Some in the literary community assume that genre writers don’t care about the deeper aspects of writing craft. While it’s true that literary fiction is more well-known for its use of figurative and lyrical language, genre fiction can use the same literary tools.
Now, if you’re anything like me, and your English or grammar instruction was less than ideal, you might not be familiar with the term rhetorical devices. I certainly wasn’t.
When I first heard the term, I assumed it had something to do with arguing or making a point, like a rhetorical question. Eh, in a way, I wasn’t too far off. But once I did learn about them, I quickly became aware of how using rhetorical devices can strengthen our writing—even if we’re writing genre stories. *grin*
What Are Rhetorical Devices?
Rhetorical devices are simply ways to use language to affect our audience. We probably use several of these methods without realizing there are other similar tools sitting right alongside them in the literary toolbox.
Common rhetorical devices include:
- Similes: Comparing two things using the words like or as:
“Her smile was as warm as a summer day.” - Metaphors: Comparing two things without using like or as:
“Her eyes were ocean-deep.” - Alliteration: Using words with similar beginning sounds close together:
“Her heart hammered.” - Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate the sound they describe, such as: splash, plop, sploosh, whiz, etc.
Why Should We Care?
It’s good to be aware of the rhetorical devices that crop up in fiction writing so we can write more purposefully. Lazy, un-purposeful writing is more likely to be filled with clichés and sit limply on the page.
All of those examples above are methods for using language for a purpose. Obviously, we’re comparing, creating tongue-twisters, or making funny sounds. But we can have a greater purpose in mind with those techniques too.
Purposeful writing can add more emotion to our descriptions, rhythm to our sentences, and faster pacing to our paragraphs. In short, purposeful writing is stronger.
If we weren’t aware of a rhetorical device like alliteration, we might create a tongue-twister in our writing accidentally. Many readers “hear” the words they read in their head, so an unintended tongue-twister could pull readers out of the story while they chuckle over the collision of words.
Similarly, similes and metaphors tend to emphasize concepts, as they make readers think through the comparison. If we weren’t aware of the purpose of the technique, we might emphasize a concept that didn’t need emphasis. (Or we might create a bad comparison, like one of those “worst similes and metaphors from high school students” articles. *snicker*)
So the more rhetorical devices we know, the better we can use them when we want to strengthen our writing. And the better we can avoid using them when they’re a bad match for our purpose.
What Do We Mean by Purpose?
Above, I alluded to a big reason—or purpose—for why we might use rhetorical devices. Many devices provide a way to emphasize an aspect of our writing.
The more words we use on a concept, the more we’re telling the reader that the concept is important. So similes and metaphors emphasize a concept because the comparison adds more words to the description.
For example, in romance stories, authors often use similes or metaphors when describing the hero or heroine to emphasize how appealing, interesting, or attractive they are to the other party. At the same time, those authors wouldn’t use the technique when describing a secondary character. Why? In a romance, no one cares if the protagonist’s best friend‘s eyes are like pools of clear-blue water. *grin*
Similarly, other purposes will have their time and place for when they’ll help our writing—or when they’ll hurt it. Let’s take a look at some of the other purposes, as well as a few examples of what rhetorical devices could help us with that purpose…
Four Reasons to Use Rhetorical Devices
Purpose #1: To Add Emphasis
We can emphasize a concept in our story by using more words, making our words more memorable or interesting, or by repeating words. In addition to analogies like similes and metaphors, we can emphasize with:
- Amplification: Repeating a word or phrase within a sentence while adding more detail:
“Love—true love—is what brings us together today.” - Epizeuxis: Repeating one word to make it more important:
“Our day at the beach was fun, fun, fun.” - Rhetorical Questions: Asking a question where an answer isn’t expected:
“Why would an innocent visitor leave a trail of blood?” - Hypophora: Asking a question and immediately answering it:
“Why had she agreed to go along with the plan? Oh yeah, because she was an idiot.” - Polysyndeton: Adding more conjunctions than necessary, dragging out a list:
“The girl argued and quarreled and whined and begged, but nothing changed her parents’ minds.” - Asyndeton: Omitting conjunctions to create an emotion:
“The dark skies filled her with despair, with longing, with loneliness.” - Commoratio: Repeating an idea with different words:
“She was doomed. Finished. Dead.” - Litotes: Describing what something isn’t to imply what it is:
“She eyed him from across the room. Yeah, he wasn’t hard to ogle.”
Purpose #2: To Create Rhythm
We can make our voice stronger by paying attention to the rhythm of our words:
“Rhythmic writing is simply about the way the words come together—syllables, punctuation, sentence length, hard or soft sounds, etc.—to create a sense of a beat.”
Rhythmic prose can be more lyrical, driving, or smooth, all while helping connect readers to emotions in our writing. These techniques also emphasize a concept in our writing as well.
- Anaphora: Repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of two or more phrases or sentences in a row:
“He’d never believe her. He’d never trust her. He’d never love her again.” - Epistrophe: The opposite of anaphora, repeating the end of phrase:
“She would die. He would die. They’d all die.” - Anadiplosis: Repeating the end of one sentence at the beginning of the next, as exemplified by Yoda:
“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Purpose #3: To Add Humor
Many rhetorical devices allow us to add touches of humor to our writing without going for straight comedy. Alliteration could be used for humorous purposes, and we can also add humor with:
- Hyperbole: Using an exaggeration:
“She’d hated the rule from the first million times she’d heard it.” - Understatement: The opposite of hyperbole:
“He fell backward from the impact of the bullet, the projectile shredding and tearing through his body. That’s going to leave a mark.“ - Antonomasia: Using a description as a proper name:
“Nothing but the best would be good enough for Mr. Stuck-on-Himself.” - Pleonasm: Using more words than necessary:
“She was absolutely, positively, never, never, never going to admit that he’d been right.” - Tmesis: Splitting a word and adding another word in the middle:
“Abso-friggin-lutely.” - Distinctio: Giving a further definition of a word in a following phrase:
“I will never agree to this plan, and by ‘never,’ I mean not in a million years.” - Antiphrasis: Using a one-word paradox for irony:
“While the yard was sweltering in the sun, it was a cool 112 degrees in the shade.” - Zeugma: Using an out-of-sync phrase for the last item of a list:
“Before meeting up with her boss, she grabbed her project list, her accomplishments list, and her big-girl panties.”
Purpose #4: To Add Clarity
Genre authors often choose clarity over figurative language that might be a confusing speed bump to readers, but some rhetorical devices help with that issue while also strengthening our voice, slipping in more information (without an info dump), and/or adding sensory information (such as with onomatopoeia words):
- Appositive: Using a noun or noun phrase to further describe a noun:
“Cindy, his always-had-to-be-right sister, pointed out the obvious problem.” - Parallelism: Using similarly structured phrases to make the grammar of a long sentence or idea easier to parse:
“She drove to the store, found the ingredients, and baked his cake.” (Each item in the list is a verb/noun combination.)
Want More?
Once we discover rhetorical devices, we might have fun learning about more types to expand our toolbox. We might have a character who turns nouns into verbs (antimeria—”The snowsuit-clad boy turtled across the yard.”). Or a character who interrupts themselves (anacoluthon—”Throw the ball, throw the ball—squirrel!”).
Here are a few links to more information about rhetorical devices:
- 50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational Writing
- A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
- Rhetorical Devices
- Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
- Power Up with Rhetorical Devices
We can add depth to our writing with these techniques in countless ways. In a deep point-of-view story, the analogies a character comes up with should be unique to them and reflect their experience. A rural artist will think of different similes and metaphors from an urban teacher.
The devices we use might be specific to a character not only because of their voice, but also because of the subtext we want to convey. Some devices will slow down our pacing and some will add tension, speeding up our story’s pace.
Some devices will fit better with certain genres and not as well with others. But a story without any rhetorical devices at all will likely feel more simplistic, just because the use of language will come across closer to “See Spot run” than nuanced and interesting.
Obviously, we also have to be careful to not overdo any of these techniques. (I have to cut several anaphora examples from every story because it’s my favorite technique.) But with knowledge and practice and a strong voice, we can make these devices part of how we write—and how we keep readers’ interest. *smile*
Are you familiar with the concept of rhetorical devices? Have you used any beyond the common ones? If you haven’t, does this post give you ideas for how to use them? What are your favorite rhetorical devices? Can you think of other purposes for why we might use a rhetorical device?
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