Language, Tone and Structure

This is Unit Twenty-Nine of College Composition. Unit Twenty-Eight analyzed the appeals a text makes. This unit looks at the language, tone and structure that carry those appeals. Carry one idea through this lecture. Spotting a device is only the first step; every element of an analysis returns to one question, what effect a choice has on the intended reader. A worked example near the end analyzes a short passage's devices, tone and structure together. By the end you will be able to identify rhetorical devices and figurative language. To identify tone from diction. To analyze structure and sentence style as choices. And to explain what a text says and how, including images.

Ten entries on rhetorical devices: repetition, parallelism, numbers, rhetorical questions, and figurative language from metaphor to imagery.

Language that adds force.

CMP 0701 Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical devices are language choices writers use to organize, emphasize and add force to their writing. Common devices include figurative language, repetition, parallel structure, rhetorical questions, personification, numerical data, hyperbole and understatement. Spotting a device is the first step; the analysis lies in explaining what it does for the argument.

Saying it again.

CMP 0702 Repetition

Repetition repeats a word or group of words to build emphasis. "The first cause is poverty; the second cause is poor health; the third cause is discrimination" drives the word cause into the reader's memory. Deliberate repetition differs from careless repetition; ask whether it builds emphasis or only adds words.

Matching patterns.

CMP 0703 Parallelism as a Device

Parallel structure repeats a pattern of words to show that ideas are equally significant, creating balance and memorability. A sentence that sets two clauses in matching form, reversing their terms, calls attention to both ideas and makes the statement easy to remember. In analysis, ask what the balanced form makes the reader see as equal or opposed.

Numbers as a device.

CMP 0704 Numerical Data as a Device

Statistics and figures are a rhetorical device as well as evidence, and accurate data can strengthen an argument. A writer who states a precise percentage signals research and seriousness, and a large number can create shock as well as inform. Analyze whether the numbers are accurate and fairly presented, not only whether they impress.

Questions asked for effect.

CMP 0705 Rhetorical Questions

A rhetorical question is asked not for an answer but for effect, to lead readers toward a point or create drama. "Do you think poverty will go away by itself?" invites readers to answer no, and so to accept the need for action. A rhetorical question can also hide an unsupported assumption; check what answer it takes for granted.

Comparing unlike things.

CMP 0706 Figurative Language

Figurative language compares one aspect of things that are otherwise different, and it is an essential part of rhetorical language. Figurative comparisons can make an abstract idea concrete, shape the reader's feelings about a subject, and set the tone of a passage. Ask how a figure changes the meaning or tone; a comparison always carries associations beyond its literal point.

Like, or as if.

CMP 0707 Metaphor and Simile

A simile compares two things using like or as; a metaphor states the comparison directly, as if one thing were the other. "The treasure chest shone like a pirate's gold tooth" is a simile; "The pizza was a disk of saucy sunlight" is a metaphor. Extended metaphors shape a whole passage; notice where the comparison begins and what it implies throughout.

More, and less, than true.

CMP 0708 Hyperbole and Understatement

Hyperbole is exaggeration; understatement presents something as less important than it is. "A million things on the menu" is hyperbole; "It may not have occurred to politicians that poverty affects health" is understatement, often used ironically or sarcastically. Hyperbole is a staple of advertising; in analysis, ask whether the exaggeration informs or only inflates.

Human traits for things.

CMP 0709 Personification

Personification gives human traits to something inanimate or nonhuman to make it seem alive and relatable. "The virus packed its bags and spread across the ocean" and "the cheese calling out to be eaten" both personify. Personification can make a threat seem deliberate or a product seem friendly; notice which feeling it invites.

Appealing to the senses.

CMP 0710 Imagery and Sensory Language

Imagery is sensory language, words that appeal to sight, sound, smell, taste or touch. Describing pizza as a jeweled circle of brilliant color appeals to sight and taste, making the reader want it before any argument is made. Sensory language often carries pathos; analyze how the images steer the reader's feelings.

Four entries on tone: what it is, how to identify it, diction, and speaking familiarly.

Attitude in a text.

CMP 0711 Tone in a Text

In analysis, tone is the attitude toward the subject and audience that a reader perceives in the writer's choices. Word choice, pacing and other stylistic choices can make a writer sound angry, sarcastic, apologetic, resigned, uncertain or authoritative. Identify tone from specific words and sentences, not from your general impression.

Naming the attitude.

CMP 0712 Identifying Tone

Identifying tone means gathering evidence from a passage's language and naming the attitude it reveals. Note your first impression, then mark words with strong connotations. Notice figurative language, exaggeration or understatement, which often reveal attitude, and sentence style: short, blunt sentences can sound urgent; long, qualified ones measured. Notice what the writer stresses or leaves out. Then name the tone precisely, sarcastic, admiring, alarmed or detached, and cite the words that support it. Avoid vague labels such as positive or negative; a passage can be critical without being angry.

Word choice and tone.

CMP 0713 Diction and Tone

Diction, the writer's word choice, is the main source of tone. "The council finally caved" and "the council reconsidered" report the same event with different attitudes toward the council. Ask why the writer chose this word instead of a synonym; the answer usually reveals tone.

Plain talk on purpose.

CMP 0714 Speaking Familiarly

Speaking familiarly, or folksily, is a strategy in which the writer uses casual, everyday language to seem close to the audience. A politician who drops formal vocabulary for plain talk can build rapport with listeners who distrust polished speech. The same strategy can seem condescending to an audience that expects formality.

Three entries on structure as a rhetorical choice, openings and closings, and sentence style.

How a text is put together.

CMP 0715 Structure as a Choice

How a text is put together, where it starts and ends and how it sequences ideas, is a rhetorical choice to analyze. Ask why the author starts here and ends there, why information comes in this order, and what connects the text from start to finish. Every text has some principle of organization; finding it often reveals the writer's strategy.

The frame.

CMP 0716 Openings and Closings as Rhetoric

A text's opening and closing are its most prominent positions, so writers use them for their strongest strategies. An argument that opens with a vivid story and closes with a call to action uses its frame to move readers from feeling to action. In analysis, compare the opening and the closing: how has the text changed the reader's position in between?

Sentence variation.

CMP 0717 Sentence Style as Rhetoric

Variation in sentence structure, such as fragments, long sentences and repetition, creates effects that are part of a writer's voice. A run of short sentences can create urgency; a long, flowing sentence can suggest events running together. In analysis, connect each stylistic feature to its effect on meaning or tone.

Five entries on analyzing what a text says and how it says it, stylistic choices, a worked example, images, and the effect on the reader. The opening idea is paid off at the worked example and the last entry.

Content and craft.

CMP 0718 What a Text Says and How

Analyzing a text means examining both what it says and how. Summarize its main point and supporting ideas. Identify its form and organization. Examine its language: diction, figurative language, imagery and sentence style. Consider its context, when and for whom it was written, and ask how the parts work together to create meaning or persuade. Then state your reading and support it with specific passages. Analysis goes beyond liking or disliking a text. Texts can be read in more than one way, so argue for one reading with evidence while acknowledging others.

Why these words.

CMP 0719 Analyzing Stylistic Choices

Analyzing stylistic choices means asking why the writer chose particular words, figures, images and rhythms. Why this word instead of a synonym, and how does it relate to others? How do figurative comparisons and sensory language affect meaning or tone? Does an element represent more than itself, and how does sound or rhythm support meaning? In the anchor's example, a student notices that a poem's opening word, cool, also suggests being put on ice, and connects that double meaning to the poem's anticipation of early death. Every claim about style must be tied to a specific word or phrase.

A passage analyzed.

CMP 0720 A Passage Analyzed

A worked example, constructed for this course, pays off the opening idea. A column opposing a plan to pave a meadow opens with the sarcastic "They call it progress," which signals an alarmed, bitter tone. The repeated word forty, set alone as a fragment, stresses how small the gain is; a rhetorical question pushes readers to one answer; and a closing metaphor turns paving into burning a library. Bees and children's curiosity call up pathos, and the structure saves the strongest figure for last. For readers who value the meadow it is powerful; for readers who need parking, its logical appeal is thin. A complete analysis names the evidence it leaves out.

Visual persuasion.

CMP 0721 Images as Rhetoric

Images persuade too, through visual elements such as arrangement, color, composition, light, line and point of view. Analyzing an image begins with description but goes further, asking what its colors, lines and composition mean or do for the viewer. Ground claims about an image in evidence from the image and its context, not only in personal association.

The one question.

CMP 0722 The Effect on the Reader

Every element of a rhetorical analysis returns to one question: what effect does this choice have on the intended reader? Devices, tone, structure and appeals matter in analysis because of what they lead the audience to feel, believe or do. An analysis that catalogs devices without explaining their effect misses its purpose.

Look at what you can now do. You can identify rhetorical devices, from repetition and parallelism to rhetorical questions, and figurative language from metaphor to imagery. You can name a tone precisely from the diction that reveals it. You can analyze structure, the opening and closing frame, and sentence style as choices. And you can analyze what a text says and how, tie every claim about style to specific words, read images, and explain each choice's effect on the reader. Unit Thirty turns to the reasoning beneath an argument, and to fallacies.