wilde In Oscar Wilde’s play, the protagonist Jack Worthing leads a
double life: to his lover in
the countryside, he’s Jack, while he’s Ernest to his lover in the city. The
play follows
this character’s deceptions, as well as his realization of the necessity of
being true to himself. Thus, in this final line of the play, Jack realizes
the importance of being “earnest,” a pun and double entendre on “Ernest.”
KENNING

The kenning is a type of metaphor that was popular among

medieval poets. It is a phrase, usually two nouns, that
describes something figuratively, often using words only
somewhat related to the object being described.
A kenning is constructed with a “base word” and a
“determinant.” The base word has a metaphoric
relationship with the object being described, and the
determinant modifies the base word.
KENNING
At some point in the text of Beowulf, the following
kennings occur:
• Battle shirt — armour.
• Battle sweat — blood.
• Earth hall — burial mound.
• Helmet bearer — warrior.
• Raven harvest — corpse.
• Ring giver — king.
• Sail road — the sea.
• Sea cloth — sail.
• Sky candle — the sun.
• Sword sleep — death.
MALAPROPISM

•A malapropism is a device primarily used in

dialogue. It is employed when the correct word in a
sentence is replaced with a similar-sounding word
or phrase that has an entirely different meaning.
• For example, the word “assimilation” sounds a lot like the
phrase “a simulation.” Employing a malapropism, I might
have a character say “Everything is programmed. We
all live in assimilation.”
METALEPSIS

Metalepsis is the use of a figure of speech in a new or

surprising context, creating multiple layers of meaning. In
other words, the writer takes a figure of speech and
employs it metaphorically, using that figure of speech to
reference something that is otherwise unspoken.
METALEPSIS
“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and
burnt the topless towers of Ilium?”
—Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Here, the face in question is that of Helen of Troy,
the most beautiful woman in the world (according to
The Iliad and the Odyssey). Helen is claimed by Paris, a
prince of Troy, and when he takes Helen home with him,
it incites the Trojan war—thus the references to a
thousand ships and the towers of Ilium. So, the face refers
to Helen, and Faustus describes the beauty of that
face tangentially, referencing the magnitude of the Trojan
War.
METALEPSIS

“And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your

cities.”
—The Book of Amos (4:6)
In this Biblical passage, the phrase “cleanness of teeth” is
actually referencing hunger. By having nothing to eat,
the people have nothing to stain their teeth with. Thus,
the figurative image of clean teeth becomes a metalepsis
for starvation.
OXYMORON
• An oxymoron is a self-contradictory phrase. It is usually
just two words long, with each word’s definition
contrasting the other one’s, despite the apparent
meaning of the words themselves. It is a play on words
because opposing meanings are juxtaposed to form a
new, seemingly-impossible idea.
• A common example of this is the phrase “virtual reality.”
Well, if it’s virtual, then it isn’t reality, just a
simulation of a new reality. Nonetheless, we employ
those words together all the time, and in fact, the
juxtaposition of these incompatible terms creates a new,
interesting meaning.
OXYMORON
Oxymorons occur all the time in everyday speech.
“Same difference,” “Only option,” “live recording,” and
even the genre “magical realism.” In any of these
examples, a new meaning forms from the placement
of these incongruous words.
OXYMORON
Here are a few examples from literature:
“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
—Romeo and Juliet (II; ii), by Shakespeare
“No light; but rather darkness visible.”
—Paradise Lost by John Milton
“Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal
deceit.”
—“The Hound of Heaven” by Francis
Thompson
PALINDROME

A palindrome is a word or phrase that is spelled

the exact same forwards and backwards (excluding
spaces). The word “racecar,” for example, is spelled
the same in both directions. So is the phrase “Able was
I ere I saw Elba.” So is the sentence “A man, a plan, a
canal, Panama.”
PARAPROSDOKIAN

A paraprosdokian is a play on words where the writer

diverts from the expected ending of a sentence. In
other words, the writer starts a sentence with a
predictable ending, but then supplies a new,
unexpected ending that complicates the original
meanings of the words and surprises the reader.
PARAPROSDOKIAN
Here’s an example sentence:
“Is there anything that mankind can’t accomplish?
We’ve been to the moon, eradicated polio, and
made grapes that taste like cotton candy.”
This last clause is a paraprosdokian: the reader
expects the list to contain great, life-altering
achievements, but ending the list with something a
bit more trivial, like cotton candy grapes, is a
humorous and unexpected twist.
PARAPROSDOKIAN
With the paraprosdokian, writers contort the expected endings of sentences
to create surprising juxtapositions, playing with both words and sentence
structures. Here are a few literary examples, with the paraprosdokian in
bold:
“We clutch our bellies and roll on the floor. When I say this, it should mean
laughter,
not poison.”
—“Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out” by Richard Siken
“By the time you swear you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his
passion is Infinite,
undying—
Lady, make a note of
this:
One of you is lying.”
PORTMANTEAU

• A portmanteau is a word which combines two distinct

words in both sound and meaning. “Smog,” for
example, is a portmanteau of both “smoke” and
“fog,” because both the sounds of the words are
combined as well as the definition of each word.
• The portmanteau has become a popular marketing
tactic in recent years. A portmanteau is also, often,
an example of a neologism—a coined word for
which new language is necessary to describe new
things.
PORTMANTEAU
Here are a few portmanteaus that have recently entered the
English lexicon:
• Fanzine (fan + magazine)
• Telethon (telephone + marathon)
• Camcorder (camera + recorder)
• Blog (web + log)
• Vlog (video + blog)
• Staycation (stay + vacation)
• Bromance (brother + romance)
• Webinar (web + seminar)
• Hangry (hungry + angry)
• Cosplay (costume + play)
SPOONERISM

• A spoonerism is a play on words in which the initial

sounds of two neighbouring words are swapped. For
instance, the phrase “blushing crow” is a spoonerism
of “crushing blow.”
• Often, spoonerisms are slips of the tongue. We
might confuse our syllables when we speak,
which is a natural result of our brains’ relationships
to language.
• Spoonerisms can be literary examples of a play on
words. But they’re also just ways to have fun with
language.
GRAMATICAL PARALLELISM

Parallelism is a stylistic device where a sentence is

composed of equally weighted items. In essence,
parallel structure allows form to echo content.
When poets and prose stylists effectively employ
grammatical parallelism, they strengthen the
connections between ideas and objects, embedding
relationships in syntax.
GRAMATICAL PARALLELISM
Here’s a simple example: On Sunday, we walked through
the park, ate fried pickles, and saw a Broadway show.
There are three clauses with parallel structure here:
• walked through the park,
• ate fried pickles,
• saw a Broadway show.
“Walked,” “ate,” and “saw” are all past tense verbs, and
they start each successive clause in the sentence. So,
each clause has the same grammatical structure, giving
the sentence parallelism.
RHETORICAL PARALLELISM

Rhetorical parallelism creates sentence components

of equal weight to emphasize similarity and contrast.
Typically, it’s a sentence with 2 or 3 components,
each of which are written with similar or parallel
syntactic structure.
Here’s an example of rhetorical parallelism:
• “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.”
—Neil Armstrong
RHETORICAL PARALLELISM
Here are some other rhetorical parallelism examples:
“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what
you can do for your country.” —John F. Kennedy
“Falseness lasts an hour, and truth lasts till the end of
time.” —
Arabic Proverb
“As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was
fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour
him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him.” —Brutus
in Julius Caesar (III.ii) by William Shakespeare
SYNTHETIC PARALLELISM

Synthetic parallelism is a poetic structure that

advances a thought. It presents ideas of equal
weight to make a certain argument, usually a moral
one.
Here’s an example, from Proverbs 21:27.
“The sacrifice of the wicked is an
abomination; how much more when he brings it with
evil intent.”
In this quote, the two elements—“the sacrifice of the
wicked” and “brings it with evil intent”—are both
immoral actions. By placing these ideas next to each
other, the quote amplifies its idea by amplifying what’s
ANTITHETICAL
PARALLELISM

Antithetical parallelism uses the same sentence

structure as synthetic, but it highlights differences. Take,
for example, Proverbs 19:16.
“He who obeys instructions guards his
life, but he who is contemptuous of his ways will die.”
The two ideas—“obedience” versus “contempt”—are
equally weighted, but opposed in such a way that one
action is regarded in much higher esteem. “But” is the
operant word highlighting contrast, and when it comes
to parallelism in the Bible, attention to comparison words
helps us understand how different ideas are being
compared.
SYNONYMOUS PARALLELISM

Synonymous parallelism is simply the repetition of similar

ideas with different words. This repetition may appear
redundant, but it’s done with the purpose of amplifying an
idea and making it multifaceted.
Take the below example, from Psalm 120:2.
“Save me, O Lord, from lying
lips and from deceitful
tongues.”
“Lying lips” and “deceitful
tongues” are clearly
synonymous.
 W H AT A R E
RHETORICAL
DEVICES?
 TYPES OF RHETORICAL DEVICES

• Rhetorical appeals—Devices that appeal directly to

the reader’s feelings, thoughts, morals, and sense of
time. You may have already heard of them: ethos, logos,
pathos, and kairos.
• Syntactical devices—Devices that use sentence
structures to communicate or simplify
complex ideas.
• Argumentative rhetorical devices—Devices
whose structures are conducive to the
advancement of a certain argument.
• Emphatic rhetorical devices—Devices that
underscore or emphasize
certain ideas.
 R H E T O R I C A L A P P E A L S : K A I R O S , E T H O S , L O G O S , PAT H O S

The following common rhetoricaldevicesappeal directly

to the reader’s sensibilities.
Many master rhetoricians will advance arguments that
appeal to multiple sensibilities at the same time.
KAIROS—APPEAL TO TIME

Specifically, kairos is an appeal to immediacy, to a sense of

“in this moment.” When employed ethically, kairos convinces the
audience that we must act immediately for the better good. For
example, Martin Luther King once said: “Go back to Mississippi, go
back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia,
go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our
Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will
be changed.”
King’s call for radical optimism in the face of racism and
oppression was a
call to action: now is the time that we change our situation of
segregation.
ETHOS—APPEAL TO ETHICS AND CREDIBILITY

Ethos is a device which appeals to two different senses:

1.The credibility of the speaker. Why should I trust this
person’s
arguments?
2.The ethics of the argument. How can I trust the ethical
good in this
argument?
LOGOS—APPEAL TO LOGIC

Logos employs reason or logic to convince the audience of

a certain argument. Logos will often be the backbone
of an argument, particularly among rhetoricians who have
actually thought through the logic of the ideas they’re
advancing. (If an argument relies too heavily on pathos or
kairos, that argument will often be poorly thought
through, or else be trying to achieve nefarious ends.)
LOGOS—APPEAL TO LOGIC
There are two primary forms of logos: inductive reasoning and
deductive reasoning.
• Inductive Reasoning: Drawing predictions from specific
claims. For example, a specific claim might be “I have
to wear a scarf every winter.” To make this a predictions,
you might say “This winter, I will also wear a scarf.”
• Deductive Reasoning: Drawing specific conclusions from
general claims. For example, a general claim might be
“All birds have feathers.” To take this to a specific
conclusion, you might note that “an emu has feathers.
Therefore, an emu is a bird.”
LOGOS—APPEAL TO LOGIC

Another way to think about this: inductive reasoning

makes predictions based on existing data,
whereas deductive reasoning makes conclusions based
on existing data. Both forms of argument are valid in
different ways, and both are equally prone to being false or
manipulated.
PATHOS—APPEAL TO FEELING

• Pathos is an appeal to the feelings of the audience.

The author employs pathos when the writing tries
to evoke a particular emotion, especially for the
purposes of advancing an argument.
• Pathos is a common facet of all literature, since literature
tries to connect the reader to our greater shared
humanity. This can only happen on the levels of the
symbolic: images, feelings, and the like.
S Y N TA C T I C R H E T O R I C A L D E V I C E S L I S T

The following common

rhetorical devices are
employed to draw attention
to a certain idea by playing with
sentence structure. The English
language can be toyed with in
many different ways, and
master rhetoricians know how
to use syntax to their
advantage through the
following devices.
ANACOLUTHON—INT ER R U PT IONS IN
GRAMMATICAL FLOW

• An anacoluthon occurs when the writer employs

different grammatical structures in the same
sentence. This device is a grammatical discontinuity
—the syntax of the sentence changes, often
alongside an abrupt change in topic.
• Both poets and rhetoricians use this device to highlight
important ideas. Poets, and prose poets in particular, will
use the device to replicate the disjointed nature of
thoughts, as our brains naturally think and feel
incoherently.
 Antithesis refers to the
ANTITHESIS— placement of differing ideas
PARALLEL side by side using parallel
JUXTAPOSITIO structure, with the intent of
comparing
ideas. It reliesand
on contrasting
two key
N OF in writing:those
concepts parallelism
OPPOSITE and juxtaposition.
IDEAS
 A lot of common phrases in the
English language rely on antithesis.
You may have recently heard one of
•the following phrases:
Go big or go home.
ANTITHESIS— • Get busy living or get busy
PARALLEL dying.

JUXTAPOSITIO • No pain, no gain.

•• No guts, no glory.
N OF If you fail to plan, then you plan to
• fail.
OPPOSITE Out of sight, out of
• mind.
Hope for the best; prepare for the
IDEAS • worst.
Easy come, easy
go.
ASYNDETON—ABSENCE OF CONJUNCTIONS

A writer employs asyndeton when they don’t use

conjunctions to separate clauses. This has the eff ect
of making the sentence move quicker, while also
making the sentence feel sharp and directed. For
example:
• With conjunctions (polysyndeton): “Swift and
concise and pointed, the sentence makes you think
and moves your heart and compels you to action.”
• Without conjunctions (asyndeton): “Swift,
concise, pointed, the sentence makes you think,
moves your heart, compels you to action.”
HYPALLAGE—SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC
S P L I T IN A MODIFIER

Hypallage occurs when the author uses a modifier

(usually a single adjective) to describe something
semantically, rather than syntactically.
HYPALLAGE—SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC S P L I T IN A
MODIFIER

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred

Owen:
“Gas! GAS! boys!—An ecstasy of
Quick, Fitting the clumsy helmets
fumbling in
But someone still just was yelling and time,
And
out flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—” stumbling
So, the word “clumsy” is modifying the word “helmets.”
occurring
This is on a syntactic level. However,
“clumsy” isn’t describing the helmets, it’s actually
describing the boys fumbling to put them on during
World War I.
HYPERBATON— I NVE RTE D WORD ORDER

A hyperbaton occurs when the writer writes a

sentence in an unusual order, in order to emphasize
the most salient aspect of the sentence. It is also
called anastrophe. Rhetoricians may use this device
for emphasis, and poets will certainly use it to
preserve the rhythm and flow of a poem’s line.
HYPERBATON— I NVE RTE D WORD ORDER

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe:

“True! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I
had been and am; but why will you say that I am
mad? The disease had sharpened my senses — not
destroyed — not dulled them.
Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard
all things in
the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in
hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how
healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story.”
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare:
“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”
HYPOTAXIS—HIERARCHICAL SENTENCE S T R U C T U R E

A hypotactic sentence is one that has

dependent, or subordinate, clauses. This creates a
hierarchical relationship in the sentence: the most
important part of the sentence is the clause that can
exist independently, while the subordinate clauses,
which are less important, still modify and sharpen the
message of the sentence.
HYPOTAXIS—HIERARCHICAL
SENTENCE S T R U C T U R E
Here’s an example—from Simone Weil’s Waiting for
God. The sentences containing hypotaxis are bolded.
“The beauty of the world is the mouth of a labyrinth. The
unwary individual who on entering takes a few
steps is soon unable to find the opening. Worn out,
with nothing to eat or drink, in the dark, separated
from his dear ones, and from everything he loves
and is accustomed to, he walks on without knowing
anything or hoping anything, incapable even of
discovering whether he is really going forward
or merely turning round on the same spot. But
this affliction is as nothing compared with the danger
threatening him.”
PARATAXIS—EQUALLY W E I G H T E D SENTENCE COMPONENTS

In opposition to hypotaxis, parataxis is the use of

equally weighted sentences or clauses in succession
to one another. Parataxis requires short, simple
sentences and clauses. You can identify this device
by an absence of subordinating conjunctions—
words that make a clause subordinate, like
“although” or “because” or “if.”
PARATAXIS—EQUALLY
WEIGHTED SENTENCE
COMPONENTS
Parataxis plays an important role in the following excerpt from
Sula, by Toni Morrison:
“Twenty-two years old, weak, hot, frightened, not daring to
acknowledge the fact that he didn’t know who or what he
was … with no past, no language, no tribe, no source, no
address book, no comb, no pencil, no clock, no pocket
handkerchief, no rug, no bed, no can opener, no faded
postcard, no soap, no key, no tobacco pouch, no soiled
underwear and nothing nothing nothing to do … he was
sure of one thing only: the unchecked monstrosity of his
hands…”
POLYSYNDETON—SUCCESSION OF COORDINATING
CONJUNCTIONS

Polysyndeton is the opposite of asyndeton. A

sentence with polysyndeton uses coordinating
conjunctions (usually “and,” sometimes “or” or “nor”) to
join a series of clauses, which serves to quicken the pace of
the sentence itself.
POLYSYNDETON— SUCCESSION OF COORDINATING
CONJUNCTIONS

Polysyndeton is prominent in these first two stanzas from the

poem “It’s
What
“WhenHappens, Sometimes, in October” by Angel Gonzalez:
nothing occurs,
and summer is gone,
and leaves start to fall off the
trees, and the cold rusts the
edges of rivers, and slows down
the flow of waters;
when the sky seems a violent
sea,
and birds swap landscapes,
and words sound more and more
distant,
like whispers strewn by the
SYNESIS—“SENSE” OVER SYNTAX

A synesis occurs when a sentence lacks

grammatical agreement, for the purpose of
highlighting an agreement in “sense.”
This is easier demonstrated than defined. See
the below excerpt from Shakespeare’s King Lear:
KING LEAR
“I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall–I will do such things,
What they are, yet I know not…”
SYNESIS—“SENSE” OVER SYNTAX
• “Revenges,” here, is grammatically incorrect.
The word should be singular, because it should
agree, grammatically and syntactically, with “I.” One
does not typically carry out “revenges,” and it’s
actually rare to see that word in the plural.
• But, in this instance, it is correct logically. Lear is
promising revenge on two people, and he might
even be promising a different kind of revenge on
each person. So, while the sentence is wrong
in grammar, it is correct in sense.
A R G U M E N TAT I V E R H E T O R I C A L D E V I C E S

The following common rhetorical devices are

employed to convince the audience of something.
Some of these devices are earnest, sincere, and
logical; others are more manipulative.
ACCISMUS—FEIGNED INDIFFERENCE

Accismus is a form of irony in which the speaker

pretends not to desire something that they actually
desire. They might do this so as not to scare off the
person offering it, or to conceal that their entire
motivation rests on this one thing.
For example, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (I.ii),
Caesar pretends not to want the crown of Rome.
ANECDOTE—STORY-BASED
EVIDENCE
• An anecdote is a short, pithy story, utilized to
demonstrate a key point in an argument. Anecdotes
are often funny, but can be serious, too.
• The teller of the anecdote must not get too lost in
the story that they lose track of their own
argument; but they must also demonstrate their
point clearly and emphatically.
ANTANAGOGE—DEFLECTION BY COUNTER
ALLEGATION
• An antanagoge refers to a deflection in which, instead of
answering a
question or defending a point, the speaker makes a counter
allegation.
For example, if I charged you with “eating all the Oreos,” you
might reply that I “ate all the pecan pie last week.” (It’s true; I
did.)
• Antanagoge can also be employed syntactically. If you raise a
claim and then answer that claim with an opposing
sentiment, you have used antanagoge. For example, the
phrase “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” The
first clause is negative, the responding clause is positive.
APORIA—FEIGNED UNCERTAINTY

• An aporia occurs when the writer expresses

uncertainty or doubt, with the intention of raising a
certain argument and exploring it. This uncertainty is
usually feigned, as the writer pretends to be
uncertain so that they can enumerate their
argument and ideas.
• Aporia is also a concept in philosophy,
referring to irresolvable knots or logical impasses in
a text.
BDELYGMIA—LITANY OF I N S U LT S

• Despite its weird and satisfying spelling, bdelygmia

describes something neither weird nor satisfying:
insults.
• Specifically, bdelygmia is a litany of insults directed
towards an opponent or someone with opposing
ideas. It is sometimes called abominatio, is
always a form of ad hominem, and it uses strong
language to appeal to pathos.
BDELYGMIA—LITANY OF I N S U LT S
• At its cutest, bdelygmia is levied against the
perceived antagonist of a story, such as this
excerpt from How the Grinch Stole
Christmas by Dr. Seuss:
“You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch, You’re a nasty wasty
skunk, Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is
full of gunk, Mr. Grinch. The three words that best
describe you are as follows, and I quote, “Stink, stank,
stunk!””
ENTHYMEME—DEDUCTIVE REASONING W I T H AN
UNSTATED PREMISE

An enthymeme is a kind of syllogism, or logical

deduction, in which one of the premises is unstated.
A syllogism is a logical deduction from two
premises. The classic example goes like this:
1.All men are mortal
2.Socrates is a man
3.Therefore, Socrates is mortal
ENTHYMEME
• 1 and 2 are the premises. 3 is the conclusion. To turn this
into an enthymeme, just remove one of the premises (1
or 2). Once you do that, you’ll see that the argument still
makes sense (after all, no one would doubt the truth of
any of these statements), but it’s not logically complete,
since one of its essential premises is missing.
• In practice, nearly all arguments depend on one or
more enthymemes – after all, we have to assume that
the audience already knows that all men are mortal, so
it would be a waste of time to state it explicitly if you
were trying to persuade them of this syllogism.
ENTHYMEME
Enthymeme is also a common feature of political rhetoric. For
example, watch out for cases where someone is attacking a politician
using a “dirty word” like anarchist, socialist, imperialist, or Nazi. This is
almost always hyperbole, but it’s also enthymeme. Here’s a typical
example:
“Governor Johnson wants to reduce government regulation and
oversight.” “Therefore, Governor Johnson is an anarchist.”
The hidden premise, of course, is that anyone who reduces
government regulation is an anarchist (or, to put it another way,
that such reduction is tantamount to anarchy). This hidden premise
is obviously false – at the very least, it’s a gross oversimplification –
and so the argument is unpersuasive.
HYPOPHORA—RAISING AND ANSWERING A QUESTION

Also known as antipophora or anthypophora,

hypophora is when the writer asks a question and
immediately answers it. This rhetorical strategy allows
the writer to raise a new topic, and it also invites the
audience to participate in the work, since asking
questions (even rhetorical questions) makes the
audience feel engaged.
PROCATALEPSIS—RAISING AND RESPONDING TO
R E B U T TA L

Procatalepsis is the act of raising a possible rebuttal

to your argument, in order to address it right away. It
strengthens the argument by addressing criticism
and predicting what the opponent might say. As
long as that rebuttal is properly addressed, this
device can greatly enhance the ethos of an
argument. Like hypophora, procatalepsis can also
create surprising transitions in literary texts.
PROCATALEPSIS—RAISING AND RESPONDING TO R E B U TTA L

Frederick Douglass used procatalepsis in his 1846 “Appeal

to the British People.” See below:
“I may be asked, why I am so anxious to bring this
subject before the British public—why I do not
confine my eff orts to the United States? My answer
is, first, that slavery is the common enemy of mankind, and
all mankind should be made acquainted with its abominable
character. My next answer is, that the slave is a man, and,
as such, is entitled to your sympathy as a brother. All the
feelings, all the susceptibilities, all the capacities, which
you have, he has. He is a part of the human family.”
 E M P H AT I C R H E T O R I C A L D E V I C E S

The following common rhetorical devices are

employed to emphasize a certain idea. Many of
these devices take ideas to their logical
extreme, or else use repetition to make an
argument stick.
ADYNATON—E XT R E M E HYPER BOL E

A hyperbole is an exaggeration. Adynaton is an

extreme exaggeration—a hyperbole so out there
that it’s beyond impossible. An adynaton might be
employed for comic effect, or it might be evidence of
the speaker’s extreme feelings.
Here’s an example: the poem “TheCowSpeaksto
theChild”
by Evan Gill Smith:
“Some philosophers grow ulcers
from eating loneliness.
There’s not much we know.”
AMPLIFICATION—DRAWING ATTENTION TO IDEAS

The amplification rhetorical device uses superfluous

words, embellishments, and unnecessary additions to
draw attention towards a particular idea which might
otherwise escape the reader’s attention.
AMPLIFICATION—
DRAWING ATTENTION TO
IDEAS
Here’s an example, from The Twits by Roald Dahl. The amplifications have
been
bolded, so you can see how they’re highlighting the core idea.
“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when
that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year,
the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at
it.A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a
wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out
teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face
like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
Notice how the bolded additions aren’t adding anything “new” to the
original ideas, but they help demonstrate, through imagery and example,
a necessary concept for the reader to understand.
ANTIPHRASIS—USING WORDS OPPOSITE OF
T H E I R MEANINGS

Antiphrasis is the use of words to mean the opposite

of their dictionary definitions. For example, if you fell down
on the asphalt, and I said “Nice going, ballerina!”, that
would be antiphrasis—I do not think that was “nice going,”
and I certainly don’t think you’re a ballerina.
Antiphrasis is the operating mechanism for things like
irony, sarcasm, satire, and sometimes even euphemism and
litotes.
ASTERISMOS—CALLING ATTENTION
W I T H INTRODUCTORY WORDS

• Asterismos is when you call attention to an idea with an

introductory word or phrase. Behold! Alas! Hark!
Listen. Hey…. Notice, I say to you!
• We use asterismos all the time in daily conversation, and
you might notice it used when writers try to capture
colloquial speech in their work.
ASTERISMOS—CALLING ATTENTION
W I T H INTRODUCTORY WORDS

Here’s one example, from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn:
“Well, looky here, boss, dey’s sumfn wrong, dey is. Is I me,
or who is I? Is I heah, or whah is I? Now dat’s what I wants to
know.”
LITOTES—T H E RHETORICAL D OUB LE NEGATIVE

A litotes is a double negative for rhetorical emphasis. It is a

form of pleonasm (defined elsewhere in this article)
because it requires the addition of extra words to convey
a certain point. By expressing something positive using a
double negative, the writer makes the audience think a
little harder, adding weight behind the feeling that the
double negative expresses.
LITOTES—T H E
RHETORICAL D O U B L E
NEGATIVE
Here are some common expressions in the English vernacular that
use Litotes:
• Not bad!
• I don’t hate it.
• I can’t disagree.
• Not uncommon.
• Not cheap.
• Hardly difficult.
• It has not gone unnoticed.
• It’s not the worst!
MEIOSIS—W I T T Y U N D E R S TAT E M E N T

• A meiosis gives the impression that something

is less important than it actually is. This
understatement creates dramatic eff ect, because
the reader knows that the thing described
actually has profound importance.
Understatement is considered a form of hyperbole.
• As with other rhetorical devices where what’s said
differs from what’s meant, meiosis makes the reader
slow down and think about what’s being spoken.
The ironic dissonance between what’s said and
what’s meant emphasizes the true meanings of the
words themselves.
METANOIA—IMMEDIATE S E L F - CORRECTION

• When a writer backtracks or modifies something they just

wrote, they use the device metanoia. This is not erasing
and rewriting something—it is acknowledging the
thing just written, and correcting it with a new, more
accurate meaning. This immediate self-correction
emphasizes the correction itself, making it stick in the
reader’s brain.
• Additionally, metanoia mimics the way that we talk in
real life. Employing rhetorical devices like this tactically
can help build trust and ethos with the audience.
• Metanoia can be used to strengthen an argument,
soften it, or make it more precise.
METANOIA—IMMEDIATE S E L F - CORRECTION

Here’s an example of the device, from The Great

Gatsby by F. Scott Fitgerald:
“It was Gatsby’s mansion. Or rather, as I did not yet
know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a
gentleman of that name.”
The narrator’s self-correction indicates that he knows
things now that he did not know before. Thus, this
metanoia is also an example of foreshadowing,
because it suggests we are about to learn much
more about the owner of this mansion.
PARALIPSIS—PERFORMATIVE R EF US A L TO SPEAK ON A TOPIC

• Paralipsis is a form of raising a topic by pretending

not to want to speak on that topic. In everyday
speech, you might say something like “I can’t
stand my mother-in-law’s perfume. Not to
mention her drinking problem…”
• That “not to mention” reveals the thing that you
actually want to mention the most. Paralipsis is a
form of irony and antiphrasis, because it’s
emphasizing the thing that the writer
pretends not to want emphasized.
OVERSTATEMENT— INTENTIONAL EXAGGERATION

• An overstatement—a device in which the writer

intentionally exaggerates something to
illustrate a point. While overstatements often
add a sense of humour to the writing, poets in
particular might use this device for strong,
evocative emotions and imagery.
OVERSTATEMENT— INTENTIONAL
EXAGGERATION
Here’s an example, from the poem “100Bells”byTarfia
Faizullah (which also has great examples of parataxis):
”I locked the door. I did not die. I did
not die. I shaved my Unti the horn
Ihead.
knew were there were visible. l s
This is, of course, a metaphor. The speaker probably
doesn’t
believe they actually have horns nestled beneath their
hair. But, this visceral overstatement still rings true
to the reader— it feels painful, intimate, real, true.
An overstatement is often another literary device, too,
such as a metaphor or simile or hyperbole.
TMESIS—A WORD OR PHRASE E M B E D D E D IN ANOTHER
WORD OR
PHRASE

A tmesis (yes, spelled that way) is a word or phrase embedded

in another word or phrase, usually for emphatic effect. It
typically reflects the ways we speak to one another.
Some examples of tmesis in everyday speech include:
• That’s a whole nother story.
• Leave it any old where you like.
• This is fan-bloody-tastic. (Typical of British English.)
• Ned Flanders in The Simpsons: “Well-diddly-elcome!”
• Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother: “Legen-wait
for it-dary”.
STYLISTIC RHETORICAL DEVICES

The following common rhetorical devices are

employed to make the writing memorable. Stylistic
writing can prove both persuasive and compelling,
sticking in the audience’s mind long after the final
sentence.
ADNOMINATION—WORDS W I T H REPEATING ROOTS

A single root word can produce many words in the contemporary English lexicon. For
example, the latin “facere,” which means “to make” or “to bring forth,” has spawned
a bunch of English words. Some examples:
• Infect
• Defect
• Perfect
• Prefect
• Confetti
• Confection
• Effect
• Affect
• Trifecta
ADNOMINATION—WORDS W I T H
REPEATING ROOTS
Adnomination is the use of two or more words that
share similar roots in a sentence. By doing this, the
writer makes something about the sentence
memorable. This is a rhetorical device useful for both
rhetoricians and for marketers.
Here’s an example from the poem “The Choice” by
Franz Wright (which repeats the prefix “some”):
“Someone in Hell is sitting beside you on the
train. Somebody burning unnoticed walks past in the
street.”
APOSIOPESIS—T H E U N F I N I S H E D SENTENCE

An aposiopesis occurs when the speaker leaves their

sentence unfinished. Doing so forces the
audience to use their imaginations and “fill in the
blank,” which makes the speaker’s message more
impactful—provided it’s clear what the speaker implies.
CIRCUMLOCUTION—UNNECESS ARY WORDINESS

• Circumlocution (also known as periphrasis) is the

use of extraneous words to describe something
that could be described concisely.
• At its most useful, a circumlocution helps define
words, so you’ll see this device employed in
dictionary entries. It’s also common for language
learners to use circumlocution when they don’t have
a strong vocabulary—for example, saying “my
mother’s sister” if you don’t know the word “aunt.”
DYSPHEMISM—LANGUAGE THAT’S DEROGATORY INSTEAD OF
NEUTRAL

A dysphemismis the opposite of a euphemism. When

you use words derogatorily, particularly when a
already
neutral exists,word
you or
are employing
phrase dysphemism—a
sometimes used alongside
device
bdelygmia. For example:
• Euphemism: It’s time for Number Two.
• Neutral term: I need to use the restroom.
• Dysphemism: I’ve gotta shit.
So, most insults, swear words, and vulgarities are
dysphemisms.
ELLIPSIS— OMISSION OF WORDS

• Ellipsis is the omission of words from a

sentence, encouraging the reader to “fill in the
blank.” Aposiopesis is a form of ellipsis, but an ellipsis
can happen anywhere in the text, and is much more
open in terms of subject matter.
• Ellipsis is a useful tool in the art of concise writing.
It can also add ambiguity,
particularly in literary works, if the
writer wants to imply but not outright state
something occurring in the
story.
ISOCOLON—PARALLELISM W I T H AN EQUAL
N U M B E R OF WORDS OR S Y L L A B L E S

A writer uses isocolon when they write a parallel

sentence in which each element has the same
number of words or syllables. This device is
naturally built into certain other rhetorical devices,
such as antithesis (“go big or go home!”), and it’s also
built into poetry forms like iambic pentameter.
ISOCOLON—PARALLELISM W I T H AN
EQUAL N U M B E R OF WORDS OR
SYLLABLES

• Same number of
“I words:
came, I saw, I conquered. (Veni, vidi, vici.)” —Julius Caesar, in a
Roman
letter toSenate.
the
• Same number of
syllables:
“I’ll give my jewels for a set of
My gorgeous palace for a
beads,
My gay apparel for an almsman’s
hermitage,
My figured goblets for a dish of wood.”
gown,
—Iambic pentameter from Richard II by William
Shakespeare.
PLEONASM—INTENTIONAL REDUNDANCY

• It is typically used to emphasize a certain idea or draw

attention to it, though it can also add a sense of
urgency and intensity to language, so long as it’s
employed properly.
• Pleonasm is very similar to tautology, which is when
you use different words that have the same meanings
side by side. The only difference is that a pleonasm
is any sort of rhetorical magniloquence.
PLEONASM—INTENTIONAL
REDUNDANCY
Some phrases in the English language are inherently
pleonastic/tautological. You might have said or heard recently:
• I saw it with my own two eyes. (You can just say “my.” The “two” is
redundant, too.)
• Can I have a chai tea? (“Chai” literally means “tea.”)
• I’ll have the tuna fish for supper. (Just “tuna” communicates the same
idea.)
• It may be possible.
• I got a free gift!
• Under false pretenses.
• PIN Number (PIN stands for Personal Identification Number.)
• ATM Machine (ATM stands for Automatic Teller Machine.)
REFERENCES

1. https://writers.com
2. https://literaryterms.net
3. https://blog.udemy.com/metaphor-list/
4. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/literary-
devices/
5. https://literarydevices.net
6. https://blog.reedsy.com/literary-devices/
7. https://literary-devices.com
8. https://www.savemyexams.com/learning-
hub/glossary/top-literary-devices/