1.The Repetition Sentence (with key word repeated)Use this to add emphasis to a word and to make an otherwise drab sentence have style. Instead of "If you don't like yourself, you won't get along with people," write

1. If you don't like yourself, you won't like other people.

2.The Repeated Word Sentence (Epizeuxis)To add emphasis, rhythm, and focus to a sentence, repeat a word with the repetitions in close proximity. What part of speech being repeated doesnt matter.

1. He was a decent man with common moral, common values, and common sense.

3.The Repeated-Word Sentence (with Extended Definition)By repeating a word several times, it's possible to suggest compulsiveness, anger, boredom, and irritation.

1. He strove to be a sophomore, succeeded as a sophomore, was proud to be a sophomore, and behaved as a sophomore for three years.

4.The Repositioned-Adjective SentenceInstead of placing the adjective before the noun, position it after the noun like some foreign languages do.Some religions have disdain for all things worldly.

1. I sing the body electric. Walt Whitman

5.The Rhetorical QuestionThis sentence was originally a statement, but after conversion to a question, it takes on a grander tone. It can be asked in a positive or negative form but actually remains a statement with an obvious or expected answer.

1. Are we not men with responsibilities?

6.The Interrupted Sentence (The Explanation)This type of sentence can draw attention to the portion following the interruption or act as a brake on the sentence rhythm.

1. They have learned - that is, they have experienced - a great deal.

7.The Interrupted Sentence (The Aside)A parenthetical statement that by digressing from the main point adds increased importance to what follows as well as a new tone.

1. A typical teenager (opposed to the atypical type I haven't met) shuns homework.

8.The Structured Series (Balance)Parallel structure and length in a series of words (three or more items long) is an isocolon. Between two items, it is a balance. These can be single word modifiers, phrases, or clauses.

1. Life is full of fear, empty of hope, and devoid of dreams.

9.The Compound-Balance SentenceBy balancing a compound sentence, you increase the effect.

1. If I want success, I work hard; but if I want failure, I do little.

10.The Structured Series (Tricolon)One of the more famous stylistic devices, it consists of three parts, which can be words, phrases, clauses or sentences. Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered" and Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, and for the people" are examples.

1. Volcanoes had belched molten lava, lightning had struck in dry grass, winds had rubbed dead branches against each other until they burst into flame. -Loren Eisely

11.The Structured Series (Four-Part)This is a four item series of equal unit length.

1. Charm, wit, taste, eloquence--all those things generally lacking in most men flourish in Roden.1. London was hideous, vicious, cruel, and above all overwhelming. - Henry James

12.The Symmetrical SentenceThis usually short sentence features a balance like that of a seesaw with the verb being the balancing point. The words on either side are equal in length and usually short, and the balance can be intensified by using the same part of speech or words that sound the same. Linking verbs work well as balancing points, but action verbs work also.

1. Crissy is spacy.1. Democracy ends autocracy.

13.The Negative-Positive SequenceBy phrasing a sentence in a "not this, but that" format, you give the second half special importance and acknowledge the contrary argument .

1. A student does not have to believe in homework, but he must believe in education.

14.The Positive-Negative SequenceBy giving the positive first, the negative is stressed.

1. A student must believe in education, but he does not have to believe in homework.

15.The Antithesis (an-TITH-e-sis)A balance of opposites can emphasize contrasts.

1. The smartest students make the worst teachers.1. Live or die, pass or fail, graduate or drop out, I will not give up on education.1. Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Neal Armstrong1. Let us speak less of the threat of Communism and more of the promise of freedom. Richard M. Nixon

16.The Antimetabole (an-ti-me-TAB-o-le)A two- part series with two elements composes one part of the balance and their reverse forming the second.1. But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. - George Orwell1. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.1. Man must put an end to war, or war will put an end to man. John F. Kennedy (speechwriter?)1. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Folk saying

17.The Asyndeton (a-SYN-de-ton)By eliminating the conjunction in a series of items, you make the items seem to occur as a single event rather than make the last seem more important.

1. A girl giggles in the hallway, a light flickers in the room, a boy snores in the corner.1. He was a winner, a hero, a legend.

18.The Polysyndeton (poly-SYN-de-ton)This is similar to the asyndeton except that each item in a series is separated by a conjunction.

1. It was a hot day and the sky was very bright and blue and the road was white and dusty. Hemingway1. It was neither the place nor the time nor the man nor history that produced the tragic event. Phil Carman

19.The Anaphora (a-NAPH-or-a)By beginning each item in series with the same words, you intensify their meaning and emphasis.

1. Love is strange- it can't be measured, it can't be weighed, it can't be bought.1. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. Winston Churchill

20.The Epistrophe (e-PIS-tro-phe)This involves ending each time in a series with the same words. Its effect is to illustrate the common denominator between items.

1. The cars do not sell because the engineering is inferior, the quality of materials is inferior, and the workmanship is inferior.1. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following: but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. -Shakespeare

21.The Symploce (SYM-plo-ce)This is a combination of the anaphora and epistrophe. The items in the series begin and end with the same words.

1. I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American. - Daniel Webster1. He was born a Catholic, he was raised a Catholic, he will marry Catholic. Malcolm Fortson

22.The Anadiplosis (a-na-di-PLO-sis)This can be achieved in several ways:1) By ending one item in a series with the words that begin the next2) By ending a phrase or clause with the words that begin the next3) By ending a sentence...

1. The effect is slow motion and continuity, continuity and overlapping, overlapping and emphasis.

23.The Circular Sentence (Epanalepsis, ep-a-na-LEP-sis)

1. This is a good way to start a composition- by beginning and ending a clause or sentence with the same words.1. During his life he traveled throughout the world meeting new and different people but discovered that he had not discovered himself during his life.1. Year chases year, decay pursues decay (two epanalepses). Samuel Johnson

24.The Circular Sentence (Modified Epanalepsis)Rather than employ the same word, some form of the word is used.

1. Different ages have answered the question differently. - Virginia Woolfe

25.The Figurative Sentence (Simile)By comparing an idea with a highly picturable object, person, or event, it becomes imaginable. Using like or as to compare two things creates a simile.

1. Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting. - Robert Frost

26.The Figurative Sentence (Metaphor)This is basically a simile without like or as. Our mortal life is a rough sea is an example. By being subtler and simply implying the comparison, an implied metaphor is possible. The rough seas of our mortal life often threaten our happiness.

27.The Figurative Sentence (Reification)This means making an abstract idea into a concrete thing. In the example, English literature, an abstract idea becomes fire, a concrete, tangible event.

1. The winds blew English Literature, which had been merely smoldering for generations, into a blaze of genius. - J.B. Priestly

28.The Figurative Sentence (Personification)This is comparing a nonliving or inanimate object with something alive.

1. Far off, a little yellow plane scuttles down a runway, steps awkwardly into the air, then climbs busily, learning grace. - Robert Penn Warren

29.The Complex Figurative SentenceThis sentence features several clauses full of figurative types.

1. When the ignorance of our youth drowns in a pool of knowledge, when our tires no longer bark our defiance on city streets, then we know adulthood has squashed us beneath cleated shoes. - Roden

30.The Alliterative SentenceThe repeated use of the beginning sounds of words can make a sentence more memorable. Limit alliterated words or the effect can be comical.

1. All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain. - Walt Whitman

31.The Rhythmical SentenceThis is a sentence with a more obvious flow and cadence than most sentences. Use it for special effect but avoid lengthy use.

1. Curiosity is a form of desire. - Marchette Chute

32. The Metrical Sentence (Four Beats)This is a sentence with regular, patterned accents. In a poem it would be iambic tetrameter, four duh-DUM beats in a row.

1. The sentence is a single cry. - Herbert Read

33. The Metrical Sentence (Various Beats)Rather than strictly follow one metrical pattern, more than one is followed.May in Venice is better than April, but June is best of all. - Henry James(Trochaic and iambic)

These have fancy Greek names, but their definitions won't be Greek to you with very little study..

34.ParallelismWhen portions of a sentence follow the same grammatical pattern, these portions have parallelism. The portions, which can be any parts of speech, can as short as two nouns with the same number of adjectives and participles modifying them

1. The red, broken bicycle and the yellow, weathered tricycle are symbols of my youth.Or entire clausesIn the morning of the first day I found the necessary strength, but in the evening of the last day I lost the requisite courage.

35.ChiasmusThis could be called reverse parallelism. The pattern set by the first group of words is reversed by the second group to form a sort of mirror image.

1. He labors without complaining and without bragging rests.1. The honest man toils by day, but by night toils the man dishonest.

36.HypophoraUnlike a rhetorical question, a hypophora is a question raised by the writer that he or she actually answers. Raising a question the reader might be considering and answering it in several sentences is a solid writing technique.

37.ProcatalepsisAnticipating an objection and answering it, permits an argument to continue moving forward while taking into account points or reasons opposing either the train of thought or its final conclusions. Often the objections are standard ones:

1. It is usually argued at this point that if the government gets out of the mail delivery business, small towns like Podunk will not have any mail service. The answer to this can be found in the history of the Pony Express . . .

38.MetabasisThis consists of a brief statement of what has been said and what will follow. It might be called a linking, running, or transitional summary, whose function is to keep the discussion ordered and clear in its progress:

1. Such, then, would be my diagnosis of the present condition of art. I must now, by special request, say what I think will happen to art in the future. --Kenneth Clark

39.DistinctioThis is an explicit reference to a particular meaning or to the various meanings of a word, in order to remove or prevent ambiguity. To make methanol for twenty-five cents a gallon is impossible; by "impossible" I mean currently beyond our technological capabilities.

1. Some helpful phrases for distinctio include these: ______ here must be taken to mean, in this context [or case] ______ means, by _______ I mean, that is, which is to say.1. 1. 40.Apophasis (also called praeteritio or occupatio)This asserts or emphasizes something by pointedly seeming to pass over, ignore, or deny it. This device has both legitimate and illegitimate uses. Legitimately, a writer uses it to call attention to sensitive or inflammatory facts or statements while he remains apparently detached from them.We will not bring up the matter of the budget deficit here, or how programs like the one under consideration have nearly pushed us into bankruptcy, because other reasons clearly enough show.