Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop FAQ

Q. Is it worth learning all those rhetorical figures and all?

A. I'm glad you asked that question

The point of learning rhetorical figures is not so you can rattle off a bunch of (mostly) Greek names to show that you are eruditer than the next person. The point is to learn the writing techniques involved.

Effective writing makes appropriate use of figures of speech. Some figures are more appropriate than others for a given purpose. Learning the figures helps you to recognize them when they occur in your work or the work of others. Knowing when to use them and recognizing them in effective works can help to improve your writing.

Figures of Speech

• Q. What is the difference between zeugma and syllepsis?
• Q. Is parallelism a figure of speech?
• Q. An oxymoron is a joke, right?

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