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FLE
100
Introduction to Academic Writing |
Rhetorical Devices
Analogy
The comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects,
for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea
or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one.
While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic
likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more
practical end of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the
abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended.
Shells
were to ancient culture as dollar bills are to modern culture.
Some
basic facts about memory are clear. Your short-term memory is like the RAM on
a computer: it records the information in front of you right now. Some of what
you experience seems to evaporate--like words that go missing when you turn
off your computer without hitting SAVE. But other short-term memories go through
a molecular process called consolidation: they're downloaded onto the hard drive.
These long-term memories, filled with past loves and losses and fears, stay
dormant until you call them up.
("To
Pluck a Rooted Sorrow," Newsweek, April 27, 2009)
Pupils
are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them
and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There
are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and
persistence.
(Sydney J. Harris, "What True Education Should Do," 1964)
The
25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English
Teachers)
Comparison/Contrast
To compare is to emphasize similarities. To contrast is to
emphasize differences.
Comparison:
My
hometown and my college town have several things in common. First, both are
small rural communities. For example, my hometown, Springville, has a population
of only about 10,000 people. Similarly, my college town, Summerton, consists
of about 11,000 local residents. This population swells to 15,000 people when
the college students are attending classes. A second way in which these two
towns are similar is that they are both located in rural areas...
Contrast:
Even
though Arizona and Rhode Island are both states of the U.S., they are strikingly
different in many ways. For example, the physical size of each state is different.
Arizona is large, having an area of 114,000 square miles, whereas Rhode Island
is only about a tenth the size, having an area of only 1,214 square miles. Another
difference is in the size of the population of each state...
Definition Extended explanation of a word, term, or concept
A cup of hot chocolate is a warm fuzzy, as comforting and cozy as a crackling fire on a snowy night.
Monday
is solemn and sober, stern and demanding as the pile of unread memos in your
inbox. Sunday is gentle and smiling, a little girl in patent leather shoes and
a frilly dress. It is the sweet scent of Easter lilies and the grandiose strains
of an organ wafting through stained glass windows.
Description
Using sensory perceptions to make the reader see, feel, smell,
touch, taste an object, environment, process, state of mind, or emotion
The rooms of my house were filled with colorful, glittery, shining things. Now they are dimmed by a layer of fine gray dust. Rays of sunlight struggle to beam through windows now murky with neglect, sadness and grief. Joyful vibes no longer resonate; works of art no longer delight. Forgotten are the serene, solitary evenings gently perfumed by soft light. Fading are echoes of the laughter of friends who once filled every festive room to celebrate a season of joy. The air inside this house is stale and stifling as a tomb, reeking of lost dreams, weeping for lost hopes.
Euphemism
Substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression
for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant
Examples
of euphemisms for "stupid"
A few fries short of a Happy Meal
A few beers short of a six-pack
The wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead.
One Fruit Loop shy of a full bowl
All foam, no beer
Other examples:
"retarded" - developmentally delayed
"deaf" - hearing impaired
"died" - passed away
"fired" - laid off, downsized
"obese"/"fat" - heavy, plump, full-figured
Irony
Expression of something which is contrary to the intended
meaning; the words say one thing but mean another. Sarcasm is a subdivision
of irony. Sarcasm is irony used with the intent to wound the person to whom
the remark is addressed.
Irony:
Bill and Alice have just seen a really appalling play. Both
Bill and Alice are disappointed.
Bill: Well! What a worthwhile use of an evening!
Alice: Yeah.
Sarcasm
Alice hates Bill's travel books.
Alice: Yeah, I like, really dig your travel books, Bill. You're a really skillful
author.
Bill: Oh.
In
the Irony example, there was no sarcasm because Bill was not intending to wound
Alice with his comment. He was using irony to remark that he felt he had wasted
his evening at the theatre.
In the Sarcasm example, there was sarcasm because Alice used it to show Bill
that she didn't like his books and thought that he was a terrible writer. There's
irony too, but the tone of the delivery and the intention makes it sarcastic.
She was being nasty.
Metaphor
Equates one object or idea with another to enhance
expression or understanding. Unlike similes, "like" or "as"
is not used.
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. Shakespeare,
"Macbeth"
War is hell.
Her
eyes are lipid pools of azure.
Oxymoron
Apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words
which seem to contradict one another
jumbo shrimp/ criminal
justice / deafening silence / adult children / alone
together
Simile
An explicit comparison between two things using "like"
or "as"
Let us go then, you and I,
While the evening is spread out against the sky,
Like a patient etherized upon a table" T.S. Eliot,
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
The old man's face is like a wrinkled prune.
This assignment is as clear as a bell (or as nutty as a fruitcake).
The dancers twirled like whirling dervishes.
Upside-down
Argument Take an activity, institution, practice, personality,
or concept that everybody seems to approve or like. Explain why you don't like
it. Give an "upside-down" point of view.
Every October they come in droves, seeking chills
and thrills in this dusty, dirty, smelly human quagmire. They salivate at the
prospects of wolfing down greasy French fries and fried dough, gawking
at "freaks," playing games for worthless
prizes, and being tossed around in spinning, whirling, nausea-invoking contraptions.
They are determined to "have fun" at all costs at this glorious State
Fair.