Literary Devices

Question 1

Anecdotes

Answer 1

means a short verbal accounting of a funny, amusing, interesting event in someone’s life. It helps build up the reader’s emotions.

Examples of anecdotes will be found in speech or Op-Ed.

Question 2

Simile

Answer 2

A comparison that uses like or as.

Ex: “She is beautiful as a Sunday morning”

Question 3

Hyperbole

Answer 3

Exaggeration of something.

Ex: “He’s got the intelligence of 20 IB teachers”

Question 4

Antithesis

Answer 4

When the writer employs two sentences of contrasting meanings in close proximity to one another. Whether they are words or phrases of the same sentence, an antithesis is used to create a stark contrast using two divergent elements that come together to create one uniform whole.

Question 5

Amplification

Answer 5

adding things to a sentence to increase its worth and understandability. For example when someone is trying to prove a point like in a speech.

The thesis paper was difficult → The thesis paper was difficult: it required extensive research, data collection, sample surveys, interviews and a lot of fieldwork.

Question 6

Euphemism

Answer 6

Using a comparatively milder or less abrasive form of a negative description instead of its original, unsympathetic form. Used when writing about matters such as sex, violence, death, crimes and things “embarrassing”.

Question 7

Analogy

Answer 7

helps establish a relationship based on some concepts and ideas.

In the same way one cannot have the rainbow without the rain, one cannot achieve success and riches without hard work.

Question 8

Allusion

Answer 8

reference to something else

Carefully now, you don’t want to go opening a Pandora’s box

Question 9

Allegory

Answer 9

has a deeper meaning with the use of metaphors, such as political message { a story within a story}

The surface story might be about two neighbors throwing rocks at each other’s homes, but the hidden story would be about war between countries.

Question 10

Anadiplosis

Answer 10

repetition of last word in a sentence, clause or phrase at the very near, the beginning of a sentence.

Question 11

Antimetabole

Answer 11

he repetition of a word or phrase in one phrase but its inverse:

“East and West don’t distrust each other because they are armed, we’re armed because we mistrust each other.”

Question 12

Alliteration

Answer 12

the repetition of sound at the beginning of several words such as tribe, strife and style

“The wicked witch of the west went her own way.”

Question 13

Anaphora

Answer 13

The repetition of words such as it takes, it takes…

Question 14

Bandwagon effect

Answer 14

The bandwagon effect is a propaganda technique that suggest that one should do something because everyone else is doing it

Question 15

Hypothera

Answer 15

Answer a rhetorical question

Question 16

Metaphors

Answer 16

a comparison that doesn’t use like or as.

The golden corn shined from the cornfield

Question 17

Foreshadowing

Answer 17

use of words or phrases that set the stage for the story to unfold. It gives the reader a hint of something that is going to happen without revealing the story or spoiling the suspense.

Question 18

Irony

Answer 18

the meaning implied by a sentence or word is actually different from the literal meaning.

Question 19

Onomatopoeia

Answer 19

words whose very sound is very close to the sound they are meant to depict = WOW!

Question 20

Personification

Answer 20

attaching human traits and characteristics with inanimate objects, phenomena and animals.

“The raging storm brought with it howling wind and fierce lighting”.

Question 21

Pun

Answer 21

a word is used in a manner to suggest two or more possible meanings. This is generally done to the effect of creating humor or irony or wryness. Puns can also refer to words that suggest meanings of similar-sounding words.

“What do you call a pig that does karate? Pork chop!”

Question 22

Litotes

Answer 22

figures of rhetoric speech that use an understated statement of an affirmative by using a negative description.
“It wasn’t a terrible trip…”

Question 23

Triples

Answer 23

type of enumeration. Three is the magic number used in political speeches

“Let us feel grateful that our country is filled with peace, love, and a great economy, and not with pain, sorrow and disdain”.

Question 24

Enumeration

Answer 24

list of words that create a cumulative meaning such as used in advertisement to pursue the audience to buy a product
Typically includes quantifiers: every, many, numerous, several, a number of..

“[W]hen we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city…”