The Rhetoric Field Guide

Repeating the same word or phrase at the beginnings of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.

Repeating a word immediately, with nothing in between: “words, words, words.

Repeating the same word or phrase at the ends of successive clauses or sentences.

Combining anaphora and epistrophe: successive clauses repeat both their opening and closing words.

Repeating a clause’s opening word or phrase at its end.

Repeating the last word or phrase of one clause at the beginning of the next.

A series of linked clauses that repeat a key word from the preceding clause and increase in intensity or importance.

Repeating a word or phrase with a short interruption: “Bond.

Repeating a key word from one sentence prominently in the next.

Repeating a word in different forms, such as “judge” and “judgment.

Placing contrasting ideas in balanced grammatical forms.

Using matching grammatical forms for related ideas: phrases with phrases, clauses with clauses.

Using successive phrases or clauses with matching grammatical forms and approximately equal lengths.

Reversing the order of corresponding elements in two phrases or clauses: A–B, then B–A.

Repeating the same words in reverse order: A–B, then B–A.

Placing things side by side so the reader can compare them.

Combining contradictory terms in one phrase, such as “deafening silence” or “living death.

A statement that appears contradictory but may express a defensible insight.

Comparing things using a marker such as “like” or “as.

Describing one thing in terms of another: “their friendship was cracked glass.

Giving human qualities, actions, or feelings to something non-human: nations conceive, winds sigh.

Using a word in a strained or unusual way, often through a metaphor whose terms do not fit comfortably together.

Referring to something by naming an associated thing: “the crown” for the monarchy or “the White House” for the administration.

Using a part to stand for a whole, or a whole for a part.

Giving a voice to someone absent or dead, or to something non-human.

Attributing human feelings to nature or the surroundings.

Applying a modifier to a word other than the one it logically describes: “a sleepless night.

A reference that depends on a chain of figurative associations.

A thing, action, or image that carries meanings beyond its literal role.

Referring to another text, event, or figure without fully explaining it.

Creating or developing myths.

Exaggerating beyond literal plausibility for emphasis: “I waited a thousand years.

Expressing something by denying its opposite: “not bad” or “no small feat.

A gap between what is said and meant, what a character and audience know, or what is expected and happens.

Deliberately understating the size or importance of something: calling a serious wound “a scratch.

An abrupt shift from an elevated or serious tone to something trivial.

Using a mild or indirect phrase for something harsh or taboo: “passed away” or “let go.

Using a roundabout description instead of a direct name.

Mentioning something by saying it will not be mentioned: “I won’t dwell on his record.

Repeating an initial consonant sound in nearby words.

Repeating vowel sounds in nearby words, as in “the deep green sea.

A newly coined word or expression.

Using words whose sounds suggest what they describe: “buzz,” “crack,” or “murmur.

Inserting a word into another word or fixed phrase: “abso-bloody-lutely.

Using words or forms that have become old-fashioned, such as “four score” or “thou.

A departure from the grammatical conventions expected in a context.

A descriptive word or phrase attached to a person or thing, such as “swift-footed Achilles.

An aside inserted into a sentence and set off by dashes, brackets, or commas.

Listing details, examples, or parts of an argument.

Splitting a clause to emphasize one part: “It was Ishmael who survived” instead of “Ishmael survived.

Departing from usual word order, such as placing an object before its verb.

Reversing the usual order of words, as in “the forest primeval.

A sentence that delays its main clause or completion until the end, placing subordinate material first.

A sentence that begins with a main clause, then adds modifying phrases or clauses.

Placing clauses side by side without making one subordinate to another.

Placing a noun phrase beside another to rename or explain it: “my brother, the doctor.

Using one word, often a verb, with two or more terms in different senses: “She arrived in a taxi and a flood of tears.

Expressing one idea through two nouns joined by “and,” where a noun and modifier could express it: “sound and fury” for “furious sound.

Using words that repeat information already given: “I saw it with my own eyes.

A construction in which the subject receives the action: “mistakes were made.

Omitting the conjunctions normally used in a series: “I came, I saw, I conquered,” without “and.

Repeating conjunctions beyond what a list normally requires: “and … and … and.

Continuing a phrase or sentence across a verse line break without a complete pause in the syntax.

Breaking off a sentence before completing it.

Omitting words that can be recovered from grammar or context: “I took the high road; she, the low.

Compressing expression by omitting words or conjunctions that would normally connect its parts.

Asking a question to make a point rather than to seek information.

Appealing to a muse, god, or other power for help or inspiration.

Turning to address someone absent or dead, or something non-human: “O wild West Wind.

A short statement of a general observation or principle.

An argument that leaves a premise unstated for the audience to supply.

Making a statement and immediately revising it: “a hundred — no, a thousand times.

Speaking frankly despite a risk of offending others or suffering consequences.

A transition that summarizes what has been said and introduces what follows: “So much for the causes; now the consequences.

Developing a point through restatement, added detail, comparison, or increasing emphasis.

Expressing uncertainty about what to say or how to proceed.

Describing a scene in concrete sensory detail so the audience can imagine it vividly.

Anticipating a future event or responding to an objection before it is raised.

Interrupting the current narrative to recount earlier events: a flashback.

Third-person narration that adopts a character’s wording or judgments without quotation marks or a phrase such as “she thought.

Beginning a narrative in the middle of the action.

Introducing details that suggest events to come.

Writing that represents a character’s flow of thoughts, sensations, and memories.

Dialogue in which speakers exchange short, alternating lines.