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Rhetorical DevicesYear 9 Non-Fiction Texts

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Learning objectives

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In this unit you will…

Discuss the different purposes a writer may have

Learn about the rhetorical devices used by writers

Analyse famous texts and speeches to see which rhetorical devices are used


Writers write with a purpose.

Brainstorm the different purposes non-fiction writers have in the box below.

Rhetorical devices


To explain something

To persuade you

To amuse you

To give you information

To entertain you

To shock you

To make you feel strongly about something

Look at your own answers and the list above.

Can you think of an example of each type of writing?

Here are some ideas:


If a writer is describing how to do something, they may use sequencers to show the steps the reader needs to take:

Writers can use italics and bold to highlight important words and phrases.

This presentation will show you some rhetorical devices people use to make their writing more effective.

First lift up the receiver. Next dial the code for the country you are ringing. Then dial the area code. After that dial the telephone number of the person you are ringing. Finally their phone should ring.

Sequencers


Rhetorical means to do with persuasion and effective

speaking and writing.

Device is just another way of saying ‘technique’.

Repetition Lists Alliteration Metaphor and simile Rhetorical questions Personal involvement Audience involvement Quotes Facts and statistics

Rhetorical devices include:

Do you know what rhetorical devices are?

We use rhetorical devices to write or speak persuasively.


Tony Blair said that his main priority as Prime Minister would be:

Education, education, education.

Repeating important words or phrases can indicate to the reader that they are important. They help to make the writing more persuasive and make certain words or phrases stick in the reader’s head.

© HMSO

Repetition


A list of three fixes itself in a reader’s/listener’s mind.

School uniform is

uncomfortable, expensive and old-fashioned.

Lists


Alliteration is where two or more words begin with the same letter.

You should take up juggling because it is fantastic fun.

Can you fill in these sentences with alliterative words?1. The ____ weather made me feel _____ _______!2. ____________ is a ______ _______ _________3. I can’t believe how _______ ______ ______ was!

Alliteration


A metaphor is where one thing is said to be something else.

A simile is where one thing is said to be the same as or like

something else.

Decide whether the quotes below contain metaphors or similes.

I wandered lonely as a

cloud(Wordsworth)

Juliet is the sun (Shakespeare,

Romeo and Juliet)

simile metaphor

Metaphor and simile


These are questions which you don’t expect the audience or reader to answer. Using a rhetorical question is a way of putting an idea in their minds so that you can answer it.

Rhetorical questions

Why do you always have to talk through my lessons, Megan?

Teachers do this all the time!

Why can’t you just leave me alone?

Write a list of five rhetorical questions.


This is useful when you are trying to persuade people to your point of view or when you want people to, say, buy something from you.

I, too, know what it is like to sit in a hot classroom wearing a thick school

blazer.

I was a heavy smoker and thought I’d never be able to give up. Then I discovered ‘Smokenomore’ patches.

Personal involvement

In which specific situations do you think personal involvement might be most effective?


Your writing can be more effective if you draw the audience into the topic.

I know that many of you have endured the misery of over-cooked school dinners…

Audience involvement

Why do you think it is so much more effective to talk directly to your

audience/reader?


Using the words of famous people can enhance your meaning.

As John F. Kennedy once said:

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for

your country.

Quotes

However, you have to make sure that your quote is relevant and that it makes sense to begin with! You should also choose someone to quote from whom your audience is likely to know and respect.


Facts and statistics help to show that what you are saying is backed up by more than just your opinion.

A University of Neasden study showed that 85% of people surveyed thought that homework was a waste of time.

Facts and statistics

Opinion of homework

useful

quiteuseful

waste oftime


You can combine these devices.

A University of Neasden study showed

that 85%, I repeat, 85% of people

surveyed thought that homework was dull,

dreary drudgery.

Rhetorical devices

Which devices has Megan used above?


Identify the rhetorical device


There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ We can

never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police

brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot

gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of our cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and

robbed of their dignity by signs stating ‘For whites only’. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied

until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

repetition

simile

rhetorical question including the audience

fact

Martin Luther King

In this famous speech, how has Martin Luther King made his meaning so effective?


Here is an edited version of the speech with some of the rhetorical devices removed. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights when they will be satisfied. They say they can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of police brutality, as long as their bodies, tired after travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities, as long as their children are faced with signs stating ‘For whites only’. The Negro in Mississippi still cannot vote and a Negro in New York still believes he has nothing to vote for. They will not be satisfied until they get justice.

Which version is more powerful?

Martin Luther King

How effective would Martin Luther King’s speech have been if he hadn’t used rhetorical devices?


…We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with

growing confidence and growing strength in the air…

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: it is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be…

repetition

lists

rhetorical question

metaphor

Can you name the rhetorical devices Churchill uses in the speeches below?


Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee-I have thee not and yet I see thee still!Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? Or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?I see thee yet, in form as palpableAs this which now I draw…

Which rhetorical devices does Shakespeare use?

What effect do they have?

Macbeth’s soliloquy

Read Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1.


Choose a controversial topic such as school uniform, religion in schools or animal experiments.

Write a magazine article (roughly 500 words long) which aims to convince your readers of your point of view on the subject.

Make sure that you look at both sides of the issue to avoid bias, and try and use as many rhetorical devices as you can in order to convince your readers that your point of view is the best one.

Activity

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Documents

simile slide

alliteration slide

rhetorical devices people

lists slide

statistics rhetorical

rhetorical means

nonfiction texts slide

hmso repetition slide