Definition: Using the same word in different forms within a phrase or sentence.

Effect: Creates memorable phrases which stick in the mind or create effective soundbites.

This technique was often used in the Bible. Think about the Lord’s Prayer – “give us this day our daily bread” or Moses’ wife saying “I have been a stranger in a strange land” are both examples.

Famous Examples:The BeatlesNothing you can do that can’t be done.Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.

William ShakespeareLove is not love which alters when alteration finds.

The Elements of Eloquence: Polyptoton

The Elements of Eloquence: PolyptotonCopy out the quote.Underline the polyptoton.

Think of your own example related to one of the following topics:

FightingStrength:Skill:

FoodGreed:Hunger:

Definition: A phrase using opposite or contrasting ideas.

Effect: Creates a sense of balance between two different ideas or elements.

This technique was often used in the Bible. God loved antithesis: “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”

Famous Examples:Katy PerryYou’re hot then you’re cold. You’re yes then you’re no. You’re in then you’re out. You’re up then you’re down.

TS EliotImmature poets imitate. Mature poets steal.

The Elements of Eloquence: Antithesis

The Elements of Eloquence: Antithesis

How many examples of antithesis in the quotation on the left?Which one is the best?

Think of your own example related to one of the following topics:

A TV programme you feel strongly about.A school rule you dislike but understand.A sportsperson you hate but admire.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of

wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the

epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything

before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

Definition: Starting a new sentence/clause with the last word of the last sentence/clause.

Effect: Creates a flow of ideas. Links ideas together. Can create a sense of inevitability.

The technique highlights the important words in each clause and emphasises their importance and the idea that they belong together: drink leads to drunkenness, drunkenness leads to hangovers, hangovers lead to suffering…

Famous Examples:YodaFear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to suffering.

Jesse JacksonSuffering breeds character. Character breeds faith.

The Elements of Eloquence: Anadiplosis

The Elements of Eloquence: Anadiplosis

How has Malcolm X used anadiplosis differently?

Think of your own example related to one of the following topics:

The benefits of hard work.The drawbacks of laziness.

Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern.

Once you change your thought pattern, you change your attitude. Once you change your attitude, it

changes your behaviour pattern and then you go onto some action.

Definition: Repeating a phrase with a word or two stuck in between.

Effect: Very simply creates snappy and memorable phrases.

This is a really easy technique to use – just look at the famous examples below.You can also add a little bit of detail between the repeated words: Sunday, Bloody Sunday; Ignorance, Madam. Pure ignorance.

Famous Examples:Bond. James Bond.Run, Toto, run!Burn, baby, burn. Disco inferno!Crisis? What crisis?Love me. Love me. Say that you love me.

The Elements of Eloquence: Diacope

The Elements of Eloquence: Diacope

How is this quotation different to the examples you’ve seen before?

Three of Shakespeare’s most famous quotations use diacope. What are they?

The benefits of hard work.The drawbacks of laziness.

Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty we are free at last.

(Martin Luther King’s epitaph)

Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

To be or not to be.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.

Definition: Repeating a word immediately in exactly the same sense.

Effect: It’s the ultimate way of emphasising how important something is.

You’re all familiar with the ‘rule of three’ or ‘triplets’, but this is even better at making a strong point. Just don’t over-use it – you’ll sound like an utter plum. An utter plum.

Famous Examples:MacbethO horror, horror, horror.

Tony BlairAsk me my three main points for government and I tell you: education, education and education.

The Elements of Eloquence: Epizeuxis

The Elements of Eloquence: Epizeuxis

Write your own example of epizeuxis.These topics might help you:A news story you feel strongly about.Animal cruelty.A film you’d recommend.A song you despise.

The first rule of fight club is: you do not talk about

fight club. The second rule of fight club is: you do not

talk about fight club.

Definition: Two clauses that are structured in exactly the same way.

Effect: Can be used to create lovely balance – or something more chaotic.

A nicely balanced example would be the old cliché: roses are red, violets are blue.Something a little more destructive would be: float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

Famous Examples:Morning has broken, like the first morning.Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

You pay your money, you take your choice.

The Elements of Eloquence: Isocolon

The Elements of Eloquence: Isocolon

Write your own example of isocolon.Copy out the example from Casablanca, but change the verbs to alter the meaning.

Where I’m going, you can’t follow.

What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of.

Definition: Using a pronoun before the noun is introduced.

Effect: Can create mystery or surprise by revealing things in an odd way.

Normally, you use a noun and afterwards, when you want to refer to it, you can use a pronoun like ‘it’. The reader knows what the pronoun refers to because it appeared earlier in the sentence. Prolepsis messes with that.

Famous Examples:Stevie Smith: Waving Not DrowningNobody heard him, the dead man,But he still lay moaning.

Philip Larkin: This Be the VerseThey fuck you up, your mum and dad.

The Elements of Eloquence: Prolepsis

The Elements of Eloquence: Prolepsis

This is one of the most famous opening lines of all time.1. Where is it from?2. Can you rewrite it using

the rule of prolepsis?

Marley was dead: to begin with.

Definition: Affirming something by denying its opposite.

Effect: Offers a kind of understatement-by-negative.

This is surprisingly common. Look at the following conversation:“Well, if it isn’t old Bertie. How are you?”“Can’t complain, old boy, can’t complain.”“Would it be awfully wrong to tempt you with a drink?”“I wouldn’t say no.”

Famous Examples:It’s not unusual to be loved by anyoneIt’s not unusual to have fun with anyone.

The Elements of Eloquence: Litotes

The Elements of Eloquence: Litotes

George Orwell HATED litotes. He wrote an essay attacking writers whose writing was not completely clear.

But Queen Victoria liked it, famously saying “We are not amused”.

Who do you agree with and why?

“A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall

rabbit across a not ungreen field.”

Definition: The Latin for ‘heap’. It’s basically a posh word for a huge list.

Effect: People don’t talk in lists, so it can create a breathless, flowing sentence filled with verbs, or nouns, adjectives, ideas and images.

Famous Example:Shakespeare:You starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stock-fish! O for breath to utter what is like thee! You tailor’s yard, you sheath, you bowcase, you vile standing tuck…

The Elements of Eloquence: Congeries

The Elements of Eloquence: Congeries

This is how to use congeries!Write your own version. Topics you might think about…• A great feast (maybe Christmas

dinner?)• The things you love about my

lessons.

The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a

multitude of little tapers; and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects. There were rosy-cheeked dolls, hiding behind the green leaves; and there were real watches (with movable hands, at least, and

an endless capacity of being wound up) dangling from innumerable twigs; there were French-polished tables, chairs, bedsteads,

wardrobes, eight-day clocks, and various other articles of domestic furniture (wonderfully made, in tin, at Wolverhampton), perched

among the boughs, as if in preparation for some fairy housekeeping; there were jolly, broad-faced little men, much more agreeable in

appearance than many real men--and no wonder, for their heads took off, and showed them to be full of sugar-plums; there were fiddles and

drums; there were tambourines, books, work-boxes, paint-boxes, sweetmeat-boxes, peep-show boxes, and all kinds of boxes; there

were trinkets for the elder girls, far brighter than any grown-up gold and jewels; there were baskets and pincushions in all devices; there

were guns, swords, and banners; there were witches standing in enchanted rings of pasteboard, to tell fortunes; there were teetotums,

humming-tops, needle-cases, pen-wipers, smelling-bottles, conversation-cards, bouquet-holders; real fruit, made artificially

dazzling with gold leaf; imitation apples, pears, and walnuts, crammed with surprises; in short, as a pretty child, before me, delightedly whispered to another pretty child, her bosom friend, "There was

everything, and more.

Definition: Starting each sentence with the same words.

Effect: Very simply creates very memorable speeches.

People might not remember exactly what your speech says, but they’ll remember the anaphora – do you know what Martin Luther King’s dream was? Probably not. But you know that he had a dream because he said so LOTS of times.

The Elements of Eloquence: Anaphora

The Elements of Eloquence: Anaphora

Winston Churchill used anaphora in one of the most famous speeches ever. You should try it.Try your own version.

You could start with:I love…I hate…I will…I will never…An idea of your own…

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, 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; we shall never surrender.