I know I risk sounding like an English teacher when I use the words “figurative language.” The phrase may sound frightening but figurative language will make your writing more interesting evocative and memorable. And who doesn’t want that –even in non-fiction? Here are some examples of figurative language:
• allusion
• hyperbole
• metaphor
• oxymoron
• personification
• paradox
• simile
I read widely and follow many forms of media, keeping my eyes and ears attuned to figurative language so I can share a piece of it with you each week.
Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from Belinda Bauer…. I didn’t used to read many mysteries, but the Belinda Bauer book, Snap, was a gift from a friend. I raced through it, enjoying the […]
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Reading time: About 2 minutes In his life as a journalist, James Fitzgerald has relatively recently turned to book writing and his 2010 memoir shows a keen eye and ear for figurative language… The first book of journalist James Fitzgerald was, Old Boys: the Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College — a controversial 1994 study
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of spectacular metaphors from British journalist Anthony Lane…. Anthony Lane is a British journalist, who is currently a film critic for The New Yorker magazine. After all the recent
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes and metaphors from Jesmyn Ward…. I’m not usually drawn to books best described as “bleak.” I usually prefer to live on the sunny side of the street.
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich…. A rivetting hybrid of murder mystery and memoir, The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, was named one of the best books of
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about the personification, similes and metaphors of scholar Tara Westover… The story of Tara Westover is almost impossible to believe. An American author living in the UK, Westover was born in a
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Reading time: Less than 2 minutes I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from Luis Alberto Urrea… I bought and read the novel The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urea (pictured above) after hearing several laudatory reviews on NPR
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes and metaphors from Rachel Khong… Unless I take careful notes, I usually can’t remember who has recommended individual books to me. This is a particular disadvantage with
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from Tayari Jones…. I read a couple of laudatory reviews of the novel An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (pictured above) and decided to read it for
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about simile and personification from Jon McGregor… British novelist and short story writer, Jon McGregor (pictured above) had his first novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002, making
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