Figurative language, or figures of speech, can paint pictures in our minds, allowing us to “see” a point readily and clearly. For example, an economist might explain that if you earned one dollar per second, you would need nearly thirty-two years to become a billionaire. When scientists compare certain genetic variants to typographical errors, they too are giving us a picture to help us grasp a difficult concept. Far from being mere decoration, then, figurative language is crucial to understanding.

In important ways, all language is metaphoric, referring to something beyond the word itself for which the word is a symbol. Particularly helpful in building understanding are specific types of figurative language, including similes, metaphors, and analogies.

Using similes

Similes use like, as, as if, or as though to make an explicit comparison between two things.

Rain slides slowly down the glass, as if the night is crying.

—PATRICIA CORNWELL

You can tell the graphic-novels section in a bookstore from afar, by the young bodies sprawled around it like casualties of a localized disaster.

—PETER SCHJELDAHL

Using metaphors

Metaphors are implicit comparisons, omitting the like, as, as if, or as though of similes.

The Internet is the new town square.

—JEB HENSARLING

Often, metaphors are more elaborate.

Black women are called, in the folklore that so aptly identifies one’s status in society, “the mule of the world,” because we have been handed the burdens that everyone else—everyone else—refused to carry.

—ALICE WALKER, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

Using analogies

Analogies compare similar features of two dissimilar things; they explain something unfamiliar by relating it to something familiar. Analogies are often several sentences or paragraphs in length. Here, the writer draws an analogy between corporate pricing strategies and nuclear war:

One way to establish that peace-preserving threat of mutual assured destruction is to commit yourself beforehand, which helps explain why so many retailers promise to match any competitor’s advertised price. Consumers view these guarantees as conducive to lower prices. But in fact offering a price-matching guarantee should make it less likely that competitors will slash prices, since they know that any cuts they make will immediately be matched. It’s the retail version of the doomsday machine.

—JAMES SUROWIECKI

Before you use an analogy, make sure that the two things you are comparing have enough points of similarity to justify the comparison.

Avoiding clichés and mixed metaphors

Just as effective figurative language can create the right impression, ineffective figures of speech—such as clichés and mixed metaphors—may wind up boring, irritating, or unintentionally amusing readers.

A cliché is a frequently used expression such as busy as a bee or children are the future. By definition, we use clichés all the time, especially in speech, and many serve usefully as shorthand for familiar ideas. If you use too many clichés in your writing, however, readers may conclude that what you are saying is not very new or interesting—or true. For example, if you write that a group of schoolgirls looked pretty as a picture, this clichéd simile may sound false or insincere. A more original figure of speech, such as pretty as brand-new red shoes, might be more effective.

Since people don’t always agree on what is a cliché and what is a fresh image, how can you check your writing for clichés? Here is a rule to follow: if you can predict exactly what the upcoming word(s) in a phrase will be, it is probably a cliché.

Mixed metaphors are comparisons that are not consistent. Instead of creating a clear impression, they confuse the reader by pitting one image against another.

The images of streaking light and heavy precipitation are inconsistent; in the revised sentence, all of the images relate to light.

Using allusions

Allusions are indirect references to cultural works, people, or events. When a sports commentator said, “If the Georgia Tech men have an Achilles heel, it is their inexperience, their youth,” he alluded to the Greek myth in which the hero Achilles was fatally wounded in his single vulnerable spot, his heel.

You can draw allusions from history, literature, sacred texts, common wisdom, or current events. Many movies and popular songs are full of allusions. The Simpsons episode called “Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind,” for example, alludes to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Remember, however, that allusions work only if your audience recognizes them.

Signifying

One distinctive use of figurative language found extensively in African American English is signifying, in which a speaker cleverly needles or insults the listener. In the following passage, two African American men (Grave Digger and Coffin Ed) signify on their white supervisor (Anderson), who ordered them to discover the originators of a riot:

Coffin Ed and Grave Digger demonstrate the major characteristics of effective signifying: indirection, ironic humor, fluid rhythm—and a surprising twist, the revelation that Abraham Lincoln caused the riot by ending slavery. This twist leaves the supervisor speechless—and gives Grave Digger and Coffin Ed the last word.

For Multilingual Writers: Mastering idioms