A command of more advanced writing techniques can take your writing to another level or give you the ability to capture the attention of a large audience with an engaging speech. Whether you’re a creative writing student, have a speech to write or you’re a professional writer, the toolkit provides a valuable resource, including definitions of literary devices and examples.
Semantix’s copywriting toolkit
A professional writer uses literary devices to make sure that their writing reads well, is remembered and gets the results they intend. This often means convincing a reader of an idea, getting them to buy a product or even changing their mind about something important.
Literary devices are a superpower when it comes to truly great writing, as has been proven for many, many years. That’s why Semantix has created a literary devices toolkit for copywriters, students and other writers who want to hone their craft. The toolkit is a content series that provides lists of literary devices, their definitions, examples and suggested uses. If your writing needs to really hit the mark, choose a literary device from the toolkit that fits your purpose and let it work its magic!
A list of literary devices with examples
Alliteration – repetition of the same initial consonant sound throughout a sentence, phrase or verse. Alliteration is popular in marketing text. For example, Jaguar’s ‘Don’t dream it. Drive it.’
Anadiplosis – the repetition of a word that ends one sentence, phrase or verse at the beginning of the next sentence, phrase or verse. For example, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Anaphora – the repetition of words at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases or verses. See the example provided above from Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech.
Antanaclasis – a single word or phrase is repeated, but with two different meanings. For example, Coca Cola’s ‘People on the go, go for coke.’
Antithesis – a phrase that uses a parallel grammar structure to emphasise important differences between opposing ideas, things or people. For example, the commonly used phrase, ‘No pain, no gain.’
Antimetabole – the repetition of words from the first half of the sentence or phrase in the second half, but in reverse order. For example, ‘I know what I like, and I like what I know.’
Aphorism – a short, witty phrase that expresses a generally accepted truth. For example, ''Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ - Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Assonance – the repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close to each other in a sentence, phrase or verse. For example, ‘Oh no, this is so slow.’
Chiasmus – the reversed repetition of the grammatical structure of a sentence, phrase or clause. For example, the commonly used phrase, ‘It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.’
Conduplicatio – the repetition of an important word from anywhere in one sentence, phrase or verse at the beginning of the next sentence, phrase or verse. For example, “I am filled with a profound and abiding gratitude to the American people. Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being.” - used by Elie Weisel in his ‘The Perils of Indifference’ speech.
Diaphora – the repetition of a name, firstly as a proper noun to signify the person and then as a noun to signify its meaning. For example, the biblical quote, ‘For your Gods are not gods but man-made idols.’
Diocope – repetition broken up by one or more intervening words. For example, ‘I want a meal, a beautiful, lavish meal.’
Epanalepsis – the repetition of the first part of a sentence, phrase or verse at the end of the sentence, phrase or verse. For example, ‘Nothing is worse than doing nothing.’
Epimone – the continual repetition of a phrase or question. For example, in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, Mr Dick says, “No beggar, no beggar, no beggar, sir!"
Epistrophe – Epistrophe is the repetition of the final element of a structure. This could be the repetition of a single word or an entire clause or sentence. For example, from the well-known children’s nursery rhyme, ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.’
Epizeuxis – the repetition of one word or phrase in immediate succession. For example, ’Come here, come here, come here!’
Hypophora – a sentence where the writer or speaker poses a question, and then immediately provides the answer. For example, ‘What did he want? He wanted to know how it worked.’
Hyperbaton – inverting the arrangement of common words. For example, ’Some by virtue fall,’ which is an inversion of ’Some fall by virtue.’ - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure.
Juxtaposition – placing two elements side by side in a phrase to emphasise the contrast between the two. For example, the phrase used in some wedding vows, ’For richer, or poorer.’
Isocolon – a sentence composed of two or more phrases of similar structure and length that mean the same thing. There are three types of isocolon. A bicolon has two phrases; a tricolon has three phrases; a tetracolon has four phrases. This description is an example of a tricolon!
Mesodiplosis – the repetition of a word or phrase in the middle of every sentence, phrase or verse. For example, ‘Me, but not you; us, but not them; you, but not him.’
Metaphor – making a comparison between two unsimilar things to signify something without using ‘like’ or ‘as’ as used in simile. For example, using the term ‘I’m the black sheep of the family’ to express being the unusual or non-conforming member of the family.
Parallelism – the repetition of grammatical elements, words or structures used to create impact by emphasising a parallel position between concepts. For example, the phrase ‘Don’t marry someone you can live with, marry someone you can’t live without.’
Polyptoton – the repetition of words derived from the same root but used to mean different things. For example, John Lennon’s lyrics ‘Please please me’.
Syncope – shortening words by omitting syllables or letters. For example, ‘The road extended o’er the heath...’ - William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us.
Synecdoche – using part of an element to signify the whole. For example, using the term ‘Boots on the ground’ instead of ‘soldiers’.