Source: Apps #1, Evan Sims, Flickr
You can get apps for your phone that recommend places to go, give you games to play, and help you organize your life. What about some apps that can improve your writing?
This lesson provides you with three writing “apps”: one for using analogy, one for using antithesis, and one for using transitions. These apps are not for downloading to your phone or computer; these are for your brain.
Analogy “App”: Writing with analogies is like making a movie in 3D. Analogies add another level to your ideas, giving them depth, complexity, and clarity.
Antithesis “App”: Writing with antithesis brings to your writing original ways of expressing ideas by using conventional oppositions: hot and cold, good and bad, large and small.
Transitions “App”: Writing with transitions makes it easier for readers to follow your ideas as you develop and relate them in an essay. Therefore, it is important to connect ideas by giving readers the benefit of transitional words that explicitly connect your sentences and paragraphs.
All these apps will make your writing sparkle and shine, and guess what? They’re all absolutely free. All you have to do is continue with this lesson and download them into your brain. If you do, you will learn to use the rhetorical devices of antithesis, analogy, and transitional words and phrases.
Here are some challenges to get you started:
Using your notes, answer the following questions. When you are finished, check your understanding.- Can you find the analogy in the description of the analogy app above?
- Can you find the antithesis in the description of the antithesis app above? (The examples of opposites don’t count.)
- Can you find the transitional word in the transitions app above?
An analogy compares one situation with another. In the description, writing with analogies is compared to making a 3D movie.
An antithesis uses oppositions to highlight differences. In the description, the opposition used is original/conventional. This highlights the difference between the means and the effects of using an antithesis.
The ideas in the transitions description are connected by “therefore” indicating the cause and the effect of transition use. (The cause is the importance of connection, and the effect is the obligation to use transitions.)