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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