Rhetorical Devices: 8 Effective Tools for Powerful Prose

October 02, 2019 | 6 min read

Rhetorical devices — which you might hear being referred to as persuasive devices or rhetoric — are commonly used by politicians when they’re trying to encourage you to vote for them in elections. However, rhetoric doesn’t just belong in the political arena. You find rhetorical devices being used in sales pitches and novels in equal measure.

If rhetoric is about persuading you about something (or to do something), why would it be useful in novels? After all, you’re not trying to persuade people when you’re writing a novel...or are you?

In fact, you are. Writing a novel is about persuading your readers to keep reading, convincing them that your story is worth finishing, that your characters and plot-line are worthy of their attention. There’s power to be found when you can harness rhetorical devices in your writing!

Types of Rhetorical Devices — Plus Examples of How They’re Used

Rhetoric was something that the Ancient Greeks identified — so the types of rhetorical devices have some pretty quirky names. The Ancient Greeks split rhetoric into four categories, according to how the devices are designed to appeal to people:

  • Logos —an appeal to logic (otherwise known as reason), which tends to use facts and statements
  • Ethos —an appeal to ethics (or establishing credibility) so as to be taken seriously as an authority
  • Kairos —an appeal to time (or convincing a person that now is the time for a particular action or belief or idea)
  • Pathos —an appeal to emotion — such as invoking sympathy or inciting anger

Some rhetorical devices fit into more than one category, however, so categorizing them isn’t as important as knowing how to best use them in your writing!

There are hundreds of rhetorical devices. Some of them you may have heard of —- others you almost certainly won’t have! Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with a full list of them. Instead, I’ve selected my personal top eight rhetorical devices that add the power of persuasion to your writing.

1. Anacoluthon

This is a rhetorical device that forces readers to challenge their assumptions. The Ancient Greeks saw it as a means of forcing people to think more deeply about a topic, often during a debate, but it’s just as effective in fiction. A classic example can be found at the very beginning of Kafka’s Metamorphosis:

When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”

2. Accismus

Have you ever pretended that you didn’t want something — or even refused to accept — something that you really want? Feigning indifference to something that you desire is called accismus. An example of this can be found in Aesop's fable of the fox and grapes:

“Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked 'Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes.' People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves.” —Aesop’s Fables

3. Aposiopesis

This rhetorical device is the literary version of trailing off without finishing your sentence to leave listeners (or, in the case of novels, readers) guessing what you were going to finish with. It can get frustrating if you use it too much, though! Shakespeare, in particular, was quite fond of it:

“This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,

That presses them and learns them first to bear,

Making them women of good carriage:

This is she—”

  • Romeo & Juliet,William Shakespeare

4. Bdelygmia

Don’t ask me how to pronounce this one — it makes me think that whoever translated this from the Greek got bored and started stringing letters together, or was hitting the medicinal wine a bit too hard. And, ironically, that last sentence is an example of the device in action! Bdelygmia is simply a stupid word to describe a rhetorical insult. Understandably, Dr. Seuss loved it almost as much as I do:

"You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch, You're a nasty wasty skunk, Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch. The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote, ‘Stink, stank, stunk!’"

  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Seuss

5. Asterismos

Hey, this rhetorical device is a simple matter of inserting an attention-grabbing word or exclamation point at the beginning of a phrase — with no purpose other than to grab attention. (You see what I did there? Did it grab your attention?)

It keeps your readers focused on the page, and it’s used a lot in Moby Dick:

“Book! You lie there; the fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts.”

  • Moby Dick,Herman Melville

6. Anadiplosis

If you want to convince your readers that the logic of what you (or your characters) are saying is flawless, then anadiplosis is the technique you should be using. It uses the same word at the start of one sentence as was at the end of the previous sentence. It creates a kind of chain of thought that guides your reader to concluding that you’re right. For all the Star Wars fans out there, here’s a perfect example:

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

  • Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

7. Zeugma

Want to make sure your readers are paying attention to every word you write? Throw in a little zeugma. This rhetorical device is where you create a list out of things that you wouldn’t commonly put together, following a word or phrase that can apply to all items on the list, but in different ways. In the examples, below, the word/phrase that precedes the list is underlined:

Miss Bolo…went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair.

  • Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens, “

He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.

  • The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien

In the Dickens example, Miss Bolo’s distress is juxtaposed with her mode of transport — both of which she could go home in. Likewise, O’Brien uses zeugma to juxtapose something that can be physically carried with something that is non-literal in nature.

8. Cacophony

The rhetorical equivalent of banging pots and pans together outside your roommate’s door at 4 in the morning, cacophony is when you deliberately put words together that sound really bad in close proximity to one another. Why would anyone want to do that? Well, ask Lewis Carroll, because he went to the trouble of literally inventing words to create a particularly bad Cacophony. It works — just look:

“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.”

  • Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll

Why You Should Embrace the Art of Rhetoric

Do you want your readers to be unable to put your book down? Yes? Then that’s the only reason you should ever need to embrace the art of rhetoric. However, if you need more convincing (really, having your readers glued to your book isn’t enough?) then some other great reasons include…

No, really, I’m not going to give you any more reasons. You don’t need them. What you do need is a bunch of rhetorical tools in your writer’s toolbox. I’ve only given you eight here, but there are hundreds of them. Go and hit up your old friend Google and compile yourself a list of the tools that you’d like to try out — and then try them out!

Thankfully, you don’t have to be able to spell or pronounce rhetorical devices in order to be able to use them. Some devices will work better in some types of writing than others, and some may not work for you at all. However, the only way to find out is to try them… so what are you waiting for? Go! Put pen on paper (or fingers on Freewrite keys) and discover the art of rhetorical writing.

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We're just 10 weeks away from a major milestone: the 10th anniversary of Freewrite's launch on Kickstarter.  On December 10, 2014, we introduced the Smart Typewriter, then known as  "Hemingwrite," to the world.
How It Started
In September of 2014, co-founders Adam Leeb and Patrick Paul entered Hemingwrite into the “Insert Coin” hardware competition sponsored by Engadget. Described as a new digital consumer product for distraction-free writing composition, Hemingwrite aimed to deliver a singular focus on a productive writing experience. A decade later, that core mission remains unchanged.
Hemingwrite was one of 20 inventions competing that week, highlighting early-stage hardware startups from around the world that had not yet received funding or shipped to consumers.
"What the Kindle did for reading, we want to do for writing," said co-founder Patrick Paul at the time."We set out to deliver the same distraction-free writing experience of a typewriter with all of the added benefits of modern technology."
Co-founder Adam Leeb added,  "We combined all of the best aspects of the typewriter, theMoleskine, and the computer to create a modern classic."
Althoughthe Hemingwrite concept  didn’t win the competition,  the initial coverage by Engadget led to another press hit and then another and quickly it became a viral sensation around the world. The project was covered in everything from The Wall Street Journal to The Atlantic. Over 125,000 people came to the simple wordpress website at hemingwrite.com and over 8,000 anxiously input their email asking for updates on the project.
Adam and Patrick knew they had something special on their hands but weren’t sure if anyone was willing to pay for this idea or if it was simply interesting. On December 10, 2014 the Kickstarter campaign was launched and immediately the pledge dollars started rolling in. Within 20 hours of launch, the campaign had raised over $200,000! And just like that, the Hemingwrite distraction-free writing tool concept became destined for reality.
How It’s Going
Since that initial launch, we have developed Freewrite into a family of distraction-free writing tools with three distinct models, Smart Typewriter, Traveler, and Alpha. Each has their distinct personality, but the core value of maximizing writer productivity runs throughout. 
In 2020, The original Freewrite Smart Typewriter became part of the Science Museum, London’s permanent Printing & Writing Collection.
The name Hemingwrite was dropped in 2015 and then revived in 2021 with the Ernest Hemingway Special Edition Smart Typewriter in partnership with the Ernest Hemingway Estate. 
We’ve created Sprinter for distraction-free writing in any browser and WTF where thousands of people every week receive a writing prompt and participate in Writing Time Friday. 
The community's achievements over the past decade have been  astounding:
  • Freewrite users have created over 600,000 documents
  • Collectively,users have written more than 605 million words (equivalent to over 6,000 novels!)
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 10 years but it also feels like we are just getting started.
To kick things off:
One Year Warranty: Now Standard
We are extending our warranty that covers manufacturer’s defects to a full year on all Freewrite devices. This means you can enjoy your Freewrite with even greater peace of mind, knowing that we've got you covered for an entire year. 

For more information, please visit our dedicated article on our new warranty policy here: Introducing Freewrite's New 1-Year Warranty: Our Commitment to You
Thank You
As we reflect on 10 years, we're filled with gratitude for the amazing writers who have made Freewrite an essential part of their process. Your passion has shaped our products and fueled our mission.  
Here's to the next decade of your writing success!
 
- The Freewrite Team
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As of October 1, 2024, we are extending our standard warranty that covers manufacturer’s defects to a full year on all Freewrite devices. This means you can enjoy your Freewrite with even greater peace of mind, knowing that we've got you covered for a full 12 months from the date of shipment. We’re even retroactively applying the warranty extension to purchases made this year.

Here is how our new 1-year warranty will work:
  • Beginning October 1, 2024, all new purchases now have a 12-month warranty standard from the shipment date.
  • All device purchases made in 2024 will now have 12-month warranty coverage from the shipment date.
    • For example, if your device shipped on March 1, 2024, your warranty would have expired on May 30, 2024, but will now expire on March 1, 2025.
  • If you purchased an Extended Warranty in addition to your device in 2024, you will receive both the new 12-month standard warranty coverage from the date of shipment, as well as the additional coverage period from your paid extended warranty.
    • For example, if your device shipped on March 1, 2024, with a 2-year Extended Warranty:
      • Your standard warranty now expires on March 1, 2025, instead of May 30, 2024.
      • Your 2-year Extended Warranty coverage will begin on March 1, 2025, and continue until March 1, 2027.



Your trust in our products is paramount to us, and this warranty extension reflects our dedication to your satisfaction and our confidence in the quality and reliability of our devices.

Thank you for choosing Freewrite; we look forward to serving you for many years to come. Write on!

 

- The Freewrite Team



Important Notes:

  • For devices purchased in 2023 or earlier, the original 90-day warranty applies, in addition to any paid Extended Warranty coverage.
  • If you purchased your device in 2023 or earlier, without an Extended Warranty, unfortunately, your warranty has now expired.
  • We are unable to offer refunds for prior out-of-warranty repairs.

 

Useful Links:

Official Freewrite Warranty Policy

Warranty Support Doc