RHE: Lesson - Rhetorical Strategies

A set of stacked wood blocks with "Words Have Power" written on themRhetorical Strategies

Metaphor. Hyperbole. Point of View. Rhetorical Question. These are just a few of the rhetorical maneuvers that a speaker or writer can use to influence an audience. When used effectively, rhetorical strategies have great power!

While many leaders have long used such strategies in their appeals to the greater public, many writers have also used them in their own plays and prose. Perhaps no one in the history of the English language was more successful in crafting the spoken word than William Shakespeare. Shakespeare knew the eternal appeal of well-written poetry and prose. He was also certainly aware of the rhetorical techniques passed down from the Greeks and Romans. Because of this, many of Shakespeare’s plays are rich for rhetorical analysis.

A drawing of the poet and playwright William Shakespeare.

Common Rhetorical Devices

A rhetorical device is a use of language that is intended to have an effect on its audience. You have likely encountered most, if not all, of these terms in earlier courses. Please review them carefully so that you are well prepared to talk about rhetoric.

  • Alliteration: The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of, adjacent, or closely connected words
  • Allusion: A brief reference to a person, place, event, or passage assumed to be sufficiently known or recognizable to the reader
  • Analogy: A comparison between two things in which the more complex is explained in terms of the more simple; for example, comparing the year-long profile of the stock index to a roller-coaster ride
  • Euphemism: A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing
  • Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
  • Irony (verbal): A method of sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the opposite of what the speaker truly means
  • Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable
  • Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear together
  • Paradox: A statement which at first seems self-contradictory, but which may, in fact, be true
  • Point of View: The way in which something is viewed or considered by a writer or speaker; it is the relationship between the teller of a story and the audience: for example, first or third person
  • Rhetorical Question: A question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer
  • Simile: A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid. Similes often include the word like or as.
  • Symbol: Something that stands for another thing: frequently an object used to represent an abstraction
  • Syntax: The arrangement of words in a sentence, also known as sentence structure
  • Tone: The writer or speaker's attitude toward their subject

Practice Activity

Can you identify the rhetorical device being used? 

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