Bathos

An abrupt turn from the serious and poetic to the regular and banal. The sudden change in tone surprises the audience, leading to an unexpected moment of comedy (if done well) or a descent into the ridiculous (if done badly).

For example: He spent his final hour of life doing what he loved most: arguing with his wife. Whereas the description of someones final hours is usually respectful and solemn, the bathetic twist at the end makes it humorous instead.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which an author or speaker purposely and obviously exaggerates to an extreme. It is used for emphasis or as a way of making a description more creative and humorous.

It is important to note that hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally; the audience knows it’s an exaggeration.

Litotes

Litotes is an understatement in which a positive statement is expressed by negating its opposite. The classic example of litotes is the phrase "not bad”. By negating the word “bad”, you’re saying that something is good, or at least OK - or you might like it a lot (e.g. Not bad at all!”).

Some people argue that it’s a way of affecting psychological distance from the conversation topic. Litotes can be a way of softening the impact of criticism e.g. “Maths is probably not your strong point”.

Pathetic Fallacy

The pathetic fallacy is a figure of speech in which the natural world (or some part of it) is treated as though it had human emotions. The phrase “weeping willow” is an example of the pathetic fallacy, since it suggests that this tree is sad or dejected, which of course is not true – it just looks that way to our eyes. The patheric fallacy is a type of personification, where non-human objects in general are described in human ways.

When used figuratively, the pathetic fallacy is not a logical fallacy (i.e. an error of reasoning), but rather a simple image or figure of speech. However, if taken literally it definitely constitutes a fallacy.

Zeugma

Zeugma is when you use a word in a sentence once, while conveying two different meanings at the same time. Sometimes, the word is literal in one part of the sentence, but figurative in another; other times, it’s just two completely separate meanings for the word.

For example, He lost his briefcase, then his job, then his mind. Here, the word “lost” is used in multiple senses, with each image slightly more unfortunate than the last. The use of a single verb to convey the story adds impact and a wry tone to the sorry tale.

Not quite...

...but you can keep going by rearranging the examples that you got wrong. Click OK to continue.

Congratulations!

You got them all correct. An absolutely fantastic achievement (hyperbole) and no little effort on your part (litotes). This exercise was keen to try a different approach (pathetic fallacy) but hopefully not your patience (zeugma). Now you can go ahead and use these techiques to improve the breadth and quality of your writing, or just avoid this kind of activity in the future (bathos).