Rhetorical Analysis of an Author’s Style

What is an author’s style? It’s how they use language to achieve their

purpose.

Let’s think of Style this way:

E

very Possible Rhetorical

Device, Strategy, or Technique

Author

Elements Contributing to Style:

• Diction• Syntax• Sound Devices• Imagery• Figurative Language

Diction:Levels of Language

Formal

Informal/Colloquial/

Conversational

Slang

We shall dine at eight.

Let’s go eat at eight.

When eight o’clock comes ‘round, we’re

grubbin’!Other Categories: - Jargon

-Academic

Diction, continued

• Concrete or Abstract nouns? Objects/Things vs. Thoughts/Ideas/Feelings

• Denotative or Connotative? Ex.: House or Home Walked or Plodded Pretty or Stunning

Syntax

• Active vs. Passive VoiceActive = Amy made the catch. Passive = The catch was made by Amy.

-Active Voice: emphasizes the responsibility of the person because they are the ones doing the action; they are the subject of the sentence

-Passive Voice: emphasized the thing that happened rather than who did it; in passive construction, the thing is the subject.

Here’s another example of Active vs. Passive Voice.

Active: Bob made the bread.

Bob is the subject doing the action: “Bob made...”

Here, Bob’s responsibility or achievement is emphasized – He made the bread!

• Passive: The bread was made by Bob.

The bread is the subject passively receiving the action

Here, the bread is more important than who made it.

More Syntax

• Repetition -Anaphora: repetition of a

word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Examples of Anaphora: - "I needed a drink, I needed a

lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."(Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely)

-"I want her to live. I want her to breathe. I want her to aerobicize."(Weird Science, 1985)

Syntax

Parallel Structure: means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance.

Examples:• Not Parallel:

Mary likes hiking, swimming, and to ride a bicycle.

• Parallel: Mary likes hiking, swimming, and riding a bicycle.

More Parallel Structure

• Not Parallel: The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and in a detailed manner.

• Parallel: The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and thoroughly.

Parallel Structure

• Not Parallel: The teacher said that he was a poor student because he waited until the last minute to study for the exam, completed his lab problems in a careless manner, and his motivation was low.

• Parallel: The teacher said that he was a poor student because he waited until the last minute to study for the exam, completed his lab problems in a careless manner, and lacked motivation.

Syntax:Types of Sentences

• Simple vs. Complex

Simple sentences have no subordinate clauses, whereas Complex sentences do.

Simple: Tom likes cake. Fred likes cake and pie.

Tom and Fred are annoying.Complex: Tom, the one who likes cake, is annoying. Though she practiced, she never made the team. Because it was after four, the bank was closed.

Syntax:More Types of Sentences

Loose vs.Loose Sentence: puts the main

idea before all additional information; in other words, it puts first things first, and lets the reader know what it is mainly about when she has read the first few words.

Effect/Purpose? They are more straight-forward and direct.

PeriodicPeriodic Sentence: puts the

modifying information first so that the main idea is expressed at or near the end of it.

Effect/Purpose? They can build suspense or curiosity; they can seem dramatic , formal, or literary.

Examples: Loose vs. Periodic

Loose Sentences• “She decided to study English,

despite the fact that she loved music, practiced everyday, and wrote all of her own songs.”

• “The world won’t end even if we fail again and again.”

• “Fred escaped into the storm cellar while the wind howled like a freight train and the tornado drew closer, hurtling farm machinery through the air.”

Periodic Sentences• “Although she loved music,

practiced everyday, and wrote all of her own songs, she decided to study English.”

• “Even if we fail again and again, the world won’t end.”

• “The wind howled like a freight train, and the monstrous tornado drew closer, hurtling farm machinery through the air, as Fred escaped into the storm cellar.”

More Syntax

• Juxtaposition: Two or more ideas, words, phrases, characters, actions, settings, are placed near each other or side-by-side for the purpose of pointing out an important comparison or contrast

Example: “The young girl bounded along past her

arthritic grandmother.”

Syntax!

• Rhetorical Questions: “We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into

being without it? What does Nature hold dearer, or more proper to herself? Could you have a hot bath unless the firewood underwent some change? Could you be nourished if the food suffered no change? Do you not see, then, that change in yourself is of the same order, and no less necessary to Nature?”

--Marcus Aurelius

Purpose/Effect = To actively engage the audience, to draw them into the “conversation”, to perhaps appeal to the audience’s ethos of common concern/interest.

Syntax : Interesting Punctuation• Semicolon ; • Often a writer chooses a semicolon

to achieve a more flowing effect and to show a close relationship of ideas. Using a period to separate two independent clauses has a more conclusive effect. It forces more of a pause on the reader's part.

Example: "With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say I have a great respect for the semi-colon; it's a useful little chap."(Abraham Lincoln)

• Dashes – • Indicate added emphasis,

an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought

Example: “You are the friend—the only friend—who offered to help me.”

“I wish you would—oh, never mind.”

Syntax: Chiasmus (Antithesis)

Examples:• "You forget what you want to remember, and you

remember what you want to forget.”• "In the end, the true test is not the speeches a

president delivers; it’s whether the president delivers on the speeches.”

• "I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."

Sentence structure in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first by reversing the parts, for the sake of creating a thought-provoking comparison or counter-point.

Sound Devices• Onomatopoeia – words that imitate sounds – “Bang!” “Crash!” “Splash!” Purpose? To create auditory imagery

• Alliteration /Consonance – Repetition of consonant sounds – “the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.“ Purpose? makes the reader read faster, thereby adding a sense of speed and

intensity to the sentence, and it creates a consistent pattern that focuses the audience’s attention. It also creates a poetic rhythm .

-Assonance- The repetition of vowel sounds – "Do you like blue?“ ; “The sea gulls glide on streams of air

They rise so high they touch the sky Just like a silent prayer”

Purpose? Creates a slower poetic rhythm / pattern, often used for visual imagery

Imagery• What types of sensory imagery does an author employ? -Visual -Auditory -Tactile -Olfactory -Gustatory

Purpose? To draw the audience into a scene, to create a realistic feeling of actually being there. Images are often used to set the mood or tone of a particular scene . Images may also be symbolic of deeper meanings

Figurative Language

Figurative Language is the use of words that go beyond their ordinary meaning. It requires you to use your imagination to figure out the author's meaning.

• Some of the most commonly used are:-Irony-Simile/Metaphor/Extended Metaphor-Hyperbole or Understatement-Personification-Paradox/Oxymoron – an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may

yet have some truth in it

Paradox

• Examples:- “One may understand the cosmos, but never

the ego; the self is more distant than any star.” (G.K. Chesterton)

- “Even a man is not able to become human!” - “So many troubles I got that they become my

comfort!” (M. Ghalib)