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Materials: Glue sticks, Scissors, Poster board, Newspapers for cutting and pasting

Activity:

1. Students are given a list of 30 rhetorical devices and their definitions. (Students have studied these devices in class prior to this activity.)

2. Students are put into groups of three and given 60 minutes to find as many of the rhetorical devices as they can in the newspaper.

3. Students cut, paste, and label their examples.

4. When finished, the teacher "checks" off the examples that are correct on each poster and awards each poster a Number Correct score.

5. The group with the highest score receives a prize.

Evaluation: The teacher creates a handout of the best examples from the student posters. Students are quizzed on labeling each example using standard grading procedures.

The students enjoy this activity because it is competitive and creative and allows them to work with their peers. Many students find learning rhetorical device names difficult, and this activity brings fun to the learning. The evaluation tool determines whether the activity is successful, but in addition, the "student talk" during the activity is very focused on discussing the examples - a sure sign the students are learning!

Rhetorical Devices/Strategies:

Alliteration: repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words.
Peter Piper picked a peck...

Anadiplosis: repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.
The crime was common; common be the pain.

Anaphora: repetition of the same word or groups of words at the beginning of phrases, clauses, or sentences.
In books, I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth...

Anastrophe: inversion of the natural or usual word order.
Chocolate does not a diet make.

Antithesis: the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas.
To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Apophasis: asserts or emphasizes something by seeming to pass over, ignore, or deny it.
I will not mention the budget deficit here, or the political problems plaguing our nation, instead I want to concentrate on the problems...

Apposition: placing, side by side, two co-ordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explanation of the first.
John Morgan, president of the bank, could not be reached by phone.

Assonance: the repetition of similar vowel sounds in two or more adjacent words.
Mad as a hatter.

Asyndeton: deliberate omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.
We came, we saw, we conquered.

Chaismus: reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses.
Renowned for conquest and in council skilled.

Climax: arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in order of increasing importance.
Miss America was eager to serve her family, her community, and her nation.

Ellipsis: deliberate omission of a word or words, which are readily implied by the context.
The Master´s degree is awarded by thirty-two departments, and the Ph.D. by thirty-three.

Epanalepsis: repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause.
Blood hath brought blood, and blows answer´d blows.

Epistrophe: repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive phrases or clauses.
And all the night he did nothing but weep Philoclea, sigh Philoclea, and cry out Philoclea.

Euphemism: the substitution of less pungent words for harsh ones, with ironic effect.
The schoolmaster corrected the slightest fault with his birch reminder.

Expletive: a single word or phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis to the words immediately proximate to the expletive.
This is, I might add, a rough schedule.

Hyperbole: the use of exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
His eloquence could split rocks.

Hypophora: raising questions, then answering them.
What behavior is uniquely human? My theory is that...

Litotes: the use of deliberate understatement for emphasis or effect.
Hitting that telephone pole certainly didn´t do your car any good.

Metaphor: implied comparison between two things of unlike nature, yet which have something in common.
The question of federal aid is a bramble patch.

Metonymy: using a closely related object as a substitute for the object or idea in mind.
Those orders came directly from the crown.

Onomatopoeia: using words, that sound like what they mean.
Drip, crackle, bang, snarl pop!

Oxymoron: a paradox reduced to two words.
I do here make humbly bold...

Paradox: a statement that appears to be contradictory but, in fact, has some truth.
He worked hard at being lazy.

Parallelism: similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
He tried to make the law clear, precise, and equitable.

Paranthesis: insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence.
There is even - and it is the achievement of this novel - a curious sense of happiness running through the paragraphs.

Personification: investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities.
The ground thirsts for rain.

Polysyndeton: deliberate use of many conjunctions.
This semester I am taking history, and math, and English, and science.

Pun: word play
If we don´t hang together, we´ll hang separately.

Rhetorical Question: asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely.
What could you be thinking?

Simile: an explicit comparison, usually using "like," "as," or "than" between two things of unlike nature yet that have something in common.
Silence settled over the audience like a block of granite.

Synecdoche: using a part to represent a whole.
I asked for her hand in marriage.

Lori Brandt Wickham
9-12 Grades
Deltona High School

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