1. Figurative & Stylistic Devices
What are they and how do we use them?

2. Figurative - Stylistic
Figurative - Used for descriptive effective, often to imply ideas indirectly
Stylistic – how language is used

3. Simile
Figure of Speech that compares unlike things using comparative words (“like” or “as”)
Example – Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard

4. Metaphor
Figure of Speech that compares unlike things without using comparative words (“like” or “as”)
Example – Life is a bowl of cherries.

5. Oxymoron Uses a combination of seemingly contradictory words
Example – Same difference, Pretty ugly

6. Paradox
Statement that seems to be self-contradictory, but reveals a kind of truth
Example – There is a method to my madness.

7. Personification
An animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities or characteristics
Example: Tears began to fall from the dark clouds.

8. Hyperbole Exaggeration or overstatement
Example – I am so hungry I could eat a horse

9. Symbol
Person, place, thing or event that has meaning in itself, but also stands for something else
Example – Bald Eagle represents the United States

10. Alliteration
Repetition of sounds, most often consonant sounds at the beginning of a word.
Example – Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

11. Onomatopoeia
Use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning
Example - buzz

12. Allusion Reference to someone or something that is common knowledge
Example – The man walked on water. It is an allusion to Jesus Christ, who walked on water.

13. Mood The feeling created in the reader by a literary work.
Writers use many devices to create mood, such as imagery, dialogue, setting and plot.
Mood may stay the same throughout a work or may change multiple times.

14. Tone
Reflection of writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward a literary work
May be communicated through words and details that express particular emotions and that evoke an emotional response from the reader.
Example – word choice and phrasing may seem to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or sarcasm

15. Imagery
Words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses.
Writers use this to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste and smell