GLOSSARY – THE MAIN RHETORICAL TERMS

Alliteration – the repetition of consonants
Anadiplosis – taking the last words from one clause and starting the next clause with it
Anaphora – regularly repeating the first word of a sentence
Antithesis – weighing an argument by considering its opposite
Apodioxis – the immediate and sweeping rejection of an opposing idea
Aporia – fake indecision when you are pretending to take an opponent seriously
Apostrophe – when you come out of the speech as if to address someone who is absent
Assonance – the repetition of vowel sounds
Chiasmus – swaps a sentence round (“ask not what your country can do for you  …”)
Climax – building your language up to a point where it explodes
Concession – giving way on a small point in order to win a larger point
Decorum – fitting your speech to the manner that is appropriate to the setting
Dialogismus – the use of repetition
Dialysis – opposition of two points: you are either with us or against us
Epiplexis – the use of repeated rhetorical questions
Ethos – argument by character, appealing to personal trustworthiness
Exordium – the first part of a speech
Hypophora – a self-answering question, e.g. what do you want? No changes
Kairos – the moment in your speech at which the audience is ripe for persuasion
Litotes – deliberate understatement, the opposite of hyperbole
Logos – argument by logic and rationality, appealing to technical merit
Metaphor – the use of an image to stand for an idea
Metonymy ...

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