TheTermsofSuccess
Whensomeonewrites,theytrytocreatecertainthingsinthereader’smind–to
involvethereader,inotherwords.
Whenyoudocomprehensions,youareaskedaboutthese.
Chancesareyouwillbeasked,
Whatistheeffectof….
Thismeans:“Whatdoesitmakeyouthinkorfeel?Whatdothewordsmakeyou
thinkof?Whatdothewordssoundlike?Whatdoesthepunctuationdotoyour
senseofthetext?
Youmayalsobeasked,
Howdoesthelanguage….
…andthismeansthatyouneedtolookforouroldfriends,the
Literary Terms
Simile:like,oras…ashotasanoven,stronglikeanox.
Metaphor:Theallotmentofdeath;theskylineagrimace;
therootsofthehouse(itdirectlyclaimsthatonethingisanother).
Personification:windwieldedblade-light(wind
doesn’thavearms,soitcan’twieldanything).
Alliteration:PeterPiperPickedaPeck….(eachdifferent
soundhasadifferentfeel…somearesharp,strong,slow;someare
lazy,old,troubled…whatfeeldoesthealliterationcreate?)
Assonance:Repeatedsoundsinsidewords:luminous
emerald…(It’sakindofecho,meanttoassociatecertainwords)
Rhythm/Metre:Howmanybeatsinaline.Isthisthe
sameallthewaythrough,ordoesthepoetchangetherhythm?
Enjambment:Whenasentence
Runsovermorethan
Onelineofapoem.
Juxtaposition/Contrast:Puttingtwounusualor
strikingorcontrastingwordsorideastogether–orangesky.
Thenthereis…thewholeideaofwords.Whatmakesa
wordeffective?Whatimages,thoughts,feelings,doesitcreate?
Writersareverycleverpeople.Everywordischosendeliberately,
carefully–itmayhavetakenoveramonthjusttofindtherightword.
Sospendtimelookingatthewords,especiallyinpoetry.
connotations.
Wesometimestalkabout
Thesearethethingsthewordmakesyouthinkof–notitsmeaning,
butamixtureofwhousuallyusestheword,whentheyuseitand
whytheyuseit.
Forexample,ifyouwritetheword,“oven”,mostpeoplewouldthink
ofwarmth,cosiness,afullstomachandhappiness.Somepeople
mightthinkofthetransformationorchangeoffoodthathappensin
anoven.
SCHOLARS:
Youmightbeinterestedinawider
rangeofrhetoricaldevices.
Hereareafew:
• Anaphora - repeats a word or phrase in
successive phrases - "If you prick us, do we
not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?”
(Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare)
• anacoluthon: A slight change in the expected
grammatical structure of a sentence: While
walking along, a crash occurred.
• Epizeuxis - repeats one word for emphasis –
Mrs Thatcher famously said to the EU: ‘No, no,
no.”
• Hyperbole - an exaggeration - I have done this
a thousand times.
• Litotes - makes an understatement by denying
the opposite of a word that may have been
used - The terms of the contract are not
disagreeable to me.
• Oxymoron - a two word paradox – fun run
• synecdoche: Use of part of something to refer
to the whole – Number 10 for the UK
Government (It is run out of 10 Downing
Street)
• Parallelism - uses words or phrases with a
similar structure - I went to the store, parked
the car and bought a pizza.