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LE Notes: Rhetorical devices
Alliteration
Adjacent words b eginning with the s ame s ound usually start with the same letter. However, note that it’s the sounds of words that must repeat, not the spelling. Thus, ‘honest’ and ‘humble’ are not
alliterative, neither are ‘charismatic’ and ‘charming’.
Adjective + Adjective Noun + Noun
Adverb + Adjective / Verb +英语拼写
Adverb
stared at me sinisterly cool, calm ,confident tips and techniques
a privilege and a pleasure dashing, dapper, debonair the prince and the pauper
confident and charismatic Superman and Spiderman exuberantly executed
performance
Adjective + Noun Correctly, concily, creatively Verb + Verb nsational speaker relive, relax, reconnect hemmed and hawed warm welcome entertaining and enthralling banged and bawled terrified teacher Fantastic, fabulous and fun frame and focus
Rhyme: Adjacent words ending with similar sounds
1)With p ain, comes g ain
2)Only by grace can we e nter, not by human e ndeavors
3)“Twinkle, twinkle little s tar. How I wonder what you a re.
4)And will you s ucceed? Yes you will i ndeed!
5)When you b elieve, you will r eceive, when you r eceive, you will a chieve.
Metaphor
It is the imaginative u of words or pha to describe something, somebody or another object to sh
ow that it has the same qualities and to make the description more forceful. Without using “Like”
Direct metaphor: state both things being compared
1)The assignment was a breeze.
2)Laughter is the music of the s oul.
Indirect metaphor: state one thing and leaves the audience to infer the other
1)She c ut him d own with her w ords.
2)Taking f light with the w ings of love
3)Life whispers to your s oul and speaks to your h eart
Parallelism
特物资1 CHEN XIAONA Feb 2016
It is a figure of balance identified by successive words or phras with the same or very similar grammatical structure.
1)Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall p ay any pric e,
bear any burden,m eet any hardship,s upport any friend,o ppo any foe to assure the
survival and the success of liberty.--- John. F. Kennedy
2)Tell me and I forgot.T each me and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn. Personification
1)That stupid c ar caud the road accident (a car cannot be “stupid” like a human being)
2)I have not gone out with h er for a long time (referring to a p air of shoes)
3)The ocean d anced in the moonlight.
4)She did not realize that o pportunity was k nocking at her door.
Allusion
A short reference to a famous person or event.
1)If you take his parking place, you can expect W orld War II all over again.
2)“It is raining so hard, I hope it doesn’t rain for 40 days and 40 nights.” (Nova, Bible) Simile
A comparison of 2 things which are not related, but they are similar in one important way. A comparison using “like” or” as”, sounds more casual and less emphatic than a metaphor.
1)I will ri up l ike an eagle
gain什么意思2)I shine l ike a candle in the dark when you tell me that you love me
3)As h eavy as an e lephant; as h ard as a r ock
4)If we deny our children an education, ignorance will g row l ike c ancer.记一件事作文>版式设计模板
Analogy
It involves reference to something familiar or readily understood, in order to illustrate and explain something more complex and less readily understood.
1)The power of the s taff in the c ompany is what the power of the e ngine is to the c ar.
2)Knowledge always desires increa; it is like f ire, which must first be kindled by some
external a gent, but which will afterwards p ropagate i tlf.---Samuel Johnson
3)Life is like a box of chocolates.
Contrast/Paradoxes
1)So s mall in the size of the pocket yet so b ig in the heart of contribute
2)I am n ot the sporting type, but I am a g ood s port
3)There is b eauty in d estruction,v iolence in c reation
4)Little pleasure; g reat surpri
5)Half marathon, f ull experience
6)Dim but i lluminating
7)Here t oday, gone t omorrow
8)There are w ider e xpressways but n arrower v iewpoints.
9)Always act, never react
10)Expect the unexpected
Chiasmus:
A very effective technique where the words in one phra or clau are reverd in the next.
1)But just becau y ou’re born in the slum does not mean that s lum is born in you, and you
can r i above it if your mind is made up. ---Jes Jackson沟通与交流
2)Ask not what your country can do for you; a sk what you can d o for your country. --- John F.
Kennedy.
3)Your manuscript is both g ood and o riginal; but the part that is g ood i s not original, and the
part that is o riginal is not good. ---Samuel Johnson
4)…gave their l ives that the nation might a live… Abraham Lincoln
Quotation
A quotation is simply the words said by a specific person, or in a specific situation. A short common know expression containing advice or wisdom.
1)We cannot open a book without learning something. ---Confucius
2)It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop. ---Confucius
3)Knowing yourlf is the beginning of all wisdom. --- Aristotle
4)I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more
important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. ---
Albert Einstein
Proverb
Every culture has a collection of wi sayings that offer advice about how to live your life.
1)When in Rome, do as the Romans.
2)Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
3)Actions speak louder than words.
Idiom
It has a meaning of its own that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words.
1)Think on your feet: Adjusting quickly to changes and making fast decisions.
2)Eat, sleep and breathe something: Being so enthusiastic about something that you think
about it all the time.
Wordplay
It is literally just playing with the meanings of words.
1)I know you think you understand what you though I said but I’m not sure you realize that
what you heard is not what I meant. --- Alan Greenspan
2)To be the best, kill the rest.
3)To the world, you are someone. To someone, you are the world.
4)Do not judge tho who try and fail, but judge tho who fail to try.
5)Say what you mean, mean what you say
Tricolon
The u of the words, phras, examples, or the beginnings or the endings of phras or ntences in threes. Tricolon is a rhetorical term for a ries of three parallel words, phras, or claus.
1)The vitamin pills from the store are s weeter,c heaper and h ealthier
2)Government o f the people,b y the people,f or the people.---Abraham Lincoln
3)The God-given promi that a ll are equal,a ll are free, and a ll derve a chance to pursue
their full measure of happiness.--- Barack Obama
The power of three/ Triad
1)What drives you? What moves you? What motivates you?
2)One people, one nation, one Singapore
3)What he did, what he has and what he is, will put …
Anaphora
Repeat the same words or words at the beginning of successive phras, or ntences, often alongside Climax and parallelism, using a Tricolon. It is the direct opposite of antistrophe.
形容领导能力强的句子
1)You are intelligent, y ou are sincere, and y ou are beautiful
2)So high, s o deep, s o wide is your love
3)New year, n ew things, n ew you
4)To think on death, it is a miry. T o think on life it is a vanity, t o think on the world verity it
is, t o think that here man hath no perfect bliss.-Peacham
Antistrophe /Epistrophe
A figure of speech that repeats the same word or phra at the end of successive claus.
1)Encourage e ach other, support e ach other
2)You can dream i t, wish for i t, the most important thing is to act on i t.
3)With this faith, we will be able to work t ogether, to pray t ogether, to struggle t ogether, to
go to jail t ogether, to stand up for freedom t ogether, knowing what we will be free one
day.---Martin Luther King Jr. “ I have a dream”
Anadiplosis
1)I started a journey,a journey with Toastmaster international
2)Men in great place are thrice s ervants;s ervants of the sovereign or state; rvants of
fame; and rvants of business. –FRANCIS Bacon
绿植简笔画Repetition
Repeats the same words or phras a few times to make an idea clearer.
1)Go! Go! Go!
2) A hor is a hor, of cour, of cour. And no one can talk to a hor of cour. That is,
of cour, unless the hor is the famous Mister Ed.--- Mr. Ed, a 1960s TV program Oxymoron
It is a deliberate combination of two words that em to mean the opposite of each other.
Sweet- sour Clearly misunderstood Pretty ugly
Working vacation Sounds of silence Silent scream
Negative growth Terribly plead Vegetarian meat Antithesis:
This deliberately contrasts two opposing ideas in concutive phras or ntences.
1)To be or n ot to be, that is the questions. ---- William Shakespeare
2)I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they w ill not
be judged by the colour of their skin b ut by the content of their character. – Martin Luther
3)It was the b est of times, it was the w orst of the times, it was the age of w isdom, it was the
age of f oolishness, it was the epoch of b elief, it was the epoch of i ncredulity, it was the
ason of l ight, it was the ason of d arkness, it was the s pring o f h ope, it was the w inter of despair, we have e verything before us, we had n othing before us, we were all going
direct t o H eaven, we were all going direct t he other way. --- Charles Dickens (A Tale of two cities)
Joni. DTM workshop notes
Tips #1
Prepare your LE kit: A4 size, 8 pieces. While board marker. Fully charged phone. Check the dictionary
Tips #2
Prepare WOTD (Words of the day) .Show the words, read it and gives its function
Explain the meaningful of the words. Give an example
Tip #3
Decide on format. Chronologic (time bad) vs topical
