Rhetorical devices

By rhetorical devices, we mean the techniques that a sender uses to convey to the receivers a meaning with the aim of persuading them to reflect on a topic from a different perspective. In this case, the authors use rhetorical devices to persuade the readership to consider the case of Ayaz from his and his family’s perspectives. The most relevant rhetorical devices employed are allusion and irony.

Two allusions catch the reader’s eye. First, the title of the article “The man who fell to earth” is an allusion to the 1976 movie of the same title. The movie portrays the challenges of a human-like alien who comes to Earth in search of water for his planet. Like the extra-terrestrial being in the movie, Ayaz was an outsider to British society. Furthermore, like the alien in the film, he was … 

Forms of appeal

Out of the three main forms of appeal (pathos, ethos, and logos) that senders use to engage their target receivers, Esther Addley and Rory McCarthy have chosen to rely on pathos (appeal to emotions) and ethos (appeal to authority and shared values).

The authors use ethos when they quote officials and official data, like in the following two examples:

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