Seniors #4 --A Rage For Words

Your senior classmates have provided some sentences that show a mastery of the English language.

Take a close look at each one and tell me what rhetorical "trick" gives these words "life" beyond their mere literal meanings.

What do I mean by a rhetorical trick?

Words come to life when they're arranged in figures of speech (metaphors, similes, paradoxes, oxymorons, personification, etc), images, sound patterns (alliteration, assonance), or rhetorical questions. Writing certain sentence patterns (parallel structure) add emphasis. Using crisp action verbs can kick-start a sentence.

The Greeks called this creation of powerful language "rhetoric." It was once a studied, practiced, and revered skill of the Greek citizenry. These days, the artful language and word gets a nasty reputation because rhetoric is usually associated with unctuous politicians or advertisers who are selling themselves or their products.

Write out each sentence (just copy and paste them into a Word document) and then insert your comments explaining the rhetoric into a set of parenthesis after each sentence. You may work with a partner. It is not necessary to identify the rhetoric by exact term as long as you explain correctly the effectiveness of the sentence.

This is a MANDATORY journal entry.

But is is an OPTIONAL post for 3 pts. EXTRA CREDIT if you post by Thursday, October 9.

Here's how:

The first person (or group of two) to post sentences and correctly identify their rhetorical characteristics gets a point per sentence, up to a maximum of 5 points. Indicate your first name(s) and your section color. Once a sentence and explanation is posted, you can only post other non-posted sentences for extra credit.

Written by your senior classmates, here are some good, solid sentences worthy of closer inspection and analysis:

I believe that there are no overachievers, only those who reach their potential by giving it all they have and those who are too scared of failure to try.

For the eternity of my life I have been nothing but a shadow on the wall waiting for someone to notice me only to change the light.

They certainly did not watch TV, and my magazines were like a portal for them to see into an unknown world.

I went from living in this hellish idea of living two lives to embracing the beauty that this action bestowed upon me

.

After she helped me with my adolescent drama, she would always end the conversation with, "Your mother loves you."

Would you expect your typical, suburban, 17 year old girl to know the difference between a circular saw and a band saw?

My heart pounded and my blood pressure dropped. It was game time.

It wasn't dying that I was afraid of; it was the life I hadn't lived that scared me.

Vanity no longer existed and people were just being themselves, carefree and down to earth.

I just barreled through the end of the year as if I was a running back making a final push to the end zone and there was a wall of defenders in his path.

It is easier to see life as a fairytale rather than reality. Sometimes what you see is not as it is. My life is more like a tragedy with a smile to follow it.

Since the accident, I've learned to be cautious, but not fearful, to be prepared, but not paranoid, and to recognize and respect the fragility of life, but not let it keep me from living it.

You would not have been able to distinguish tears from the sweat on my face.

Presents were opened, ham was cooked, and the tree looked beautiful with all of its lights and ornaments.

Five days a week for ten long agonizing months, I woke up at the crack of dawn and waited on the corner of my street for the bus to arrive.

I had never really given thought to what career path I would take. I was pleasantly stuck on that fork in the road.

The type of day steam seems to melt the pavement and not even the shade of a pin oak could provide escape from the heat.

We went on, pretending nothing had happened, but at the moment, I had received a teenager's grasp on humor four years early.

Math was all around us. I breathed it. I felt it. I loved it.

The statistically inevitable reality of divorce took over my family.

It felt as if there wasn't enough air in the room; it was clouded with such sadness that it was difficult to breathe.

This is a coach who affected me in unique way through his friendship, guidance, and the occasional dosage of tough love.