Tag: Literary Term

Anaphora is one of the rhetorical devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses or sentences. (A Handbook to Literature)

Anaphora Writing Exercise

Choose an essential moment in a previously written work. This moment should be one in which you want the reader to more slowly experience each and every second of it.

Which phrase stands out most in this section? Play with this phrase and replicate it in order to slow the moment even further. Also, consider how the replication of phrase can create a sense of closure and cyclical movement within the section.

An analogy is a comparison of two things, alike in certain aspects; particularly a method used in exposition and description by which something unfamiliar is explained by being compared to something more familiar. In argumentation and logic, it  is frequently employed to justify contentions and is widely used in poetry but also in other forms of writing; a simile is an expressed analogy, a metaphor is an implied one. (A Handbook to Literature)

Origin

late Middle English (in the sense ‘appropriateness, correspondence’): from French analogie,Latin analogia ‘proportion,’ from Greek, from analogos ‘proportionate.’ (New Oxford American)

Analogy Writing Exercise

Choose a scene or section of a previously written work in which the narrator or a character needs to explain something to the reader and is currently attempting to explain in a literal, direct way. Study the intention of the explanation and the subject of the explanation.

Next, choose your favorite parable. Think Aesop. How might you rewrite this favorite parable to fit your scene’s explanatory needs? Rewrite the scene using the parable rewrite.

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Sources

A Handbook to Literature. William Harmon.

“Cogito et Histoire de la Folie.” Jacques Derrida.

Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Lynne Truss.

The Elements of Style. William Strunk. 

New Oxford American Dictionary. Edited by Angus Stevenson and Christine A. Lindberg.

The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Martin Puchner, et al.

The Norton Introduction to Philosophy. Gideon Rosen and Alex Byrne.

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. Patricia T. O’Conner

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French & Ned Stuckey-French.

Writing the Other. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.

An analogy is a comparison of two things, alike in certain aspects; particularly a method used in exposition and description by which something unfamiliar is explained by being compared to something more familiar. In argumentation and logic, it  is frequently employed to justify contentions and is widely used in poetry but also in other forms of writing; a simile is an expressed analogy, a metaphor is an implied one. (A Handbook to Literature)

Origin

late Middle English (in the sense ‘appropriateness, correspondence’): from French analogie,Latin analogia ‘proportion,’ from Greek, from analogos ‘proportionate.’ (New Oxford American)

Analogy Writing Exercise

Choose a scene or section of a previously written work in which the narrator or a character needs to explain something to the reader and is currently attempting to explain in a literal, direct way. Study the intention of the explanation and the subject of the explanation.

Next, choose your favorite parable. Think Aesop. How might you rewrite this favorite parable to fit your scene’s explanatory needs? Rewrite the scene using the parable rewrite.

Submit Your Work for Individualized Feedback

Please use Universal Manuscript Guidelines when submitting: .doc or .docx, double spacing, 10-12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, first page header with contact information, section breaks “***” or “#.”

Submit Your Work

Sources

A Handbook to Literature. William Harmon.

“Cogito et Histoire de la Folie.” Jacques Derrida.

Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Lynne Truss.

The Elements of Style. William Strunk. 

New Oxford American Dictionary. Edited by Angus Stevenson and Christine A. Lindberg.

The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Martin Puchner, et al.

The Norton Introduction to Philosophy. Gideon Rosen and Alex Byrne.

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. Patricia T. O’Conner

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French & Ned Stuckey-French.

Writing the Other. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.

Allegory is a form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. (A Handbook to Literature)

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in The Republic: Book VII

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:—Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets…. Read More

Origin

late Middle English: from Old French allegorie, via Latin from Greekallēgoria, from allos ‘other’ + -agoria ‘speaking.’ (New Oxford American)

Allegory Writing Exercise

What is your biggest social concern? What sometimes keeps you up at night? Choose a scene or section of a previously written work and infuse your biggest social concern with this scene as an allegorical representation. It is important that you are using a section of writing you’ve already drafted and thoroughly considered previously because you want the section to retain its organic intentions. Now, use this rewrite to begin a new writing project.

Allegory is a form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. (A Handbook to Literature)

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in The Republic: Book VII

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:—Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets…. Read More

Origin

late Middle English: from Old French allegorie, via Latin from Greekallēgoria, from allos ‘other’ + -agoria ‘speaking.’ (New Oxford American)

Allegory Writing Exercise

What is your biggest social concern? What sometimes keeps you up at night? Choose a scene or section of a previously written work and infuse your biggest social concern with this scene as an allegorical representation. It is important that you are using a section of writing you’ve already drafted and thoroughly considered previously because you want the section to retain its organic intentions. Now, use this rewrite to begin a new writing project.

Submit Your Work for Individualized Feedback

Please use Universal Manuscript Guidelines when submitting: .doc or .docx, double spacing, 10-12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, first page header with contact information, section breaks “***” or “#.”

Submit Your Work

Sources

A Handbook to Literature. William Harmon.

“Cogito et Histoire de la Folie.” Jacques Derrida.

Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Lynne Truss.

The Elements of Style. William Strunk. 

New Oxford American Dictionary. Edited by Angus Stevenson and Christine A. Lindberg.

The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Martin Puchner, et al.

The Norton Introduction to Philosophy. Gideon Rosen and Alex Byrne.

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. Patricia T. O’Conner

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French & Ned Stuckey-French.

Writing the Other. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.