Creative Writing: Figures of Speech

Figures of Speech

• Irony: Occurs when outcomes differ from expectations, often with humorous or tragic effects. Types include:

  • Situational Irony: Discrepancy between expected and actual outcomes.
  • Dramatic Irony: Audience knows more than characters.
  • Verbal Irony: Speaker says the opposite of what they mean.

• Oxymoron: Combines contradictory terms to create a paradoxical effect, e.g., "organized chaos," "friendly fight."

• Paradox: Presents two contradictory concepts simultaneously, often conveying a deeper truth, e.g., "I hate what I love."

• Parallelism: Uses similar sentence structure for clarity and rhythm; ensures consistency in parts of a sentence, e.g., "I like singing, kayaking, and dancing."

• Antithesis: Juxtaposes strongly contrasting ideas for emphasis, e.g., "Fair is foul, and foul is fair."

• Metaphor: Implies a comparison between unrelated things, asserting one is another, e.g., "The exam was a piece of cake."

• Simile: Explicitly compares one thing to another using "like" or "as," e.g., "Grandad is wise like an owl."

• Synecdoche: A part of something is used to represent the whole, e.g., "Our class brain always has all the answers."

• Metonymy: Replaces a word with one closely associated, e.g., "The crown will find an heir."

• Personification: Attributes human traits to non-human entities, e.g., "The trees danced back and forth in the wind."

• Syllepsis: One word applies to two others with different meanings, e.g., "She broke my heart and my phone screen."

• Onomatopoeia: Uses words that mimic sounds, e.g., "The cars SMASHED into each other."

• Hyperbole: Exaggerates for emphasis, making something sound much greater than it is, e.g., "I am so hungry, I could eat a horse."

• Litotes: An understatement that expresses an affirmative by negating its contrary, e.g., "You are not wrong" = meaning "You are right."

• Ellipsis: Indicates omitted words or a pause using three dots (...), e.g., "My cat… he’s gone…"

• Asyndeton: Omits conjunctions for a concise effect, e.g., "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."

• Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds in closely connected words, e.g., "Peter Piper picked a peck of peppers."

• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words, e.g., "Clap your hands and stamp your feet."

• Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses for emphasis, e.g., "With malice toward none, with charity for all..."

Types of Diction

• Diction: The careful selection of words to convey meaning and establish writing style, e.g., "please ensure that you arrive on time" vs. "don’t be late!"

• Formal Diction: Long, complex sentences maybe appropriate for official communication, e.g., "Please be advised that the meeting scheduled tomorrow has been postponed to next week."

• Informal Diction: Characterized by shorter, conversational sentences.

• Colloquial Language: Reflects familiar and informal conversation, e.g., "Don’t chicken out."

• Slang: Very informal language unique to certain groups, e.g., "He is flexing his new phone to his classmates."

• Poetic Diction: Language that is distinct to poetry and creative writing, elevating expression, e.g., found in poems and fiction.

Additional Literary Terms

• Tone: Reflects an author's attitude toward a subject, shaping reader interpretation.

• Theme: Summarizes the underlying meaning of a work, relevant in poetry and literature.

• Enjambment: Continues a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next without a pause, enhancing flow.

Test your knowledge on various figures of speech in creative writing. This quiz covers key concepts such as irony, oxymoron, and paradox, helping you understand their uses and significance in literature. Perfect for aspiring writers and literature enthusiasts alike.