Ten Types of Rhetorical Devices to Explore

Teaching persuasive writing this term? If you’re looking to brush up your students’ knowledge of the most common types of rhetorical devices and their effects, this teaching slide deck is for you! This comprehensive presentation has been crafted by our experienced team of teachers to demystify these key writing techniques and illuminate their impactful role in the art of persuasion!

This 29-slide teaching presentation will help you explain the most common rhetorical devices and their effects to your students. It provides a definition and an example of each device to teach your students what they need to know about how these valuable writing techniques can be used to convince audiences to agree with a particular viewpoint.

The slide deck begins by explaining what rhetorical devices are and why they are valuable tools when it comes to writing persuasive texts. The presentation then addresses the following types of rhetorical devices in comprehensive detail:

• Inclusive language
• Emotive language
• Modal language
• Rhetorical questions 
• Repetition
• Alliteration
• Simile and metaphor
• Hyperbole
• The rule of three
• Evidence

The slideshow includes two review activities to make sure your students understand the purpose of each of the persuasive techniques covered. Answers to these review questions are also included.

Through engaging with this resource, your students will be able to identify the most common rhetorical devices and how these make it easier to persuade an audience to agree with a particular viewpoint.

Using This Rhetorical Devices Presentation in Your Classroom

This slide deck makes an excellent starting point when it comes to teaching your students about the most common types of rhetorical devices that can be found in persuasive texts. Due to the amount of information contained in the presentation, we recommend covering the content over several lessons. This will enable you to explore each device in greater depth.

As you work through the slide deck as a class, we encourage you to stop and discuss each rhetorical device in further detail. Have your students come up with their own example of each device, then have students discuss how persuaded they are by each example. The more practice your students have developing examples of these devices, the better!

Download This Rhetorical Devices Slideshow

This slideshow downloads as a Google Slides presentation. Use the Download button to access and save your own copy.

Project the resource onto your screen and work through the slides as a class for a paperless ELA lesson!

More Resources Targeting Rhetorical Devices

Looking for more resources to support your teaching of persuasive text features? Great news! We have many more teacher-created, curriculum-aligned resources available!

teaching resource

Rhetorical Device Definitions – Match-Up Worksheet

Have students match the rhetorical devices with their definitions using this simple one-page worksheet.

teaching resource

Rhetorical Devices Anchor Charts

Support students to improve their persuasive writing with these rhetorical devices anchor charts.

teaching resource

Rhetorical Devices Sorting Activity

Explore rhetorical devices with your students using this set of sorting cards.