Paradox

A statement or proposition that, despite sound reasoning from an acceptable premises leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.

Example: Stay away from water until you learn how to swim.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis: The intentional omision of a word or words that are implied by their context

Examples: a) There is an orange flower, a purple flower, and a red. (Instead of: There is an orange flower, a purple flower, and a red flower.)

b) She plays the flute, and he the violin.

Anaphora

Anaphora (rhetoric term) : a repeating sequence of words at the beginning of clauses related to one another, giving emphasis ; opposite of epistrophe

example: "I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. [. . .]" (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely)

Ephemism

Definitions: the substitution of a mild indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt. (Dictionary.com)

Examples "Mommy why is Auntie hill so fat," said the little girl
"she is not fat sweetie she is just big boned," said the mother.

"Sorry you are too vertically challenged to ride," said the man.
Words cited
"Euphemism, define Euphemism at dictionary.com." Web.25Mar.2010. .

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines normally contradictory terms. They appear in a variety of contexts, including inadvertent errors such as extremely average, deliberate puns like same difference, and literary oxymorons that have been crafted to reveal a paradox.
Other Examples: Act naturally, exact estimate, freezer burn.

Understatement

Understatement (verb)- To state or represent less strongly or strikingly than the facts would bear out; set forth in restrained, moderate, or weak terms.

1.) "I dont see the problem officer, its only a scratch"

2.) (with a huge flood coming from rain above)
"It's only a little rain"

PUN

The humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

1. I work as a baker because I need dough.


2. I used to do rock climbing as a youth, but I was much boulder back then.

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning - Using logic to arrive at a conclusion from a given premise.

All apples are fruits and all fruits grow on trees therefore all apples grow on trees.

Analogy

Analogy(noun)-an inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others, aka reasoning or explaining from parallel cases

Examples: People "going with the flow" is like fish following the current of a river (both have no control over what happens to them)

Obese person stuffing himself reminds one of a pig eating garbage out of a trough, both have no self control and fat bodies in common

Exclamation

Exclamation (noun):
-the act of exclaiming; outcry; loud complaint or protest
-An abrupt, forceful utterance

Examples:
"WOW!" she exclaimed when walking into her suprise party.
An exclamation of delight escaped him when he saw his old friends.
"STOP!" the kid yelled at the bully.
The student was interrupted by the rude exclamations the teacher was making.
The people all thought, "OMG!!!" when they saw the shirtless model.

Synecdoche

syn·ec·do·che

Definition:
1–nounRhetoric.
a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the specific for the general or the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it

Examples -- Referring to the general specifically (big to small, whole to part)

1) Reffering to workers as "hands" as in "all hands on deck"

Examples -- Referring to the specific generally (small to big, part to whole)

1) Referring to police officers as "the law"

2) Using the word cutthroat to mean assassin

3) Using the word thief to mean pickpocket

Examples -- Referring to an object as what it is made of

1) Using the word steel to mean sword

Parenthesis

Definition:

pa·ren·the·sis [puh-ren-thuh-sis]
–noun,plural-ses

a qualifying, explanatory, or appositive word, phrase, clause, or sentence that interrupts a syntactic construction without otherwise affecting it, having often a characteristic intonation and indicated in writing by commas, parentheses, or dashes, as in William Smith—you must know him—is coming tonight.

Examples:
1. My umbrella (which is somewhat broken) can still shield the two of us from the rain.
2. Roger Worthington, a poorly drawn character in the novel, reveals the secret in the last chapter.
3. Some of the local store owners— Mr. Kwan and Ms. Lawson, for example—insisted that the street be widened.
4. “The sinews of war are five — men, money, materials, maintenance (food) and morale.” – Ernest Hemingway

Parallelism

The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.

examples:

1. Mary likes to hike, to swim, and to ride a bicycle.

2. Mary likes hiking, swimming, and riding a bicycle.
3. The coach told the players that they should get a lot of sleep, that they should not eat too much, and that they should do some warm-up exercises before the game.

What is Rhetoric?

Simple: It is the practice of using language effectively to please or persuade.
This is the blog/wiki for 7th period Honors English at Albany High School. This site will provide a common location for the class to define and explore all things rhetorical. All class members are contributors to the site.

Paradox

Paradox - an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.

Examples: What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young. - George Bernard Shaw

Faraday Paradox: Dilute nitric acid will corrode steel, while concentrated nitric acid doesn't.

There's always an exception to the rule, except to the exception of the rule - while is, in of itself, an accepted exception of the rule.

Metonymy

Metonymy - a figure of speech that consists in using the name of one thing for that of something else with which it is associated.

Examples:
"They counted heads" as opposed to "they counted the people".
"The pen is mightier than the sword." - "The pen is an attribute of thoughts that are written with a pen; the sword is an attribute of military action."*



Sources:
*http://rhetoric.byu.edu/figures/m/metonymy.htm

Rhetoric Visual Assignment

The following is a list of key rhetorical strategies.  First, define your term.  Then create an 8 ½” x 11” illustration of your device that will be presented in class.  Do not write the device name on the illustration.  These will later be scanned in and can be used as a study guide for the AP test.  In addition to the illustration and definition, please come up with an additional written example of your device.  Within your class, every one of the below devices must be covered.
(Note: We will look at fallacies at a later date.)

Analogy

Anaphora

Antithesis
Deductive reasoning
Didactic
Ellipsis
Euphemism
Exclamation
Inductive reasoning
Situational Irony
Dramatic Irony
Verbal Irony
Metonymy
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Paradox
Parallelism
Parenthesis
Pun
Synecdoche
Understatement

This assignment is worth 40 points.