I've been thinking a lot about writing, from website content to Bildungsromans. Authors say to be a good writer, one must read a lot of good literature. One must pay attention to syntax, word selection, grammar, paragraph breaks, punctuation, and prosody.
Building text structures requires a deep understanding of how words work and how they can combine with other words.
I would add that a competent writer must be so passionate about composing with words, there is a keen interest in the technical gymnastics of rhetoric and semiotics.
You don't have to be writing a poem, play, or novel to employ subtle or advanced composition techniques.d Even emails, websites, and Facebook updates can be enriched by their inclusion.
Here's a list of my favorite literary devices.
See if you can guess what each item below means, based on the example given beneath it.
I would add that a competent writer must be so passionate about composing with words, there is a keen interest in the technical gymnastics of rhetoric and semiotics.
You don't have to be writing a poem, play, or novel to employ subtle or advanced composition techniques.d Even emails, websites, and Facebook updates can be enriched by their inclusion.
Here's a list of my favorite literary devices.
See if you can guess what each item below means, based on the example given beneath it.
enjambment
"The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun"
catachresis
"Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them?"
epizeuxis
"This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land"
adynaton
"Had we but world enough, and time
This coyness, lady, were no crime."
zeugma
"John lost his coat and his temper."
isocolon
“I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads, / My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, / My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown, / My figured goblets for a dish of wood…”
anacoluthon
“I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall–I will do such things,
What they are, yet I know not…..”
sesquipedalian
"...for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus.." (Shakespeare)
antimetabole
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
chiasmus
"Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.”
portmanteau
"edutainment"
solecism
"He works his work, I mine."
paranomasia
"You have dancing shoes with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead."
epistrophe
"When everybody wears a uniform ,
The rebel dresses in fantastic clothes.
When everybody wears fantastic clothes
The rebel dresses soberly."
litotes
"They do not seem the happiest couple around."
elision
"rock'n'roll"
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