Meet anaphora, the hot cousin of the parallel construction family

Remember how in the last post I wrote to you about parallel construction (PC)? Of course you remember. Well, I'M DOING IT AGAIN HEHE. Because PC in lists is the most common but not the most sophisticated use of PC. There are five types of parallelism and today, I'm talking about anaphora because, in my humble opinion, it's the easiest and most effective to use.

Anaphora is a type of parallelism where you repeat the start of the phrase or sentence both for impact and to draw a relationship between the repeated items.

Nerd fact: The word anaphora, a very pretty word, comes from the Greek “ana” meaning back and “pherein” meaning to bear. Anaphora = bearing you back = repetition in Greek.

Examples of anaphora:

"It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times." - A monkey at a typewriter.

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." - Winston Churchill and his famously anaphoric speech.

“Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take." - Sting, of The Police, who is a creep.

Why am I going on and on about anaphora?

Because it's effective. Because the repetition is both soothing and exciting. Because it's a great way to be dramatic, damn it! And because you probably already do it intuitively when you're trying to invoke emotion with your writing but knowing what you're doing will allow you to do it more skillfully.

Anaphora is also a common linguistic tool for speechwriters. Obama uses a goodly sprinkling of anaphora in his speeches, as do all evocative public speakers. Once you start listening out for it, you’ll notice anaphora is everywhereeeee.

In lieu of a relevant image, please accept this photo of a nice Furby instead.

TL;DR? Repeating the first part of a phrase over and over is called anaphora and doing so makes you an extremely dramatic bitch.