Didactic

Didactic- Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively.
Example: A play that tries to indoctrinate the audience with a political or moral lesson

Antithesis

Antithesis: Definition-1.opposition;contrast

2. The placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas.
Examples: "Give me liberty or give me death."
"You're easy on the eyes, hard on the heart."

Verbal Irony

Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what it means. It is a disparity of expression and intention, and when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect. This picture shows the guy on the right using a form of irony, sarcasm, when he says "Good morning sir, nice day, isn't it?" and the guy on the left responding by saying: "Sure is, it's as clear as mud."

Other examples of verbal irony are "as pleasant as a coiled rattlesnake" and "as solid as a foam pit".

Anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of a phrase or word at the beginning of a sentence, often for poetic effect. This picture represents Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Lincoln used anaphora in his speech when he said “With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right”.

Another example of anaphora is Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. The words “I have a dream” are repeated multiple times for poetic emphasis.

Rhetoric Visual

Metonymy: Substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself

Another Example would be "We await word from the crown". "Crown" replaces royalty.

Rhetoric Visual - Understatement

To understate something would be to state something or describe something in restrained terms that downplay the extent of the thing. This picture represents an understatement by playing down how serious the DOW has fallen. In real life, things would be going horribly if the DOW ever fell that low or that quickly. By saying "that's not so bad", the man is understating the situation.

An alternate example would be to say that George W. Bush was kind of unpopular. This would be an understatement in the sense that he is regarded as one of our country's most unpopular presidents. Additionally, it would be an understatement to say that during hurricanes, it rains a bit.

What is Rhetoric?

Simple: It is the practice of using language effectively to please or persuade.
This is the blog/wiki for 4th period Honors English at Albany High School. This site will provide a common location for the class to define and explore all things rhetorical. All class members are contributors to the site.

Rhetoric Visual Assignment

The following is a list of key rhetorical strategies.  First, define your term.  Then create an 8 ½” x 11” illustration of your device that will be presented in class.  Do not write the device name on the illustration.  These will later be scanned in and can be used as a study guide for the AP test.  In addition to the illustration and definition, please come up with an additional written example of your device.  Within your class, every one of the below devices must be covered.
(Note: We will look at fallacies at a later date.)

Analogy

Anaphora

Antithesis
Deductive reasoning
Didactic
Ellipsis
Euphemism
Exclamation
Inductive reasoning
Situational Irony
Dramatic Irony
Verbal Irony
Metonymy
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Paradox
Parallelism
Parenthesis
Pun
Synecdoche
Understatement

This assignment is worth 40 points.