FIGURES OF SPEECH Alliteration: the same sound is repeated noticeably at the beginning of words placed close together

Examples--

"World Wide Web" "Find four furry foxes"

Allusion: casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event.

e.g., " . . . a turn of phrase even Shakespeare would appreciate."

Apostrophe: direct address of an absent or dead person or personified thing.

Invocation: an apostrophe to a god or muse.

Examples--

"God help me!" "Ambition, you're a cruel master!"

Irony: using words to mean the opposite of what is said.

Sarcasm: cutting, sneering or taunting irony.

Examples-"He's handsome if you like rodents."

Hyperbole: exaggeration not meant to be taken literally.

Examples--

"I waited forever for him." "I destroyed that test!" "The world ended the day my father died."

Understatement: the representation of something as significantly less than it actually is.

e.g. "That was some sprinkle." (in reference to the four inches of rain which fell an hour before)

Metaphor: an implied comparison between things, events, or actions which are fundamentally unlike.
y

Metonymy: substituting a word--which is suggested by it or which is closely associated with it--for another word

Examples--

"He hit the bottle soon after his wife died." "She counted heads." "The White House denied the allegations."

Synecdoche: using a part for the whole or the whole for a part
"The pen is mightier than the sword"

Personification: representing a thing, quality, or idea as a person

    y y

Examples-"The book just begged to be read." "The ocean screamed its fury" "Fear lived with us in Vietnam."

Recommendations:

o y o

The comparison should be more evocative and appealing than the literal, plain statement of the thought. Use sparingly. Too much of this and you call attention to yourself as the author instead of leaving your reader immersed in your story

Onomatopoeia: using words to imitate the sound they represent

Examples--

"I heard the hiss of steam down in the access tunnel." "The clock in the living room cuckooed the hour." "The clang of the cymbals echoed across the square."

Parallelism (aka "Balance"): Expressing two ideas of equal importance through similar
phrasing.

Antithesis: parallelism in grammatical pattern but strong contrast in meaning.

Examples-"Give me liberty or give me death!" "That isn't the truth, it's a lie." "You seem so wise, yet how foolish you are." y y 

Recommendation: Don't use too much of this; it can easily wear on the reader.

Paradox: a statement that seems self-contradictory. The effect of this is to jolt the reader into paying attention.

Examples--

"He who loses his life for My sake will save it." "One day is sometimes better than a whole year."

Oxymoron: a paradoxical statement in which two contradictory terms or words are brought together.
Examples--

"The quiet was deafening." "He was clearly misunderstood." "They were alone together."

Anaphora: repetition of the same word or words at the beginning or successive clauses, verses, or sentences,

e.g., "He came as conqueror. He came as ally. He came as a stranger. He came as brother."

Climax: The arrangement of a series of ideas or events in ascending order of importance, interest, or effectiveness. Stresses the relative importance of ideas or events.

Anticlimax: the use of climax up to the end of a series of thoughts and then the insertion of some unimportant idea in the last, most important position. Useful in humorous writing.

Simile: an explicit comparison between things, events, or actions which are fundamentally unlike. .
y

Typically involves the words "like" or "as"

Examples:

"His arguments withered like grapevines in the fall." "He was cold as an arctic wind." "Crooked as a dog's hind leg." "Casual dress, like casual speech, tends to be loose, relaxed and colorful"

IDIOMS
All-nighter do something (for instance a study session) that lasts all night We pulled an all-nighter to get ready for the exam. The graduation party was an all-nighter. All over something very fond of something He's all over the latest fashions. Peter's all over antique furniture. All shook up extremely excited, worried, or disturbed about something He's all shook up about his mother's illness. Wow! I'm all shook up about Alice. All the way (with go) do something completely He's going all the way for the scholarship. We went all the way to California on our vacation. Dash it all! expression used when very upset Dash it all! I didn't do very well. Dash it all! She can't come this weekend. For all I know based on what I know (usually expressing displeasure) For all I know, he'll come and win the prize. They've decided to hire Jack for all I know. Free for all crazy, non-restricted activity (generally a fight) It was a free for all! Everyone went crazy! They stepped in to break up the free for all. Have it all together be very poised, successful He has it all together. The house, the wife, the kids, the great job - everything! I was very impressed with the candidate. She seemed to have it all together. Hold all the aces have all the advantages

Unfortunately, Tom holds all the aces right now. You'll have to do what he says. I'm holding all the aces so I can do whatever I want. Know all the angles be very clever about something Jack knows all the angles. Be careful! The salesman knew all the angles, and by the end of our talk I had bought a new computer! Once and for all finally (usually putting an end to something) I'm going to stop his behavior once and for all! Let's get this over once and for all. Pull out all the stops make every possible effort to do something He pulled out all the stops on the exam. We're going to pull out all the stops on our presentation.