How to add instant flair to your writing
44 Comments · Filed on: 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!





44 comments so far ↓
Comment #:1 by wilson
Your Post Pumps Me Up !
Comment #:2 by Angela
Your post is a refreshing oasis in an otherwise deplete desert of misinformation.
Comment #:3 by Gregory
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
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
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
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
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
Blond isn’t just a hair colour, it’s an attitude
Comment #:9 by Eileen
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
Fingers started typing for that fifty bucks.
Comment #:11 by imminee
Burn your tail to burn calories.
Comment #:12 by Wendy
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
Your Post confirmed that the English Language is alive and well! I’m so happy I could cry.
Comment #:14 by Jana
Copywriting.com…the sherpa of my copywriting journey.
Comment #:15 by seema
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
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
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
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
You kick-started the post your cycle leans on!
Comment #:20 by Ned Carey
Wow I leaned a lot from your site. It packs a punch like Mohamad Ali.
Comment #:21 by jason
“If stupidity were snow, I’d say he was an avalanche!”
How’s that?
Cheers.
Constantly buried under snow.
Comment #:22 by Gigi
The tips of writing are all jumping and dancing in my mind now, waiting to be unleashed!
Thank you for all the great tips, it has been a great help to me!
Comment #:23 by Vance Stinson
Excellent post! These little flavorsome nuggets can turn a bland snack into a delectable dish.
Comment #:24 by Dhane Diesil
Copywritingcom.
I cant stop eating the words off the page…
Comment #:25 by Naveen
A few well-placed words…
Always better than a whole set of gibberish…
Dead on target…Like a sniper’s rifle…
Your posts have floored me…
Comment #:26 by oke
1 Synecdoche: Pat, to me the post seems to agree with you on synecdoche. Maybe it’s been editied?
2 Metaphor: The last example (Life is like a box of chocolate) is a simile, not a metaphor. To make it a metaphor, simply strike the word like: Life is a box of chocolate.
Comment #:27 by DayLee
I’m all ears as I sit here on pins and needles waiting for my ship to come in through paypal!
Comment #:28 by Ned Carey
@ DayLee,
If you are like me, your “ship is not coming in”. It’s more like “You’re up the creek without a paddle”
Comment #:29 by Abdelazim R. Abdelazim
Mr. Alvarez has ignited a fiery competition among dollar-thirsty copywriters.
Comment #:30 by kiwichink
I am new to writing and English is not my native language. So when it comes to laying my hands on writing, I am like a kid from the tropics playing with snow for the first time. Especially when there is money at stake, I am like the blind beggar who is promised free food and taken to a wedding party. I will try anything just to appear on print. They say practice makes perfect. I say no shame no gain.
Comment #:31 by carolgibson
Smarter ‘n a hog and twice as purty . . ?
Comment #:32 by pjlyon
A rumble of words came from the fault line of her lips as she proposed earthquakes and the tremors that might follow.
Comment #:33 by Mike Vichnitchkine
Man, I have no idea what to write. My head’s a desert, barren and dry. My reservoir of creativity is completely empty! Have you ever gotten that feeling? When writing a simple paragraph is like mental torture? These old bones give up.
Comment #:34 by Adnan
Overall, a very nice post. If you and that unbiased copywriter likes my comment then simply make a payment as Paypal.
Comment #:35 by RG
I don’t really feel like trying, going up against all these intricately simple minds who have commented already.
Comment #:36 by Theo Konstas
Some silly sausage said our comical copywriting comments were cheesy and crazy, yet completely credible. Although an affable ass almost agreed to accept amorous Alliteration
Comment #:37 by Patti T
Life is like a box of chocolates…isn’t that a simile? I must not be understanding it correctly, I guess.
Comment #:38 by Bill Hak
my finger tips are jumping all over the alphabets from A to Z, redecorating them to harvest a $50
Comment #:39 by Royah
Wow! Thanks for the simple clarification of figurative languages. It was like putting on a pair of glasses, sharpening my writers’ vision.
Comment #:40 by writer jobs
I usually do simile and metaphor in my write ups.
Comment #:41 by janel
As an aspiring authoress, my mental density is as an old, dry sponge; I absorb every helpful tip and fact as though they will be the last.
There’s my simile. Thanks for posting the awesome info!
Comment #:42 by Jennel Johnson
A $50 for a nifty lil’ post, thank you for your words it has helped me the most.
Comment #:43 by sean
I laughed like a drain reading some of these comments…this site floats my boat!
Comment #:44 by Chelsea
First I would like to say that under your metaphor category, you put “Life is like a box of chocolates” And that is a simile. With that aside, what can I say to make you fork over a wad of cash? I’m as needy as a poor rich kid begging her parents to give her more money to buy more drugs. But that has nothing to do with me, so how about something else? With your money I’d gladly spend in, for the hopes that my dreams will come true. By the end of the comment I’m sure you think I’ve lost my mind. But, I assure you that I have balanced insanity. So, when will I be getting that check?