Parenthesis: Either or both of a pair of signs () used in writing to mark off an interjected, qualifying, or explanatory remark.

Example: "It is not improbable that some scrulpulous people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very injustly), as a little bordering on cruelty"(Jonathan Swift's essay, A Modest Proposal)

Function: Swift uses parenthesis here to express his disagreement in the midst of a sentence. He wanted to tell the story, but also let the reader know his stand while doing so.

Apposition: A syntactic relation between expressions that has the same function and same relation to other elements in the sentence.

Example: "Its mahout, the only person who could manage it when it was in that state, had set out in pursuit, but had taken the wrong direction and was now twelve hours' journey away."(George Orwell's essay, Shooting an Elephant)

Function: The purpose of the appositive in this sentence is to provide information to the reader in the midst of a sentence. It is telling what a mahout it and why it is important in that context.

Asyndeton: The omission of conjunctions.

Example: Some of the people said that the elephant had gone in one direction, some said that he had gone in another, some professed not even to have heard of an elephant." (George Orwell's essay, Shooting an Elephant)

Function: One simple function of the asyndeton in this sentence is to make the sentence cleaner and more organized; another reason could be that Orwell wanted to express the chaos of the situation by telling of all of the different thoughts of the Burman's at once.

Polysyndeton: The use of several conjunctions in close succession.

Example: "I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional greivance". (Jonathan Swift's essay, A Modest Proposal)

Function: The function of the polysyndeton in this sentence is to emphasize how much of a greivance these children really are by repeating different ways that children can follow their parents. The overuse of the words "or" and "and" make it clear to the reader how many examples there are.

Litotes: A purposeful understatement.

Example: "Some, unable to accept incurability, grasp at one treatment after another; no matter how bizarre: megavitamin therapy, gluten-free diet, injections of cobra venom, hypothermal suits, lymphocytopharesis, hyperbaric chambers."(Nacy Mairs's essay, On Being a Cripple)

Function: Mairs uses litotes to make a joke out of how much women do to make themselves look better. She lists an extreme example in a subtle way.