Summer Rhetorical Terms Study Guide

Question 1

Hyperbole

Answer 1

exaggerating a part of your statement to give it emphasis
EX: “I slept like a rock last night”

Question 2

Understatement

Answer 2

the description of a statement is less than one would expect
EX: “I’m feeling a bit under the weather”

Question 3

Rhetorical Question

Answer 3

asking a question in which the answer is implied
EX: “What’s not to like?”

Question 4

Similie

Answer 4

comparing 2 things with “like” or “as”
EX: “As cool as a cucumber”

Question 5

Metaphor

Answer 5

comparing 2 things with the form of “to be”
EX: “I could eat a horse”

Question 6

Climax

Answer 6

organizing information from least to most important
EX: “She lost her homework, her dog, her friends, her home, and above all she lost herself”

Question 7

Parenthesis

Answer 7

inserting additional information into the main flow of your writing
EX: “Sarah, a great singer, was not a good dancer”

Question 8

Personification

Answer 8

giving human attributes to a nonhuman thing
EX: “The city that never sleeps”

Question 9

Allusion

Answer 9

reference to some fairly well known thing/person
EX: “Tom and Sally have the love that represents Romeo and Juliet”

Question 10

Analogy

Answer 10

comparing 2 things by using a well known thing to explain a less known thing
EX: “She is as light as a feather”

Question 11

Apostrophe

Answer 11

the writer breaks out of the flow of writing to address a person/object directly
EX: “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again”

Question 11

Parallelism

Answer 11

using the same structure for multiple parts of the text
EX: “The play was beautiful, moving, and inspiring”