Which of these rhetorical devices is most clearly used here?

The correct option is D: PARALLELISM.

Explanation:

The text's excerpt:

We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend the unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations.

The declaration of Independence is a text published in 1776 in which all 13 colonies of America declares its independence from the British Crown. The purpose of the lines that compound the text was to publish that the 13 colonies were starting a new country, later called the United States of America.

The excerpt that we have in our exercise is part of this historical document. To be able to say which rhetorical device is most clearly used in it, we first have to remember that a RHETORICAL DEVICE is a language technique through a speaker or writer can convey a point or convince the listener or reader.

A. ETHOS: This kind of rhetorical device appeals to the credibility; to do it possible the speaker or author quotes (or in fact, the speaker can be) someone with moral and social authority.

B. INDUCTIVE REASONING: This kind of rhetorical device is more related to using different facts that lead the author to what is he wanting to say, it is: his general point.

C. KAIROS: This kind of rhetorical device is most centred in the circumstances or the context of the conditions; to use Kairos to convince the audience, the speaker or writer has to put specific attention in tone, structure and time into the discourse.

D. PARALLELISM: This kind of rhetorical device involves the structure of the speech because it is a repetition of a set of specific grammatical structures. By using it the author evaluates two or more ideas with equal importance.

Now that we know what do these types of rhetorical devices mean, we can say that the correct option is D: PARALLELISM because if we read the excerpt we can see that the speaker is valuing different actions in the same level and even with the same syntactical structure:

1. We have warned…

2. We have reminded…

3. We have appealed…

thinking about things and referring to books instead of acting on superstition and gossip.