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This week, we continue to add delicious rhetorical devices to your prose spice shelf.
Asyndeton omits conjunctions and speeds up the sentence using three or four beats.
Dick ran, laughing, hysterical, howlingfrom the library.
Balance offers two propositions of equal value joined by a comma or semicolon. The second half mirrors the first half but changes a few words.
Dick asked not what Jane could do for him1, but what he could do for her2.
Chiasmus repeats a sentence or clause but reverses the order in the second half.
When the water gets rough, the rough get in the water.
Chronicity moves the sentence backward or forward in time using connectors such as: after, before, during and until.
BeforeDick would agree to enter the library, before he would agree to read the book, he insisted that Jane go home.
Conduplicato repeats a key word from the base clause to start the next sentence or clause.
Dick was hard to love, hard tohate.
Consecutive clauses reveal a series of actions or thoughts.
Dick ran through the hall1, up the stairs2, skidding around the corner3, breaking into the library4 in time to hear Jane scream.
Epanelepsis repeats the same word or phrase at the beginning and end of a clause or sentence.
Dayfollowed day, week followed week, and Jane still had no answer.
Epistrophe repeats the same word or phrase at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. It carries emotion.
Jane charmed him, confused him, and consumed him.
For the complete list of spices and other revision layers, pick up a copy of:
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