Identifying Rhetorical Devices - Essay Example

Rhetorical Devices in Newspaper Editorial and Magazine Articles Mr. De Blasio’s Welcoming Gesture is an editorial in The New York Times dated February 12, 2014. This article talks about creation of identity cards for unauthorized immigrants, who are unable to acquire driver’s licenses. Mayor Bill De Blasio of New York City suggested this to enable such immigrants acquire some sense of identification in the city. This article makes use of rhetorical devices that renders it effective and interesting to the readers.

Cities like New Haven and San Francisco have been personified in the statement ‘cities like New Haven and San Francisco have already done it’ (The Editorial Board, 2014). In another instance, cities are described as being ‘welcoming and humane’. Personification enables readers to understand the significance of introducing these identity cards, which is to make all city residents feel they belong. The article also uses allusion when it refers to immigrants who use their cards as ‘Scarlet letter’.

This is in reference to the 1850 work of fiction where a woman was made to wear a scarlet with the letter ‘A’ to mean adultery. Allusion here elaborates the lack of status that immigrants suffer in foreign cities. Poetry Magazine Issue 14 has an article titled ‘Is that you, Walt Whitman?’ This article, written by Therese Stanton uses numerous rhetoric devices. It talks about a devastated Whitman who has tried every career but has not found a suitable one. It also describes a detailed series of events that lead Whitman to the identification of poetry as his passion (Stanton, 2011).

Amplification is the repetitive use words or phrases to emphasize. This article applies amplification in the words ‘Tuesday’ and ‘mad’ to emphasize Walt’s frustrated state of mind. Stanton also uses alliteration in this article when she writes ‘fiddle footed, flighty, fluttery…hyperactive, hyperkinetic…’ This device provides a rhythm in the article making it interesting to the readers. ReferencesStanton Therese (2011) Is that you, Walt Whitman? Poetry Magazine issue 14 Retrieved February 15, 2014 from http://www.

apublicspace.org/magazine/detail/is-that-you-walt-whitmanThe Editorial Board (February 12, 2014) Mr. de Blasio’s Welcoming Gesture. The New York Times Retrieved February 15, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/opinion/mr-de-blasios-welcoming-gesture.html?ref=editorials