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Rhetorical Devices English Language
Fhci english grade 10 academic test rhetorical devices
The rhetorical devices
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The term rhetorical means “expressed in terms intended to persuade or impress” (dictionary.com, rhetorical). Almost every author and poet uses rhetorical devices within their literature. Even if a writer doesn't try to use rhetoric within their stories, it is almost hard to avoid. Some examples of rhetorical devices are imagery, personification, and diction. Within the sermon titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and the “Speech to the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry, the writer's use smileys, rhetorical questions, and appeal to fear to help develop their main points. The first rhetorical device used within Patrick Henry's “Speech to the Virginia Convention” is rhetorical questions. A rhetorical question is
a question that is asked without expecting an answer. The purpose of rhetorical questions in literature is to make get the reader further invested in the story and make them think more about a certain topic. A rhetorical question asked in the speech is “Has Great Brittain and enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies” (Patrick Henry 1775). In this specific example, Patrick Henry is using this rhetorical questions to make light to the topic of the speech. The use of rhetorical devices in this example is a perfect way of making the reader think about new ideas in the text. Overall there are more than 10 rhetorical questions within the one speech. That is how rhetorical questions help develop the speaker's main points. The second rhetorical device utilized in Jonathan Edwards sermon is similes. A simile is comparing two things using like or as. A simile used in the sermon is “the wrath of god is like great waters that a dammed for the present” (Edwards 1741). This simile is comparing God’s wrath to dammed waters to emphasize the greatness of how strong God’s power is. In this case the simile is making the reader fall deeper into the plot with a stronger analysis of the story. That is how similes help develop the main points of the sermon. The third device utilized within Jonathan Edwards sermon is the appeal to fear factor. Appeal to fear is a rhetorical device used to frighten the audience. In this sermon, Edwards was talking to an audience about how hell is a real place and how they should stop sinning or else they will go to hell. The line “ This is definitely an example of appear to fear because after Edwards says this to his audience, they are going to be frightened and listen to everything he says. That is how the appeal to fear factor helps grow the main ideas of the sermon. In conclusion, the sermon titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and the “Speech to the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry, use smileys, rhetorical questions, and appeal to fear to help develop the main points of the two pieces of literature. The two writers did a very good job utilizing rhetorical devices listed above.
Patrick Henry’s effective diction emphasizes how much the British had suppressed the colonists and that it was time to fight for their freedom. Henry displays this through his strong use of pathos, logos, and ethos. His rhetorical questions really appeal to the logic and ethics of the colonists and leaves the no choice but to join him and rebel.
In the “Speech at the Virginia Convention” Patrick Henry tries to persuade colonists to fight a war against the English; he uses several main rhetorical strategies such as; parallelism, metaphor, and rhetorical questions.
According to the Webster Dictionary, rhetoric is defined as the art of speaking or writing effectively. Rhetoric is made up of three separate appeals that can be used individually or collectively in an attempt to persuade a reader. Ethos is the credibility and qualifications of the speaker or author. Pathos is the author's use of emotions and sympathy to urge the audience to agree with his or her standpoint. And lastly, logos is applying sound reasoning (logic) to attract the typical ideas of the audience and to prove the author's point of view. "Lockdown" by Evans D. Hopkins is a fine example of an author using these appeals to persuade his audience. Hopkins uses of the three appeals are easy to locate and relate with throughout the entire passage. He undoubtedly uses rhetoric to try and keep his audiences focus and to persuade them to feel the way he does about the treatment of prisoners. We can identify and trust that he is making reasonable assertions because he was a prisoner and went through actual lockdowns. The fact that Hopkins was an actual prisoner proves his credibility to provide evidence for his thoughts.
Rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, and its uses the figures of speech and other compositional techniques. It’s designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience.
Patrick Henry was known as “the Orator of Liberty” and created his name with his speeches. When colonists were divided in 1775, some were hoping to work it out but not Patrick Henry. He thought the only choice was to go to war with Great Britain. Henry uses ethos, pathos, and logos to show his clause for going to war with Britain.
The use of the anadiplosis, “I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there had been in the conduct of the British ministry...with which gentlemen...solace themselves and the house?”, further strengthens his use of logic by presenting the Congress with evidence of the British ministry’s insidious ways. He then inquires the Congress, through a series of rhetorical questions, such as, “Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation?”, in order to scrutinize the actions of the British ministry, causing fear of the future and of reconciliation to resonate within the Congress. Patrick Henry uses a hypophora when saying, “Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all his accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she had none.” This clearly indicates that the British have sent armies across the sea in order to do battle with America, that there is no other outcome but one of war. Patrick Henry delivers more parallelism throughout his speech as it escalates to draw out emotions such as anger. For example, he repeats the words ‘petitioned’, ‘remonstrated’, ‘supplicated’, and ‘prostrated’, to convey the frustration of seceding from Great Britain. By using the symploce and epimone in, “If we wish to be free, if we mean to
During the mid 1700’s the new found America was struggling for independence from the British. This undetermined notion whether or not to declare war led to the Virginia Convention where, Governor Patrick Henry enforced our nation to engage in war. “Patrick Henry’s Speech in the Virginia Convention” emphasizes the importance of fighting for independence for the American nation, because we shouldn't be treated like slaves of the British. He persuades them to join the war effort enforcing a sense of patriotism to the members by using the rhetorical appeals of parallelism and repetition.
In addressing the Wellesley High School class of 2012, David McCullough, Jr., uses rhetorical devices such as logos, pathos and literacy devices to argue the uneasy fact to the grads that every person is not special and thus should not try to accomplish everything in life.
Patrick Henry uses rhetorical questions to make his audience contemplate about the answers to those questions. When an audience member replies with an answer, this will further the support for Henry’s argument. The supporting evidence from this answer will help develop his claim even more, therefore making his argument additionally valid. Patrick Henry also uses rhetorical questions to cause compelling reactions in his audience that will hopefully bring them to his side of the
Authors use rhetorical strategies to express themes in their writing. Different rhetorical strategies help convey different themes with varying degrees of effectiveness. One way to measure the effectiveness is to rhetorical analyze two pieces of writing to each other and see which is best.
...a subject and have created great change throughout a large nation. Rhetoric is the most powerful device of change in the world because of its worldwide recognition and ease of use. The most important and common example of this power is found in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass. Important stylistic and rhetorical choices made by Douglas and Stowe greatly affected change in the major political and moral issue of slavery in 19th century America.
Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention” is one of the most quoted speeches of all time. Its famous emotion and rhetoric make it that way. Thomas Paine is also one of the great literary figures of the day, but Henry’s speech is more persuasive through his more meaningful rhetorical elements. These include parallelism, rhetorical questions, and most certainly his pathos.
Clark (2016) suggests that rhetoric isn’t limited to oral communication, but currently has a permanent foothold in written works: magazine or newspaper excerpts, novels, and scientific reports. Not only written
Therefore, there are different kinds of important rhetoric devices that include figurative languages (similes, metaphors, and personifications), irony, and foreshadowing. Similes, metaphors, and personifications are the most common rhetoric devices that authors use. It is used many times in the book Lord of the Flies.
Rhetorical Analysis and Persuasion Every day we are victims to persuasion whether anyone can notice it or not. Logos, pathos and ethos are the types of persuasion. Logos persuades by reason, pathos by appealing to emotion and ethos by the credibility of the author. The characters in The Iliad employ the use of these techniques to sway another character into doing or feeling something else.