AP LANG TEST REVIEW: RHETORICAL DEVICES

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AP LANG TEST REVIEWRHETORICAL DEVICES
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APPEALS

• LOGOS (LOGICAL)--
• ETHOS (ETHICAL)--
• PATHOS (EMOTIONAL)
• Aphorismsgeneral truths (not appeals, but they
  usually appeal to audiences)

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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGEYou probably already know

• SIMILES AND METAPHORS
• PERSONIFICATION, ALLITERATION, AND ONOMATOPOEIA
• HYPERBOLE
• APHORISM
• RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
• PARADOX
• UNDERSTATEMENT

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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGEWords that you may not know

• Metonymy
• Synecdoche
• Bombast
• Malapropism
• Pun

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Tone

• Authors attitude or sentiments revealed by the
  writers style.
• A writers tone ISNT informative! Try to decide
  if its positive or negative.
• THEN, choose a more precise word
• Ex. Didactic, compassionate, sardonic, pedantic,
  etc.
• Look for tone shifts in passages!

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DICTION

• WORD CHOICE
• Dont say, The writer uses diction
• Duh! Lets say, The diction inproves
• or jump right to a rhetorical device.
• The juxtaposition of ____ proves____
• Identifying diction
• Formal? Informal? Slang? Colloquial? Jargon?
  Precise? Metaphorical?
• Thinkhow do you define the words?

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SYNTAX

• Sentence Structure
• Types, purposes, lengths,
• Structurenormal word order? Inverted?
• Punctuationuse of commas, exclamation marks,
  questions, semi-colonsfor what effect?
• Parts of Speechnotice a lot of adj? nouns?
  Verbs? WHY? To what effect?

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Authors Purpose

• to verb
• To persuade
• To entertain
• To show
• To explain
• Be sure you can add to these infinitives!

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Repetitiona.k.a. Transformers and Diseases

• Polysyndeton--
• Asyndeton
• Anaphora
• Anadiplosis
• Epanalepsis
• Epistrophe

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Parallel Structure

• Parallelism--
• Antithesis
• Juxtapositioncontrasting ideas, images
• ChiasmusInversion of parallel ideas within a
  sentence. Ex. Ask not what your country can do
  for you, but what you can do for your country.
  JFK
• Zeugmaa controlling idea to describe 2 ideas but
  only applies to 1 logically
• Ex. He carried the light for men and the
  responsibility of a nation.
• Ex. You held your breath and the door for
  me. (Thanks Alannis!)

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Comedic Devices"A eugooglizer. One who speaks at
funerals. Or did you think I'd be to stupid to
know what a eugoogly was?"-Zoolander

• Pun
• Litote
• Sarcasm
• Malapropism
• Irony
• Satire
• Wit

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Comedic Devices, take 2!

• Burlesque
• Hyperbole
• Mockery
• Parody
• Tautology
• Lampoon

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FALLACIESJust the top 12

• Ad hominem
• Misleading Statistics
• Ad populum
• Red Herring-
• Ad Verecundiam
• Begging the Question
• Post Hoc

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FALLACIES, again

• Scare Tactics
• Either/Or Fallacy
• Oversimplification
• Hasty Generalization
• Non Sequitur