Some Basic Rhetorical Devices

There is a long list of rhetorical devices and their explanations here.

Here are a few of the simpler ones from that list, with their definitions:

Sentential Adverb: is a single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis to the words immediately proximate to the adverb. (We emphasize the words on each side of a pause or interruption in order to maintain continuity of the thought.) Compare: But the lake was not drained before April. But the lake was not, in fact, drained before April.

Asyndeton: consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a laboured account: On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame. The lack of the "and" conjunction gives the impression that the list is perhaps not complete.

3. Polysyndeton: the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause, and is thus structurally the opposite of asyndeton. The rhetorical effect of polysyndeton, however, often shares with that of asyndeton a feeling of multiplicity, energetic enumeration, and building up. They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and flunked. Use polysyndeton to show an attempt to encompass something complex:  •The water, like a witch's oils, / Burnt green, and blue, and white. --S. T. Coleridge            [He] pursues his way, / And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. --John Milton  The multiple conjunctions of the polysyndetic structure call attention to themselves and therefore add the effect of persistence or intensity or emphasis to the other effect of multiplicity. The repeated use of "nor" or "or" emphasizes alternatives; repeated use of "but" or "yet" stresses qualifications.

Parallelism: several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence. Any sentence elements can be paralleled, any number of times (though, of course, excess quickly becomes ridiculous). You might choose parallel subjects with parallel modifiers attached to them: Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness. Or parallel verbs and adverbs: I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door. Or parallel verbs and direct objects: He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit. Notice how paralleling rather long subordinate clauses helps you to hold the whole sentence clearly in your head: These critics--who point out the beauties of style and ideas, who discover the faults of false constructions, and who discuss the application of the rules--usually help a lot in engendering an understanding of the writer's essay.

Chiasmus: might be called "reverse parallelism," since the second part of a grammatical construction is balanced or paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order. Instead of an A,B structure (e.g., "learned unwillingly") paralleled by another A,B structure ("forgotten gladly"), the A,B will be followed by B,A ("gladly forgotten"). So instead of writing, "What is learned unwillingly is forgotten gladly," you could write, "What is learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten." Similarly, the parallel sentence, "What is now great was at first little," could be written chiastically as, "What is now great was little at first."

Anadiplosis: repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next. it can be generated in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical progression: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,/ Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain . . . . --Philip Sidney

Praeteritio: the announcement of the intention to leave certain things out. The intention is ironic, because by alluding to and enumerating the things to be passed over, the speaker actually draws attention to them. A classic example is Cicero, Against Catiline 1.14 (tr. C. Macdonald): Or again, shortly after you had made room for a new bride by murdering your former wife, did you not compound this deed with yet another crime that defies belief? I do not dwell on this and readily allow it to be glossed over in silence lest it be thought that this state has allowed so heinous a crime to have been committed or to have gone unpunished. I pass over the total ruin to your fortune which you will feel hanging over you on the coming Ides.

Parenthesis: consists of a word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted as an aside in the middle of another sentence: But the new calculations--and here we see the value of relying upon up-to-date information--showed that man-powered flight was possible with this design. The violence involved in jumping into (or out of) the middle of your sentence to address the reader momentarily about something has a pronounced effect. Parenthesis can be circumscribed either by dashes--they are more dramatic and forceful--or by parentheses (to make your aside less stringent). This device creates the effect of extemporaneity and immediacy: you are relating some fact when suddenly something very important arises, or else you cannot resist an instant comment, so you just stop the sentence and the thought you are on right where they are and insert the fact or comment.

Apostrophe: interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified thing, either present or absent. Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back: O value of wisdom that fadeth not away with time, virtue ever flourishing, that cleanseth its possessor from all venom! O heavenly gift of the divine bounty, descending from the Father of lights, that thou mayest exalt the rational soul to the very heavens! Thou art the celestial nourishment of the intellect . . . .                                              Richard de Bury

Tricolon: a list of three things. For example, "I require three things in a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid." (Dorothy Parker)