Style Elements

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in a sequence.

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Brief reference to a person, event, or place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art.

Question 3

Anaphora

Answer 3

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines

Ex. …not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need-not as a call to battle, though embattled we are.

Question 4

Antimetabole

Answer 4

Repetition of words in reverse order

Ex. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Question 5

Antithesis

Answer 5

Opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a parallel construction.

Ex. We shall support any friend, oppose any foe

Question 6

Archaic Diction

Answer 6

Old-fashioned or outdated choice of words

Ex. Beliefs for which our forebears fought

Question 7

Asyndeton

Answer 7

Omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.

Ex. We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of Liberty

Question 8

Cumulative Sentence

Answer 8

Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence and then builds and adds on.

Ex. But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course-both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind’s final war

Question 9

Hortative Sentence

Answer 9

Sentence that exhorts, urges, entreats, implores, or calls to action.
Ex. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Question 10

Imperative Sentence

Answer 10

Sentence used to command or enjoin

Ex. My fellow citizens of the world; ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Question 11

Inversion

Answer 11

Inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order).

Ex. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do.

Question 12

Juxtaposition

Answer 12

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences

Question 13

Metaphor

Answer 13

Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as

Question 14

Oxymoron

Answer 14

Paradoxical juxtaposition of words that seem to contradict one another

Ex. But this peaceful revolution…

Question 15

Parallelism

Answer 15

Similarity of structure in a pair of series of related words, phrases, or clauses

Question 16

Periodic Sentence

Answer 16

Sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end.

Ex. To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support.

Question 17

Personification

Answer 17

Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea

Question 18

Rhetorical Question

Answer 18

Figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer

Question 19

Synecdoche

Answer 19

Figure of speech that uses a part to represent the whole

Ex. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course

Question 20

Zeugma

Answer 20

Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different, often incongruous, meanings

Ex. Now the trumpet summons us again-not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-but a call to bear the burden…