Rhetorical Questions
English Language: Edexcel IGCSE - Specification B, topic 4.3.10
Rhetorical Questions
A rhetorical question is a question that isn't meant to be answered by the reader – you use your writing before the question and the context of the question to imply the answer you want.
How would you feel?
- How would you feel if your innocent, vulnerable little brother or sister was exposed to dangerous playground equipment?
- In this phrase, the rhetorical question is combined with emotive language to steer the reader in the right direction.
- By using adjectives such as ‘innocent’, ‘vulnerable’, ‘little’ and ‘dangerous’, we suggest that the young child is a victim who needs protecting.
- We then use the question to encourage the reader to agree with us by directly addressing them (as ‘you’ and ‘your’).
Do you want to?
- Do you want to die young?
- In this phrase, the rhetorical question is formed because most people would have the same answer to this question, and so it doesn’t need an answer – we would all assume that everyone would answer ‘no’ to this question.
Aren't you ashamed?
- Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?
- In this phrase, the rhetorical question is formed because most people would have the same answer to this question, and so it doesn’t need an answer.
- Because of the way this is phrased, the ‘correct’ response would be ‘yes’. By phrasing it in this way, we have implied that the reader/listener should be ashamed of themselves, and so should not have any other response to the question.
Test yourself on Rhetorical Questions
What does a rhetorical question NOT have?