Rhetorical Devices and Ambiguity

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Recommended: Importance of rhetorical discourse

Rhetorical devices are used in almost everything that we read, watch, or listen to. Literary Devices (2014) defines rhetoric as “Rhetoric is technique of using language effectively and persuasively in spoken or written form. It is an art of discourse, which studies and employs various methods to convince, influence or please an audience” (para. 1). While the history of rhetoric dates back to ancient Greece and was reserved to be used by only noble people today we see it used everywhere. Some of the more common rhetorical devices that are used today include oxymoron, sarcasm, irony, and contradiction. These literary tools are used to convey a message to the readers or listeners without truly saying what is meant.
The two articles that I have chosen to analysis for their effective use of rhetorical devices are Nike’s voice looms large, and Outsourcing: the good, the bad and the inevitable. Both of these articles use many different types of rhetorical devices.
Nike’s Voice Looks Large
In Nike’s voice looks large, Ballinger (2001) makes the following statement “The dramatic emergence of the sweat-shop story was akin to a train wreck” (para. 5). This statement is using a rhetorical device called a metaphor. English Forums (2014) defines a metaphor as “a situation (generally a literary situation) in which the unfamiliar is expressed in terms of the familiar” (para. 1). We see here in this example that the author is saying that the quick surfacing of stories about sweatshops hit the public with a great amount of force as if a train was hitting something. By using this metaphor the writer is able to convey a strong message to the reader and paint a picture in their mind of the severity of the situation and there by making it easier for th...

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...oked at as well is jobs that Americans refuse to do. Unfortunately there are some jobs that many American just refuse to do mostly due to our upbringing. For that reason there is no choice but for those jobs to be outsourced.

Works Cited

Ballinger, J. (2001). Nike’s voice looms large. Social Policy, 32(1), 34-37.
Dictionary. (2014). Perspective. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/perspective
English Forums. (2014). What is a metaphor? Retrieved from http://www.englishforums.com/content/lessons/what-is-a-metaphor.htm
Kibbe, C. (2004). Outsourcing” the good, the bad, and the inevitable. New Hampshire Business Review, 26(14), 1A.
Literary Devices. (2014). Rhetoric. Retrieved from http://literarydevices.net/rhetoric/
Purdue University. (2014). Aristotle’s rhetorical situation. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/03/

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