Author Tips

Figurative Language

Alliteration--  Repeated beginning consonant sounds, such as "feather fingers flapping"

Personification-- Giving life to something not living; such as saying the feathers are fingers

Onomatopoeia-- (ah no mah toe pee ah) Words that sound like the sound they make, such as Bam! Pop! Bang! slap gurgle Phzzzzt

Simile-- Comparing two things that are different and finding a similarity -- write it using like or as , such as comparing how high the eagle flies to how a skyscraper is. The eagle flies as high as a skyscraper .

Imagery: Use The Senses-- Write all sights, smells, tastes, texture, feelings about your topic

How might it smell, taste?

How might it feel if you touched it?

Ideas from the poem: piercing eyes; white head; crooked yellow talons; munching grass; flapping in the cold winter wind

Author Musts:

Vivid verbs-- Action words like flies, spread, searching, hops, munches, drops, fold, dives, scopp, flaps, flows

Nifty nouns-- Specific nouns (persons, places, things, ideas); instead of dog, say German Shepard; instead of fast, say 100 miles an hour; instead animal, say rabbit or snake

Assonance-- Repeated vowel sounds, such as flies across the skies

Repeated words--  Repeat words for effect, like "hops, munches, hops, munches" to show the rabbit doesn't know the danger

Other Poetic Devices:

Rhyme-- Repeated ending sounds, such as fold, cold; poems do NOT need to rhyme

Line breaks-- Whereever you want the reader to pause or look carefully at a phrase, put a line break there (hit return).