TECH: Making Your Writing Zing
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writercisesOriginally posted 20 March 2007
Making Your Writing Zing
a.k.a. rhetorical devices can be your friends
Cindy Rogers, in Writer's Digest July 2004, pages 43-45 with a little on page 60, talks about some rhetorical devices that you should know. Let's take a look, shall we?
Anaphora is simply repetition at the beginning. You can simply use the same word or words at the beginning of phrases, clauses, or sentences. Or you could simply stuff it in the middle, although strictly speaking that's not anaphora! Repetition makes the reader pay attention. (Although be careful - if you have ever read the begats in the Bible, you know it can also be a might boring if continued!)
Amplification is repeating, adding more detail, digging the ditch a little bit deeper. Amplification expands even as it clarifies. First you toot the horn once, then twice, then a long honk to see if anyone is listening.
And then there's climax. Climax involves arranging words or clauses or even whole sentences in ascending order of importance, for emphasis. Building a mountain for the reader to climb, step-by-step ascending, struggling upwards, until they reach the peak and see the grand scenario that you laid out for them
Analogy works by comparison. Metaphors say that one thing is another thing, without any hedging. Similes say it's like something else, putting a little bit of a hedge on the comparison. Analogies, sometimes without even mentioning the comparison, analogies extend and explain. They are often implied, and then run away with.
Onomatopoeia puts the sounds in the words. Sometimes you may have to make up some of the sounds, but there are a lot of words that have built-in sounds. Buzz, clang, slap, rattle, bang, screech, wheeze, fizz, zap, growl, roar, snap, crackle, and pop! Make those readers' ears ring!
Alliteration repeats consonants. When you read it out loud, you can hear the 's's or the 'm's or whatever. Slippery snakes slithering through the grass?
So there you have it -- or should I say six its? Anaphora, repeating the start. Amplification, internal repeating and expansion. Climax, going for the growth. Analogy, comparing apples and oranges -- but making it work! Onomatopoeia uses words that sound the way they mean. And last, alliteration, letting little letters link for lasting effects.
Got it? What the heck, you might want to try the exercise that Writers Digest suggests. Very simply they suggest taking a descriptive passage from something you're working on (or I'll add something you're reading) and then try applying each of these six techniques to that passage. Not all at the same time, but each one in turn, so that you write the paragraph or passage six times. Once with anaphora, once with amplification, once with climax, once with analogy, once with onomatopoeia, and once with alliteration. Mix and match - that's up to you!
And may the best rhetorical devices ornament your writing.
Making Your Writing Zing
a.k.a. rhetorical devices can be your friends
Cindy Rogers, in Writer's Digest July 2004, pages 43-45 with a little on page 60, talks about some rhetorical devices that you should know. Let's take a look, shall we?
Anaphora is simply repetition at the beginning. You can simply use the same word or words at the beginning of phrases, clauses, or sentences. Or you could simply stuff it in the middle, although strictly speaking that's not anaphora! Repetition makes the reader pay attention. (Although be careful - if you have ever read the begats in the Bible, you know it can also be a might boring if continued!)
Amplification is repeating, adding more detail, digging the ditch a little bit deeper. Amplification expands even as it clarifies. First you toot the horn once, then twice, then a long honk to see if anyone is listening.
And then there's climax. Climax involves arranging words or clauses or even whole sentences in ascending order of importance, for emphasis. Building a mountain for the reader to climb, step-by-step ascending, struggling upwards, until they reach the peak and see the grand scenario that you laid out for them
Analogy works by comparison. Metaphors say that one thing is another thing, without any hedging. Similes say it's like something else, putting a little bit of a hedge on the comparison. Analogies, sometimes without even mentioning the comparison, analogies extend and explain. They are often implied, and then run away with.
Onomatopoeia puts the sounds in the words. Sometimes you may have to make up some of the sounds, but there are a lot of words that have built-in sounds. Buzz, clang, slap, rattle, bang, screech, wheeze, fizz, zap, growl, roar, snap, crackle, and pop! Make those readers' ears ring!
Alliteration repeats consonants. When you read it out loud, you can hear the 's's or the 'm's or whatever. Slippery snakes slithering through the grass?
So there you have it -- or should I say six its? Anaphora, repeating the start. Amplification, internal repeating and expansion. Climax, going for the growth. Analogy, comparing apples and oranges -- but making it work! Onomatopoeia uses words that sound the way they mean. And last, alliteration, letting little letters link for lasting effects.
Got it? What the heck, you might want to try the exercise that Writers Digest suggests. Very simply they suggest taking a descriptive passage from something you're working on (or I'll add something you're reading) and then try applying each of these six techniques to that passage. Not all at the same time, but each one in turn, so that you write the paragraph or passage six times. Once with anaphora, once with amplification, once with climax, once with analogy, once with onomatopoeia, and once with alliteration. Mix and match - that's up to you!
And may the best rhetorical devices ornament your writing.
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