Ap English Language Figurative Language

1. A simile is a way of describing something by comparing it to something else. A simile uses the words “like” or “as”. My favorite simile the speaker used was “you’re growing like a weed”. I like it because when I was little, I always had to pull weeds on a biweekly basis because they grew too fast. A metaphor is more direct comparison than a simile. An example of a metaphor is “All the world is a stage. And the men and women merely players”. Personification is when we give human characteristics or actions to ideas, animals, or inanimate objects. The speaker used an example, “my stomach has its mind of its own”.

2. Omission is used when trying to get the point across but wanting to use a limited amount of words. For example, when presenting a story in a speech a speaker might want to sum it up versus going in deep details of everything that happened. The use of inversion is to not always use the normal object-subject-verb sentence structure. If all the sentences’ structures are the same, the audience will get bored and tuned out. Suspension is similar to the diea of suspension in a movie. It helps a speaker gain the audience attention because the audience will want to figure out the surprise ending.

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Using a key word or a phrase multiple times gives rhythm, and power to the speaker’s speech and makes the speech memorable. An oral presentation needs to be repetitive because the audience will forget the key point(s) if it is not restated multiple times. In written styles, readers are able to go back to a paragraph if they forgot a detail. Listeners cannot ask the speaker to repeat during a speech, so the speaker must do it for them. Repetition is also known for creating drama for the audience. It will make the speech more memorable. Repetition creates cadence, or rhythm, in the