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:
Author

ric al
h eto
i ble R nique
Poss Te ch
y r
Ever tegy, o
, Stra
evic e
D
 Elements Contributing to Style:
• Diction
• Syntax
• Sound Devices
• Imagery
• Figurative Language
 W
Diction: e
Levels of Language sh
Fo all
r di
m ne
al
Informal/ at
Colloquial/ Let’s ei
go eat
Conversational at gh
eight.
t.
Slang 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 Voice
Active = 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. • Passive: The bread was

made by Bob.

Bob is the subject doing the

The bread is the subject
action: “Bob made...”
passively receiving the
action
Here, Bob’s responsibility or
achievement is emphasized – Here, the bread is more
He made the bread! important than who
made it.
 More Syntax
• Repetition Examples of Anaphora:
- "I needed a drink, I needed a
-Anaphora: lot of life insurance, I needed
a vacation, I needed a home
repetition of a in the country. What I had
was a coat, a hat and a gun."
word or phrase at (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My
Lovely)
the beginning of -"I want her to live. I want her
successive to breathe. I want her to
aerobicize."
clauses (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. Periodic
Loose Sentence: puts the main Periodic Sentence: puts the
idea before all additional modifying information first
information; in other words, it so that the main idea is
puts first things first, and lets expressed at or near the
the reader know what it is
end of it.
mainly about when she has
read the first few words.
Effect/Purpose? They can
 Effect/Purpose? They are build suspense or curiosity;
more straight-forward and they can seem dramatic ,
direct. formal, or literary.
 Examples: Loose vs. Periodic
Loose Sentences Periodic Sentences
• “She decided to study English, • “Although she loved music,
despite the fact that she loved practiced everyday, and wrote all
music, practiced everyday, and of her own songs, she decided to
wrote all of her own songs.” study English.”
• “The world won’t end even if we • “Even if we fail again and again,
fail again and again.” the world won’t end.”
• “Fred escaped into the storm • “The wind howled like a freight
cellar while the wind howled train, and the monstrous tornado
like a freight train and the drew closer, hurtling farm
tornado drew closer, hurtling machinery through the air, as
farm machinery through the air.” 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 ; • Dashes –
• Often a writer chooses a semicolon to
achieve a more flowing effect and to • Indicate added emphasis,
show a close relationship of ideas. an interruption, or an
Using a period to separate two
independent clauses has a more
abrupt change of thought
conclusive effect. It forces more of a
pause on the reader's part.
Example: “You are the friend—
Example: "With educated people, I the only friend—who
suppose, punctuation is a matter of offered to help me.”
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." “I wish you would—oh, never
(Abraham Lincoln)
mind.”
 Syntax: Chiasmus (Antithesis)
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.

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."
 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)