Persuasive Devices

Persuasive Devices {How to win friends and influence people}

Persuasive Devices • Anaphora • Allusion • Euphemism • Hyperbole • Understatement • Humor • Innuendo • Irony • Oxymoron • Personification • Repetition • Rhetorical Question

Anaphora • A rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis. • Example: • It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. • Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Allusion • A figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication. • Commonly made to the Bible, nursery rhymes, myths, famous fictional or historical characters or events, and Shakespeare. They can be used in prose and poetry. • Example: • “Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities.”

Euphemism • A substitution for an expression that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the receiver, using instead an agreeable or less offensive expression. • Examples: • “Little Girl’s/Boy’s Room” • “Kicked the Bucket” or “Passed Away” • “Adult Entertainment” • “Pre-owned” • “Not all there”

Hyperbole • The use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally. • This is the DIRTIEST bathroom in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE! You need CLOROX.

Understatement • A form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected • The opposite of hyperbole. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAt36-EqHIE

Humor

Innuendo • An indirect intimation about a person or thing, insinuation • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgxxAwue7Fs

Irony • Verbal • When what is meant is the opposite of what is said. • Sarcasm • Dramatic • When the audience know something the speaker doesn’t • Situational • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm-1xvWibt0

Oxymoron • A figure of speech that combines normally-contradictory terms. Oxymorons appear in a variety of contexts, including inadvertent errors such as extremely average and literary oxymorons crafted to reveal a paradox. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWY_NTLFSa4&feature=related

Personification

Repetition • The simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to emphasize. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVx6lp5IC6o

Rhetorical Question • A figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply. • A question with no answer • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtp_mq2fO24

Name that Device! • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drqO8aySdFg • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPmYxLUoZVc • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xtr3j-DuM0

Persuasive Devices