AP Lang List of Rhetorical Devices

Before the school year begins, be sure you understand the definition of all of the following terms. Many of the terms are defined on the website The Virtual Salt:

http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm

Flash cards are not required, but they make an excellent study aid.

Rhetorical Appeals
Ethos One’s credibility as a speaker and writer.	Logos The intellectual power of one’s speech or writing.	Pathos The emotional power of one’s speech or writing.
Style: Artful expression of ideas: detail, diction, figures of speech (see below), imagery, syntax, tone

Figures of Speech
Figures of Speech: Tropes Artful deviation from ordinary or principal signification of a word.	Figures of Speech: Schemes Artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
Reference to one thing as another Metaphor Simile Synecdoche Metonymy Word play/puns Personification Zeugma Onomatopoeia Overstatement/understatement Hyperbole Litotes Semantic Inversions Rhetorical question Hypophora Irony Oxymoron Paradox	Structures of balance Parallelism Antithesis Omission Ellipsis Asyndeton Repetition Alliteration Assonance Anaphora Epistrophe Anadiplosis Epanalepsis Chiasmus Polysyndeton