5. Alliteration
"Somewhere at this very moment a child is
being born in America. Let it be our cause
to give that child a happy home, a healthy
family, and a hopeful future."
-- Bill Clinton, 1992 Democratic National
Convention Acceptance Address
Repetition Figures
6. Anaphora
Repeating the first word
With malice toward none;
with charity for all;
with firmness in the right,...
— Abraham Lincoln, Second
Inaugural Address
Repetition Figures
7. Anadiplosis
Repeating the last part and the first part
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense
much fear in you."
(Yoda in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menance)
Repetition Figures
8. Epistrophe
Repeating the last word
"Don't you ever talk about my friends!
You don't know any of my friends. You
don't look at any of my friends. And you
certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to
any of my friends."
(Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club)
Repetition Figures
10. Polysyndeton/Asyndeton
More Conjunctions/No Conjunctions
"He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a
maniac."
(Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957)
"[I]t is respectable to have no illusions--and safe--and
profitable--and dull."
(Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, 1900)
11. Symploce
Repeating the first and last words
"Much of what I say might sound bitter, but it's the
truth. Much of what I say might sound like it's stirring
up trouble, but it's the truth. Much of what I say might
sound like it is hate, but it's the truth."
-- Malcolm X
Repetition Figures
13. Antithesis
Balanced opposites
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that
my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it
should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb
meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a
sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of
man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in
trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
(Jack London)
15. diazeugma
Clusters of verbs following one subject
"Swallows dart, dip, dive, swiftly pluck perching
insects from slow moving current."
(Robert Watts Handy, River Raft Pack of Weeping
Water Flat. Writer's Showcase, 2001)
16. Isolcolon
Items in a series are equal in length and form
"Nothing that's beautiful hides its face.
Nothing that's honest hides its name."
(Orual in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S.
Lewis. Geoffrey Bles, 1956)
18. Tricolon
Three items in a series
"You are talking to a man who has laughed in the face
of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at
catastrophe."
(The Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, 1939)
19. Tricolon
Three items in a series
"I require three things in a man. He must be handsome,
ruthless, and stupid."
(Dorothy Parker)
23. Aporia
Real or pretended uncertainty
“Well, Mrs. Jones, I know there must be a simple
explanation, but what I don’t understand is how you
said you were home alone and had no visitors all day
but the radiator of your car was still hot when I got here
at 3 PM today. I’m sure you can explain that and there’s
just one more thing, Mrs. Jones . . . .”.
24. Apoplanesis
Digressing or Evading
You’ve asked me to elaborate on my health care policy,
and I will. These questions are good questions and our
face-to-face engagement of these pressing issues is one
of the best ways to sort out our differences and provide
people with a clear-cut avenue of choice. Making
choices and . .(continues until audience falls asleep)
25. aposiopesis
Pretending to be unable to speak
"Almira Gulch, just because you own half the county
doesn't mean that you have the power to run the rest of
us. For 23 years I've been dying to tell you what I
thought of you! And now--well, being a Christian
woman, I can't say it!"
(Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz, 1939)
26. Chiasmus
The X-figure
"I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's
job was to comfort the disturbed and
disturb the comfortable."
(David Foster Wallace)
29. Apodioxis
Your argument is ridiculous
"Then there's the disease excuse.
"It goes like this: Drug addiction is a disease, so society has
no right to punish addicts for their illness. Well, this kind of
ridiculous argument makes me ill. We need to stop feeling
sorry for people who careen out control, and begin to
impose sanctions on them."
(Bill O'Reilly)
30. Concessio
At least one part of your argument has merit
"It has been said that Rowcliff is handsome, and I'll
concede that his six feet of meat is distributed well enough,
but his face reminds me of a camel with a built-in sneer."
(Rex Stout, Please Pass the Guilt, 1973)
31. enumeratio
The listing or detailing of the parts
Kramer: "Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's
chocolate; it's peppermint; it's delicious."
Seinfeld: "That's true."
Kramer: "It's very refreshing!"
32. horismus
Offering a definition often by making a distinction
between two things
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the
right things.” -- Peter Drucker
33. metanoia/correctio
Changing your mind (or pretending to) in the middle of
your argument
Fido was the friendliest of all St. Bernards, nay of all dogs.
or
Fido was the friendliest dog in the world, or at least in my
neighborhood.
39. epiplexis
Rhetorical questions designed to hurt
"Let us not assassinate this lad further,
Senator. You have done enough. Have you
no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have
you left no sense of decency?"
(Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph
McCarthy, June 9, 1954)
41. Paralipsis
Ironic Denial
"Let's pass swiftly over the vicar's predilection for
cream cakes. Let's not dwell on his fetish for Dolly
Mixture. Let's not even mention his rapidly increasing
girth. No, no--let us instead turn directly to his recent
work on self-control and abstinence."
(Tom Coates, Plasticbag.org, Apr. 5, 2003)
55. Government vs.Washington
Tax Cuts vs.Tax Relief
Inheritance Tax vs. Death Tax
Undocumented Workers vs. Illegal
Aliens
Drilling for oil vs. Exploring for
Energy
58. fear
If you don’t graduate from high school, you
will end up a ditchdigger.
59. Appeals to pity
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, look at
this miserable man, in a wheelchair, unable to
use his legs. Could such a man really be
guilty of embezzlement?"
60. Appeal to ridicule
Oh sure! Of course, evolution makes sense!
It’s perfectly obvious that people are related
to gorillas!
