Syntax, tone, and diction . . . Oh my!
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Transcript Syntax, tone, and diction . . . Oh my!
A few more rhetorical devices . . .
1) Expletive: a single word or short phrase used to lend
emphasis. ("I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange
journey.“ )
2) Apostrophe: a sudden turn from the general audience to
address a specific group or person or personified abstraction
absent or present (“For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s
angel.”
3) Epistrophe: Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or
sentences with the same word or words. (type of repetition . .
. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny
compared to what lies within us." —Emerson )
4. Antithesis: opposition, or contrast of ideas or
words in a balanced or parallel construction.
(“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap
for mankind”-Neil Armstrong)
5. aphoristic: a short statement containing a
general truth . . . OR, a sentence that alludes to
an aphorism. (Every cloud has a silver lining. OR
A penny saved is a penny not spent.)
6. Chiasmus: a figure of speech based on
inverse parallelism (Fair is foul and foul is fair.)
Tone is that unique quality of a speech or a piece
of writing that reveals the attitudes and
presuppositions of the author or speaker.
There are many words to define tone.
(see hand-out for variety)
So what is diction?
Diction is an author’s particular word choice.
Specific words that authors use, along with their
syntactical style, help the reader establish the
tone of a piece.
Take a look at this paragraph on diction.
Using the “Style and Rhetorical Appeals” Graphic
Organizer, you are going to analyze the
structure, syntax, diction, etc . . . . of “A Model Of
Christian Charity”.
Please organize your analysis using the
guidelines of the Graphic Organizer.
Cite exactly from the text when necessary.