Literary and rhetorical devices: complete overview - Regents ELA toolkit

The Regents Examination in English Language Arts tests a transferable toolkit of literary and rhetorical devices rather than memorized content. This site groups that toolkit into five strands that you apply to Part 1 craft questions and use as writing strategies in the Part 3 response. This overview maps the five strands, where they appear on the exam, and how to study them.

The five device strands

Each strand is a set of devices you analyze by effect, on any text.

• Figurative language and imagery. Metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, and sensory imagery, and the effect each creates. See figurative language and imagery.
• Tone, mood, and diction. The writer's attitude, the reader's atmosphere, and the word choice that creates both. See tone, mood, and diction.
• Narrative and structural techniques. How a text is ordered and shaped, and how the arrangement builds meaning. See narrative and structural techniques.
• Rhetorical appeals and persuasion. Ethos, pathos, logos, and persuasive techniques, and how they move a reader. See rhetorical appeals and persuasion.
• Characterization and point of view. How a character is built and changed, and how the narrator shapes what the reader knows. See characterization and point of view.

Where they appear on the exam

The toolkit serves the whole exam.

• Part 1 craft questions ask what a device conveys or achieves, so reading effect is the skill.
• The Part 1 informational text and the Part 2 sources are often persuasive, so the appeals and persuasion strand helps you read them critically.
• The Part 3 response asks for one writing strategy that develops a central idea, and these devices are the strategies you choose from.

The thread through every device: effect, not label

The single habit across this toolkit is analyzing the effect of a device rather than naming it. A metaphor creates a mood; a flashback sets present against past; a child narrator opens a gap between seeing and understanding. The exam never rewards "the author uses X" on its own; it rewards "the author uses X to do Y." For Part 3, the move goes one step further: show how the device develops the central idea.

How to study the device toolkit

1. Learn the terms cold. Recognize each device instantly so naming costs no thought.
2. Always read the effect. For every device, ask what it does to meaning in context.
3. Keep language and structure apart. Word-level choices are language; order and shape are structure.
4. Read persuasion critically. Distinguish an emotive appeal from a well-evidenced one when weighing Part 2 sources.
5. Practice device-to-idea links. For Part 3, rehearse connecting each strategy to a central idea with evidence.

For the official exam materials

NYSED publishes past Regents ELA exams, scoring keys, and rating guides on the NYSED Regents Examinations site and the NYSED high school ELA assessment page. Practice analyzing devices on released texts, because the craft questions and the Part 3 task are board-specific.