Lots of practice and experimentation are necessary before you will feel really comfortable with these devices, but too much practice in a single paper will most assuredly be disastrous. Further, if used carelessly or excessively or too frequently, almost any one of these devices will probably seem affected, dull, awkward, or mechanical. But with a little care and skill, developed by practice, anyone can master them, and their use will add not just beauty and emphasis and effectiveness to your writing, but a kind of freedom of thought and expression you never imagined possible. Do not worry if they sometimes ring false at first. Back to the top of this page Self Test Identify the rhetorical device or devices used in each of the following examples.
Answers are at the end of the test.
I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also . . . Among other things, it can infuse much passion and energy into speeches, but when it is combined with the argumentative passages it not only persuades the hearer, but actually masters him. The true nature of man, his true good, true virtue, and true religion are things which cannot be known separately. Greatness, in the works of architecture, may be considered as relating to the bulk and body of the structure. . . .