We need to urge our city planners to say goodbye to the urban sprawl that has engulfed our nation like a tidal wave in the last few decades, and instead build more traditional mixed-use neighborhoods that were once the building blocks of city infrastructure in our nation. as the authors of suburban nation wrote: "we shape our cities and then our cities shape us. the choice is ours whether we build subdivisions that debase the human spirit or neighborhoods that nurture sociability and bring out the best in our nature.” which rhetorical device does the letter writer use in this paragraph?
1.allusion
2.referencing a major claim
3.referencing a counterargument
4.repetition

The correct answer is 2. Referencing a major claim

Explanation:

In writing, a rhetorical device refers to different stylistic techniques a writer uses with the purpose of persuading the audience about a certain idea, because of this rhetorical devices include the use of irony and sarcasm; the use of emotions, authority or logic, or the reference to other authors. In the case of referencing a major claim, this occurs when the author of a text appeals to the claim or position of a different author, which is usually an expert or authority on the field to support his or her own position or claim, which means a major or more credible claim is used to  prove and support the author's claim. This is the case o the excerpt presented because in this excerpt the author refers to the words and position of the Suburban Nation (credible author and expert on the field) to support his own position in relation to urban sprawl. Therefore, the rhetorical device in this paragraph is "referencing a major claim".

true. the definition explains it: a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc. this is a dictionary definition that i have looked up in a dictionary.

we need to see the examples!