Review Topics

Rhetoric and Rhetorical Devices

• Rhetoric is the art of speaking or writing effectively


• Rhetorical devices are strategies used by writers and speakers to achieve particular effects; for example to stimulate the audience’s imagination or thought processes, to draw attention to a particular idea, or simply to display wit and ingenuity in composition.


• Examples of rhetorical devices are irony, paradox, rhetorical question, contrast and appropriation.

I have learned about Rhetorical devices since the beginning of grade 10. Though this should be something i know by heart, I'm afraid there are some of the devices that i often forget about. I forget their meanings or mix them up.

Structuring an Argument

• An argument presents the case for and/or against a particular proposition


• Essentially, developing a well-formed argument involves:
  -adopting a particular stance, or making a particular proposition
  -supporting that stance with evidence,
  -structuring your argument and the supporting evidence, and
  -critically examining the logic of your argument

Structuring an argument is something we have been taught to do since the beginning of high school. The basics seem...basic. I don't think i have any concerns with structuring an argument seeing as i have been doing it for 4 years now. =)

MLA Citation

• Modern Language Association
  
• Style or format of referencing material
  
• Protect writers from the accusations of plagiarism

MLA format is the way that we cite our work in an essay or project. I know how to use it but it feels like tedious work having to cite all of our sources. It is very time consuming but necessary.

Literary Devices and Narrative Techniques

• A literary technique or literary device is an identifiable rule of thumb, convention or structure that is employed in literature and storytelling.
  
• Examples of Literary devices are : simile, metaphor, personification, foreshadowing, irony, and satire.
  
• narrative techniques are the methods involved in telling a story
  
• The procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts.
  
• Narrative technique is a general term (like "devices," or "resources of language") that asks you to discuss the procedures used in the telling of a story.
  
• Examples of the techniques you might use are point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue.

I use literary devices even when I don't even know that I'm using them. It is easier to write them then it is to know which they are and how to pick them out of someone else's writing. I'm concerned because I'm not sure i can define them and find them in another piece of work.

Dramatic Devices

• A dramatic device is any "trick" used by a playwright to add interest to his work or create a particular impression or effect on the audience.
• Contrasting scenes can be seen as a device, to create shock value, or change the atmosphere
• Examples are : dramatic irony (when the audience knows something the characters on stage don't) ,soliloquys, monologues and asides (givig us inner thoughts of the characters).

Dramatic devices are easier to remember because they are specific. It is easy to pick them out in a piece of writing or play so they are not somehting I am concerned about.