Appendix A: Parts of Speech Used in Persuasive Writing
Alliteration: repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence.
Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines.
Antistrophe: repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
Antithesis: opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.
Aporia: expression of doubt (often feigned) by which a speaker appears uncertain as to what he should think, say, or do.
Apostrophe: a sudden turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present.
Cacophony: harsh joining of sounds.
Climax: arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power. Often the last emphatic word in one phrase or clause is repeated as the first emphatic word of the next.
Euphemism: substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.
Hyperbaton: separation of words which belong together, often to emphasize the first of the separated words or to create a certain image.
Hyperbole: exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect.
Irony: expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing but mean another.
Metaphor: implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.
Metonymy: substitution of one word for another which it suggests.
Onomatopoeia: use of words to imitate natural sounds; accommodation of sound to sense.
Paradox: an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.
Personification: attribution of personality to an impersonal thing.
Pleonasm: use of superfluous or redundant words, often enriching the thought.
Simile: an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'.
Syllepsis: use of a word with two others, with each of which it is understood differently.
Tautology: repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence.
Zeugma: two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them.
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