How to add instant flair to your writing
June 28th, 2007 · 21 Comments · Tags: CopywritingWhen choosing from the entire array of writing style elements available to copywriters, figurative language devices rank highly among my personal favorites.
When used carefully and with precision, these writing devices can be a powerful tool to get your point across clearly and with elegance, while adding flair and pizazz to your writing.
Let’s take a quick look at the most commonly used figurative language devices:
The simile.
This device shows how one thing can be like another one. You can easily identify a simile because it constantly uses the words “as” or “like”.
Examples:
”Clear as water”
“Quick as a bullet”
“He was clumsy like a clown”
The metaphor.
Metaphors are very similar to similes, but the thing, quality or action that is applied is completely unrelated to the subject in question.
Examples:
”She drank every word”.
“There’s a fire in my heart and you’re fanning it”
“Life is like a box of chocolates”
The Oxymoron.
This device consists in using contradicting terms to emphasize something.
Examples:
“Her lecture was clearly confusing”
“This book is plainly outstanding”
“A deafening silence flooded the room”
The Synecdoche.
One of my favorite figurative writing devices is the synecdoche. It refers to using a part or piece of something to refer to the whole. This device is used widely in regular conversations so it can give a lot of warmth to your writing.
Examples:
“I’m all ears!”
“He has ten mouths to feed”
“That’s a nice set of wheels!”
Warning note: Keep in mind that these devices should always be used scarcely to avoid diluting their results.
I’m challenging you!
Try to come up with a good simile, metaphor, oxymoron or synecdoche and use it while commenting this post. After 100 have been gathered, I’ll invite an unbiased copywriter to act as a judge and select the top 3 comments. The best one will get $50 via PayPal and, of course, bragging rights. Hey $50 is a pretty good deal for commenting a blog post… so kick-start your brain and add your comment now!

























21 comments so far ↓
Comment #:1 by wilson » Jun 29, 2007 at 4:50 am
Your Post Pumps Me Up !
Comment #:2 by Angela » Jul 2, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Your post is a refreshing oasis in an otherwise deplete desert of misinformation.
Comment #:3 by Gregory » Jul 3, 2007 at 8:59 pm
I enjoyed reading your post as much as would like taking your fifty bucks. It could be as easy as taking candy from a baby and so I doubt my creative muse will be hitting his head against a brick wall trying to make sense of the nonsense that is the common abnormality the everyday copywriter like myself must face when asking the general public to lend me their ears.
Comment #:4 by Adriana » Jul 3, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Must say that the idea of getting 50 bucks for a simple comment appeals to my creative spirit. Can you imagine the branches of a bright green tree opening as wide as a football stadium? Well, that’s how much my neurons are trying to work out something interesting to say… even if my success is as much of a joke as Alexander’s death.
Now, it is just a matter of waiting for another 96 comments. The colon of my electronic clock is flashing brighter than the sun at the top of the
snowy Chomolungma.*
—
*commonly known as Mount Everest
Comment #:5 by Adriana » Jul 4, 2007 at 9:20 am
Forgive me if I transgressing any rules here by posting again. Feel free to not count this one towards the 100 - although I cannot read any rules about it.
But see, Miguel, the rate at which comments are conglomerating around your words is slower that the birth of a new elephant.
I’m waiting for news to come to my doorstep, but seems like I’ll be using rubber boots - and possibly a canoe - as a result of the water from the melting of the polar caps damaging my furniture before comment one-zero-zero.
Best wishes!
Comment #:6 by Lianne » Jul 10, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I awoke this morning not knowing of the existence of Synecdoches. Two short hours later, a new star silently shines in my universe of knowledge! Thanks for the tidbit.
Comment #:7 by Pat Fitzhugh » Jul 24, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I had thought that synecdoches were literary devices that use a part of an entity to describe the whole entity; e.g., “twenty head of cattle.” I must have been wrong about that all along, which really plants poison ivy in the garden of my mind.
But anyways, I really enjoy the articles and tips; I just can’t get enough of them; I’m all over them like stink on shit.
Comment #:8 by Amanda » Sep 6, 2007 at 12:44 am
Blond isn’t just a hair colour, it’s an attitude
Comment #:9 by Eileen
» Sep 9, 2007 at 4:44 am
Pat F. above stole my line and now my bear has nothing to do in the woods. I guess he will save on toilet paper. What kind was that?
As this game goes on I simply must try harder to think like a man. So I wonder, what would a man say or think to get that $50 bucks? … and my mind is as blank as a black hole in space.
Who understands that?
Comment #:10 by imminee » Sep 29, 2007 at 10:58 am
Fingers started typing for that fifty bucks.
Comment #:11 by imminee » Sep 29, 2007 at 11:00 am
Burn your tail to burn calories.
Comment #:12 by Wendy » Sep 29, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Waiting for comments is an exquisite pain isn’t it?
I for one am all thumbs when it comes to writing, which is why copywriting.com is like a light shining down from heaven.
Comment #:13 by Ken Nickless » Oct 17, 2007 at 11:54 am
Your Post confirmed that the English Language is alive and well! I’m so happy I could cry.
Comment #:14 by Jana » Oct 17, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Copywriting.com…the sherpa of my copywriting journey.
Comment #:15 by seema » Oct 19, 2007 at 8:20 am
Hmm..must say your post was sticky enough to keep me glued till the end of your message.
I agree with your ideas, it indeeds help a person who is really intrested in selling online or in real .
Thanks a lot for pearly advise.
Comment #:16 by karla » Oct 25, 2007 at 5:01 am
Your article was as fascinating as a pencil in a heart patient. My eyes were glued to the screen until the last line. Like a mid-western tornado, your advice exploded the shuttered windows from my mind. Fill me with more of your high test fuel.
Comment #:17 by Quinn » Nov 30, 2007 at 9:19 am
This post enlightened the old brain. Before reading it I was like a murder mystery dinner party without a clue. Now I will melt into the decorative candle holder of thoughts. By morning I will be as fresh as a teenager’s back talk.
Comment #:18 by Daniel » Jan 20, 2008 at 11:31 pm
This site contains a sea of knowledge. No longer blanketed by ignorance, I can now ride a wave of sucess.
Comment #:19 by richard stump » Mar 27, 2008 at 12:28 pm
You kick-started the post your cycle leans on!
Comment #:20 by Ned Carey » Apr 13, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Wow I leaned a lot from your site. It packs a punch like Mohamad Ali.
Comment #:21 by jason » Apr 15, 2008 at 5:11 am
“If stupidity were snow, I’d say he was an avalanche!”
How’s that?
Cheers.
Constantly buried under snow.