Art of the Essay
EL 238, Summer 2010
Jonah Willihnganz
Stanford University
A useful way to assess an author’s style or how that author achieves a particular effect is examine the patterns of their prose and the figurative language they use. Prose patterns refer to the arrangement of words and sentences (e.g., repetition of a phrase); figurative language refers to manipulation of denotation (e.g., metaphor or irony). Rhetoricians often think of prose patterns as schemes (schema = shape) and figurative language as tropes (trope = to turn). Below is a list of typical, common schemes and tropes. Use these to help you identify how an author creates particular effects and what characterizes their style. For more, and for examples of the ones listed here, go to The Forest of Rhetoric.
I. Prose Patterns (Schemes)
alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds
assonance: repetition of vowel sounds
anaphora: repetition of word or clause at the start of a sentence or clause
epistrophe: repetition of word or clause at the end of a sentence or clause
epanalepsis: repetition of a phrase from elsewhere in a sentence or paragraph
synonymia: repetition of synonyms
anadiplosis: repetition of last word of one clause at the start of the next
isocolon: similarity of structure and length
zeugma: a single word (often a verb) governs two clauses
syllepsis: a single word governs two clauses but with different denotation in each case
syncrisis: comparison and contrast in clauses with parallel structure
anastrophe: inversion of usual/natural word order
chiasmus: reversal of grammatical structure in successive sentences or clauses
asyndeton: omission of conjunctions between clauses
apostrophe: addressing an absent person
II. Figurative Language (Tropes)
metaphor and simile: comparison to infer qualities of one thing to another
objective correlative: exterior description that infers an interior state
metonymy: association of two things to confer similarity
synecdoche: part of something stands in for the whole
perilepsis: professing to avoid a topic while discoursing on it
personification: investing the inanimate with human qualities
litotes: deliberate use of understatement
hyperbole: exaggeration for heightened effect, humor, or undercutting
anthimeria: substitution of one part of speech for another (often a noun for a verb)
adynaton: declaration of inability to express something
ecphrasis: very dense, vivid description
periphrasis: substitution of proper name with a description
irony: reversal of usual meaning
oxymoron: unlike qualities yoked together
paradox: seeming contradiction that contains truth
epitrope: turning things over to the reader
congeries: piling up of descriptive words clauses for a single effect