Rhetorical Devices

Have you ever written an essay and felt as though it wasn't good enough, not up to the teachers standards? or maybe there was more you could have added to make it better.. to make an essay more effective what you need are rhetorical devices. Rhetorical devices are techniques that are used to convey and persuade the reader or listener to consider a topic from another perspective. using rhetorical devices is a style of speaking or writing that trys to create a particular effect or bring out a particular response from a reader, some effective rhetorical devices are personification, alliteration, connotation and

In the essay An Ode to the User-Friendly Pencil the author Bonnie Laing uses personification. She uses this rhetorical device when she calls the pencil "an old friend" and the computer "the superior partner in a destructive relationship." By calling the pencil a friend she is saying that a pencil will always be there like a loyal friend, where a computer will change with the developing technology. She also uses puns: "Ive never had to boot a pencil, inter-face with it or program it." When she says, "to boot a pencil," she means rebooting a computer as well as kicking it out.

Alliteration is the repetition of the leading consonant sound in each word throughout a sentence or a phrase. In the Case for marriage by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher the authors use alliteration by saying "the mass move of married mothers" and they also say "promise of performance." Alliteration is also used in Forget Prince Charming by June Callwood, she says "first fiery intensity" by using alliteration, the reader becomes more drawn to the topic because the author uses intriguing words.

Connotation is the tone or emotional association that a word has. It can be negative or positive, but is usually something seen by the population in general. For example, "slim" and "scrawny" both mean that a person is thin. "Slim," though, has a positive connotation, it makes you think of an attractive person, while "scrawny" has a negative connotation, it makes you think of a malnourished or unhealthy person. Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher in The Case for Marriage use connotation when saying "orgy" instead of saying "a lot of" there are different meanings for the word orgy and the reader may get the wrong idea. Connotation is also used in Forget Prince Charming, the author June Callwood says "dope" which also has other meanings but she is actually referring to an uneducated person.