Writing Techniques for Effect
Apply growing knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and text structure to writing — drawing on literary and rhetorical devices from reading (e.g., rhetorical questions, tricolon, anaphora, contrast) to enhance impact
What a learner can do afterwards
- Use a rhetorical question or tricolon deliberately in a persuasive piece and explain the intended effect
- Employ varied sentence openings and structures to maintain reader interest across a whole piece
- Draw on a literary device encountered in reading and apply it consciously in own writing
The lesson
You already choose vivid words and figurative language when you write. Now you can add techniques that writers use on purpose to hit the reader harder. One is the rhetorical question: a question you ask not to get an answer, but to make the reader stop and think.
Zara is writing a speech about plastic waste. Instead of writing 'Plastic waste is bad,' she writes: 'Do we really want our beaches buried in plastic?' The question makes the audience picture the problem and answer it in their own head. That is the effect she wanted.
Another technique is the tricolon: three words or phrases in a row, said in the same pattern. 'I came, I saw, I conquered' is a tricolon. The rhythm of three makes a line feel complete and memorable, which is why speeches and adverts use it so often.
When you edit your own writing, do not start every sentence the same way. Mix short punchy sentences with longer ones, and try starting some with a phrase instead of the subject. If you spot a device you liked in something you read, borrow it on purpose and be ready to say why you used it.
Pick a technique like a rhetorical question or a tricolon on purpose, then be ready to explain the effect you wanted.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.